I'm a product researcher for a Dubai based, remote, mental health product. I have a Clinical Psychology background, but it doesn't pay well where I live. It made sense to opt for a product role.
The story begins with my manager's pettiness. She has no background in mental health, yet she consistently micromanaged me and other researchers. She makes sure we look incompetent, and treats us like students.
If you stand up to her, you're done for.
Here's an example – She asked me, extremely rudely, why my output was less for the week.
Now generally, she'd expect me to apologize, feel guilty, and walk on eggshells. I was sick of doing that for 8 months! So I assertively told her I was on a leave for a day which affected my output. Nothing wrong with this, right? Well a couple of weeks later, she gave me a shitty appraisal.
There'd been incidents like this with everyone, not just me.
Now for the story. In March, the company was struggling with their UX flow. I have a bit of a background in the UX research area, so I was able to come up with some ideas. At that point of time, they did not appreciate me. But then my manager began to pressurize me to leave the content team and be a UX person for them. “It's totally your choice, of course,” she used to say.
My last appraisal was today. She began the meeting with asking me what I think about doing the UX work. I said it excites me, sure, but right now I'm happy with being a content researcher and would be happier in the role I signed up for. She then said, “I'm sorry but you're not the right fit for us as a researcher or a writer anymore.”
I was shell shocked. I did not know where this was coming from. We had a couple of “disagreements” this month (very small ones, like the example I mentioned above. I didn't know I'd stepped on her ego) and I knew she was acting in vengeance. She told me that a UX agency would be extremely expensive for them, so it makes sense that I would go in that area, since I have prior knowledge and knew the product inside-out. And if I chose otherwise, then it's best I search for a new role as I no longer fit with the company.
I was shocked, outraged. I told her this was unfair, this was horrible, that I never saw this coming. I told her I'd be excited to learn UX but how would it affect the company if I was being threatened to move into another team? She said, “oh no please don't take this decision out of some threat. This is totally your choice. I don't want anyone to take such decisions out of threat. It would affect our work.”
She then made it sound like I should be grateful they weren't firing me, but giving me another chance to prove myself. No amount of disagreements made any difference; the company was decided.
Reddit, how does it make sense that they're forcing me to shift to another department when I never signed up for such a role? Oh, the cherry on top is that my pay would not increase in the UX area despite it being a tech role. I am so so upset about this. I've been crying non stop. I feel jaded. I gave so much of my time to the mental health area, so much of energy to building this promising product.
I'm confident I'll find a new gig, but the disrespect is something I can't get over.
My friends and boyfriend are suggesting me to take the UX gig on the surface to buy time, and find a new gig till then, before dropping them without notice. I agree with them, but I can't imagine facing her again for anything.
I'm just so jaded man. Feel upset.