When I was 23-25, about 12-10 years ago, I was in a horrible position with management. I worked for a large health insurance carrier in the US. A few of my family members also worked for this same carrier at the same time. I made the major mistake of accepting a promotion in the department my mom was fired out of, about 2 months or so after she was fired. I did this for two major reasons – one, the team I was on was facing layoff due to outsourcing, and two, because my mother and I have a poor relationship, and I believed she deserved to be fired. She had picked up a pill and meth habit, and was basically a walking skeleton in my eyes. She was under 100 lbs, and slurring her words everywhere. She could not concentrate, everyone at work knew she was using. So, she was fired (and ended up suing for wrongful termination and won).
So, I was offered the job in her old department, not the same position, and not the same manager, but it’s one department so everyone knew each other. It was the same director. At first, everything was great, I even got promoted within 2 weeks of starting because a person was leaving and they thought I would better fit their role.. I’m not sure when the mistreatment started, but it started. I would get pulled into my managers office.. she would ask about my mom.. it didn’t feel like she genuinely cared. I am very sensitive about my mom and I would get upset when talking about her, I didn’t want to. Then the comments about my clothes, my hair, my nails. My supervisor would shit talk me two desks away from me to other people on the team, I could hear her. I took this to HR. After HR things got worse. My manager and supervisor would take me into their office to discuss my performance, to which I would be in tears in front of them. It was like my tears fueled their fire.
I was trapped for 2 years there, I didn’t feel I could leave, I needed the money and didn’t value my mental health as I should have. Also, during this time my mom was actively suing the company. The director was going to court cases against my mom in the morning and waving and saying hello to me in the afternoon. To be fair, my director was the only one who treated me like a human being.
I applied and interviewed to at least 6 positions within the company to get out from under these two horrific people, and I was convinced they were sabotaging my chances at the company, because after every interview it was internal policy to discuss the candidate with their previous management. I finally went to my director and told her exactly how I felt they were holding me back, and asked her if I could just have her be my direct contact for new positions within the company. My next interview I landed it, with a 23% raise.
This happened awhile ago, but this sub wasn’t around then, I’m glad it is now.