Basically the title. This summer I started working at a small company in the US because I thought a smaller company would treat me better. I told one of my coworkers I was getting my PhD applications together. I kind of took this job right out of college because I wanted to see how I felt about a 9-5 before committing to grad school.
The other day my boss calls me into his office and said he heard from someone in the office that I was applying to other jobs and leaving early to apply to other jobs. This isn’t true, I am applying to grad school and didn’t know that wasn’t allowed. He said this isn’t something I can just do in the meantime and I need to consider a 3-4 year commitment to the company. He said I’m making the company waste money to train me. This isn’t in my contract at all and I didn’t know this upon accepting the position. He kept talking to me condescendingly and telling me that “I know PhD programs are hard, right?” (I graduated from a top universities in the US with a great GPA, he knows this…).
When I came back the next day I lied and told my boss I would stay at the company (but obviously I am still applying to grad school and planning to leave when I get accepted).
My boss also told me I will not be moving up in the company for awhile now because of this, even though I have been one of the best performing employees so far on all of our work reporting metrics. I’m so mad my coworker went behind my back and told my boss this. I feel betrayed, especially given most employees I talk to at my company are considering graduate school.
I’m just trying to keep my head down and collect checks for as long as possible until I go back to school. Is there anything else I should be doing?