English is not my first language and writing is not my strength, but I want to share my story.
So before I start I want to share that I live in Eastern European country and things here are awful in almost every aspect.
So tomorrow I mark exactly 1 year since I started my current job(PPC Specialist, mainly Facebook and Google Ads). Before that I had 2 jobs that were terrible and in the second I was fired, because I opposed my boss. He wanted to fine me 3 times for mistakes he made, but I got screenshots that it was not my fault. Also I figured out that I was the only one getting pay in my team and the other 2 people never got any money. So I confronted my boss and was fired. The 1st one was terrible again because my boss had OCD and let it affect everyone so we needed to double or triple check things. Also I was massively underpaid.
In my current job everything was awsome. I made great friends with some of my coworkers and my teamleader I even invited a friend to work with us. I become important part of the company and was soon to have my own team. Also I was one of the two top performers in terms of sales and recently I started to make more than 50% of all sales(mind you we are team of 7 PPC experts and I was making more than the other 6 combined).
When I started I stated that I have a jewelry business and also run ads for my own clients and the boss didn't have a problem. Also I run ads in my country and in my job we run ads in other European countries. Recently we are merging with another company which bosses also have a part in our company, but we will merge after 31st December.
Saturday I posted in a Facebook group for online business that I offer to run ads for small businesses in my country. On Monday my boss with one of the new bosses invited me to a meeting. They said that they want me to delete my website and Facebook post. And that they contemplated to fire me. We managed to agree that I would not run ads to our direct competitors(which I have not and would never do, because I genuinely cared about my job). But they still insisted to delete my website and facebook post, which i did. The new boss had concerns that me working on my own clients will mean that one day I will have so much success that I will leave their company. The said that they don't want me to work for my clients(I need to say that currently I have 0, but they dont know that and based on my results in the job they think I have many) during work hours, which I never did and also I was working extra hours for my job at home. I work extra 10 hours a week after work and on weekends(here we are not paid hourly but montly so this is unpaid work).
I felt betrayed because in the beginning we agreed that there was no problem for me to run ads for my own clients. Also that I have worked many hours after work and on the weekends.
I know they can't fire me because I make more than 50% of the sales and firing me is like shooting yourself in the leg, because probably noone can do what I do.
But what should I do? I tought about leaving but I stayed because my friend and the team leader(the support I got from him was amazing). He encouraged me to continue with what I was doing and even had meetings with one of the bosses and defended me. Also my friend is just 4 months in this field and he will be put in tough situation, because if he leaves with me he would probably not find job.
I contacted some other jobs, but probably will not leave, because I want to leave exactly the way my boss is afraid to, by having success with my side hustle.
It's a long post but that's how things are in my country.
Sorry for any grammar errors.