So this is a long post and a bit venty but thought this would be an appropriate place for this.
TLDR: In new job for 2 months and have a mental health breakdown personally due to some family issues. Works paid for therapist suggested asking for support in my work as to help me with my mental health issues from resultant family issues. Rang me next day after me asking for support saying they can't support me and fired me instead. But then rescinded the firing to ask me to quit or take a 12k pay cut.
I took a job at a new company a senior role in my field. Similar role to one I had just left and in an area I was extremely experienced with over my last 3 roles, 12 years. Took a pay cut for a period of 3 months which would bump up to where I was. Only difference is they have specific software I'm not used too but software of similar nature so really nothing to cry home about. They knew this when hiring me as well.
I had 3 offers, took this role and started in the new year. I was offered the role last year but due to Christmas and my last roles being extremely hectic and some family stuff planned told em I was only avaialble in Jan.
Started in Jan but had a semi onboarding call in Dec in prep for Jan, at no point through the hiring process or Dec call I was managing staff. Its a senior role and I knew their other staff member in my department was quite junior and expected to manage them somewhat but this was not formally laid out in the spec or contract.
Anyways fast forward to Jan the staff member is off the first week I start and so I end up fully getting in to their work holding the Fort while they were on leave, onboarding with my boss which consisted of show and tells. Anyway lots of projects to pick up and finding out that there are no processes in place and I'm the one going to help with that which is fine and expected. But every project I inherited (6 in total) 3 bad ones when I started with no work done on them for months and as each week went by I'd inherit another after another.
So fast forward to Feb, there's lots going on and new stuff coming in, I'm managing but there is a lot and I'm making mistakes here and there but feel I'm doing a good job. Helped win them new business twice by turning one project around and the other from new business calls I'd been part of. However I'm also managing 2 direct reports. 1 is junior and in my department and is fantastic at their job. I love it and was so excited because if they are a junior I could learn a thing or two from them and they know the business in and out. The other is in another department that really shouldn't be managed be me but I spend some time trying to train them in some areas that cross over to that department to help them get to a good place. If their experience was anything like mine in onboarding they started in Dec so I cut them a little slack.
So the other department staff member is getting lots of complaints from clients and as they are clients I work with in projects it eats into my area and is not proving to be good for our clients and my relationship on these projects (duh). 2 weeks ago I had a family issue that resulted in my mental health deteriorating quite significantly and it impacted me in work, with everything as I've described above and in a new role it was a lot to cope with that and my really bad mental health.
This lead to me calling in sick for a total of 4 days where I lined up a counsellor personally and when I was honest with work about some of what had happened recently and the family issues that had been in the past, they put me in touch with their therapist that they pay for. I come back to work and am dealing, but I'm still suffering, on new medication and my boss is just picking at me on little things, like a handover where he said something needed to be done was done in the wrong way for example. The nitpicking just got worse and I went off again for what has now been 4 days.
My therapist thinks I went back to work too soon and asked for me to talk to my bosses boss about return to work and suggested just lightening my load a little bit and doctors signed me off if I wanted it. I've never done this before and really felt bad about doing it but my therapist said it would be healthy for me to ask for support. We get on the call and it's a bit directionless. I mention a point about lightening my load just for a bit and then I did mention the nitpicking that wasn't massively helpful for me at the moment and that my mental health was just not in a good place, nothing was said about work being the problem it was just I couldn't manage at the moment where my head was at.
He says send me the list of projects and what you want to lighten load wise, I told him I could come back tomorrow and carry on not a problem while you investigate. I come on the next day and no one reaches out to me after me sending the list to them of me asking for 1 project to be taken off me as the relationship is already really bad and there's just no documentation on what there is to do and the only project that my boss is nitpicking about.
I hear nothing. So I reach out again highlighting that as we didn't discuss what I was asking for that I think I should take the 2 weeks signed off from doc (doc says 3 months) and come back in if they can accommodate the request of lightening the load for a period.
They ring me up and fire me. Tell me they can't support me, that they have 4 other people before me do the same thing in the same role no less, that they have to look after my boss and that we can't support you so it's best we end it here. He says I'm great at my job but get your head right and call us when your better!! He tells me to send the laptop back and we're all squared up payment wise and he'll formally send me my termination. Bon Voyage.
I guess I saw it coming as am only 2 months in but it's not like I am taking the piss, I'm asking for support and the bare minimun.
So I fell really down, was already depressed with family stuff and have never felt the lowest in my life. I have also never been fired before so this was a shock and my therapy has opened up a lot of things about me never asking for help and this is something I thought would be good for me mentally. The therapist had a call directly after with me asking what was happening as she hadn't heard from my boss either, to which I told her I was let go and I said obviously they aren't paying me it seems we should end there. She wishes me well and I spent the evening being pampered by the husband.
Today I get an email from him stating now they have had time to think about it they could accomadate my request with two options:
Option 1: Take a 12k pay cut and title change (no information about what changes would be made other than the 1 project I already asked for off my plate)
Option 2: I take my 3 months from the docs and come back full time after 3 months.
I'm just lost for words honestly. It's such a shitty thing to do and I would have been great there but man what annoys me is how many people have had to endure this type of shit. People who have 0 support I'm so lucky to have my husband because honestly I could have killed myself. It's just nuts! I just want a good employer. Its just too much to ask!!