It’s 5am where I’m at and I can’t sleep. I’ve received some shitty news at work that’s been eating at me all day. All month, really, but mostly all day.
My boss walked off a job site and got a medical certificate for 2.5 months. Very small team, basically left me in the dark, no phone call, no handover, nothing.
I’m basically the most junior person there in terms of pay and position. I know a decent amount I’ve been there two years. I stepped up and took charge and got shit done anyway.
All of the big bosses at head office knew it. Knew that I was expecting career advancement even before this, not to mention during/after this surprise situation I was put in.
I meet the ceo of the company, tell him what I’ve been doing, what I’d like to do moving forward, etc.
A month later I email him saying I’d like an update on what’s going on with this vague situation I’m describing to a bunch of random reddit strangers, and where my future is with the company.
He schedules a meeting at the end of the day on a Friday (a week after my email, of course).
He’s 20 minutes late, he tells me he’s flying a contractor in from overseas to do the job I’ve been asking for fixed term and allowing me the opportunity to learn from said contractor. (Nothing against the contractor, we’ve worked together before, briefly).
For a second there in this meeting, I felt like I was chatting with a used car salesman NPC. Typical manager lines. All full of shit.
Used a few of my own words against me out of context like most managers power playing do. Said I had knowledge gaps, But he’s only just now flying this contractor out, after I worked my ass off overextending myself for the company.
Told him since my career advancement opportunities are being put on hold, then I need to focus my priorities towards xyz, and that I wouldn’t be over extending myself anymore. Of course, I was gaslit. Of course he legit said “did you think you were getting this role? Who gave you that impression? What gave you the impression your career advancement is being put on hold”. When asked politely why I wasn’t being consider but this other person was, he gave me the knowledge gap line due to something specific I said. Something I don’t regret saying in the first place. He would have used a different excuse if he didn’t have that one. Either way, it tells me that he knew this is what I was asking for when I sent my email (not to mention meeting him in person) so playing dumb about what the conversation was focused on is bullshit.
I professionally fought back, to which I’m proud of myself for doing. You could tell he knew he was unsuccessfully bullshitting me by the way he kind of stopped allowing me to speak.
After 15 minutes, we ended the call. I gave short yes or no answers and just let him babble on.
During all of this, I reiterated that there was no one else that could do this. Literally, I was it. Lol. And that my boss actually walked off the job. I didn’t.
I’m looking for another job, In fact, In the last few weeks I’ve applied for about 30 jobs. I haven’t received a single call from anyone. It’s freaking me out a little bit. It took everything to not give this prick my notice right off the bat. I have support from former colleagues and current ones. Some of them are keeping their eyes peeled for me in terms of finding another job. Even one of the other contractors said he wasn’t going to work for the company anymore due to this and them taking advantage of him as well. It’s nice to know I’m not an arrogant prick and that I actually deserved proper recognition.
I used to completely love this job. I had so much fun working with my colleagues. Everyone is quitting left and right. Everyone was pulling for me to get this promotion. It’s just a huge let down. All this stress and drama was for nothing. This place has become a boys club. The polite bullshit and underhanded insults this guy was tossing me was a slap in the face. I knew better than to even think these people would be decent to me.
If I knew I couldn’t easily get a job that pays as well as this and recession wasn’t looming over my head, I would have walked today. Now, I need to kiss ass so I’m not made redundant in a few weeks when my boss comes back.
I think I’m mostly upset that I feel so used and treated like I’m arrogant for wanting compensation and career development for the work I do.
Me quitting would likely do them a favour, so I guess the best revenge is to stay until I find something else.
Sorry. Just having a hard time and can’t sleep. Don’t do what I did. Follow your job description to the letter. Get everything in writing. Have a good weekend.