Top News

People are struggling with the current job market and desperately applying for pretty much any opportunity they can find. This gives employers some leeway to ask the unreasonable of prospective employees.

This doesn’t change the fact that asking some things of employees is just going too far, though. One company exemplified this by asking its applicants to go above and beyond and put their “neurodivergent brain” to work every single day of the week.

A Reddit user shared the bizarre job description they encountered during their own job search.

The job seeker took screenshots of the description to share with curious Redditors. “Job description for founding engineer [by the way],” they explained in their post. “Although they have the same requirements for every opening. I did apply since I was desperate for [a] job, but anyway. I found a job a month back, but this one job description kept bugging me.”

Tima Miroshnichenko | Pexels

The company stated that they required a “7-day work week.” “We will not be outworked,” they insisted. “That being said, weekends are more flexible (okay to grab a brunch or dinner).” They also require workers to have plenty of “drive.” “You’re hungry to do what it takes for us to win,” they said. “You likely have a massive chip on the shoulder and/or a neurodivergent brain.”

The description went on to basically ask the impossible of employees. “We work/text on weekends and at night. It’s okay to send messages at 3 a.m.,” they said. “Do in a day what usually takes weeks. Run through walls to get things done. Respond in minutes (or seconds) instead of hours.” And, apparently, if you don’t live up to this, you’re done. “If someone isn’t an A-player, we part ways quickly,” they continued.

: Study Reveals The Top 5 Careers That Will Make You Age The Fastest

Eventually, commenters convinced the person who shared the job description to reveal what company it came from.

The Redditor was hesitant to share the company, but eventually they gave in to pressure from commenters. “For everyone asking, the company is called Icon — AI Ad Maker,” they said.

A quick look at the “Careers” page on Icon’s website shows that they do in fact have a job listing for a founding engineer. Interestingly, some of the wording in the job description, which is basically a list of the company’s “values,” has changed some. This could be because they realized it was ridiculous, or word could have gotten back to them that people were making fun of them in a post on Reddit that currently has 11,000 upvotes.

For example, now the description reads, “We work on weekends and at night if needed. It’s okay to send messages at 3 a.m. We do whatever it takes to win (not because we have to, but because we want to).” Most of the remainder of the description is almost identical. They also stated, “Our culture would make 99.99% of people go crazy.” Some of the specific jobs they have listed, like software engineer intern, suggest that applicants should be willing to drop out of school to do the work.

: Career Expert Says It’s ‘Cruel’ To Pretend Middle-Class Kids Can Afford To Pursue Certain Jobs

This would be a toxic workplace, to say the very least.

It sounds like most Reddit commenters couldn’t even begin to imagine working somewhere with this kind of culture. One said, “This is the type of job that causes burnout in less than six months.” That person couldn’t be more right. These jobs are basically designed to lead to burnout.

Nataliya Vaitkevich | Pexels

Describing causes of work burnout, the Mayo Clinic said, “Maybe your job is boring. Or it’s so busy you can’t keep up with the demands. In these situations, you need a lot of energy to stay focused. This can lead to fatigue and job burnout.”

No one could accuse this job of being boring, but it could certainly be described as demanding. This is a quick way to burn out employees. Then they won’t have any A-players left to choose from.

: After 39 Rounds Of 1-On-1 Interviews, Former Investment Banker Reveals The One Humble Question That Finally Landed Him The Job

Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.