Throwaway because i don't want this connected to my main. I've been working at a water filtration plant for the last two, almost three years. I live in a state where there is a shortage of operators so jobs are plentiful however, pay/benefits are the part of the problem as to why these positions aren't being filled.
I am still in training to get my licence, but my boss saw some initiative in me and started grooming me for a leadership position. When I say grooming, he would trust me with certain tasks he wouldn't other fully certified operators. I was also allowed to sit in on some managers meetings (wasn't allowed to talk or give input, only allowed to listen and absorb). At the same time, he recommended that i take a look around and apply to other places so i could leave whenever i felt ready to. He had done this as well and has a part time job making more money at another plant. I applied for a position at a plant a in another city with 5$ extra over what I'm currently making as a trainee and interviewed for it. I figured the interview went well.
It didn't.
A month or so later, i get told that in a meeting between the two cities (discussing joint infrastructure issues), in a way to disguise what shady shit the other city was doing, their plant manager (the person i interviewed with), told my plant superintendent that not only did i apply for a job over there, but also that I gave away operational information about my plant in my interview and that he had absolutely no intent on hiring me.
Now I am not in trouble because i am within my right to field interviews, he has no issue with that. But i am now no longer being groomed for that leadership position per the plant superintendent. He told my manager, to stop all training. I'm no longer allowed to sit in on meetings and anytime operational information is brought up, i am immediately told to leave the room like a child “just in case there was some truth to what someone 40 years my seniority said”. I'm devastated because it feels like now my career that i actually enjoyed is at a standstill all because someone used me as a deflection to their own dirty deeds.