My partner has worked for Company X for five years in retail and made the jump to corporate with her relevant degree (merchandising) and after getting the office job she also got accepted into grad school. Her bosses at work were very supportive and liked her and her work. The office job came with a 50% pay cut basically from losing sales commission but allowed for partial remote working and the idea of moving up the corporate ladder and getting away from retail.
As grad school started ramping up she was no longer available outside of the 9-5 and she had to schedule vacation days to travel abroad for the curriculum, her immediate boss seemed to flip their personality and now actively avoids talking to my partner and criticizes and micromanages everything she does, while talking down about her to bosses’ bosses and so on, while piling on work that she’s supposedly so bad at.
When she approached her bosses’ boss about this behavior she was told to “figure it out for yourself and if you can’t, look for another job”. It’s bizarre. They obviously want someone who they can exploit to work after hours without overtime (she’s salary) all hours of the night when she’s instead pursuing a master’s with the idea of furthering her career at the company and have decided to treat her like shit until she quits in lieu of firing her. She has been applying at other places and started interviewing and we have some savings, but it’s outrageous how little regard companies have for employees.