I started working in 2019, just as a Customer Service Agent, and when I joined we had about 8 people in our team, including Logistics (outbound consignments), Administration (Ensuring records are made + Kept in accordance to law), and After-Sales Service (If something went wrong, we fix it).
About 1 or 2 months into the job, it became apparent that my manager had a severe disdain for our boss. Let's call him, Koo.
Koo was not one to be messed with, he can yell louder than any angry customer, he can tell you to fuck off better than anyone else can, he can do as he pleases, for it is his company, and he will do what he must. Koo is a righteous leader, that is definitely how we are meant to speak of him.
He is immature, childish, and not versed in any laws surrounding consumer satisfaction. He has been to court numerous times for times that he has fucked over either customers or other businesses / contractors.
Within a year, all of my team had left, and I had nobody replacing the people leaving. I ended up as the Manager of my role, but now I was also doing Administration + Logistics.
During this descent, I asked for numerous pay rises, being promised pay rises, being told that my fuel consumption would be covered by the company in lieu of a pay rise (as they were making people redundant at the time, they could not reflect that they were giving people raises), so I was given the benefit of having fuel reimbursement rather than a pay rise. I quite liked this benefit, and this was the most positive I had ever felt about the company.
I then proceeded to have a mental breakdown from the stress of managing every client and customer + all of our distributor customers + I was performing multiple peoples' jobs. I was burning out, and fast. I ended a 10 year relationship, I moved neighborhoods, everything happened in a very short time, I was also cheating on my ex partner at this time, so I was partaking in risk-taking behaviors, I do believe I could've been in a manic episode, unsure really, I even 'disowned' my parents in a very angry protest. That didn't go down so well. I was suicidal, and I told my boss I quit. He tried offering me a pay rise, but as I was planning to end my life that day I of course declined.
The next day, I had seen a therapist, and a lot of my paranoia / craziness was beginning to diminish, or at least, slow down. I told my boss I was sorry for resigning, and that I was going to start coming back to work soon. So yes, I admittedly had a very hard time, and may have posed an issue for his business for a brief time (<2 weeks).
After I came back, there was a brief moment I was writing on a Google Document regarding things I wanted to bring up in therapy. I had been doing it all day, throughout the day, working in the office, and on one occassion, he got very aggressive and demanded to know what I was writing about. I told him it was personal, and then he accused me of stealing money from him for doing something within work hours that I should not have been. I would have thought by explaining it was some notes for therapy he would calm down, but he did not. I was in an incredibly vulnerable emotional state at this time, and he got violently aggressive with me – It felt like my body went into shock / flight-or-flight as a result – It was incredibly intense. He then pulls me into a meeting for 2 hours regarding my pay rise, and he determines that he cannot give me a pay rise, especially due to how mentally unwell I had been.
He also says that my petrol reimbursement is no longer valid, nor was it meant to be valid for more than a week, it was just a one-time deal (that happened many times until this incident). He fucking bullshits me during this meeting, and thereafter, he tries to confuse me on numerous work details, I begin making a paper trail to confirm that he is in fact, fucking with me, and, he is. It is a terrible feeling to discover you are being gaslit.
I keep working very hard, currently I am responsible for one quarter of the entire companies' transmissions (32K recorded in 180 days, I was responsible for 8000+), I reduce my SLA, I get good reviews from customers, I deal to my issues in a timely, efficient, effective manner, whilst still managing to juggle numerous peoples' jobs.
The straw that breaks my back, is a conversation that I had recently, where I was offered a great payrise, only for it to be re-offered at a lower rate, then offered as a 'bonus' after a period of time to 'make up for the amount I would have earned if I had received a payrise', then it became 'no payrise, but bonuses on certain KPI's for certain complex tasks that require weeks of research'.
I had had enough.
I began job seeking, and found a job paying the same wage as I am currently, for about 1/10th of the workload I am under.
I quit.
For 3 weeks, I managed to go back and forth on offers he was making to retain me, telling him how much I wanted to stay, how I didn't have another job lined up, I framed it as another psychological break, I framed it as some self-sabotaging incident, and we get to my final week, where I tell him flatly that I intend to leave and that he should get hunting for a replacement.
He has a week (less than a week now!) to find a replacement for effectively 5 different roles.
That's what you get, fucker.