Ive been working at a tiny office for roughly 17 months. 15 of those months Ive had a toxic boss. Our personalities just don't mix and from my perspective she's a micromanager, perfectionist, and control freak. I can go on and on with what a crap boss she's been. Although it wasn't this way initially, because of this situation I now feel anxiety about work.
Unfortunately my 1 buffer in the office, our former CEO, resigned in May. He wasn't there much, but at least some times I had someone else there to deflect some of the stress I was starting to feel thanks to her actions towards me. So, we were without a CEO for about 3 months. During that time Id estimate over 95% of my time was with her and I alone which exasperated my frustrations. In my opinion she became more controlling and had a real air of running the show about her since we had no leader.
In July, I'd hurt my finger and it was terribly infected. I went to the ER and the Dr. told me to take 3 days off. I only took 1. When i got back, she told me she tried to access my email but that she didn't have my password and wasn't able to access it. Plus she told me to send her my password. It was to access an email sent to our former CEO, at his request, which wasn't some critical issue. I said that I thought she should have texted to ask me if it were that important. Which it wasn't. Like i felt she would have violated my privacy and would not have told me about it. The funny thing is she had my password. Id never changed it from the original password she set up for me. So she agreed that she could have texted but still reiterated that i had to send her my password.
After that I realized I couldn't trust her. So i found another job in 2 days and submitted my notice. Our board chair made me a counteroffer and I stupidly accepted it. The board chair assures me she won't be my boss in the future once the new CEO starts, but that I couldn't say anything to my ex boss about that until it happened.
So by now it's later July i thought we'd have a new leader by Sept. 1. Unfortunately the search took a bit longer and it wasn't until about Sept. 15 when the new CEO started. Which felt like an eternity.
New CEO starts. It took 9 days for what I was told would be an 'immediate' change. My now ex boss had her 1:1 with our new CEO first. Where she was informed she was no longer my boss. That ex boss then had a 1:1 meeting with me. She knew she wasn't my boss. She knew I didn't know that yet. And she knew I had my meeting scheduled with the new CEO the next day. Ex boss tried to ask what was wrong and I refused to speak with her about it because I was over her BS.
And let me say at this point its almost a full month later than I thought it'd be so I was not in a good place. There had been another weird incident where I realized she'd gone through my desk because she left a post it note on an invoice I was processing. Normally if you do that, you take the folder out so it's obvious and leave it on top of your desk. But she put it back under my other papers. That's when I realized she could be doing that at any time. I stopped writing my notes with work tasks on my desk and started utilizing a notebook I take with me when I leave. So at least my notes are mine.
So here we are and it's late September. I finally have my chance to air my greivances. Im told i don't have her as my boss anymore. Hallelujah. I did say I was ready to move on. New CEO asked if i was looking for another job. I was honest abd said not right then but I was going to. CEO tried to get me to agree to try to work it out that our jobs would be separated. So again I agreed to try. Wrong move.
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