Low pay, practically nonexistent HR so no proper onboarding or proper staff training etc. leading to lack of support and very mixed expectations around what professionalism looks like across the staff.
There were a number of older employees who have been there many years and are set in their ways who could be very unpleasant when challenged. They also clearly came from an era when it was considered fine and ‘banter’ to make deeply inappropriate sexualised comments to female staff members and engage in unwanted touching (eg slaps on the bum), which I and others experienced but were laughed off by colleagues and senior managers.
There were other instances of bullying which were similarly dismissed and not taken seriously. At one point my colleague was told to download a meditation app to help manage their own emotions and stress after an instance of bullying rather than anything being done to address it, despite our manager agreeing the comments had been inappropriate.
