I'm relatively new to this sub, so while I've left a few comments, I've mostly been lurking. Hopefully, this is not too long of a read, but I would like to share an experience that I feel fits here, and brought me the closest I've ever been to rage-quitting a job.
After high school, I started working and attending college. College didn't get me my dream job, so after 10 years of work in the civilian world, I took my dad's advice and tried the military, hoping I would take away more than just a paycheck and a few fringe benefits.
The end of my first enlistment coincided with a significant family emergency, and I felt called to respond. I returned home, did what needed to be done, and found a job utilizing both my college education and my military training. I was a field installer and service technician of automated security systems (intrusion alarm, fire, access control, surveillance).
During the three years I worked in that role, I became frustrated, but I also became a family man. I decided that to spend more time with the family, I needed to find a position with a set schedule, and thankfully (or so I thought at the time), one existed within the company. However, all of the duties and responsibilities of this position were not explained to me before I accepted, and had they been, I would have declined and stayed in the field.
This role was essentially a dumping ground for all of the odd tasks that the rest of the Inventory department (which oversaw the warehouse) did not want to do. Very rarely was I informed of the frequency with which these new tasks should be done, and was berated for not instinctively knowing. I began to feel trapped, and started looking elsewhere.
I really began to understand the kind of people I was dealing with when I had to beg the supervisor for my annual review for three months before it finally happened. There ended up being a third person in the room who I was never told was any sort of management. I was so desperate for this review, that I simply did not care.
This “non-review” as I came to call it informed me that the delay was intentional “to observe me with the hope that I would improve on my own”. I would also be observed for another three months and another review would be conducted to determine if I was eligible for a pay increase. The major flaw with this “non-review” was that it did not offer any measurable standard by which I could/should improve. It was primarily “do more of X”, “do less of Y”, “do Z faster”.
If there is enough interest in this post, I will do a follow up with redacted copies of the paperwork I was allowed to keep. Since the company had already claimed they could not give anyone raises in 2020 due to COVID (this was December 2021), I was furious. At the time, the HR people claimed to have no knowledge of the supervisor's plan to railroad me like this, but later I found that to be a lie.
Thankfully (honestly this time), the stars aligned and I had both phone and an in-person interviews with a company to which I had applied. I only told the trusted few coworkers that I even had the interview, as I had witnessed others being terminated for even mentioning the possibility of going on one. I was also cautioned that others were unceremoniously escorted from the building when they had given notice.
I had to hunt down the supervisor to give him my notice. I guess I was just lucky that my position was in demand enough that they didn't want to take over my tasks before they absolutely had to, because that did not happen to when I gave mine.
The next day I learned that two of my kids would be participating in a State tournament for a sport they play on my next to last day. I had to email the supervisor to inform (not ask) him that I wanted to attend (he took a few days off), knowing that I would not be paid for the day. When he finally responded, he let me know that I needed to OK it with two other non-management members of the department.
As I expected, they avoided me, so I had to text the more rational of the two and let him know I was would be taking it. In the year and a half I worked in that role, never once did I have to approve days off for them when their kids played sports. And I was leaving anyway, so what did it matter? I took the day, watch my kids compete, did not think about work once. I came back in on my last day to help make sure my replacement was comfortable and as well trained as I could get him, and I left.
Screw that place.