Job ad buzzwords

You can start to pick up hints about what it’s really like to work somewhere by closely reading their vacancy adverts. “If [the ad] says things like ‘must be able to work under pressure’ or ‘must be able to handle stress’, these could be red flags that tell you the environment might be stressful and toxic,” says Victoria McLean, CEO of careers consultancy City CV. And if they’re making a point of highlighting this in their ad, “it might also show that they consider this as normal rather than a real problem in their workplace”.

Wishy-washy benefits

It’s easy to get lured in by promises of the odd free breakfast or Friday drinks, but make sure that you question what impact those freebies will have – and whether they might be distracting from other, more important issues. “Some red flags to look out for are companies who promote ‘benefits’ that don’t really make a difference to the employee,” says Robbie Bryant, careers expert at Open Study College. A company that really cares about their employees, he says, will offer meaningful benefits such as good maternity packages, competitive holidays and paid compassionate leave – not just an ad hoc lunchtime yoga class.

Chaotic communications

Once you’re at the interview stage, play close attention to the way your prospective bosses get in contact. If they are consistently emailing back and forth, texting during unsociable hours or keep labelling things as urgent (when they really aren’t), that might indicate a lack of “clear communication guidelines”, suggests Rebecca Leppard, founder of Upgrading Women, a communications agency for women in tech.

And if the messages you receive are abrupt in tone, if you “have to wait or chase for information” or “get messed around”? The best case scenario, McLean says, is that the workplace is disorganised, but the worst is that “they don’t really care about the process – so will they care if you actually join the company?”

Employee churn

How to spot the signs of burnout culture at work, according to careers experts