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I was laid off one month after I complained my boss to his manager. I was told this had nothing to do with my performance and irrelevant to the complaint I made, but a top-down decision. But the company is a financial giant and very profitable, so it is hard to imagine the CEO would suddenly decide to lay off me.
Long story. I could not get along with the direct manager since the first day (been there five years). We were in different business line but I reported to him because he was the local head. I am a researcher with a PhD, while he is a business guy. He likes showing off his power, and is very hierarchical. Although he does not know much about my field, he likes bossing around and taking credit. Not only he added his name on my work, but also often withholding information and using my work without giving me any credit. I sucked most of these shit in for a year, then he went ahead replacing my name by his own on my work (an public publication). I objected. This was the first time I said no to him.
He was extremely insecure and poking. If I was invited to a client meeting or an internal meeting, he would ask details such as who invited you, what you were going to talk about, etc. Sometimes he even asked me to bring him to the meetings which were really wield. Last year when my father was very sick and dying, I told him the situation as we might need some work flexibility. He pushed questions such as how bad was the illness, did he have cancer, how many hours did it take for you to go home and could you access internet on the train? until I burst into tears in the meeting room.
He spread bad words behind me. A few senior leaders in the company, during one-on-one meetings, mentioned that they heard that I did not get along with coworkers, but they also acknowledged that my colleagues told them it was great working with me. The fact is that I had great relationship with my coworkers but the only problem is my manager.
I was a senior hire. But I felt being managed as a junior one all the time. My function was restricted and many development opportunities were not given to me, compared to the same positions that located in other regional offices. Over the years, he was critical in my annual review, downplaying my contributions but exaggerating development areas. As we do have a firm-wide feedback system, he could not give my bad performance as many leaders and colleagues across the firm gave me highly positive reviews.
I suffered a lot in the first year, and decided to open up to higher management before I quitted the job. Luckily, a senior leader completely understood my situation and made some intervention. Then we had roughly an acceptable situation for 3 years and I did my job well. The tides turned quickly last year after this senior leader retired. Only more hidden this time, he did all this via another colleague''s hands, who we had peaceful relationship in the first few years and never had much overlap.
My father passed away later last year, then my mother fell ill. I was struggling balancing work and grief, when encountered increasingly more frictions at work with the manger and that colleague (who had tried to lead my work). Then I had very bad insomnia and had to take sleeping pills. In November I was pushed to the limit (a panic attack), when I asked to allow me one more day to deliver a presentation to the team as I could not work on that weekend for my mom''s illness but I was refused. I raised the issue to my manager and the colleague, telling them this made me uncomfortable and we should find a better way to work together. No response. So I escalated to the skip manger.
That is the end of story. They just laid me off, while I was still on medical treatment---yes, the doctor prescribed me a one-month sick leave with medication. I did not take the leave, but accepted the pills.
