I have been working for a company since 1 year (completed this month only) This is my first job and due to some family circumstances I needed an entirely work from home role hence I agreed to this company even though I had better roles and triple salary being offered elsewhere (that offer obviously expired, last year only)
So now the family restriction or need for stay at home has been lifted so I have been preparing for an exam that would push me alot in my career (happens once a year in Last week of November)
I kept juggling my job and study somehow but wasn't able to contribute at the maximum and the exam is like make or break one so in order to give it my all – I planned to take a month long leave from the end of October to End of November.
Now I have enough earned leaves to take care of that and I wss also willing to forego my salary as paid leave if the management wants – I raised this the month I completed my 1st year (1st Ocotober) so that good 30 days – Management would most likely accept and approve my leave request – But they straightforward denied – I took multiple calls tried raising it thay I'm in no position to work, I gave them mental and physical health reasons as well but my manager is hell bent on absolutely won't letting me have a month long leave – When I persisted – They threatened me with compliance action – still when I didn't budge – They started making a document repository over email and all documents and chats raising fake performance issues every day literally in 10s. Prior to this I was the top performer, I was multiple times told I'll be promoted and moved to Quality check cause I'm doing a great job – now I raise a leave request and they effectively invalidated all my entire year and first job's worth of time, efforts, those nights and everything I pulled during this one year.
I tried reaching out to HR and my manager got pissed why did I bypassed her and then teamed up with MY HR REPRESENTATIVE and threatened me they'll ruin my career with termination and non reference (and it's my first job, 1st year) – The pay is peanuts, I never intended to work here for the life, it was always meant to be a stepping stone but now I'm so much in a pickle – I can't resign, I can't work, I can't take days off, I can't have even a health emergency and my work is purposefully messed up so they have enough documents and emails to justify firing me if I do take leaves without approval. (They are doing so cause prior to this they had no written proof of my work being not up to the mark, infact I was always praised but as usual it was more oral during the team calls and meetings than written – I tried calling in my team mates but they are scared for themselves – tried explaining the same could and would happen to them too, they should take a stand united and honest but they are chickening out or siding with manager to score brownie points.
Now multiple seniors ring me through the day and are purposefully bullying me and giving me conflicting orders, regardless of how many times I have told in chat AND on the mail to use official mode of WRITTEN contact to connect to me, they'll call me – (wfh app calls can't be recorded) – give me conflicting orders – then purposefully refuse that they have told me this and it's their words against mine and mgmt obviously sides with them. Everyone following a similar way of preparation of reports while I'll have to do 2 3 times more but only i will be the one called out – Others do it as I use to do previously – They are specifically targetting me – I tried telling them that I wasn't planning to leave the organisation, I just needed some time off since I haven't had any vacation or holidays in the entire week and I'm burning out a lot – But they are hell bent on neither allowing me to leave nor let me work in peace. Everyday I have been grilled like crazy – I don't know what to do – I want to resign but i can't take leave during notice period (compliance) and I need break for preparing otherwise this year will go down the drain and all my efforts – It's do or die for me.
I didn't want to burn the bridges but they are making it really hell – I was the top performer, my colleagues, my seniors, managers everyone used to love me – I just raised one request and they are making my life hell – I'm not even kidding and I lack proofs cause most stuff is oral over calls that can't be recorded cause of WFH apps.
Also My brother suggesting me to hold on to the job while I look for other but the fact is if I carry on the job – I'll MOST LIKELY fail on my exam and another year down the drain – Also with the changed dynamics I don't think I'll be able to survive here for weeks even if I don't take the leave, Some of my office senior told me the company usually never fires anyone but with this changed dynamics even they aren't really sure – Cause they are literally ensuring my work is hell. And we have a 2 month notice period, which doesn't allow leave in between and the termination though immediate would be a blot on my character and could really hamper subsequent interviews or applications.
Please suggest what should I do?