Hi all,
I have a tricky situation I’m dealing with and needing some advice.
I have a boss that I have worked for for 4 years. I worked as a nanny for them for one year, the rest of my time has been spent as an admin for their small business.
Communication and expectations have always been bad- my boss doesn’t communicate well with me and hasn’t set up really any employee infrastructure for me apart from my pay. I’ve been asking him for over a year to please communicate better and asked if we could write up some official employee documentation. This has so far been ignored/brushed off.
I recently made a small mistake at work and my boss completely freaked out. He was saying I could lose my job and he could lose his job too because I missed an email. For reference, he has a client that is constantly screwing up and missing deadlines but they are given a pass because he is hyper afraid of losing them.
We just had an incident where someone didn’t forward a client request for over three months. This happens constantly.
I understand his worry and I tried to convey how serious I knew it was. I also tried to explain my struggles with communication and lack of direction. He again completely freaked out, started guilt tripping and has decided I should be “disciplined “.
I feel hurt and betrayed. What’s worse is he had never taken the necessary steps to make my work environment professional. Everything has been super casual and unorganized. I still babysit his kids and get paid under the table and I’m constantly straddling a line between being his friend and employee. I still use my personal phone for work stuff because I got tired of asking for a work phone for almost three years.
Yet when I come to him with concerns, suddenly everything needs to be professional and I’m out of line.
I don’t think I’ll actually be fired, but I feel so disrespected and hurt by this. And it feels so unfair. I’ve made exactly two small mistakes in 4 years of employment and have worked so hard. I have ADHD and anyone who has it knows how difficult that can be.
I can’t outright quit at the moment so I’m constantly feeling stressed.
Has anyone ever dealt with a situation like this?