I was just about to write a blog post about this when I see this. However I would say three years 2011–2014. The worst years of my life. Mainly because, due to a very hostile working relationship that some of us had with the idiot who was the boss at the branch of the company I was working for, I realized that it was better to leave rather than making a big issue about it. The corporate life had kind of left me bitter at that time so I wanted a change.
I gave my resignation and worked for the 2 months notice that I had to but joined a start up company that the brother of a former colleague of mine was working as the HR/Admin for. I joined them in April of 2011 and a few days realized that I had made a huge mistake. The two men who started the company, a BPO, had no clue what to do and tried to make us do their jobs as well. It was terrible. We had some down time when they ran out of money and then tried to bring us back for another project. In a little over a year I joined another company, desperate as I was running out of money.
That too was a startup but they were better off. Still in about a year they started running into financial issues. Things went from bad to worse as two of the partners left the company putting my boss into trouble. I was soon out of a job (though technically still on their rolls) for many, many months as I did freelance work from home. 10 months I had no pay coming in as well. By the end of 2014 I had attended a few interviews and got selected for my job at my current company.
So those 3 years were the worst of my life. I never want to experience that again. But it is becoming apparent that 7 years here is enough time as well and it is good for me to look out.