My boss makes me sit on zoom or phone with them to hear them rant. And they do this for an hour and then work comes out of it. And a lot of times makes me write their emails as they dictate them in THEIR CAR.
I’ve confronted him about not having enough social space and he’s threatened me with not helping me with tasks that are huge projects (which I in fact would like to do independently, but its huge projects that I can mess up if it’s independently)
They also hugely micromanage. While I’m ok with reading my emails to them (sometimes I ask), but they also want me to do it constantly rather than me being independent. I will make small mistakes here and there, but it’s like things I can learn along the way of me working—however they will get mad/yell at me saying “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT”, as if I didn’t have a reason. And they will speak to me like this in front of the interns who I’m supposed to manage.
I used to be very motivated and in my first year of working, I’d do overtime all the time (7 am to 5/6 pm) to accommodate their crazy life. I wouldn’t get paid my time and a half for awhile either.
They also come to work extremely late (like a half hour to almost two hours late) and leaves like 4 hours after because of home life commitments/kids. People always say it must be cool to have my boss never here (and hates that they get that privilege cause none of us get to be remote, leave early when we want to).
I’ve been able to argue for early time schedule to leave during when everyone else is on break and got that for my department (I’m the ONLY f/t employee in my department so I basically act like an assistant for my boss). We don’t get christmas break or any sort of 1 week break. The most we’ve gotten is a two day break which I should be grateful for… but everyone else I know in their office jobs gets at least Christmas break if not, a 1-2 week break with summer fridays.
My issue is that, when they want to finish a project, they will make me stay up till the last minute and make me do it with him—sometimes even past my time. There was once a schedule half day (counts as my scheduled PTO days) and I stayed well over 6.5 hours that day and they kept yelling at me. They wanted me to hunt people down who were LEAVING on their half day to get information/process something… while I was stuck there the whole day and overtime with no apology. No one has ever called him out for making me stay overtime and they have even reasoned with the person in my previous position would “do it all the time” which didn’t sound true. Sounded like they came later than me (9/10) and stayed till 6 or 7. There is a high turnover rate in my position if what I have said has not made this clear 🥲
While I understand we have to be collaborative to do these projects, there’s no sense of my time, but his time trumps everything. I have to stay with them to do the most smallest things, as simple as me writing down every word they say on to our project file.
And when they want to work like this, I have to be on with them THE WHOLE TIME, not even time for a break. I’ve complained about this and they blame me for not taking my break.
While it might be my fault, the reason why is because they make me stay over my time if I end up taking my break. The job isn’t done and everything becomes do or die with them.
I think that also, a lot of how I’ve been emotionally reacting to this has been used against me. For one whole year, I stayed silent, not said a bad word and never said anything bad about anyone even my boss. I’ve cried in front of my boss (after starting my second year), explaining I have a mental disability (adhd/processing delay) as well. I’ve ranted to coworkers and even my interns (as they see how the boss treats me). — while I know this is unprofessional and not something you should do, I think it proves a point of burn out when I’m going against my own profession morals?
I also try to make sure the interns are protected from this or at least feel appreciated from my side. They also feel annoyed when my boss keep’s constantly asking them to get their lunch/pick up their lunch. My boss does it to me too
Some parts of me feels like I’m just a bad worker because I’ve lost all motivation to continue on our projects.
I’ve also had similar issues in the past during my grad schooling because I’m also not much of a leader/conceptual person (but a technical, do enough to get the job done) type but the person/collaborator would get angry with me because I ask for clear instructions on what they want while I input my opinions—I’m not working with clients but where I am is in my grad school is supposed to be collaborative. I’m learning more on how to be a better detailed person, but I feel like when I get inspired or try to enact on my ideas, they get shot down or I get yelled at for “not listening to them”. It’s weird because it feels like i’m being yelled at left and right by people for either small mistakes or for things not even my fault—everything is also overtaken by my people pleasing tendencies and sometimes I will look angry and annoyed. I’m so used to people taking over projects I’m on that’s supposed to be collaborative. I just feel at a loss and really depressed, I don’t feel like I have a vision of projects I want to do. Not sure where to go to from here.
Tldr; toxic elusive but micromanage-y boss, and mental health issues surrounding work/schooling. i hate work.. or just the system.