Longtime lurker, on mobile, etc…
This is a long story but I'm going to give all context, tldr at the bottom. All names are changed.
Recently I worked at Wag! Corporate as a Safety and Compliance specialist. I worked there for three years and was the most tenured specialist with the most knowledge of our lost dog protocols (yes, stuff was done on Wags end when the IC lost the dog, or however it happened). I was also the one specialist who had worked weekends, with only one other for two years, so I was used to being alone with no leadership. A new policy was put into place where a specialist had to be assigned ANY ticket (didn't matter if it was a live issue or related to an existing case the specialist owned).
I told all my immediate leadership that I was not happy, I offered an alternative (assign new cases but if it's existing or live the specialist can take it) and let them know that I was going to comply to the letter. They knew. Well they said that a member of leadership would always be in if a specialist was, sure enough one Sunday there's no leadership in and some live (non urgent, yes I checked) cases came in. After some time a sighting for a recent lost dog had just come in so I was following up on that immediately and at the same time a non-direct member of leadership, John came on and asked me to take the tickets. I reminded him of the of the policy.
During these two events another, direct, member of leadership, Sally came in and started asking me about a different case. Here I will admit that I did not handle the situation to the best of my ability but there is my only excuse, I was handling three conversations at once. John continued to ask me to take them and I let him know that due to the new policy I would not and to my chagrin I did not ask him to assign them to me. Sally quicky assigned them to me and I got to work after finishing the lost dog sighting and let her know everything about my interaction with John.
When my direct superior, Samantha, came in again I immediately told her. She told her superior, assigned me coaching and suggested I should apologize for how I handled the situation. When I knew I could do it without getting emotional (the next available day), I scheduled something with John, spoke on the phone and apologized, he said he understood and everything was fine.
Later that same day, an exec member, Alex, asked me privately for a meeting at the end of my shift. While this has never happened before I had no reason not to join. The first red flag was him asking if I had “21 minutes left of my shift”, the exact time I had left. He was asking what had happened and to explain myself. I told him everything I just told you, except the part where as soon as I was handed the cases I did them. During this meeting the terms and tones he was using started to scare me and I asked if I was being fired.
Alex didn't answer right away so I started panicking, literally. I started shaking, I was sobbing and hiccuping, it was yucky. While I had no camera, I told him I was panicking and sobbing and I'm sure he could hear it as I wasn't trying to hide it. Exactly at the end of my shift, the minute it ended, he let me know he would discuss the situation and get back to me at another time with whether I was or was not fired.
That night, after calming down thanks to my amazing fiance, I wrote an email to HR about what had happened, stating that regardless if Alex could continue a meeting while I was literally panicking and not care at all, I could no longer have ANY meetings alone with him. I let Samantha know the next morning what had happened as well, including the email to HR. Two days later I get an email that they're investigating it, a week later an “it's still on our table” email.
A few days later I suddenly have an email with my manager, Emma, and her manager, Kent. It was insubordination, even though I did the cases, and would receive a final written, even though I never received an initial, and would be on probation for a year, even though no one in leadership had heard of a probation time that long. Then Kent told me to really think if I wanted to be with them….. Ok, fine.
I found a new job in two weeks thanks to a dear friend. I can't tell you how excited I was the final week to be able to quit. I quit on my Friday, so as to give my immediate leadership time to fill the morning time that only I was covering for three hours, two hours after I received the offer call. But what I'm most proud of, was that I told all the specialist why I was suddenly dropping the job like a hot potato. The cherry? It's been two weeks I still have all of their equipment and no one's contacted me to pick it up after I asked them to. How long before I can do what I want with it?
Sorry for the long post, but…. It feels good to get it out and name the company.