I've worked on project A since it began in 2012. I'm freelance. It means approx 3 months work for me every 2 years so it's a significant but not overwhelming part of my income. It's something that is good for my CV but also I really like the team there and we have developed something really good.
I work with/alongside but not really for another person (I'll call her X) to facilitate the work. She's kind of my line manager but she's also freelance. I worked with her on another, larger project (Project B) for the past 2 years as well. It was a good career move for me and a bigger earner.
X wanted me to work on Project B and got me the job, but she turned out to be very difficult to work with. She used me as a buffer between her and people that she couldn't deal with politely. She was very opinionated about my life although she thinks she's doing this as a friend - she is so confident about her opinions that she thinks they are welcome and she's quite overwhelming.
She is part of my social circle (not by choice, I live and work in a small world) so this adds to my dilemma.
She organised the budget for project B and allocated herself three times what she did for me for our subsistence expenses (which were not that different). I ended up self funding to be able to travel to do the work.
Last year I suffered from a mental health crisis while we were doing Project B and I distanced myself from X because I needed to isolate myself within the intense environment that is typical of my work. Part of my struggle was working with her, and the budget situation.
I finished the project with great difficulty but to a very good standard. I had addressed the unequal budget allocation to our higher line manager but it was never properly dealt with.
X emailed me in the late summer to say that she was really disappointed that I hadn't told her about my mental health problems and also that I hadn't told her that I'd managed a particular project (C) she had just heard about, and that it was only due to her that I had the contacts there to be able to get the work. PLOT TWIST: I was nothing to do with Project C, one of my friends did it but it was on their own merit and I wasn't involved at all.
I explained this to X but didn't get an apology or even an acknowledgement of her mistake. She said we should meet up for a coffee and a chat to talk about work next year, I agreed but we then were both too busy for it to happen.
This year I worked on other projects and was expecting to return to Project A in early 2020, where the workplace is less intense as we are both part of a bigger team. I was looking forward to it and had told X so.
Last week X emailed me to tell me that she had replaced me on Project A. I didn't even think it was her prerogative to do so but there you go, the freelance world is like that. Her reasons for doing so were faintly ridiculous and it's clearly because she doesn't feel like working with me - I have withstood her bullying and and not opened up my life to her. I'm sure she doesn't see it like this but I am really upset at being kicked off the project.
However I'm glad to be free of her. Other work will come. I'm sad to lose my team on Project A and I don't know how she managed to get this past them but I have to let it go now.
I just need to respond to her final email saying she's replaced me.
Can I say that I'm shocked and upset? I've been deliberating this for a week and this is my overwhelming feeling. I wanted to be bright and breezy but it's not how I'm feeling at all.
It's just not worth going into the minutiae of how she thinks she can do this. I will carry on bumping into her and she could further affect my work prospects if I try to argue about her action.