This past Friday was my last day at my previous job. I'm a nurse. I've worked this job for the last 1.5 years, and since about 2 months into working, I've had a rough relationship with the medical director. Never a bad one, but definitely him being uncomfortable with the experience I have (I've been a nurse for 8 years). He'd prefer me to keep my mouth closed and say nothing, because every time I would try and assert my experience or advocate on behalf of the patient, he would take it personally and act as if I'm trying to tell him how to practice medicine, which was not true at all. I would very calmly and professionally advocate on behalf of the patient. Whatever level of risk he'd take, I'd support. He's a doctor. It's his license. But it's my literal job to try and give the most accurate depiction of a patient's status at that current time. He would shoot back with personal insults, saying I'm a black cloud, I'm mean, rude, etc.
This all got to the point where I stopped talking all together. I'd purposely hold my tongue to avoid conflict, because no matter what approach I took, he still would find reasons to try and chip away at my confidence when it came to patient care. So, I stopped talking. You can't do that with patient care. You have to speak up. It got to the point where another doctor in the clinic felt obligated to apologize on his behalf, because she said I did nothing wrong, I'm doing what I'm supposed to. The MD just has “a lot on his plate.” I called bs on that.
Long story short, it started to impact how I would act at home. I'd shut down and barely talk to my fiance. Finally gathered enough courage to quit. MD was furious. Both he and my manager started screaming at me why did I quit, we would have worked something out, etc.
MD asks me to come talk to him privately on my last day right before I left. He tells me that while he thinks I'm a good nurse, he believes that I have an attitude problem, and that I'm too short tempered. If I ever want to become part of leadership, that's not a good trait to have. I have never had a single issue with anyone in the office. Never refused to work with someone, never complained, always an open to diplomacy. At that point I'd had enough. It's my last day, and he had to insult me one final time before I left. I asked him, “Did you just bring me in here to insult me?” He immediately stuttered, and then dropped it all together. Asked me if I had anything else to say, to which I remained professional and said thank you for the opportunity to work here, and that I appreciated it.
Don't ever work somewhere that makes you question who you are. If you are confident, assertive, and self-secure, then somewhere along the line you start questioning where or not any of that is true, quit. Figure something else out. No job is worth destroying your mental health.