Hi all,
I started a new job in early December, in an industry I have 11 years experience in at senior levels, but in a different sector.
the first month has been great, as expected to be a new start in a company. Note the company is very small, 8 people in total and all other staff members are immediate family.
the person training me went off on annual leave a couple of weeks ago and everything from then on has just come tumbling down and I'm left feeling so angry at how I've been treated. I am a respectful and educated 30 year old woman and single mum, without a single blemish on my career history to date.
i started being ignored. I'd walk in, in the morning and just say 'morning' and nobody would acknowledge me. Then (as I'm still in training) came eye rolls and grunts. I ask questions and make sure I'm doing the right thing and I get grunted at or told 'do what you want to do.' I've had no support whatsoever. They handed me a training manual in a binder folder and that was that.
there was a specific task I had been allocated and there were 2 separate ways of doing it. I checked with management that I could do it either way and they confirmed. I completed the task successfully and got shouted at across the office saying I'm wrong. I have been told to 'shut up' when everyone else was talking about their personal lives, the person opposite me asked what I'm having for dinner. Was told to shut up.
I've been mocked at and spoken to badly about things I haven't yet been taught about. When I try to tell them I haven't been taught I got shut down. This diminished my confidence completely and I started to doubt my work. Which resulted in more questions and more eye rolls.
it's largely a phone based role, there are no scripts and I've been left to my own devises. My calls have been listened to for the first month as I'm in training, all good. I was told I wasn't answering the phone correctly 2 days ago (after being on the phones since early December) and instead of saying '(company name XX speaking how can I help' I was told I need to say 'hello / good morning' beforehand. All fine! It would've helped if I got told this earlier on when I was getting live listened to but anyway all fine. So my next calls I say 'hello (company name) XX speaking how can I help' I get yelled at again and get told I have to say good morning. That by me saying hello is giving the clients an attitude they didn't ask for.
I start writing references down where other staff just say 'hello Jane speaking' as at this point I thought I was being singled out to keep a record. No one else is held up to this standard. Everyone has the same role, there is no 'hierarchy' so to speak, we all do the same job.
I have been shouted at and yelled at. This morning was the worst of all, being called names under their breath, speaking about me to each other. They are all family and it's a tiny company, no HR or anything like that. I was told to go outside for a word and at this point I put my Apple Watch on record. I was shouted at, I asked if I could speak I was told no, I asked if I could explain myself I was told no, to get out and never come back. I walk back in the office shaking on the brink of tears and get my things. One of the slightly nicer employees reminds me to pick up my medication and not forget it. She gets told to sush. It gets announced in front of the whole office 'XX IS LEAVING AND NEVER COMING BACK' no privacy or decency whatsoever. I feel so humiliated.
I have never ever experienced anything like this. I am hard working and at no point were any concerns raised to me, at all. A couple of 'FYI we do it this way' type things but that was it.
I have been made to feel so fucking small. I'm a single mum, Ive spent the last 5 years working through chemotherapy to stay afloat and thought now I'm better to go for a new career and a new challenge.
I have only been there for a couple of months, do I legally have any leg to stand on? They would also openly discuss and make comments about my medical conditions between each other. They sold me the dream in the interview. It is the most bizarre company I've ever come across.
I have the recording on my Apple Watch and I've listened to it back and I'm so angry at how they've treated me. I genuinely don't know what's gone wrong. They said they will pay me for my hours worked.
is there anything I need to be doing now, or could be doing legally?
thanks all if you've read this far.
fucking devastated and barely surviving at the moment as it is. It's brought back so many emotions and memories of me being bullied during my school years.
just feel like a fucking failure.