I've worked at the local uni for over 14 years now. I started as a casual temp in my early twenties and have moved up, being reclassified into higher positions every couple of years because of my diligent work, dedication to our research, and going above and beyond my official responsibilities on a daily basis. I truly believe in the goals of the University, both in research and education, and I used to tell people I would be staying here until I retired.
We had a meeting about a year ago, during which we were told we really needed to do a better job of passing information, challenges, and issues up to leadership so they could help. During this meeting I asked how come the things we do pass along get no action, and proceeded to describe an issue we had been fighting with for years. Apparently the associate vice president I work for had never once mentioned it to the executive vice president. He had never heard of the issue at all.
Since then, the AVP cancelled all of my projects, strong armed me into taking a lateral move with the threat of RIF (reduction in force, essentially a layoff.) He moved me to be directly under him to write me up for one of the world's pettiest reasons: my car broke down, yes, clearly a personal failing, and then moved me back under someone else under him so any attempt to follow the official grievance policy would be me writing a letter to him. He tried to include things in my performance review that did not belong there in order to claim I needed improvement, which I refused to agree to, and required an extensive rewrite of the review (resulting in an outstanding review because I had the guts to stand up for myself.) Today I had to literally take a picture of myself standing in one of our offices holding a piece of paper w/ the date on it to prove I was on campus.
The pay isn't great, but the benefits are okay, and I've always taken pride in working somewhere that I really believe in the mission. It's just becoming too toxic for me to stay. My anxiety and depression have been growing relentlessly.
I applied for a position at a company last week on a whim, same pay but looks like half the responsibilities. I was just feeling trapped and needed to feel like I would have options when he eventually finds a way to dumpster me. Now this company's recruiters are chatting me up, and I genuinely feel like I might want to take the job. I feel terrible, I never wanted to leave, but this is the position they have pushed me into. If this company offers me a position and I take it, I don't think I'll give any notice. I hate to do wrong by the uni, which I love, but I'm not interested in doing anything for his sake. He doesn't understand half the things I do, it'll be a real mess.
Anyways, just a rant. Thx for reading.