I (22F) just graduated in May and I moved across the country for a new corporate job in finance. This is my first corporate job and I feel very out of place especially with my manager.
To preface I work hybrid and I’m expected to come into work about 2-3 times a week but most everyone either doesn’t come in or comes in on Wednesdays only.
The first time meeting my manager, let’s call him kevin, was a one on one where I was expecting to be through teams but he surprised me by being at the office that day and we spent about 10 minutes talking about who the CEO and CFO were at our our company to which he followed the talk with asking me why I wasn’t taking notes and passive aggressively stating that he would quiz me on this information later.
Then the next 50 minutes he talked to me about his observations on my character and he went on to tell me that I need to start making better eye contact and being more present. He said it makes me look like I’m not paying attention to him and that I should work on becoming more extroverted. He encouraged me to come into the office as much as possible. I felt put down at that moment because it seemed like he made his decision about me within the first few minutes of meeting. I felt like he was picking at my insecurities because these are things I’ve been insecure about my whole life.
He finished the conversation by saying he would pay attention to my eye contact moving forward and that I need to turn my camera on for all of our teams meetings. I felt carefully watched by him from that point on.
I don’t report to him daily but he is basically the manager of my manager let’s call her Betsy. Fast forward to this weekend I had flown back home to see my family over the weekend and was planning on working remotely Monday, then flying back here that night but my flight got cancelled and moved to the next night. I did not originally tell my managers I would be in another state since most everyone works from home on Mondays and Fridays so I figured it would be fine. Since I wasn’t able to come into the office on Tuesday I let my manager know on teams that I would be working remotely and why. He responded by saying okay and thank you for letting me know but he proceeded to tell my main manager below him (Betsy) that she needs to talk to me about my attendance and transparency.
During our 1:1 teams meeting Betsy told me it was very disrespectful and unprofessional and it made her look bad to not know where I was working from on Monday and Tuesday. She said that although this job is hybrid I am expected to work remotely within the same area of our office in case “something were to go wrong” where I would need to go into the office like for wifi issues or something. I found it a little weird considering half our team is fully remote including herself because they all live in different parts of the country. And every time I’m in the office I’m the only one there.
I apologized profusely and she seemed to accept my apology but I can’t help but think that I’m being treated unfairly compared to my coworkers and anyone else in my position. I feel like Kevin has had an issue with me from the start and I don’t know what to do. I’m only on month two and I think I’ve lost Betsy’s trust as she has just to added an additional one on one meeting for us so now we have two meetings a week which I feel like is to keep better tabs on me. This sucks because I really like Betsy and I never wanted her to see me the way Kevin does. Any advice on how I can move forward from this situation?