I work for a small company (total of 9 FT employees). After our manager (who handled all scheduling, finances, payroll, proposals, ran the entire thing) left in March, we struggled through and came out alright. When the owner fired my manager (who handled half of the consulting business) and promptly left on a three week consult that was time zones away, I made it work (barely). You'll see a theme.
When our old manager decided that they wanted their job back and came back four months ago? We are scared. Since this person (now the General Manager, GM) has returned, we have fired two people and three have quit. Replacements have been hired, of course, but no one knows how long they've got. The boss/owner of the company will do whatever the GM dictates, and we don't have any written policies to back us up. Part of my job is to run meetings for clients on their sites, including presentations and exercises on what to do in the event of various emergencies. I was informed today, when I am not even working due to an emergency, that I have never and will never be allowed to run these exercises ever, since I don't know what I am doing. I have been running these for 6 months. In the last month, I have been reprimanded for: talking to my coworker (about work), asking someone to help me rewrite a policy that I do not understand, making my own meetings with a client while I was on site with that client, helping my coworker use a new computer program, and doing “secret projects” by coming in after hours to get a document for a coworker that I had since I was in the field all week (and not charging the time for it since it took five minutes and was on my way home from the gym). My recent favorite is that I was reprimanded for planning activities for the holiday party, something I have done for the last two years. I should have known that “we aren't doing activities this year” and I guess we're all just going to be trapped in a room for four hours with each other and nothing to do. It's such a small company that we really can't just leave the party without being noticed 🙂
I used to respect my boss/owner of the company. They're very book-smart, good with talking to clients, and generally answer questions (no matter how dumb my questions might be). Now though, anything I go to them with is “well, what did the GM say?”. The GM, mind you, has no experience doing any consulting in this field. Every time we get pulled into 1:1 meetings, no one knows if they are immediately getting fired. Due to the state I live in and the fact that we are strongly encouraged not to unionize, employment is at-will and means that we can quit or be fired at any time for any reason, or no reason.
I have decided to give myself a gift this year and quit. I have applications in for new jobs and my partner has a job with salary that can support us both for a bit. It gives me time to finish up current projects for my clients (who I genuinely like) and I can take some time to travel to see my family over the holidays without being texted/called/emailed about work.