This was the first (and hopefully the last) time I've ever walked out of a job without giving 2 weeks notice. I didn't even have another job lined up. My manager (KG) was the most toxic waste of a payroll number who got where she got to via nepotism.
Before I started this job I had been warned by an old colleague who had been managed under her once upon a time, she told me to be careful of this woman because “KG made everyone in X team miserable”. Her LinkedIn profile has over 10 different companies that she has worked in the last 20 years, lasting only a couple of years in each.
Long story short, I should have heeded my friend's advice. Not that I could have changed the outcome, but I might have saved myself the hassle of trying to be a good employee and never meeting her ridiculous, ever-changing, impossible standards. It's really difficult to put into words the type of bullshit I had to put up with because they seem petty, but I realise it's also about the delivery and the way she makes me feel in our reviews. She made me question my capabilities, refused to acknowledge any growth, made up/overemphasised negative feedback and did not pass on the positive feedback I had been given by others.
She would tell me to do one thing (e.g. “ask as many questions as you can, learn from everyone) and in my next catch up she would find a way to use that against me. She told me i should” value other people's time and research things instead of asking them questions”. And I'm a qualified CPA with over 8 years of experience, so I'm not asking stupid/ridiculous questions I couldn't have researched myself. The best way to describe my experience is that I was a frog in boiling water, and thankfully I saw through her microaggressions and condescension and decided to walk out and never come back.
I know my worth and it's a candidate's market for my profession. I have fortunately been offered a job by my old employer but I have decided to take a few months off to make sure I heal from this experience and don't carry this baggage into my new job.
I will be without income for at least 2 months but I can't put a price on my sanity and mental health. Thankfully I also have a year's salary in savings and a very supportive husband so I can afford to take this time off. I also quit on my birthday and walked out at lunch. It was a birthday present to myself and I had the biggest relief when I returned my keycard on her desk the next morning.