So I work at a law firm and there is this person that has been an absolute terror to me and to the rest of the office. Let's call her K. K used to be the assistant principal of a school in Washington DC, but then she quit for “moral” reasons and got an entry level job as a demand writer at our firm in Texas. I was hired the day before her in the same position. K became the manager of the demand writers, because she is older and is good at organizing. the demand writers are usually law students or people fresh out of college. I changed industries, I'm 28 so a little older than the average I guess, but I fit in.
K has hated me since day one. There was originally no system for proof reading and there were spelling and grammatical errors in my work and she tried to get me fired and cornered me in a conference room to lecture me about how she believes that with every degree, there is an implied standard of knowledge that you have otherwise how did you get that degree? And if you prove to your employers or coworkers that you do not meet that standard, they should have the right to contact your university and have your degree taken away. And then said I should go back to the industry I came from, but since I clearly burned out from that one, maybe food service would be better. I reported her and I was basically her whipping boy from that day on. it came to a peak when she called her husband and talked bad about me on speaker phone in front of other coworkers. she got demoted back to demands writer and her replacement became her new target of harassment.
Glossing over a lot here, but basically ive tried to find another job but my boss pays me really big bonuses and gave me a big raise recently so she knows how to win me over lol. I don't talk to K at all, we're not even in the same office anymore because the new manager reported her to the boss and the boss moved her elsewhere. K has since changed offices 4 different times for similar problems. On my end, it was all good and great until K got her friend hired and ever since, her friend has basically tried to steal the new manager's position when she doesn't constantly report our every conversation and movement to K. K apparently has been tracking when me and the new manager come and go.
K has always dumped her work onto the other writers. She basically is like her work more important, she does so much more work than us, she is a more critical thinker than all of us, she is too busy so we need to take things off her plate. It's all a lie because its the exact same work we do, and she is terrible at it. She dunks on my work, but literally everyone says mine is fine and hers is full of the errors she attacks me on because she refuses to allow anyone to proof read her work. She did this when she was manager and even after she got demoted, would lose her mind and bully everyone until they gave in but refuse to help when someone else got overwhelmed because she's so busy.
The last few weeks, our boss went on a big vacation. K lost her miiiiind. Recently, she has started doing some other jobs like handling correspondence for our boss and doing random little tasks for her because she seems to have set her sights on the office manager position. The office manager is an older lady but has no intention of leaving, but K is AFTER her and its wild to see. K has not stopped texting our boss with everyones movements, complaining about the office manager with a lot of lies that she's been exposed for.
The big problem currently is the demand writer manager had a medical emergency the day we had some new hires start training. K took over that training, but when manager came back, K and her got into this weird tiff where K said she clearly can't be trusted because she left so suddenly (she had to have emergency surgery). Not only that, but the new people are extremely confused because everything K is teaching them its wrong but K has decided to extend their training because they clearly can't be trusted with the delicate art and science and DUTY that is writing demand letters. We've had two quit already, one called our boss on vacation and went ballistic on her and is demanding a meeting when she gets back. K's friend that has been snitching on us has been telling K that me and the new manager are always on our phones and are teaching the new people bad habits, which she has been texting the boss as well on her vacation.
There's a loooooot more but this is the gist. There's been two conflicting stories of what the boss has said so far. A new hire shared a voicemail she got from our boss where she told the new hire to not quit because when she gets back she and K are going to make some major changes to the law firm. But when I complained about this mess to the office manager today, she said that the boss is livid with K and that numerous people have been making complaints and she has not been able to do anything on her vacation because people are constantly calling her about K. I was advised to basically line up and demand to talk to the boss about what I've seen when she gets back on Monday.
On top of all that, we are very swamped with work right now and there are a lot of demands and other assignments that need doing, K dumped all of hers onto us again and she has been rearranging furniture. Why? No one knows. The office manager is just letting her do it because she said she doesn't want to deal with her anymore until our boss gets back. She completely reorganized the copy room, which no one asked her to do and she tried to get the new hires to do it with her but our manager stole them away so they could actually do some work. But today she was just like moving furniture up and down the hallways. Like needlessly. Also her adult kids were like in and out of the office and no one knows why, they don't work here.
It's like this issue doesn't really concern me but it does at the same time. I'm very over it so I'm back on looking for other jobs but I have a sweet deal right now where no one cares what I do except K, everything was fine for a solid year or so and I just got to abuse their very generous overtime system and rake in fat bonuses without doing any difficult work. It's all potentially going up in flames, all my work friends are leaving, and if K or her friend becomes any kind of manager I am leaving on the spot but like I'm scared about not having a job again. I only recently got on my feet and I'm in a good spot and I'm scared to lose what I've gained.
TLDR; an absolutely deranged former manager has completely lost her mind because our boss went on vacation and now everyone wants to quit. I don't want to lose this job because I have a pretty sweet deal that I would like to preserve.
I need advice but also wanted to get this off my chest. If it seems disjointed or chaotic, now you know how I feel. I'm also just very very tired and I don't want my job anymore but also I do but also I just need money but also I don't want to work anymore and aaaaaaag