(Originally posted in r/MaliciousCompliance but I think it fits better here?)
Sorry for my English. I am not native.
I have been sharing my story in different subreddits but I think it is time to look back and laugh about this. Maybe this is part of the healing process? I don't know.
So, anyway, I used to work in this place last year. At first, it was awesome and I liked it a lot. It was demanding, yes, but still manageable. My supervisor, a guy we will call Steve, was at first like a mentor to me. Yes, he was a douche sometimes since he liked to make “jokes” that could be offensive. I tried to ignore this and move on. During my first semester, I had good evaluations and Steve liked to show me off a lot as an excellent worker be helped to train.
Things started to go awry after Steve took a few weeks off and I took his place in the meantime. I did a good job and I even proposed some ideas that got traction at the management level. When he came back, he was not very happy about it. After that, everything went awful. Suddenly I am the worst employee he ever had. He says that since he went back from vacation I am unfocused and reply defiantly. However, he often ignores me, gives me contradictory instructions, ambiguous deadlines, etc. He admitted to me too that he was mad at me because, in a feedback session, I mentioned to our manager that his attitude toward me changed. He often mentions too he is friends with all the higher-ups so, even in the worst-case scenario, he won't get fired.
He also started to talk bad about me to our team leader (who was his friend outside work too) and she starts to pressure me to “improve my performance” and “be less sensitive”. During a review meeting, both team up and say I have to step up because my supervisor can do all my work anyway and that I shouldn't give myself too much credit, since my job is “disposable”. After an especially humiliating meeting with him, in which I ended up crying my eyes out, I had enough. I had no job opportunities lined up but I decided I had to resign. If I am so bad at my job, so be it. No one would need me anymore.
During my exit interview, I stressed the fact that it would not be a problem to Steve if I leave, since I was disposable and so problematic. I also warned my team leader on how this would happen again if she did not control his behavior. I left and I am told that my supervisor is talking sh*t about me and how I did not resist the pressure as if it was all in my head.
Months pass. I am still unemployed and trying to survive a depressive episode that all this ordeal left me. Then, a former co-worker then calls me and tells me Steve was fired. I was told he started to crumble down after I left because it happens he was giving me almost all his work to me. He just liked to pass all as his and receive the credit. I guess it was all the pressure, but he starts to throw temper tantrums, one of them being so intense that someone saw it and told the manager. After what happened to me, she was fed up with him. I guess I triggered something so she started to see how to fire him. My former team leader, who was supposedly always there to coddle him, saw her job in danger and threw him under the bus. As far as I know, they set everything up to make him leave without the risk of him sweet-talking a higher-up to save his ass. He got fired unceremoniously and none of her “contacts” intervened.
Eventually, I found a new job, which is pretty chill and pays slightly better. The last thing I know, he still does not find a job. We worked in a very tight knit field and everyone knows how problematic he can be so no one wanted him. He is sort of blacklisted as far as I know. So that's it! Karma is a b*tch, guys! And for all of those going through something similar, remember you are valuable and you don't deserve to be treated like garbage.
Cheers