You’ve heard of all the popular companies that are notoriously fun to work at—you know, like Google or Facebook—but what about all those companies that house miserable employees?
“The three top drivers of long-term employee satisfaction are company culture, career opportunities, and trust in senior leadership,” said Scott Dobroski, a Glassdoor community expert.
Luckily, we’ve scoured the internet to find out the companies that Americans say don’t have these things and are critically referred to as some of the absolute worst places to work.
Check these out so that you can steer clear of applying for open positions at any of these companies.
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Kraft Heinz
With a 2.7 out of 5 star rating on Glassdoor, and multiple frequent ratings of 1 (the lowest possible), stick with eating their products, not working for them. Most employees work well over the 8-hour days and aren’t earning very much to show for it either.
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Walmart
This retailer is notorious for paying poorly—according to the National Employment Law Project, Walmart pays less than employees who work at Pizza Hut; cashiers only earn an average of $9.36 per hour and sales associates earn about $9.41 per hour.
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McDonald’s
Okay, so they’re one of the highest-grossing restaurant chains in the country, but that doesn’t mean most employees are making the bug bucks. Additionally, most on-the-floor employees are on their feet all day at Micky D’s, for well over eight hours a day.
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Kroger
While many people like to shop at Kroger, most people hate working there. The employee satisfaction rating is 3.3 with a 3.2 employee rating on Glassdoor. Additionally, most people who work there are only earning just slightly above minimum wage.
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Dish
Cable companies aren’t well known for being the best jobs ever, but Dish takes the cake from most of them. There are a crazy amount of negative employee reviews on Glassdoor, with a sad 2.6 overall rating.
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Hertz
Low pay, inconsistent hours, management issues—there are a ton of negative employee reviews on Glassdoor regarding these subjects for Hertz. Additionally, only a third of employees would recommend working there to a friend. With an overall rating of 2.6, we’re thinking we avoid ever working there at all costs.
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Walgreens
This chain has long been touted for its low pay for employees, and the Center for Popular Democracy actually named Walgreens the worst company in America after tallying actual employee votes.
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Family Dollar
Another company that made news regarding over worked and under paid. In fact, a few former workers actually sued Family Dollar for forcing overtime work up to 60 hours without pay, which forced employees to sleep there overnight.
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The Fresh Market
They may have fresh food, but not fresh working conditions. The Fresh Market boasts one of the lowest ratings on Glassdoor, at only 2.4. And just 27% of employees would recommend their jobs to others.
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The Children’s Place
On Glassdoor, ratings for culture and values, work-life balance, senior management, compensation and benefits, and career opportunities are all below a 2.5. The CEO ratings are pretty low as well.
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Rent-a-Center
Work-life balance and senior management see to be the main issues at this company. You can say that the employee morale is super, super low here, even causing some financial strain on the company in recent years.
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Forever 21
You might’ve heard about a class-action lawsuit filed against Forever 21 for failing to pay in-store hourly workers their wages—especially teens who work there, of which this might be their first job. “Sweatshop-like conditions” have also been reported. No wonder the clothing is so cheap!
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TJX Companies
Apparently TJX Companies pay pretty poorly and employees aren’t happy there. Personally, I find , HomeGoods T.J. Maxx, and Marshall’s (three of TJX Companies brands) employees rather bubbly, but they too, surprisingly, rank low for some of the worst retailers to work for.
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Dillard’s
If you love working in sales, but not meeting unrealistic sales quotas, don’t work here. They also apparently don’t have a good grasp on work-life balance, one of the top complaints about working at Dillard’s.
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Kmart
With a 2.7 rating on Glassdoor and comments akin to “Work here if desperate,” not to mention store closures throughout the country, we certainly don’t recommend Kmart for your next job.
Have you ever worked at any of these companies before? What were your working conditions like?
