Tldr: Outside candidate hired despite the concerns I raised and now the company is losing my knowledge, plus I'm getting a 25% raise to do less work for a new company.
Recently, my director passed away unexpectedly from covid. We were a two person department. Just my boss and me. He passed and I took on all the responsibilities for the entire department. The VP and I worked together but I did all the heavy lifting. She was there to advise me as needed, her decision. I later found out she wanted to see how I would handle it. The director job got posted and I expressed my interest. She said she would keep me in mind. I also said I understand i wasn't as experienced and would work with a new director if she felt we needed an experienced one.
Fast forward a month and I was asked to interview the candidate. Being diligent and thorough, I researched this person and found connections we shared on LinkedIn. I spoke to her former manager, who is something of a mentor to me, and multiple former coworkers. All bad reviews. The candidate once had to be physically restrained from assaulting a coworker. That coworker would ultimately go on to be the chief of staff for the CEO of that fortune 500 company, meaning the coworker was very very well respected by many throughout the organization. No one would have described the coworker as “aggressive.” My mentor also told me, “if that candidate is hired, one of the two of you won't be there in two years.”
I brought all this to my VP's attention after I interviewed the candidate. The VP got visibly angry and told me I had no right to speak to former coworkers of the candidate. The VP said, “I can gain all the knowledge I need from interviews and from the candidate's references. Plus you put me in a tough spot of choosing the candidate or you. I don't appreciate you forcing me to choose.” I backed off because I like being employed while searching for jobs just because it's easier.
As you might expect, we hired the candidate and they are awful to work for. Extreme micromanagement, demands of efficiency from me, requires me to be available when she needs a report or something, terrible at managing her own time, consistently misses deadlines she sets for herself for items i need from her, which results in me being forced to rush and work longer hours to get things done to meet my deadlines. Plus a different director left and I picked up the slack on most of the things that the director's department used to do. I am the only one in the department who knows how to do numerous monthly required tasks. I asked to train a backup and was told, “no one has the technical knowledge you do, but we'll hire someone to back you when the pandemic is over.”
I was recruited to interview for a job in my field at another, similar organization, and within a week they gave me an offer at a starting salary 25% higher than my current salary and told me i wouldn't have to do all the extra work I do at my current job. I'll be able to focus on the work I love doing the most. I gladly accepted. After handing in my notice, the VP and the director won't stop emailing me and texting trying to entice me to stay. They are offering to, “get close to” the rate I'l accepted to start at the new company. They won't even match it, just try to get close to it. I would also have to agree to stay based on the good faith of them getting an offer approved by the CFO. I don't even know what the offer would be, since they won't tell me until i agree to stay. It's kind of sad to see how out of touch these people are. I haven't felt this good since before my old director passed away. I can't wait to start the new job.