TL;DR: MY supervisor is passive aggressive and makes me feel targeted, but I'm hesitant to reach out to HR because I look like a bad employee on paper.
Hi everyone!
Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm looking for advice if I should reach out to HR, or if I'm a lost cause. I've been with my current employer for 3 years, and I've moved up 3 times to different positions, and had 5 total supervisors (some were due to staffing changes and one was a training supervisor). I currently work from home and have worked from home since I've started with the company.
Up until now, my supervisors have been amazing. I felt supported and eager to do my best. I started in my most recent position a year ago, and obtained my supervisor in January of this year.
I have my faults. I dug myself into a whole this year with unscheduled PTO. Now unscheduled PTO is unscheduled PTO, but I've always been transparent and kept my supervisor in the loop on what's going on. My “away” or “personal time” is also on the higher end if I'm feeling sick that day and need some extra time in the bathroom, or something happens with my cat. Same thing though, I always let my supervisor know and I'm very forthcoming with the info.
Over the last 9 months, our supervisor/employee relationship has gone from lighthearted and polite, to short and passive aggressive (on both sides…I'll admit I can be snappy when I get attitude from her).
On paper, I currently look like a horrible employee. I've got (to my knowledge) two active Corrective Action notices and I believe a write up on my PTO. I own up to this as it is my fault and I'm taking action to correct this as much as I can (my PTO is still in the negative (not as bad) but I can't work if I'm sick). In the three years I've been here, I've had NOTHING on my record with the company until I started under this supervisor (even in this current position when I had a training supervisor for 3 months). The only thing I have going for me is my customer service scores and surveys are the highest on my team, and my calls overall are amazing. It's probably why I haven't been fired.
My supervisor had been less that willing to assist me with escalations on customers, or needing assistance with a problem I need to work through. I have a lead that's truly amazing and does what she can to help (she's new to the position…and she's the second one we've gone through in less than 6 months), but some things just require a supervisor.
I've had escalation requests that have been met with long winded email responses from her basically stating that we can't do anything and for me to report back to the customer….9/10 times, I've already explained this to said customer but they don't want to hear it from me, they want to hear it from a lead or higher. Most recently, I had another supervisor (who helps me more than my own) tell me to reach out to my lead and supervisor for an escalation. I did what I was told, sent the email and was told by MY supervisor, that they don't agree this should be an escalation (at the end of the email she literally said “I don't think I need to speak with the customer”). They also asked me questions that were answered in my original email and in my case notes, which leads me to believe they didn't actually read the whole thing or check over my work.
I'm also met with passive responses from her when I have issues with my work computer or our call handling program. If I'm the only one with an audio or server issue, I'm playing 20 questions with her over our teams chat in group text messages. It's not until other people start reporting the same issues that I'm met with an actual solution or guidance on what they would like me to do.
I've tried to just keep my head down, do my work and clock out. I've tried to just brush off her rudeness and move on, but I'm getting more and more miserable here. I love my coworkers, customers and the job I do but I'm actively looking for other companies just to get away from her. I can't even switch positions in this company until my Corrective Actions have been lifted.
We've had so much turnaround on our team with coworkers moving to different teams or leaving alltogether, that it makes me wonder if she's this way with others in private, not just me (I'm too chicken to reach out for fear it'll get back to her).
My interactions with her make me feel like she wants me gone but she hasn't fired me. I dread having to reach out to her for ANYTHING, and it's gotten to the point that I won't email her or message her about most things without including my lead or another supervisor in the conversation, just to know someone else can witness it if she's horrible. Just the other day I reached out about a problem with my work issued headset cutting in and out or having “dead air”. Her response was to keep her posted. I had swapped to my gaming headset and no issues, so I asked her about ordering a new one. She said she ordered a new one for me, but then asked me to switch to remote (to take calls on my cell phone instead) and use the same, broken headset because its a call issue….when I brought up that I believe it's my headset since my personal one was working, she still wanted me to switch to remote and use the broken one….so im dealing with choppy audio both sides of the call (if I can even hear them) until the new one comes in.
I don't know if it's worth reaching out to HR about her behavior or even WHAT to say if I did, because of how I'm painted as an employee within the last year. Any advice is appreciated!