The backstory for this is really complicated, so I’m just going to try and sum it up in bullet points:
-I work for a small business.
-I am largely the only person in the company who deals with visual media (product photos, website designs, logos, etc.). My boss and coworker do small things here and there, but it’s mainly me.
-The company has been letting AI take over my job more and more, and that has raised the expectation for my pace to ungodly levels. I have been working through lunch periods and staying after to try and make up the time.
-The company has been trying to automate everything I do, but they keep messing it up and I have to clean up the aftermath of those mistakes.
-We are currently in the midst of a huge project that takes my attention away from everything else.
-My boss is incredibly lenient, but his boss is not.
-I listen to things on my phone in the background while I work. My boss knows and has never told me to stop, but he did warn me “not to let others see”.
-On friday, I was called in to HR and told I wasn’t working fast enough and showed me backburner projects my boss told me not to work on as proof. I explained this and was sent on my way.
So, from there, apparently the HR meeting made someone or another keep a closer eye on me, because all of a sudden in the last two days someone kept a detailed list of how many times I was caught using my phone. Sometimes what I listen to in the background is essay videos on yt or audio from shows, so they reported each time as me watching videos on my phone. I guess that list was given to HR and they made me sign a warning and go home early. And I can only assume my direct boss hasn’t said anything at all, because he told me yesterday I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
I can’t tell if it’s sincerely my fault, or whoever else’s it might be. I love this job, but for the past week or so (ever since that big project started), it hasn’t loved me back, and it could cost me any future I have in it.