TLDR: complained about fairness issues negatively affecting me at work. Meeting held where higher-up said things that did not align with what he said in the past. Painted me as a poor performer when that message was a surprise to me. My direct supervisor stuck up for me at one point, and then he quit after the meeting.
What a shitshow.
The manager two people over me has done other shady things before, even years ago, causing another friend of mine to feel he had no choice but to quit. He did. There may be others too but I’m not sure about any specifics.
The issue involves me being reassigned (demoted) from one team in the company to another. At the time, years ago, my boss’ boss told me it was by no fault of my own. Now, I’m told years later, after I complained about fairness, that it was due to my performance. That’s called gaslighting imo. There were some other problematic statements made.
My boss’ boss also made an exaggerated list of issues that were never brought up to me before meant to discredit me. He basically took time to hyper scrutinize my work and found details to complain about and paint me as a poor performer. To be fair, some complaints could be seen as legitimate or partially so but I had never been told them before. But also seemed to be new rules and new complaints, if that makes sense. This is the point where my direct supervisor backed me up and called out the higher boss, saying I was not told about these supposed issues before.
We barely even had time to talk about the fairness issues I complained about, it was more them lecturing me.
We have an ethics complaint process I might use. But I also have a meeting they set for this week to talk to all 4 of them again. Maybe they’ll change their tone after the resignation or maybe it won’t phase them. What do I do? Thanks for any advice, I’m kind of spinning over this and it’s causing me stress and making me depressed. I feel I’m being forced out of a career I love, though yeah I can and will look for other outlets. HR was notified when I sent a letter about fairness but did not attend meeting. I’m disgusted and disappointed.