Will I bounce back after being fired by a boss who simply “did not like me”? (collect, file)

[Jericho-79]

Hello everyone. I’m going through probably the toughest period of my life. I’ve never experienced something like this in my career. Although this is a very sensitive issue for me to discuss on a public forum, I’m in need of some strong advice from any career professionals here.

I’m a chemical engineer with six years of experience in the pharma industry. Throughout my career, I was always on good terms with my managers. None of my bosses would ever complain about my performance, as I always put my heart and soul into my work. In fact, I currently have over five references.

In April 2009, I started working for a low-budget pharma company as a quality engineer in the quality/validation department. Admittedly, this company possessed a work environment and overall culture that contrasted with those of my previous companies. This company was very disorganized and chaotic, and lacked any sort of direction. It wasn’t “modernized” like most companies, and it showed every intention of remaining in the stone age. As a result, it was difficult for me to adapt, and even more difficult for me to be at my utmost productive.

Needless to say, I had a bad relationship with my manager from the get-go. She declared that regardless of how hard it was to get things done, I was required to adapt to this backwards work environment.

Let me tell you that my boss had an unorthodox managerial style, and was the ultimate micro-manager. Not only did I have my own projects to get done, but I was also required to get fully involved in other people’s projects. Worse, my boss demanded that I immerse myself in areas in which I had no background (i.e. packaging engineering, regulatory affairs, and R&D).

My boss wanted all of her staff memebers to work on the same projects, to take on the same routine taskes and responsibilities, to acquire the same work habits, to possess the same personality traits, to exercise the same line of thinking, to utilize the same approach to doing things, and to provide the same level of job performance.

Plus, she insisted that I participate in conversations regarding topics that didn’t concern me. For example, one time the QC director visited our department to engage the my boss’s staff in a discussion about micro-testing. My boss later chided me for not contributing to that discussion, even though I have no knowledge in microbial science.

In addition, she forced an array of ridiculous expectations on me. These expectations included the following: (1) to become a “company man” and a go-to person; (2) to be aware of all the behind-the-scenes goings-on in other departments; and (3) to gossip with others about these goings-on).

By the way, my boss’s staff members were like a buddy-buddy clique. They appreciated her managerial style, and were readily excused whenever they happened to screw up on something. My boss and her staff were constantly going out to lunch together, gossiping amongst themselves. and goose-stepping along with one another’s whims. Her staff members would do their share of ego-stroking and elbow-rubbing, often holding pow-wows with the higher-ups. Furthermore, her staff members would partake in much brown-nosing, with one of them asking my boss daily: “I’m going to Starbucks- Do you want anything?” So, of course, I couldn’t confide in my co-workers.

In April 2010, my boss outlined dozens of deficiencies in my performance, and harshly pressured me to start improving. Try as I might- I couldn’t accommodate her unreasonable demands and expectations.

In fact, while she had a polite demeanor towards the rest of her staff, my boss would openly come down really hard on me throughout that year. She didn’t even pass on to me any constructive criticisms. Instead, she would verbally break me down with such hurtful remarks as the following:

“I don’t care what you did at your last job”
“I don’t know why you’re different from the rest of us”
“So-and-so is way ahead of you in terms of performance”
“I don’t want to hear it” (Whenever I would try to explain why something went wrong)
“I’m spending too much time dealing with you- It’s too exhausting”
“You’re not being beneficial to the group”
“I don’t believe that- Not with your personality” (When I told her I had never had performances issues with previous managers)
“Sorry if I had been misleading you” (She had once led me on to the idea that I was improving)
“You need to start playing your politics around here”
“I don’t have the confidence in you”

It doesn’t stop there. My boss would always call me into her office numerous times per day to criticize and scrutinize everything I did. These included how I organized my notebook, how I gave my PowerPoint presentations, how I labeled sample bottles, and how I worded and arranged my reports. One time she even grilled me on whether or not I had fully memorized a set of procedures from several months earlier.

My boss was always on my case and never left me alone. She would frequently ask me: “What are you working on now?” She also kept me under heavy surveillance, as she would routinely look over my shoulder and follow me around as I went about my business.

My boss would shoot me dirty looks whenever I stumbled over words. She would become easily flustered and irritable whenever I sought her advice. She wouldn’t hesitate to act exceptionally stern and demanding towards me. She would even snap at me and raise her voice at me on a regularly basis.

My boss was insane enough to outright yell at me for the most trivial things. For example, she publicly yelled at me for not pushing my chair in after work, for getting up too quickly from my desk, and for borrowing office supplies from her without asking her permission first.

Then in October 2010, my boss reviewed one of my reports, and deemed it to be “a work of carelessness”. Frustrated, she took that as “the last straw,” and submitted a “complaint file” to put the final nail in the coffin. She even coerced me into sign off on the complaint file, threatening to have the rest of her staff to “testify” against me on her behalf.

Basically, this complaint file was chock full of slanted, exaggerated accounts of my performance; petty grievances; unfair assessments; and morale-damaging commentaries. (My refusal to adjust to her micro-managing ways, and my failure to become “the big man on campus” were naturally at the top of her list of complaints.)

First of all, in this complaint file, my boss made several false, absurd accusations against me. She wrongly accused me of not listening, not paying attention, and not following instructions. This is outrageous because certain things that had gone down were partly due to (1) circumstances beyond my control; (2) my lack of knowledge in a specific matter; (3) my being left in the dark, or (4) a genuine misunderstanding/misinterpretation. For example, she wrongly accused me of circulating a change control without having her review it first- When in fact, I would never do anything like that. As another example, she wrongly accused me of working on projects that had not been on the project list- When in fact, she had explicitly mentioned that those projects were priority. (She would later deny it by saying “I never said that”.)

Secondly, in this complaint file, my boss attested that my written work was unacceptable, and that I was incapable of meeting deadlines. Despite my years of experience, she maintained that my reports were poorly thought-out and poorly written. This is nonsense, as I would always base my evaluations on the available facts (or lack thereof). It wasn’t my fault that she had disagreed with my logic. And since every assessment was equivalent to “grasping at straws,” it didn’t help that 95% of all our root-cause analyses consisted of spin doctoring that would please the QA/RA people. And QA/RA would repeatedly give me push-back until I provided them with the right amount of spin, thus my failure to meet deadlines.

Lastly, in this complaint file, my boss revealed how petty and nit-picky she was. Exceedingly detail-obsessed, she griped about how my written work contained typos and missing details- minor errors that could be easily fixed. While I admit that my work lacked these details, it was only because I had not been informed that such information was crucial. It was as if everything must be 100% to her liking the first time around. Furthermore, she slammed me for taking over 45 minutes to sample from a particular batch, stating that it should take only 30 minutes- When in fact, I was feeling under the weather. She further slammed me for staying after-hours to prep these samples- When in fact, I had come in late that day and needed to make up time (which she had known about). And truthfully, I’m appalled that my boss would go out of her way to note how long it took me to do things. And I’m even more appalled that my boss would contradict herself like that, as she had never had a problem with her staff members staying after-hours to complete their projects.

Well, a week after issuing the complaint file, my boss terminated me with the following quote: “I don’t see any potential in you”. According to the official HR file, the official cause of my dismissal was my “inability to perform to my employer’s satisfaction”.

To this day, I feel that my boss just didn’t like me, and that her general ill-will towards me fed into perceptions of performance. She had an apparent disrespect for my feelings and concerns, expressed a lack of compassion and support towards me, and refused to work things out with me. Evidently, my boss had a vendetta against me, and actively sought to get me out of the company.

In the end, though, I believe that what she did to me was flat-out unprofessional, malicious and vindictive. I was very unfortunate to have worked for someone like her.

I apologize if my story seems too fragmented and long-winded. It’s just that I’ve never been fired from a job before, and I’m still struggling to make sense of what had happened. I’ve always thought that managers are supposed to look out for their staff members, and to provide guidance and mentoring. This one manager was the exact opposite.

What do you guys think went amiss between myself and my boss? Is there something truly wrong with me as an employee?

How will I recover from this huge blow to my career? Is it the end of the world for me?

[annerk]

I've been in your shoes. If you were interviewing with me and I asked about your references, and you told me that there might be a problem with your last position due to some organizational challenges within the company, however you had glowing references from previous employers, I'd focus on the good ones.

You do need to be careful to not badmouth the former manager, just keep it vague and use "challenge" instead of "problem." And to be honest, the next person you interview might have worked for that company in the past and be all too familiar with the situation there.

[Jericho-79]

Originally Posted by annerk

You do need to be careful to not badmouth the former manager, just keep it vague and use "challenge" instead of "problem." And to be honest, the next person you interview might have worked for that company in the past and be all too familiar with the situation there.

So, in my future interviews, I shouldn't mention that my former manager had a "micro-managing style" that didn't fit my preference?

I shouldn't mention that my former manager and I "didn't see eye-to-eye" on how an organized (and paperless) system would've facilitated the progress of our work?

[PJ1252]

I've been there done that - I worked in a hospital and love it there - My boss was the VP of Finance of the entire hospital which had a few other divisions - He promoted me once and felt I was doing a good job - About 4 years later then had a reduction in force in which the first wave of lay offs were about 125 employess of which I was 1 - As he was telling me the horrible news he said to run over to HR as there was an opening in another department that I would be a perfect fit for - I did as he suggested but the supervisor of that department was the woman from hell - Although I had heard of her reputation I thought since most people find my personality pleasing and I'm definetely a hard worker all would be well - Well it wasn't - She hated me right off the bat - Part of the problem was I heard a rumor she didn't want me but had to take me due to the situation of the lay offs - She berated me every chance she got as well as in front of others from my department - She had 1 gal that was right up her butt that purposely when I asked her a question would not answer me or would just give the answer and say trust me - Not knowing how to derive the correct answer was not helping me one bit but that was their intention - I heard from another gal in another department that my supervisor was discussing me to other people and she repeated something that I knew she was telling the truth - Since I was having no luck with winning this supervisor over I felt I had no other course than go to her manager - This manager although new didnt know about the numerous people that just disappeared from the department never to return even for their belongings took her side - Eventually I went to my old boss the VP of Finance and told him what was happening - His response was he had heard what that woman was doing to me but he told me there was nothing he could do about it - I also called HR about what was happening and they suggested I apply for other positions in the hospital away from her which I tried but was never hired for - That evil supervisor had been discussing with HR how she could get rid of me - A day came when I had accomplished a task incorrectly as my friendly little co-worker wouldn't tell me how to do it - I broke down crying ran into a private office and called HR - They told me I should go home for the day and calm down - They requested I call them in the morning - It was on my way home that I realized nothing was going to change she hated me and didn't want me there - The next morning I called HR and said this was an impossible situation - That I would leave but I needed to be able to collect unemployment - So a bargin was struck that I left and they didn't contest the unemployment charges - Oh and I became one of the people that disappeared never to collect their belongings - You know what they say about Karma well its true - The manager of my supervisor was demoted just as this deal was struck with HR - My supervisor that evil woman was asked to leave however the official comment is she retired - The Devil and her would never retire - Oops I almost forgot to mention they hired a temp to replace me well she walked out after day 3 -The moral of the story is when your in the wrong place working with the wrong people just get out of Dodge ASAP -
Its not the end of your world believe me - Most prospective employers have a box if they may contact this past employer check no - If they question you about that perhaps saying it just wasn't a good fit might work - It worked for me - I guess once in a while you have to come across people such as we did - The upside for me was 3 months after leaving I found a terrific job at a company I loved with people I adored - Please let me know how your doing in your search - Thanks and wishing you all the best

[duster1979]

Originally Posted by Jericho-79

So, in my future interviews, I shouldn't mention that my former manager had a "micro-managing style" that didn't fit my preference?

I shouldn't mention that my former manager and I "didn't see eye-to-eye" on how an organized (and paperless) system would've facilitated the progress of our work?

Absolutely not. As a neutral observer I believe you were treated unfairly at your last job from what you've said here, but if you told me this story during a job interview.......let's just say that there are 2 sides to every story and after hearing all that I would feel like I needed to get the other person's perspective before I made a decision.

Just say that you never felt comfortable in their system and let it go at that and, as someone else said, focus on the glowing references from your previous employers.

As to the question of why you were treated this way, I'm willing to bet that she wanted somebody else for the position when you were hired and there's absolutely nothing you could have done to improve the situation.

This is far from the end of the world. I wish you the best.

[eek]

its going to feel like the end of the world, tho. good luck.

[Sharecropper]

I'm a chemical engineer as well. Have you been out of work since 2010? How is the interview process going?

[annerk]

Originally Posted by Jericho-79

So, in my future interviews, I shouldn't mention that my former manager had a "micro-managing style" that didn't fit my preference?

I shouldn't mention that my former manager and I "didn't see eye-to-eye" on how an organized (and paperless) system would've facilitated the progress of our work?

Definitely not. Just say that their corporate culture wasn't a good fit for you.

[nomoresnow]

Jericho, you've received some excellent advice here. Never burn your bridges. Things like not seeing eye to eye w/a former manager and her management style not fitting your preference, while honest, would not put you in a good light. Prospective employers may wonder what you would say about them if you were hired.

I, too, have been fired from two positions - one because I was too close to a VP who was fired after a failed takeover (see - politics aren't always good) and one because the VP and I did not get along, even tho I did a terrific job for that co. and was always praised by the customers whom I served. Personalities, unfortunately, do come into play at the work place.

It's my hope for you that, one day, you will look back on this and see that this woman actually did you a favor by firing you. Again, focus on the positives. It sounds like you have a lot of them.

Best of luck to you.

[artsyguy]

No. File it to EEOC though. Don't let people get away with constructive discharge; it's illegal.