Backstabbing Boss
The irony of my MVWJ was that it was supposed to be my very best job ever. I had been working full time hours at part time status for the past three years and this job was a promotion, with full benefits. The only downside (or so I thought), was the 45 minute commute. The first two weeks at the job went well, it was a different atmosphere than the other location I worked at, but I figured I would adjust eventually. However, after I returned back from a vacation I realized that I had made a terrible mistake in taking the promotion at this location. Luckily, while I was on vacation the same exact position had opened up at my old location and I applied for it, thinking I could keep my promotional status and nix my icky commute. Well, turns out that apparently this was the trigger switch to turn my boss into a backstabbing life sucker. When she found out I was trying to transfer out of the store she unleashed hellfire upon me. After her screaming at me in the office for 20 minutes, citing a ton of policies I was violating, I came back at her with my own policies I had memorized, stating that she couldn’t stop me from any of it. From that day forward my life became a living hell.
She would yell at me every shift I worked with her for the most ridiculous things. In the past three years I’d worked for the company I had never had disciplinary action. In the three weeks following me applying for a transfer I was on a “final disciplinary warning,” which in essence, bars you from transferring. Great. Mission accomplished. I was trapped at the location, literally being abused for two months. More work was shoveled on me and when I couldn’t finish it all, I’d be written up. This pattern continued until I just gave up, stopped trying, came to work miserable and left miserable. One day she and another manager cornered me in the office yelling at me, telling me how much I sucked and overall just verbally abused me to the point of tears. They gave me an ultimatum: I could turn it all around, completely change my leading style (basically, act like the tyrannical bitch she was) and I had 30 days to do so or I could step down to my old position, old location, everything. I came back with the answer that I was not going to change who I was just so she could fire me anyway and that I’d leave. She agreed to transfer me back, I agreed to lose my benefits, my pay raise and my title in exchange for what I thought would be peace of mind.
Well, when the week came for me to transfer, I called in asking for my schedule and my old store had no knowledge of my “transfer.” The best part? My boss was on her honeymoon and unavailable to be contacted. Turns out she had transferred out of the store herself, turned my life into a steaming garbage pile and left me to clean up the mess. As it currently sits, I’m unemployed because of her actions.
isn’t there some kind of action you can take? that sounds like a classic toxic environment. God help her husband.
the people who you worked with before won’t hire you back?
I’m trying to understand why you didn’t speak to your HR department when your boss began to retaliate against you for your transfer application.
you still work for the company – transfer or not. she didn’t put the paperwork in, nor did she fire you. call the next person up to let them know. they have to put you at some location for all your full-time hours.
Yeah, this story makes no sense. I feel like parts were left out.
Agreed, I definitely think parts were left out.
Speak to your HR department immediately to see if there is something they can do, and/or, put them on notice that this is/was happening.
Ack – this sounds like my old job. My boss did something similar – except he never screamed at me, just wrote nitpicky emails about my “performance” although everyone else made it clear they were happy with me while overloading me with work… all the while dangling a promotion in front of my face.
I’m not sure how big the OP’s company is, but HR departments in larger corporations can be amazingly ineffective. I was told it didn’t matter how happy my team or my other boss was with me – so long as the awful boss was taking the time to officially writing me up, I was on the stake for what he said. Since he was much higher up than I was, there was nothing I could do. All he said she said and at the end, I got tired of fighting it (since I had an actual job to do) so I quit.
OP – I hope that you at least bitched to your HR dept about this person’s behavior!
If you left a little earlier, would you have been able to get the commute down to 30 minutes?
I would bring this case to court because it is clearly a case of retaliation and a hostile work environment. If HR, in this case, failed to follow up on any of your complaints, then they can be held responsible as well.