7 Ways You’re Being Taken Advantage of at Work

A common question to ask yourself is how are you taken advantage of at work? The biggest indicator is when you just know it in your gut. The power imbalance between employee and boss is noticeable and as a result is prone to abuse by the employer. While going above and beyond is a good strategy to get ahead, you need to recognize when you are giving too much without getting anything in return.

After about 5 years of working in Corporate America, the motivation to work has been slowly declining every year. When I first started working after graduation, I was one of those bright eyed, optimistic people who thought life was going to be rosy. So I worked like a dog for my company.

In some respects, it worked. After six months, my income skyrocketed from $52,500 to about $88,000, $30k of which was bonus.

However, I still felt like I was being taken advantage of at work. I knew it was still below market pay. The salary increase was helpful, but it wasn’t enough. I was giving up too much for the company in exchange for a sliver.

After a year and 3 months, a competitor eyed me and they offered a 25% increase to my pay. I just told my boss I was leaving without negotiating (I was an awful negotiator back then). To my surprise, she said “wait, hold on”. Four hours later, she offered me a 25% increase in pay. Then I finally started to feel like it was a fair arrangement.

These days, I fight and ask for what I want frequently and interview at other companies to know my market value and worth. I learned.

7 Ways You are Being Taken Advantage of at Work

There are many ways that you are being taken advantage of at work. One way to never let that happen is to SMASH and DESTROY that share button and post to your favorite social media for the Google algorithm! Let’s share the information so that employees know exactly how they are being taken advantage of.

Employees need to band together.

In seriousness, it’s never a good feeling to know that people are stepping over you. Everyone can learn through my bad experiences in the workplace. The first step is recognition and the second step is to do something about it.

Some of the ways are so subtle that it’s difficult to recognize that it’s happening to you but it’s crucial to recognize it. Employees are already taken for granted by being underpaid, we can’t let the companies have even more power than they already do.

So with that said, let’s get into the seven ways that companies abuse their power over employees.

1) Your Gut Tells You You’re Being Taken Advantage of at Work

The NUMBER one way you can know is you just know it. Maybe it’s your boss who takes credit for the work that you did. Or maybe it’s your coworker who gossips about you and your boss believes him or her. If you just get the sense and feeling that something is wrong, something is wrong.

It’s an especially difficult feeling to evaluate and pinpoint. You won’t know if you’re feeling that way because of work stress or because of something else. It may already be too late by the time you figure it out and you’ll have to play catch up to manage the situation. When you’re coming in to work feeling bad, then there’s something wrong.

Last year when I started at a new company, every time I came into the office felt like war. Every question needed to be worded pristinely and perfectly in order to get answered. A simple question like, “where’s the bathroom?” felt very difficult and I felt bad for asking.

I have no idea how I stuck it out for two years now, but I am interviewing elsewhere. I don’t want to work in this environment any longer. Although I am at a good spot compensation wise, I’m not sure if I can continue working in these conditions.

2) It’s a Given You’re Working Nights and Weekends

It’s one thing if your boss requests that you work late and thanks you afterwards. If your boss starts requesting you work late without giving it an ounce of thought, then that’s a big problem. That’s when your boss has it as a default that you will be working weekends and vacation days.

They’re not even giving you a choice or considering any other obligations that you may have. That’s an absurd negotiation situation you need to walk away from.

My boss gives work and expects it to be finished by the night or the day after. Without considering if I have anything going on in the weekends or at night. I know exactly where I stand and know that I am being taken advantage of.

Overworking is not a given. You should work more for your company because you want to, not because you have to. As soon as it starts to feel like you’re working more because you have to, it’s time to make a change.

3) You’re Doing the Job of Multiple People

One of the biggest injustices you’ll see in the workplace is when you do more than your job description. Most commonly, your boss will ask you to fill in for the coworker who just left. What’s even worse is when your compensation doesn’t catch up!

In this case, the choices you have are to accept the work but ask for more pay or to leave the company for a better opportunity.

Your bosses look better if they get to show productivity without giving up additional pay. At my last company, we were understaffed by 2 people. I naively took on additional work and worked on the most amount of deals than any other employee. I can’t imagine what kind of bonus my boss received for the year. Most likely a very hefty amount.

When you do work of 2 people without having a 100% increase in pay, then that’s when you know you’re being taken advantage of at work.

4) You Feel Guilty Taking Vacation or Sick Days

Vacation time is a part of your compensation package. Companies expect you to take every single day of your vacation and sick days when they give you the offer. When you start to get looks from your boss that says “you’re not sufficiently loyal to the company,” then something is wrong.

You should not feel guilty about taking something that the company told you you could take.

Some companies have the “unlimited PTO” model these days as a benefit for employees to take. Don’t let that fool you. Employees feel guilty taking unlimited vacation time. As a result, employees take less PTO than if they were offered set vacation days.

It’s small mind games like these that companies play to take advantage of employees even further. Recognize it and don’t let yourself be taken advantage of at work. Take those PTO days to at least 10 – 15 days a year, minimum.

5) Your Bosses Take Credit For Your Efforts

When your boss doesn’t congratulate you for good work and rather takes credit for the work that you’ve done, that’s the definition of a toxic workplace. While most bosses don’t do this, there is a nonzero number of bosses in the world who do. They look at how they can use underlings to their advantage for their own purposes.

They figure out ways on how to make the underlings work longer hours for them without giving up more pay. Then they can show their bosses, “hey, I got my team to do all this work while paying the minimum that I could pay, you should give me a good bonus”. These kinds of conversations happen behind the scenes.

You will have no control over when it happens and no chance to participate in the conversation. It’s not a common way you are taken advantage of at work but it does happen.

6) Your Bosses Blame You for Their Mistakes

One time, my prior boss and I were on the phone with another person. We were going over a chart that my boss produced and I asked questions on how he produced it. He went on to explain. I asked again for further clarification. He went on to explain further on his point. It was still very confusing so I asked again.

Then he started getting mad and saying things like “what don’t you understand? Aside from flat out giving you the answer, I don’t know what else to do. Tell me what YOU don’t understand.” It turns out he was looking at a completely different chart, completely unrelated to what I was referring to.

Classic example of blaming others for their mistakes. It was his misunderstanding and not my incompetence that led to the discrepancy. Yet he fully charged on to blame me for something he did wrong. Simple incidences like this can happen to you. It’s subtle and small things like this screams you are working in a toxic workplace.

Be mindful.

7) Your Bosses Focus on the Bad Instead of the Good

In a given year, maybe you’ve given everything that you could give. You voluntarily worked additional hours. Performed analysis on another angle that not even your boss considered. Then comes the final year-end review. You walk into the conference room, confident that you will get a glowing review. You sit down, feeling good about yourself.

Then your boss says that you’re generally doing a good job. Then for the next 70% of the meeting, he hits you with “you need to work on this, this, and this”. At the end of the meeting, it makes you feel like you had a horrible year. Like you didn’t do anything right, what was going on? That’s the classic example of someone focusing on the bad instead of the good.

When you do things 90% right and 10% wrong, your boss focuses on the 10% you did wrong. That’s a very indirect way that your bosses are lowering your morale. It’s one of the most underrated ways that companies take advantage of its employees. So that employees don’t get complacent and to motivate them to do even better that they are already doing.

It makes you question yourself as if what you did in the past year was even good in the first place. Then your self belief tanks because you think you did such a bad job. It makes you insecure. What do you as a result? You put in more hours to avoid that from happening again. You go even more above and beyond for the company.

Recognize that this is a form of taking advantage.

Being Taken Advantage of at Work is NEVER good

The harsh reality is that it’s a common things to be taken advantage of at work. It’s more common than it should be. One of the truths of life is that when companies take advantage of employees, the companies actually win. At least, in the short-term. The productivity numbers look better than before, what’s not to like?

Over the long term, employees should do the right thing and start to move out of the company for a better opportunity. When companies take advantage of employees too much, morale starts to go down. It’s not a good relationship for both the boss and the employee. The hardest part is actually recognizing that you are taken advantage of.

Companies have become master communicators who know how to sell and spin things into a positive. Companies know that if they split your review to be 30% good and 70% bad, the review is not so bad that it’ll make you want to quit. However, it’s bad enough so that it makes you want to improve even further.

The sprinkles of good reviews give you just enough motivation to stick it out one more year.

Companies know you’ll feel guilty taking a significant amount of vacation days when they offer unlimited vacation time. They use your emotions against you. You actually take less vacation time than if you were offered a traditional set vacation time.

They know exactly what they’re doing. They’ve had decades and centuries of data to study human psychology and what employees’ tendencies are. It’s difficult to win when they already have so much information at their disposal.

When the signs are there that you are being taken advantage of at work, it’s time to do something about it.

If You’re Being Taken Advantage of at Work, Speak Up

The best thing you can do when you know you’re being taken advantage of at work is to speak up. I know it’s difficult to do. Self-advocacy is not an easy thing to master or try to learn. It’s one of the most difficult things you’ll have to learn.

Not because it’s hard to do but because you have to learn how to deliver self promotion correctly. With self-advocacy, there is a right and wrong way to do so.

Universities don’t teach this, either. All they teach you is how interest rates affect the overall economy. In terms of talking professionally to the point where it gets you out of a difficult situation, that’s something you’ll have to learn on your own.

One wrong way is to bottle your emotions and feelings up until one day you snap at your boss. That’s a big and huge no no.

This is a route that most people take because it’s just easier to do what they want you to do at the expense of your wants and needs. When that starts to build up is when there will be problems. You have to learn to speak up regularly and say your piece. As long as you don’t do it every time that there’s a minor problem, you will be taken seriously.

I regularly fight my bosses if I was provoked to. At the end of the day, it’s still up to me to set boundaries with my coworkers, even my bosses. It’s just not a good feeling to be taken advantage of at work.

I want you to speak up and create a workplace that works for you. No one will do it for you.

List of 7 Ways You’re Being Taken Advantage of at Work

• 1. Your gut tells you you’re being taken advantage of at work
• 2. It’s a given you’re going to work nights and weekends
• 3. You do the job of multiple people
• 4. You feel guilty taking vacation or sick days
• 5. Your bosses take credit for your efforts
• 6. Your bosses blame you for their mistakes
• 7. Your bosses focus on the bad instead of the good