I have a boss who has been bullying the entire team since the day he started. Just very unapproachable, doesn’t accept anything other than “yes sir! Your ideas are flawless and make perfect sense!” Otherwise they get crazy aggressive and defensive.
Anyhow, they didn’t care much for me since I’ve been here a long time and I guess maybe they feel threatened. They gave me bad reviews, and started down the “getting a paper trail to put him on a PIP” tactic.
I’ve been a manager and I know all the signs and tactics leadership use. Though I’ve never weaponized a PIP just to get rid of someone I didn’t care for.
Anyhow—-I set a meeting with my bosses director. And I sat down and told him the situation. I kept it nice and short and I also have specific examples with dates, and told him I have emails. Screenshots (from our msoft teams messenger) -/dates and time stamps of events.
I also , most importantly, pointed to the company wide data that shows my performance and not only is it not “under performing” but I’m exceeding my goals by a significant amount , especially relative to my team.
I told him “if my boss, or this leadership chain doesn’t value what I bring to the table or doesn’t want me here for whatever reason, then instead of making up false accusations of underperformance that are verifiably untrue, offer me a severance package. I’ll transition my workload to whoever you want and you can cut me loose.”
And even though I’m 100% in the right and this boss is unethical in their behavior, the reality is, I’m the low man on the totem pole and the easiest one to get rid of to make the problem go away.
They haven’t made a decision yet. They said they had to go back to my boss and bring up this issue ——but I went in fully expecting to get fired for speaking out and standing up for myself.
And ultimately, I don’t regret it. I’d rather leave an extremely toxic environment than just try to play the game of trying to survive and suck up being bullied on a daily basis .