I'm wondering if anyone has gone through a similar situation and has any advice. This post might be long but I want to provide context that I feel is important to the situation. I graduated from college (bachelors) 2 years ago and have been at my current job for a little over a year. This job is meant to be a stepping stone to get experience for moving up in your career. Because me and my coworkers are newly out of college we get paid very poorly. I live in one of the most expensive cities in the country. Performance reviews are coming up and I need basically a perfect score to get a 3% raise (the highest possible). I feel like I work my ass off but I'm afraid I will get poor reviews. I feel like what's happening at my job is not okay but maybe I'm overreacting.
I was originally hired for a specific position but then a few months ago my coworker (who works in a different department) decided to get a new job. For easier understanding we can call that coworker Monique. Because of the empty position they asked me to take over and be trained by Monique. Monique originally told our boss she was looking at other jobs and interviewing. She quickly got an offer and gave a month and a half long notice that she was leaving. Our boss was not happy about this, and accused her of lying to them about interviewing and claimed she already knew she got the job. They treated her like shit for the rest of her stay. They gave her a disciplinary meeting 2 weeks before she was going to leave and told her that she was aggressive and insubordinate. Monique is the most soft spoken person I've ever met. Our boss has an all staff meeting once a month but that month Monique and I were not invited to the meeting. Our coworkers told us that during the meeting our boss talked shit about Monique and said she wouldn't write her a letter of rec.
I've been in Monique's position for half a year now. For some reason it feels like anyone in this position is always in the hot seat. My boss is always stressed and that stress is then pushed onto us. She's stressed because she frequently doesn't show up to work and will go on trips for weeks at a time. She never makes deadlines but it's never an issue for her because her boss is her best friend. She recently told me and my coworker that we have poor communication and that it's unacceptable. We feel that it isn't fair to us because she will straight up lie to us and tell us shes coming into work but won't show up. If a mistake is made she will create a mountain out of a mole hill. I've literally gone to the bathroom and cried several times at work because she makes me feel like a failure.
Obviously with all of this I want to leave but I'm afraid to be treated like Monique. I don't think they would write me a letter of rec and would be upset I'm leaving this position when I've only been doing it for a few months. I also feel like I don't have many options. In my field you usually need higher education to make good money unless you have a lot of experience. I have neither. I feel trapped and don't know what to do.