Question: What were some “red flags” new hires shouldn't ignore when starting a new job?

Let’s see:

1. Your boss or the person who hires you, is gone within day, weeks or months of your being hired - I have worked at three locations that this occurred and all three are now closed and have been for many years.
2. You are told that you need to “work faster” within hours of starting - The idea of a “training period” is to acclimate you to the job and to assess over that time period whether or not you can perform the job. Any complaints about your performance within the first few hours or days (assuming that you just aren’t sitting around doing nothing) is a sign of a bad place to work.
3. Your new co-workers disparaging the place on your first day - If long-term employees do not have anything good to say about their workplace, then that should give you an idea about what the future holds for you.
4. ANY comments from supervision about the frequency that you use the restroom - Assuming that you don’t take hourly breaks to use your cellphone in the restroom, there should be no comments about your use of the restroom during your work hours. If there are, then you need to find other employment.
5. If you are spoken to in an angry voice or yelled at within hours or days of starting your job - ALWAYS a bad sign. It’s an attempt to test you and determine if you’ll tolerate the bullying that is likely commonplace in that workplace. Unless you do something dangerously unsafe, or they are trying to give you a warning about a dangerous situation, then it’s a terrible job and you need to make some hard decisions.
6. Your immediate supervisor is curt or short with you as soon as you start - They are responsible for your being hired and their being rude to you shortly after you have been hired is indicator that this going to be a terrible workplace.
7. If you are instructed perform unsafe or even dangerous tasks on your first day (or at any point) without proper instruction and adequate personal protective equipment, then you should quit - The company has no interest in your personal safety and they will likely lay the blame on you if you are injured (or even killed) due to a safety-related accident.
8. You are reminded (unnecessarily) of their attendance policy - A company that has a strict attendance policy nearly always has little to offer its employees and it mandates attendance in an effort to maintain control over its disgruntled and disaffected workforce.
9. If you are instructed to lie or deceive a safety inspector or a government agency, then you need to leave - Besides being a reason for immediate termination, it could be a violation of the law. If they are willing to do this, then the company is willing to do ANYTHING.
10. ANY changes in your agreed upon compensation or benefits package without prior notice - If you are told that you are going to be compensated less for ANY reason after you are hired, then you need to decide at that point whether or not you want to remain on the job. Anecdote: I was offered a job at set rate of pay and started work. On the third day, I was called into a meeting with my new manager and Human Resources and was told that the rate of compensation that I had been offered (and had signed a contract stating that I would receive) had been “reviewed” and the decision was made to offer me compensation “more in line” with what existing employees were being paid. I stated that this was unacceptable, and was then told that this would “taken under consideration.” Fortunately for the company, I had a contract offer that I was still mulling over at the time and I wasn’t feeling litigious. I took the few personal items that I had brought with me, home that night and faxed in my resignation the next morning.