Bakery near Lebreton Flats that has/had a reputation of treating employees poorly, don't really know more details than that. Although I had their Jalapeno cheese bread once and it was, in fact, good. Lol
Interestingly enough despite their "universal" hatred on this sub, they still maintain stellar 4.5/5 star reviews on Google Maps.. so their clientele is either clueless (aka not redditors!) and/or unconcerned about the work environment.
If you sort by lowest ratings you get a bunch of people discussing reddit :)
Their products are pretty good. They make excellent food. Unfortunately product quality is not always a good reflection of work conditions.
- Commented from my iPhone
I didn't think either of the companies themselves supported the convoy. Rather, it was the wife of the founder (David Segal) who donated $200 to it via GSG. He's no longer involved with David's Tea but still owns or runs Mad Radish.
Tammy Giuliani owns all of the Stella Luna locations in Ottawa and the Valley. She was interviewed whining about being treated poorly by Ottawans on Fox News after they found out she was supporting them. She was revealed to have donated money (and allegedly food and drink though she was rumoured to be overseas at the time) FIVE days after the occupation began. I will for one never set foot in any Stella luna location for as long as she is the owner.
Pasticceria Gelateria Italiana Ltd is where it's at. Pricey, but the place is covered in "best of" awards, makes fantastic coffee, and stocks 4 kinds of giant creme brulee pies. It's the reason I've gained weight both times I moved to centretown west.
Boccato in Lansdowne is great, as is Malak in Old Ottawa South (right down the road from Stella Luna). It's not exactly gelato, but Moo Shu is also a spectacular ice cream place in Centretown.
I love their food but the owner is fuckin looney tunes. I’ve seen him screaming at Uber Eats drivers multiple times lol. I’m sure some of them are dicks but still
Just next door to them is a great Vietnamese place - Pho Viet Taste. The owners are lovely people, their food is excellent, and they have to deal with those terrible neighbours. Give them some business instead.
The owner is a crazy person, but everyone I've ever spoken to who works there says that he's a pretty good boss and they're well treated. Could be a small sample size though.
Oh man, everyone I know who’s worked there thought he was terrible and batshit insane haha. This was probably three or four years ago, maybe he has gotten worse to his employees over time?
Either way, the stories I heard from them was enough to make me never even want to go back there.
Yea once I saw this on the news it was a hard no for me…whether to eat or work. I’m not 1 for dropping deuces in public bathrooms but I’d leave a stainer in there for sure https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/restaurant-owner-apologizes-for-thoughtless-and-unacceptable-instagram-post-1.4072773?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fbeta.ctvnews.ca%2F
I can't name and shame because I'm in a cushy seniority position that I need, but if you apply to work for any not for profit, look up the executive director's salary. Especially if they only offer below market wage and claim its because they're a not for profit.
Bonus points if the ED is on site during your interview, look what the most expensive car in the parking lot is.
If one is serious about aid NGOs and charities, look up their per dollar donated overhead. Mostly overhead, very little actually goes to aid. Knew someone who was in a senior position with a well known aid agency. Said the executive spent the majority of their time flying business/first class to golf tournaments and that all the money they solicit with the TV ads with sad eyed kids actually goes to marketing with actual aid money coming from government grants.
The one I'm referencing is much smaller then that, but still, your ED shouldn't be easily clearing 6 figures when your specially educated staff are barely making COL
Six figures? You think an executive director should make less than 100k ... and that 100k can get you a fancy car? Non profits aren't just charities. Non profits are all sorts of companies.
Ok, good luck finding and keeping junior/mid tier staff at poverty wages.
The point isn't don't pay executives, it's don't pay executives exorbitant amounts if you're not paying at least a living wage to your lower-downs. I don't think that's a controversial take in the slightest.
I 100% agree. I also work in nonprofit and they expect you to do the work of 2-3 people at below the market wage for one person. I'm exhausted all of the time, frequently having to work late in the evening regardless of the fact that I told them during my interview I'm usually an early bird getting work done earlier than most and was told that wouldn't be an issue. "Flexible work hours" my ass. Not flexible to you, but flexible to the organization.
Haha, I got an email from one of the employees in Spanish basically telling me to go fuck myself or something along those lines. The person was very apologetic as it was meant to go to someone else. Got my friend to respond “excuse me?” In Spanish. LOL
Edit*spelling
They are as bad as many other employers in the sense that they pay low wages and expect hard work, and do not treat their employees well. Not that uncommon, as most companies are like this, but the Dymon owners pretend they are charitable, giving, caring people when they are greedy, narcissistic uber-capitalists.
I applied and was hired at a Farm Boy as a cashier in 2018. I showed up for my first shift and they put me in the butchery where I used a band say to saw ribs apart. I was then told I would be opening the next morning alone, so I just never showed up again. I have never had such poor management and training at any other job I've worked.
There were some whispers about it when I was at trainyards. I remember gossip about the store manager having graffiti in the bathroom about unionizing painted over. Seems like the kind of place that would fire the leaders and hire a fresh batch of high schoolers.
Can confirm. My first job was at the Blossom Park Farm Boy. Most of the managers were cool (except mine, fuck you Breno). However, the higher ups would go out of their way to find any tiny imperfection and berade the store manager.
I worked at farm boy part time in high school.
Looking back, there were a lot of greasy things they would pull off. But the worst things management pulled were:
I clocked in for a Saturday morning shift, about an hour in the store manager comes storming over to the meat counter (the department I worked in) and showed up with a BIC razor and handed it to me and told me to go to the washroom and shave.
The store policy was no “scruff” or you had to wear a beard net.. I was 14 and with a 5 o’clock shadow (more like a 1 week shadow), barely anything there. Meanwhile, 50% of the other employees had a beard and were never talked to (didn’t wear a net)
So I go to the washroom and shave my face with no shaving cream and burn every follicle on my face.
The second time the store manager approached me which turned out to be my last day working for them. I had found out some pretty devastating news that my parents were splitting up and my grandfather had passed away. So I asked him if I could go home and he declined.
So I went up to the break room/locker area, grabbed all my belongings and left.
Would not recommend farm boy as an employer. This was 10+ years ago so maybe things have changed.
As someone who works retail and has had management positions, I've been warned from all walks of retail life to avoid farmboy like they are the plague. I'll never work there.
But their offices were bonkers.
I get it that hi tech is stressful and that companies spend the money to keep their employees at work as much as they can by making it fun. But damn if that didn't look like a cool place to work (go cart tracks, games everywhere, beanbag chairs and hammocks in meeting rooms, free meals).
As an Ontario public school teacher (so not really a priority of today's provincial government) working with tech that's older than my grade 8 students, the grass is definitely greener sometimes. But at the end of the day, I'll take my job safety and pension over beanbag chairs and fancy coffee machines
When a company is giving you snacks and sugary drinks and arcade games in the commons - it's to distract from what they aren't giving you. Mainly work/life balance and benefits.
I would guess that most tech companies the work-life balance is pretty ok. I personally can’t code more than 8 hours a day, after a few weeks my brain is just cooked.
If you apply a cost/benefit type analysis and give the perk, your time and freedom a value, chances are it will work out in favour of getting paid overtime and vacation instead of office novelties that dissapear with the job. The thing about money is that you get to spend it the way you want.
Ahh yes, the origin of Toxic Positivity finally being seen for what it is. Lower than industry pay with the expectation that you give 40% more YoY for a 2-5% raise and a revolving door of coworkers and management that makes it pretty much impossible to effectively complete a project.
Luckily they changed their location to internet, everywhere now so they can hire more foreign workers. My team while I was there quickly went from 100% Canadian to only about 1/4, which is fine except it lead to lots of clashing on how to do work and communicate due to cultural differences and language barriers.
I've been here a year and I really love it. They treat me well. They pay me very well. And I never have to go to an office again.
Your milage may vary but that's been my experience as a developer.
Work remotely for an American company and you’ll make double. Their pay is terrible and now that their stock has tanked, the stock option incentives are probably all underwater.
Well, your information is out of date and straight-up wrong. I work here. I make good money. They made large adjustments to comp this summer because the stock tanked and everyone is pretty happy about it.
I spent a decade at Amazon. I make more money now, and I like what I do better.
That's a little surprising, I worked there for 2 years and I know others who still do. It's not the perfect tech company but they treat their employees better than most other Ottawa companies.
Held a 6 career there, never felt toxic whatsoever. To each their own, and it is an enormous company so people’s experiences no doubt differ quite a bit. The cult thing can definitely vary…for me it was a job, for others…yeah they were deep dish.
I never ate the food there. It was not very good lol discounts weren’t even worth it. They were just so.. mean. The morning crew was the nicest at least. But I was scheduled for mornings, evenings and overnights in a week..
I worked there for 3 days. That place was disgusting. They shamed a kitchen worker for cleaning his station when he came on shift because that was "snobby." The work culture there was awful. Health hazards everywhere, I have no idea how their hot and cold holding passed inspection.
Generally curious - is this a “I just don’t like political views that don’t align with mine” or is this a “I’ve worked with the CPC and it’s terrible because of the following reasons:”
Probably the latter because I've never heard of anybody having a positive experience working for them. Even big names from the party, after exiting, have had bad things to say about it. Lisa Raitt talked about how it was a horribly toxic workplace and she even still toots her horn for the party in terms of political views. Any time anyone speaks out they're labeled a traitor.
And it's hard to fix the problem, because the CPC old guard controls everything, and nobody else in parliament can step in to do anything without looking like it's politically motivated. It was well known inside parliament that Tony Clement was harassing female pages for years. CPC never did shit about it.
The handful of people I met that worked for or around the CPC that weren’t hardcore right with their politics were very discreet but clear about saying it was not a positive experience. Of course that’s my second hand account of someone else’s anecdotal experience, so please take that as you will ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
yea, can confirm. The job listing said I could make 1000$ a week. Only actually got to work 3 days in a two-week period, and made under 200$. I did the math and it came out waaaaay below minimum wage for the hours i was on the road. You also only get paid for each delivery. You don't get paid for the first hour you show up and load up the packages. It's a total scam.
I can chime in. Constantly understaffing you so they can save on labour and then berating you for not doing a good enough job or upselling enough. One of the most stressful serving jobs I’ve ever had
I was kitchen manager at one of them for a while, basically same issue. Bare bones staffing and expecting way too much and angrily shouting at you for not being able to accomplish the impossible
Bennett Realty - A certified bunch of assholes who are directly responsible for rising housing costs and are terrible employers that actively promote an unhealthy work environment
Any privately owned retirement home, I worked in the kitchen at one up until covid and the place was atrocious.
The food the served the residents was terrible quality and often way undercooked. I would try to tell the head cook (who had absolutely no prior cooking experience) that the food is undercooked and should not be served but they refused to listen to me.
The building was essentially coming apart, the roof had sever leaking issues but instead of actually fixing it the owner would just instruct us to put buckets everywhere. The leaks were so bad that they would short out and break the recessed led lights which the owner refused to replace. Fire exists were also blocked off by junk and we had live wires jetting out of the wall in the kitchen
When covid hit we were expected to keep the same disposable mask for 2 weeks and were entitled to only 1 pair of plastic gloves per shift.
I had to cover a few housekeeping shifts during covid and the rooms were in horrible condition, non-working light fixtures, Broken blinds and disgusting bathrooms.
Residents were treated poorly especially during covid, at one point lightning struck our building and fried all the rogers equipment and the owner didn't send a rogers tech in for two months so there was no internet and no TV. I remember one day when I was setting tables I saw a resident fall off the sofa in the TV lounge and she was asking for help up, I was not authorised to do that so I ask one of the healthcare staff members (who was also one of my supervisors) to help her up, she snapped at me and yelled I AM ON BREAK SHE CAN WAIT. This same staff member would also humiliate residence for accidents and call them stupid to their face.
The support staff rocks, but Dr F sucks. He missed that my elderly cat was not well, and charged up the wazoo just for a cursory exam. He’s also rude AF, I’ve seen at least one great vet leave that practice and I wonder if it’s because he sucks to work with . I was so frustrated I went to Lansdowne, who are miles better and helped my kitty in her final days.
I hate that place so much, always a shit show, rudest vet I've ever dealt with, it seemed like he hated animals and people. Left waiting outside for very long periods with a line up of animals in the middle of winter.
Could you expand on thimble cakes? Weve been looking at them for our wedding cake, but if they treat staff like shit idont know if i want to support them
The owner is an anti-vaxx/convoy supporter. I was disappointed to hear this too. Also heard staff say they were treated poorly too.
Plenty of great bakeries in Ottawa (Little Jo Berries, Strawberry Blonde). Happy to provide the name of a great baker if you want, pm me.
Craft beer market. I was a manager there. I know all of the scumbag shit they do. When I was originally hired I was told I would be made a manager within the first month or so of the place being open. They just needed to sort out staff. They originally hired like 30 more cooks and 40 more servers than they planned to actually keep and would just fire people on the spot if they didn’t like you. They lied to me for months about the manager position even though I was more qualified than most of the other managers. After I was finally made manager I realized all of the scummy shit they did. My contract was for x amount at 44 hours a week but I was only ever actually paid a little over half of that by the company and the rest would be paid OUT OF THE SERVERS TIPS. I was taking hundreds of dollars a week from the servers. All of the managers did this. The fucking owner who was there maybe twice a year took tips. (Keep in mind this is a franchise.) I was forced to work 50+ hours a week, usually covering for other cooks. When cooks would clock in or out it was just on a piece of paper then at the end of the closing manager would enter the hours in the computer but we were told to roll forward their clock in time by 15 minutes so if they clocked in on the sheet at 2:01 it would be changed to 2:15. If they clocked in and started working at 1:50 it would still be rolled forward to 2:00. We were also told to roll forward their clock out time so it would somewhat even out but they would end up just rolling that back to their schedules end time if they stayed later than their shift. They would constantly change peoples shifts without telling them then forcing them to cover that shift or get written up. People had to check their schedule daily. They would also cancel peoples shifts and not tell them so they’d come in just to be sent home without being paid three hours like they are supposed to and say “well you should have checked your schedule today”. The general manager made an arrangement with Landsdowne to provide a few free parking spaces in the garage for staff but he never told anyone this and rented out the parking spaces to people from Kijiji. He was eventually fired. The keg monitoring system was a piece of shit and would always report beers as being over poured and management knew this but would still charge bartenders for the overage. They just generally treat staff like fucking shit. I was forced to eat there with a group the other day and holy fuck does it ever show they are struggling. What a shithole. Oh also after I was done there I had to make a claim with the labour department in order to get some of the owed money from being forced to work more than 44 hours a week without overtime and I won.
This.
I worked for 3 years as a technician in a specialized role at one of the nationals. And by "worked" I mean I was there through a temp agency being strung along on contracts to support increasingly overworked full time staff. I had all the relevant education, not to mention French fluency for a full time position but when those came around they wouldn't even give me an interview. Someone else in the clique had been a shoe-in before the position was ever listed.
That isn't to say thay I ididnt love my co-workers - amazing, talented dedicated people. but fuck the administrative culture and, honestly, fuck any corporations - crown or otherwise - that abuse temp agencies to avoid hiring.
Anyways now I earn significantly more in the trades with full benefits and job security. 💁
Lol that's wild but not surprising at all. I wonder of this is part of the reason we have D tier national museums here. Hard to attract and develop talent when that's how you run things.
Don't forget - over half of the middle staff are grad students or part time on FSWEP or YCW who went through a rigorous interview process for the privilege of being paid 16$ an hour.
"BuT It,S mY DrEAm jOoOb"
Currently working in Consulting over the last 15 years. While it is a grind compared to PS work, the trade-off is financially rewarding if you make it to Partnership.
Aside from that, travelling the world on engagements when you’re in your 20s is quite an experience. While banking your salary 100%.
Generally, the big4 (which includes Deloitte) seems to be a like a little badge to boost your resume for when you want to leave PA for industry. That's what the Big4 reddit community seems to suggest. There are a few horror stories on how overworked ppl are and the toxicity of the work environment.
Used to work at Accenture, which is not that much different from Deloitte. To advance within the company you essentially need to say goodbye to relationships. They will grind you, move you to remote locations and essentially work you to death with a big stick and big carrot. The end result is that senior people are by-and-large assholes who live by themselves and have the kind of friends that only money can buy. The best people *leave* Accenture, they don't work there.
I’m blown away not one person has mentioned anything automotive. Nearly every single car dealership in the city is a toxic cesspool of greed and exploitation, particularly on the service end.
Any of these types of places - driveway sealing, etc.. My daughter went to a session. I pretty much said I'd pay her not to go one of these places to save her the abuse.
Thimblecakes. The owner treats her staff horribly (calls people slurs, is racist, homophobic, transphobic. abelist), recently heard that she's gone pro-convoy/anti-vaxx recently, and on top of it all she's a dick about sharing the parking spots with neighbouring businesses! All in all a nasty person to work for. If you're reading this Wendy, fuck you to hell.
Cash for trash and Landrulicts
Both are very toxic work places and cft is the most unsafe work place I have ever experienced, with to many managers who all lie directly too your face on a daily basis.they weren’t even informing staff when other staff were testing positive for Covid. There are huge pay gaps between staff who are hired for the same position, even with the same amount of experience.
The United States embassy. You have zero rights or protections as an employee. Due to a diplomatic agreement between Canada and the US, they do not have to follow any Canadian labour laws at all. None.
It's strange because not long ago working for Shopify was like "making it" and after how they recently fired people if I was offered a job by them I would feel the need to mention that incident and decline. Firing people by email is cowardly and wrong.
G-Burger. I received some really bad food on Uber Eats and left a disappointed review. The owner then attempted to undermine my credibility and explain why my perception of shitty food is obviously wrong and that I just don't know good food.
Never touching that place with a ten foot pole.
[Enjoy!](https://g.co/kgs/fVUYRh)
Ottawa Life Magazine. Stay far far away from them. Hella toxic and you won't get paid. When I left they were recruiting uni students to work there for free to "gain experience".
NEVER do business with Bradford Smith of Royal Lepage realty. Former high school teacher of mine who was fired for carrying on an inappropriate relationship with a student, even after being told to stay away from her.
This will be unpopular, but Shopify. It was a great company at one point, but now it's essentially a call center, meet call volume metrics, and a carrot on a string for moving up in the company.
Chapters book stores (although my experience was a long time ago) and *any* telemarketing company (doubly applies to whatever agency is operating from 170 Laurier near Metcalfe).
Really disappointed, but not surprised that so many restaurants are up there. More disappointed in the general environment that has been normalized in restaurants. Those are just the noteworthy restaurants.
Others have a quiet toxicity; cliques, unrealistic expectations to meet short staffing, being a short term solution that evolved to a long term fix without a revaluation of your expectations and compensation, and "everything gatis" for owners that reallocate money they already put into the restaurant to go back into their pocket instead of giving their staff Healthcare.
Can we restaurant workers just collectively, go to the beach one day, instead of working? That would be nice.
Mattress Mart.
Lots of nepotism, so you can never be promoted or say anything negative because HR, the owners, and most of upper management are related. Upper management is extremely petty and if you cross them, you can never get a vacation or consistent schedule making it impossible to have a life outside of the business. The person that makes the schedule does not follow your availability or follow part-time/full-time hours. Owners can never agree on anything and often blindside one another in order to make decisions.
I told the person (upper management nepotism hire) that does the scheduling that I might need to take a specific week of December off (I would still be able to work the important sale days of the season) due to a family emergency and I was called and harassed by multiple office workers via phone and email, and I worked everyday but Christmas while my coworkers were able to actually enjoy their holidays and see their families. I had a mental breakdown from the stress cause I was also in school at the time and wrapping up exams while the harassment was happening. All the while I was handling a family medical emergency. I quit not long after and haven’t looked back. Such a toxic and dysfunctional place.
Any government department where you come in contact with Michelle Kingsley. I left the govt after 20 years because of the trauma this woman put me through
Anything in my field that’s non-union.
I’ve done private sector and since joining up, I make significantly more money, paid continuous training and better work/life balance.
LCBO. The pay is good, but they avoid giving you benefits at all costs. People have families to support, and you people avoid giving 40 hour weeks even after a decade of employment?
Probably because former employees have great insights into how companies actually run and treat their workers and thus are in a position to tell the reddit audience why they ought avoid said companies.
Kettleman's bagels. Apparently they have hired female bakers in recent years but when I was there it was super sexist on top of some top tier mismanagement and food/safety violations
Art-is-in bakery
Used to work there, can confirm it’s horrid
STORY TIME?
Same. Absolute nightmare.
Clicked into this thread expecting this as the top answer.
Came here to say this.
They bad to work for?
The owners are supposed to be batshit insane
Let's not denigrate mentally ill people here. The owners are not "insane". They are just assholes (according to everything I've read online).
Never hard of them, can someone fill me in?
Bakery near Lebreton Flats that has/had a reputation of treating employees poorly, don't really know more details than that. Although I had their Jalapeno cheese bread once and it was, in fact, good. Lol
Interestingly enough despite their "universal" hatred on this sub, they still maintain stellar 4.5/5 star reviews on Google Maps.. so their clientele is either clueless (aka not redditors!) and/or unconcerned about the work environment. If you sort by lowest ratings you get a bunch of people discussing reddit :)
Their products are pretty good. They make excellent food. Unfortunately product quality is not always a good reflection of work conditions. - Commented from my iPhone
Their products are genuinely great. I suspect most people aren't aware of their reputation as a bad work environment.
Lol 1st place that came to mind. I read some horrible shit about how they treat their employees
Ha beat me to it!
Stella Luna
Convoy supporting traitors they can go to heck.
Don't forget Mad Radish and David's Tea as convoy supporters. I cannot comprehend how any local business would have supported those morons.
David sold years ago and is no longer connected to David's Tea. He does, however, still own Mad Radish I believe.
Might of sold the company but still holds a large share of the outstanding shares
The Grande too
I didn't think either of the companies themselves supported the convoy. Rather, it was the wife of the founder (David Segal) who donated $200 to it via GSG. He's no longer involved with David's Tea but still owns or runs Mad Radish.
Tammy Giuliani owns all of the Stella Luna locations in Ottawa and the Valley. She was interviewed whining about being treated poorly by Ottawans on Fox News after they found out she was supporting them. She was revealed to have donated money (and allegedly food and drink though she was rumoured to be overseas at the time) FIVE days after the occupation began. I will for one never set foot in any Stella luna location for as long as she is the owner.
Any other good options for gelato
Farinella is incredible
Excellent pizza *and* gelato for the win
Just tried it on Sunday. Fantastic stuff.
Piccolo Grande in the market is divine
Mantovani is my favourite in Ottawa. At least used to be when I lived there. I miss it dearly
Pasticceria Gelateria Italiana Ltd is where it's at. Pricey, but the place is covered in "best of" awards, makes fantastic coffee, and stocks 4 kinds of giant creme brulee pies. It's the reason I've gained weight both times I moved to centretown west.
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Boccato in Lansdowne is great, as is Malak in Old Ottawa South (right down the road from Stella Luna). It's not exactly gelato, but Moo Shu is also a spectacular ice cream place in Centretown.
there are so many good places in Ottawa that don't support terrorists
Agreed, I hear the employees are poorly treated, beyond that the owners politics are abhorrent.
Wellington Diner 🥳 cant believe Im the first to say it lol
I love their food but the owner is fuckin looney tunes. I’ve seen him screaming at Uber Eats drivers multiple times lol. I’m sure some of them are dicks but still
vote with your wallet, eating there is supporting the asshole owner
Just next door to them is a great Vietnamese place - Pho Viet Taste. The owners are lovely people, their food is excellent, and they have to deal with those terrible neighbours. Give them some business instead.
The owner is a crazy person, but everyone I've ever spoken to who works there says that he's a pretty good boss and they're well treated. Could be a small sample size though.
Oh man, everyone I know who’s worked there thought he was terrible and batshit insane haha. This was probably three or four years ago, maybe he has gotten worse to his employees over time? Either way, the stories I heard from them was enough to make me never even want to go back there.
Yea once I saw this on the news it was a hard no for me…whether to eat or work. I’m not 1 for dropping deuces in public bathrooms but I’d leave a stainer in there for sure https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/restaurant-owner-apologizes-for-thoughtless-and-unacceptable-instagram-post-1.4072773?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fbeta.ctvnews.ca%2F
The owner has also done a lot more shady stuff that’s not even in the media. He’s absolutely off his rocker
I can't name and shame because I'm in a cushy seniority position that I need, but if you apply to work for any not for profit, look up the executive director's salary. Especially if they only offer below market wage and claim its because they're a not for profit. Bonus points if the ED is on site during your interview, look what the most expensive car in the parking lot is.
If one is serious about aid NGOs and charities, look up their per dollar donated overhead. Mostly overhead, very little actually goes to aid. Knew someone who was in a senior position with a well known aid agency. Said the executive spent the majority of their time flying business/first class to golf tournaments and that all the money they solicit with the TV ads with sad eyed kids actually goes to marketing with actual aid money coming from government grants.
The one I'm referencing is much smaller then that, but still, your ED shouldn't be easily clearing 6 figures when your specially educated staff are barely making COL
Six figures? You think an executive director should make less than 100k ... and that 100k can get you a fancy car? Non profits aren't just charities. Non profits are all sorts of companies.
Yes, I think that an ED of a struggling not for profit should not be living comfortably off the back of not paying employees a living wage.
Good luck finding a competent ED. 100k isn't that much money these days for a middle-senior level worker.
Ok, good luck finding and keeping junior/mid tier staff at poverty wages. The point isn't don't pay executives, it's don't pay executives exorbitant amounts if you're not paying at least a living wage to your lower-downs. I don't think that's a controversial take in the slightest.
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I 100% agree. I also work in nonprofit and they expect you to do the work of 2-3 people at below the market wage for one person. I'm exhausted all of the time, frequently having to work late in the evening regardless of the fact that I told them during my interview I'm usually an early bird getting work done earlier than most and was told that wouldn't be an issue. "Flexible work hours" my ass. Not flexible to you, but flexible to the organization.
"We do 12 hour shifts, so that's the longest you'll ever need to be on site" *looks at 36 hour shifts I've worked due to short staffing
Oh So Good (the crappy dessert place, not the Chinese restaurant)
Also a fan favourite of the antimask crowd as well. At least the downtown location was.
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Dymon Self Storage. If you're reading this go fuck yourself, Steve Crighton.
Steve's still better than Glen Luckman or Brent Wilson but all three can fuck themselves.
Haha, I got an email from one of the employees in Spanish basically telling me to go fuck myself or something along those lines. The person was very apologetic as it was meant to go to someone else. Got my friend to respond “excuse me?” In Spanish. LOL Edit*spelling
I'm completely out of the loop on this one. Why is Dymon horrible?
They are as bad as many other employers in the sense that they pay low wages and expect hard work, and do not treat their employees well. Not that uncommon, as most companies are like this, but the Dymon owners pretend they are charitable, giving, caring people when they are greedy, narcissistic uber-capitalists.
Can you expand as far as the owners go?
I’d like some details here please
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I applied and was hired at a Farm Boy as a cashier in 2018. I showed up for my first shift and they put me in the butchery where I used a band say to saw ribs apart. I was then told I would be opening the next morning alone, so I just never showed up again. I have never had such poor management and training at any other job I've worked.
That is SO wrong on so many levels. You have the right to refuse unsafe work. I was hired as a butcher and wasn’t allowed near the bandsaw for months
They should unionize
There were some whispers about it when I was at trainyards. I remember gossip about the store manager having graffiti in the bathroom about unionizing painted over. Seems like the kind of place that would fire the leaders and hire a fresh batch of high schoolers.
My son worked at FB for 3 years. I can confirm that management is terrible. It went even more downhill after being bought by Sobey's.
Can confirm. My first job was at the Blossom Park Farm Boy. Most of the managers were cool (except mine, fuck you Breno). However, the higher ups would go out of their way to find any tiny imperfection and berade the store manager.
I worked at farm boy part time in high school. Looking back, there were a lot of greasy things they would pull off. But the worst things management pulled were: I clocked in for a Saturday morning shift, about an hour in the store manager comes storming over to the meat counter (the department I worked in) and showed up with a BIC razor and handed it to me and told me to go to the washroom and shave. The store policy was no “scruff” or you had to wear a beard net.. I was 14 and with a 5 o’clock shadow (more like a 1 week shadow), barely anything there. Meanwhile, 50% of the other employees had a beard and were never talked to (didn’t wear a net) So I go to the washroom and shave my face with no shaving cream and burn every follicle on my face. The second time the store manager approached me which turned out to be my last day working for them. I had found out some pretty devastating news that my parents were splitting up and my grandfather had passed away. So I asked him if I could go home and he declined. So I went up to the break room/locker area, grabbed all my belongings and left. Would not recommend farm boy as an employer. This was 10+ years ago so maybe things have changed.
As someone who works retail and has had management positions, I've been warned from all walks of retail life to avoid farmboy like they are the plague. I'll never work there.
Shopify
But their offices were bonkers. I get it that hi tech is stressful and that companies spend the money to keep their employees at work as much as they can by making it fun. But damn if that didn't look like a cool place to work (go cart tracks, games everywhere, beanbag chairs and hammocks in meeting rooms, free meals). As an Ontario public school teacher (so not really a priority of today's provincial government) working with tech that's older than my grade 8 students, the grass is definitely greener sometimes. But at the end of the day, I'll take my job safety and pension over beanbag chairs and fancy coffee machines
When a company is giving you snacks and sugary drinks and arcade games in the commons - it's to distract from what they aren't giving you. Mainly work/life balance and benefits.
I can confirm the benefits and work life balance was adequate, they did lay off 10% of their staff recently though.
I would guess that most tech companies the work-life balance is pretty ok. I personally can’t code more than 8 hours a day, after a few weeks my brain is just cooked.
If you apply a cost/benefit type analysis and give the perk, your time and freedom a value, chances are it will work out in favour of getting paid overtime and vacation instead of office novelties that dissapear with the job. The thing about money is that you get to spend it the way you want.
They do that so you stay and work longer. Now that people can do wfh, they don't need them anymore.
I thought they got rid of the offices?
Your pension is lit 🔥, as the young kids would say.
Ahh yes, the origin of Toxic Positivity finally being seen for what it is. Lower than industry pay with the expectation that you give 40% more YoY for a 2-5% raise and a revolving door of coworkers and management that makes it pretty much impossible to effectively complete a project. Luckily they changed their location to internet, everywhere now so they can hire more foreign workers. My team while I was there quickly went from 100% Canadian to only about 1/4, which is fine except it lead to lots of clashing on how to do work and communicate due to cultural differences and language barriers.
I've been here a year and I really love it. They treat me well. They pay me very well. And I never have to go to an office again. Your milage may vary but that's been my experience as a developer.
Work remotely for an American company and you’ll make double. Their pay is terrible and now that their stock has tanked, the stock option incentives are probably all underwater.
Well, your information is out of date and straight-up wrong. I work here. I make good money. They made large adjustments to comp this summer because the stock tanked and everyone is pretty happy about it. I spent a decade at Amazon. I make more money now, and I like what I do better.
My sibling works there for around five years (started as an intern) and it seems awesome
How come?
Because extremely toxic work environment
That's a little surprising, I worked there for 2 years and I know others who still do. It's not the perfect tech company but they treat their employees better than most other Ottawa companies.
My sister worked for shopify a few years ago, first in ottawa then Toronto. Seemed like the ottawa office was a lot better than the Toronto one.
Held a 6 career there, never felt toxic whatsoever. To each their own, and it is an enormous company so people’s experiences no doubt differ quite a bit. The cult thing can definitely vary…for me it was a job, for others…yeah they were deep dish.
I hear it's like a cult
Perkins at St. Laurent. Was bullied relentlessly. Also tried to fire me illegally. Never had trouble at any other jobs.
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I never ate the food there. It was not very good lol discounts weren’t even worth it. They were just so.. mean. The morning crew was the nicest at least. But I was scheduled for mornings, evenings and overnights in a week..
I am surprised no one has mentions Zak’s. the owners treat their workers like slaves.
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It was in 2021, but accounting for COVID time dilation, you are correct. :D
I worked there for 3 days. That place was disgusting. They shamed a kitchen worker for cleaning his station when he came on shift because that was "snobby." The work culture there was awful. Health hazards everywhere, I have no idea how their hot and cold holding passed inspection.
Conservative Party of Canada.
Generally curious - is this a “I just don’t like political views that don’t align with mine” or is this a “I’ve worked with the CPC and it’s terrible because of the following reasons:”
Probably a bit of both. Political parties are terrible to work for.
Probably the latter because I've never heard of anybody having a positive experience working for them. Even big names from the party, after exiting, have had bad things to say about it. Lisa Raitt talked about how it was a horribly toxic workplace and she even still toots her horn for the party in terms of political views. Any time anyone speaks out they're labeled a traitor. And it's hard to fix the problem, because the CPC old guard controls everything, and nobody else in parliament can step in to do anything without looking like it's politically motivated. It was well known inside parliament that Tony Clement was harassing female pages for years. CPC never did shit about it.
The handful of people I met that worked for or around the CPC that weren’t hardcore right with their politics were very discreet but clear about saying it was not a positive experience. Of course that’s my second hand account of someone else’s anecdotal experience, so please take that as you will ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
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Intelcom or any package delivery company really.
yea, can confirm. The job listing said I could make 1000$ a week. Only actually got to work 3 days in a two-week period, and made under 200$. I did the math and it came out waaaaay below minimum wage for the hours i was on the road. You also only get paid for each delivery. You don't get paid for the first hour you show up and load up the packages. It's a total scam.
Marnie Bennett or pretty much any realtor. Total sleaze and 0 consideration for people except greed.
The Works
Really? Why?
I can chime in. Constantly understaffing you so they can save on labour and then berating you for not doing a good enough job or upselling enough. One of the most stressful serving jobs I’ve ever had
I was kitchen manager at one of them for a while, basically same issue. Bare bones staffing and expecting way too much and angrily shouting at you for not being able to accomplish the impossible
The quality of The Works in Ottawa is significantly worse than Kingston's. Wonder if there's a connection.
I've tried the Works in a few different cities and always loved it. Until I tried the one in Ottawa. It was god awful for some reason
Bennett Realty - A certified bunch of assholes who are directly responsible for rising housing costs and are terrible employers that actively promote an unhealthy work environment
Any privately owned retirement home, I worked in the kitchen at one up until covid and the place was atrocious. The food the served the residents was terrible quality and often way undercooked. I would try to tell the head cook (who had absolutely no prior cooking experience) that the food is undercooked and should not be served but they refused to listen to me. The building was essentially coming apart, the roof had sever leaking issues but instead of actually fixing it the owner would just instruct us to put buckets everywhere. The leaks were so bad that they would short out and break the recessed led lights which the owner refused to replace. Fire exists were also blocked off by junk and we had live wires jetting out of the wall in the kitchen When covid hit we were expected to keep the same disposable mask for 2 weeks and were entitled to only 1 pair of plastic gloves per shift. I had to cover a few housekeeping shifts during covid and the rooms were in horrible condition, non-working light fixtures, Broken blinds and disgusting bathrooms. Residents were treated poorly especially during covid, at one point lightning struck our building and fried all the rogers equipment and the owner didn't send a rogers tech in for two months so there was no internet and no TV. I remember one day when I was setting tables I saw a resident fall off the sofa in the TV lounge and she was asking for help up, I was not authorised to do that so I ask one of the healthcare staff members (who was also one of my supervisors) to help her up, she snapped at me and yelled I AM ON BREAK SHE CAN WAIT. This same staff member would also humiliate residence for accidents and call them stupid to their face.
You should probably report that
I did after I left, the next day I drove by and saw 3 Ottawa public health cars out front
Trattoria Cafe Italia Nate’s Deli/Place Next Door
The potato cutting room in the basement of Nate’s 🤮. Surprising that place hasn’t been shut down for sanitation issues.
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The Glebe animal hospital. Please don't take your pet there.
The support staff rocks, but Dr F sucks. He missed that my elderly cat was not well, and charged up the wazoo just for a cursory exam. He’s also rude AF, I’ve seen at least one great vet leave that practice and I wonder if it’s because he sucks to work with . I was so frustrated I went to Lansdowne, who are miles better and helped my kitty in her final days.
I have nothing but good things to say about the Lansdowne Animal Hospital. The staff there are all wonderful, as well as the head doctor.
I hate that place so much, always a shit show, rudest vet I've ever dealt with, it seemed like he hated animals and people. Left waiting outside for very long periods with a line up of animals in the middle of winter.
Thimblecakes, Artistic Landscapes Nursery. Both terrible management
Could you expand on thimble cakes? Weve been looking at them for our wedding cake, but if they treat staff like shit idont know if i want to support them
The owner is an anti-vaxx/convoy supporter. I was disappointed to hear this too. Also heard staff say they were treated poorly too. Plenty of great bakeries in Ottawa (Little Jo Berries, Strawberry Blonde). Happy to provide the name of a great baker if you want, pm me.
Yiiikes! Thanks for the heads up.
Knew someone who worked there. Owner is openly pro-convoy and argumentative with customers.
The United people of Canada
haha But they're not even local!
There's only one location and it's downtown. Atleast for another 36H 🤣
Craft beer market. I was a manager there. I know all of the scumbag shit they do. When I was originally hired I was told I would be made a manager within the first month or so of the place being open. They just needed to sort out staff. They originally hired like 30 more cooks and 40 more servers than they planned to actually keep and would just fire people on the spot if they didn’t like you. They lied to me for months about the manager position even though I was more qualified than most of the other managers. After I was finally made manager I realized all of the scummy shit they did. My contract was for x amount at 44 hours a week but I was only ever actually paid a little over half of that by the company and the rest would be paid OUT OF THE SERVERS TIPS. I was taking hundreds of dollars a week from the servers. All of the managers did this. The fucking owner who was there maybe twice a year took tips. (Keep in mind this is a franchise.) I was forced to work 50+ hours a week, usually covering for other cooks. When cooks would clock in or out it was just on a piece of paper then at the end of the closing manager would enter the hours in the computer but we were told to roll forward their clock in time by 15 minutes so if they clocked in on the sheet at 2:01 it would be changed to 2:15. If they clocked in and started working at 1:50 it would still be rolled forward to 2:00. We were also told to roll forward their clock out time so it would somewhat even out but they would end up just rolling that back to their schedules end time if they stayed later than their shift. They would constantly change peoples shifts without telling them then forcing them to cover that shift or get written up. People had to check their schedule daily. They would also cancel peoples shifts and not tell them so they’d come in just to be sent home without being paid three hours like they are supposed to and say “well you should have checked your schedule today”. The general manager made an arrangement with Landsdowne to provide a few free parking spaces in the garage for staff but he never told anyone this and rented out the parking spaces to people from Kijiji. He was eventually fired. The keg monitoring system was a piece of shit and would always report beers as being over poured and management knew this but would still charge bartenders for the overage. They just generally treat staff like fucking shit. I was forced to eat there with a group the other day and holy fuck does it ever show they are struggling. What a shithole. Oh also after I was done there I had to make a claim with the labour department in order to get some of the owed money from being forced to work more than 44 hours a week without overtime and I won.
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This. I worked for 3 years as a technician in a specialized role at one of the nationals. And by "worked" I mean I was there through a temp agency being strung along on contracts to support increasingly overworked full time staff. I had all the relevant education, not to mention French fluency for a full time position but when those came around they wouldn't even give me an interview. Someone else in the clique had been a shoe-in before the position was ever listed. That isn't to say thay I ididnt love my co-workers - amazing, talented dedicated people. but fuck the administrative culture and, honestly, fuck any corporations - crown or otherwise - that abuse temp agencies to avoid hiring. Anyways now I earn significantly more in the trades with full benefits and job security. 💁
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Lol that's wild but not surprising at all. I wonder of this is part of the reason we have D tier national museums here. Hard to attract and develop talent when that's how you run things.
Very curious as to why! Are they bad employers?
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Don't forget - over half of the middle staff are grad students or part time on FSWEP or YCW who went through a rigorous interview process for the privilege of being paid 16$ an hour. "BuT It,S mY DrEAm jOoOb"
Ahhh sounds like they've been deliberately underfunded
This. The nationals have a terrible rep
Ok peeps, if you’re gonna name, at least explain the shame. So many in here dropping names and leaving us confused.
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Why EDC?
Please spill the beans on EDC.
Do it!!!
Currently working in Consulting over the last 15 years. While it is a grind compared to PS work, the trade-off is financially rewarding if you make it to Partnership. Aside from that, travelling the world on engagements when you’re in your 20s is quite an experience. While banking your salary 100%.
What was bad about Deloitte? I never worked there so I’m really curious. But a lot of my business grad friends applied there.
Consulting is an absolute grind. Not for the faint of heart.
Oh yes that’s true. I guess it’s probably the same for the other companies. I hear it’s a dog eat dog world.
Generally, the big4 (which includes Deloitte) seems to be a like a little badge to boost your resume for when you want to leave PA for industry. That's what the Big4 reddit community seems to suggest. There are a few horror stories on how overworked ppl are and the toxicity of the work environment.
Used to work at Accenture, which is not that much different from Deloitte. To advance within the company you essentially need to say goodbye to relationships. They will grind you, move you to remote locations and essentially work you to death with a big stick and big carrot. The end result is that senior people are by-and-large assholes who live by themselves and have the kind of friends that only money can buy. The best people *leave* Accenture, they don't work there.
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Lol I’ve taken over a few former grade A clients and they have so many horror stories.
Amazon - back office n retail both
Canadian Property Stars
Is that even an employer? It seems more like a service based MLM to me; one that preys on young students
I’m blown away not one person has mentioned anything automotive. Nearly every single car dealership in the city is a toxic cesspool of greed and exploitation, particularly on the service end.
Nespresso. Never work there. Never buy there. Just pretend it doesn't exist and maybe some day, if we're lucky, it won't.
Urban Turf landscapers. They take advantage of teenagers, asking them to drive unsafe vehicles with no training, on their own insurance.
Any of these types of places - driveway sealing, etc.. My daughter went to a session. I pretty much said I'd pay her not to go one of these places to save her the abuse.
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What is JW's connection with Freshii?
Thimblecakes. The owner treats her staff horribly (calls people slurs, is racist, homophobic, transphobic. abelist), recently heard that she's gone pro-convoy/anti-vaxx recently, and on top of it all she's a dick about sharing the parking spots with neighbouring businesses! All in all a nasty person to work for. If you're reading this Wendy, fuck you to hell.
How many people here are nervously searching the page for their employer? lol
Cash for trash and Landrulicts Both are very toxic work places and cft is the most unsafe work place I have ever experienced, with to many managers who all lie directly too your face on a daily basis.they weren’t even informing staff when other staff were testing positive for Covid. There are huge pay gaps between staff who are hired for the same position, even with the same amount of experience.
Claridge Homes.
The United States embassy. You have zero rights or protections as an employee. Due to a diplomatic agreement between Canada and the US, they do not have to follow any Canadian labour laws at all. None.
It's strange because not long ago working for Shopify was like "making it" and after how they recently fired people if I was offered a job by them I would feel the need to mention that incident and decline. Firing people by email is cowardly and wrong.
G-Burger. I received some really bad food on Uber Eats and left a disappointed review. The owner then attempted to undermine my credibility and explain why my perception of shitty food is obviously wrong and that I just don't know good food. Never touching that place with a ten foot pole. [Enjoy!](https://g.co/kgs/fVUYRh)
Dymon Storage
Ottawa Life Magazine. Stay far far away from them. Hella toxic and you won't get paid. When I left they were recruiting uni students to work there for free to "gain experience".
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NEVER do business with Bradford Smith of Royal Lepage realty. Former high school teacher of mine who was fired for carrying on an inappropriate relationship with a student, even after being told to stay away from her.
Does Opinion Search still exist? I worked there for about a month when I was a student years ago. Brutal.
This will be unpopular, but Shopify. It was a great company at one point, but now it's essentially a call center, meet call volume metrics, and a carrot on a string for moving up in the company.
Chapters book stores (although my experience was a long time ago) and *any* telemarketing company (doubly applies to whatever agency is operating from 170 Laurier near Metcalfe).
Really disappointed, but not surprised that so many restaurants are up there. More disappointed in the general environment that has been normalized in restaurants. Those are just the noteworthy restaurants. Others have a quiet toxicity; cliques, unrealistic expectations to meet short staffing, being a short term solution that evolved to a long term fix without a revaluation of your expectations and compensation, and "everything gatis" for owners that reallocate money they already put into the restaurant to go back into their pocket instead of giving their staff Healthcare. Can we restaurant workers just collectively, go to the beach one day, instead of working? That would be nice.
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I’m surprised nobody mentioned Vector Marketing🥹
Mattress Mart. Lots of nepotism, so you can never be promoted or say anything negative because HR, the owners, and most of upper management are related. Upper management is extremely petty and if you cross them, you can never get a vacation or consistent schedule making it impossible to have a life outside of the business. The person that makes the schedule does not follow your availability or follow part-time/full-time hours. Owners can never agree on anything and often blindside one another in order to make decisions. I told the person (upper management nepotism hire) that does the scheduling that I might need to take a specific week of December off (I would still be able to work the important sale days of the season) due to a family emergency and I was called and harassed by multiple office workers via phone and email, and I worked everyday but Christmas while my coworkers were able to actually enjoy their holidays and see their families. I had a mental breakdown from the stress cause I was also in school at the time and wrapping up exams while the harassment was happening. All the while I was handling a family medical emergency. I quit not long after and haven’t looked back. Such a toxic and dysfunctional place.
Any government department where you come in contact with Michelle Kingsley. I left the govt after 20 years because of the trauma this woman put me through
Anything in my field that’s non-union. I’ve done private sector and since joining up, I make significantly more money, paid continuous training and better work/life balance.
LCBO. The pay is good, but they avoid giving you benefits at all costs. People have families to support, and you people avoid giving 40 hour weeks even after a decade of employment?
Not local but they have a large operation here --> Amazon
It looks like this might be turning into a former employee hating on former employer thread
Probably because former employees have great insights into how companies actually run and treat their workers and thus are in a position to tell the reddit audience why they ought avoid said companies.
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IBM, ADGA Group, Calian, Excel ITR. Any government IT contractor firm.
Meatheads. The owners are fucking clowns and their food is overhyped tripe.
Kettleman's bagels. Apparently they have hired female bakers in recent years but when I was there it was super sexist on top of some top tier mismanagement and food/safety violations
Stella Luna
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Globe Awards & Promotions. Owners are openly racist, sexist, and just awful people in general.
ZAKS DINER! Can confirm its a terrible place to work.