I have a boss that is a pretty nice person and a QA department that is arguably harassing me. So my boss at least pretends to be in my corner but we have to go over “what I do wrong” or the extent to which it was a real problem. Today I told him basically “in order to not get emotionally invested I have to not care. I don't want to let you down personally but I'm withdrawing in a big way from caring at all about trying to excel here. I will not retaliate or react I'm not going to get mad about another bad review where I actually followed company policy, but I'm also unable to adapt and constructively use the criticism that I get from QA and I'm glad you agree that it's dishonest feedback”.
While he agreed with me and is pushing back against the QA department he also felt attacked or a little shocked at my bold passive aggression. I told him not to bother sticking his neck out for me because I don't care. If they have their minds set on review bombing me with nonsense, the best I can do is tune them out. I'm basically quiet quitting, paycheck collecting, not letting them bait me into missteps and only responding to things that are kind of thrust at me with high priority. My boss is cool but I think he didn't like hearing the quiet part out loud.
What do bosses actually want to hear from employees?