I just resigned from a job where my supervisor caused so much drama… the head honcho of the office privately asked me to send him an email about all that happened from my perspective and here it is. Feel free to use some of this wording if it applies to your situation. I'm really freakin proud of myself for standing up for myself and knowing my worth. I found a better job within 2 weeks and although I wish I didn't have to work at all, I'm grateful I chose this path.
Hi ____
I want to start by saying that I'm not writing this email to submit any type of complaint, but rather at your request to outline my experiences and ultimately why I am leaving my role as ____ at _____.
The whole time I worked here there has been on and off tension and conflict in our department. The common denominator of each conflict was our supervisor. She made clear on several occasions her personal dislike for various staff members i.e ________
Recently, everything came to a head at the end of this season when our supervisor snapped at me and also yelled at _____ in front of our team. We all knew her and _____clashed, but it's unacceptable as a supervisor to humiliate your staff like that in front of their colleagues.
After _____ was fired, as you know, me and ___ were informed that the 3rd roll will not be filled and that we will be absorbing it, that it does not warrant a salary review, we apparently won't experience an increase in workload, and that we are being moved out of the department. While I completely understand this is a business and we will have different goals and perspectives, this all at once felt a lot like we were being asked to do more and not to expect anything in return.
I was placed in the audit department, which since my 1.5 years here, I would be the 5th assistant to step into this role. I took on the challenge and relocation with optimism and remained positive. Less than 2 weeks later I had my year-end review in which I was given the following feedback (this is a direct quote from my review): “You had demonstrated a strong work ethic and a commitment to service excellence in the beginning of the year. You were self self-sufficient, managed your time effectively, and handled multiple deadlines with ease. Your performance in the second half of the year has not matched your strong start.” And other comments of similar nature.
At no point was I given any negative or constructive feedback from you or ____. To hear you had collectively been unhappy with my work ethic and performance for half a year for the first time in my review came as a complete shock to me. I would have expected an opportunity to correct any performance issues that you observed. Upon reflection, any decline in enthusiasm was a direct result of the above noted issues and environment of the department at the time. I genuinely believe I am a hard worker who demonstrated my dedication and willingness to get things done on time and in good quality.
I received essentially no comments from you and ____ during my review and none on the written portion. Actually, when I asked ___ if he had read my review, he told me he had not read the final version. I felt really surprised by this as based on all of my interactions with you both and the discussions we had, I was under the impression that you were both satisfied with my work performance. It felt as if the whole review was coming from my supervisor and not from the people I was directly assisting.
I also feel we received some mixed messaging. We were told often that we were to be all hands on deck/we are all one team/we need to work together/we pull the rope in the same direction etc., while on the other hand, because ___ and I had at times had vastly different workloads and would help each other, I was given the feedback that I was not able to manage my workload. If we had been asked to not assist each other, we would have stopped immediately.
While I agree that our supervisor is good at her job in the sense that she is on top of changes in policy and upcoming deadlines, the inability to regulate emotions that lead to outbursts negatively affects the morale of the department.
I am providing you with this information in hopes that you are able to see more of my perspective on how things occurred.
I request that if you do use this information constructively going forward, that you keep the source confidential.
I wish you the best,