I knew it was badly managed, but I didn't realize how badly I was being treated until it was over. The experience didn't have any immediate effect. Rather, it took me years to unravel the damage that was done in that short time. Time to understand what the people around me were going through (such as drug addiction coupled with severe ignorance) and to understand why I let myself be treated like that in the first place.

I came to realize after it was all over that the shop had been selling used parts as new, overcharging customers for billable time, and who knows what else that I've forgotten by now.

The point of me sharing my experience was to corroborate the article. A bad environment can turn a good employee bad by eroding their self confidence and making them feel small. I experienced that to an extreme degree. I survived it, not unscathed. And I'm proud to have not propagated the atrocious way I was treated.

Indeed to be well respected by the incredible team of people that I work with means the world to me. But, my desire to help others has always extended to my coworkers, and then the people I managed either as a supervisor or a manager. Customer service is priority one, and my first customers are the people I work with. If I'm not giving them the best customer service possible, how can I expect them to reciprocate that to others, nevermind our paying customers.