My manager/trainer was the only non-admin employee at my job. He was aware of my experience level coming in and directly hired me. He said everything was trainable and it would take a year to master. We weren’t busy at all, but it was important I avoid making mistakes (cancer research). The place was not doing well financially so my hours had to be reduced and my training was limited since supplies are expensive. I was super understanding that they couldn’t provide a stable schedule or any benefits, that the equipment was outdated and breaking, and things were unorganized. I thought they would at least reciprocate my patience. They had also waited last minute to hire me (unlicensed) as a replacement for a LICENSED employee who had warned them of their retirement a year in advance.
From the beginning, my manager never gave me feedback on how I was doing. Instead, every week he would press me that I needed to get better, or would doubt me and questioned if I could handle an upcoming surge in workflow (which never happened). This was before or about 2 months into my employment as part-time. I was genuinely confused where the doubt was coming from. I know I can do well under pressure, but since we were slow and the work is so crucial I took my time to absorb information and fully understand my tasks. I personally don’t think I was behind in my training since it was highly specialized and he said mistakes were bound to happen due to how complicated the job was. I had just finished learning how to do my tasks, and was learning which mistakes to avoid and how to prevent/rectify them.
I thought I had a safe place to learn. He told me he wasn’t judging me, but would clearly judge me if I didn’t understand or know something, when perhaps I needed a visual walkthrough rather than a verbal one. He told me if he had a task for me that he would text me, but he never did and would only tell me once I came in. He never told me if there was a probationary period and would often quiz me or put me on the spot mid-training.
I came in one morning and he told me to do X task. I was so focused on doing X correctly that I didn’t realize that I had to do Y task beforehand (which is not usual procedure and I had only done Y once or twice). He stopped me and said he wasn’t sure if I would work out here if I had missed such an easy but crucial detail. Crisis was avoided, and it ended up not being an X task at all, but a Z task. He had written in our planner that it was X, so I feel misled and almost tricked into making that mistake. The next morning I came in and made sure not to repeat the same mistake. I noticed he wasn’t in yet but my boss came in shortly after, which was unusual. My boss then fired me and had my last paycheck ready, meaning they had made their decision yesterday after I left and recorded my hours.
My manager had been there over a decade, and is so used to having the place to himself that some of his habits would hinder my performance. He made no effort in being patient or understanding (I am also going through personal issues), or making much improvement to procedure based on my training. There was no HR or sensitivity training, just pure unprofessionalism and delusion. Frankly he was a bit of an asshole too, but I didn’t want to judge him for it. My first red flag should’ve been when he expressed how pissed he was that the retired colleague didn’t want to come back to work.