For some small bit of context, I work for a very large, very well known company in my state. This company is one of the top tech employers in my state and is also very, very well known for how poorly it treats its employees.
I'm hoping this is the right subreddit to put this, because I need some place that isn't my friends and family to bounce what's going on with me. I'm mad because I fell for the, “if you just work really hard, the company will repay you” line. I gave them so much of myself. I've only taken one vacation, but insisted I would be on my phone should they need me.
I started working for said company a few years before the pandemic and there were issues from the get-go. Although my coworkers never expressed negativity, for some reason, my boss was convinced I was the worst worker, lazy, and incompetent. Behind my back, he said people should not work with me because I didn't know what I was talking about. I never heard about this–to my face, he insisted I should work hard and grow with the company because I had potential.
So I did. I worked as hard as I could to change and grow within what the company wanted. I was denied promotion year after year, even though there's a “timeline” for promotions within the company and I met all the requirements to be promoted. There was always an excuse (read: my company, I would soon learn, really, really hates women and anyone who presents feminine). I thought maybe I just wasn't good enough.
I hit a boiling point during the pandemic. The company refused to give us our yearly raises because times were hard, and as many companies, pulled the “we, the millionaires you slave for, had to give money out of our pocket for you all!” Layoffs were common. I somehow survived and I thought I was lucky. I kept at it and got onto a project I really wanted to be on and worked 24-hour weekends to maintain it. Even though it could be done remotely in ten or fifteen minutes, we were told we had to be in the office by the manager. The manager would then leave after three hours to go home for family time–note, the couple of us working these 12-hour days on the weekends also had families and were denied to see them.
Eventually, there was a department wide meeting and I spoke out. I was angry and maybe I should've sat back and let it fix itself, but I didn't care anymore. What did I have to lose? The mistreatment due to discrimination of an aging management? I'm lucky enough to have family I can fall back on, and even luckier they supported me. So I took my shot. I told them what the issues were, how management deliver antiquated practices. I made a scene. I also got a lot of thank yous from my coworkers in private, who wanted to speak up but couldn't. They're good people, and none of them deserve what the company did.
Nothing really happened to me; I had a great director at the time who believed in me, my work ethic, and thought I would be able to help push the company in the right direction. Unfortunately, he left, and in his place was a man that was angry I did not feel in debt to him for being hired. He cornered me in a window-less meeting room and told me I was unqualified, I would never have a chance, and the promotion I was finally getting would not be given.
It seems he's made good on his threats, as my yearly review came back poorly and I'm being put on an improvement track. In it, my very character was attacked, as well as some behaviors (more quirks, and certainly not anything against company policy) that are due to some mental disabilities I have. I am beyond angry, though I knew it was coming. I fully planned to sacrifice myself on my one chance to speak up and speak out. I don't regret a single thing. I will never regret standing up for people that could not speak out themselves. And as a whole, some things have gotten better for my words! But not enough.
I'm on a timeline to find a new income source, but I plan to go out in style. Remember how I mentioned my boss used to talk about how I knew nothing? I worked ridiculously hard and became the expert in most areas my department dealt with. I also wrote all the documentation for them. Some documentation has to stay up to protect one of my coworkers, but the rest? But since I'm just a no good, lazy worker, it shouldn't really matter.
In the end, I really wish there was something more I could do. There's so many small, illegal practices this company does daily–but they're so good about who they do certain things to, it's almost impossible to get proof. I cannot wait to be done with this company.