First of all, apologies for the long post.
I have name-changed for this as it is pretty outing but I need to get it out of my system and DP is sick to death of me talking about it at home. He thinks I was spoilt by previous bosses who gave me a lot of agency and left me to my own devices so long as I completed my work by the set deadlines.
It feels as though every time I make any kind of progress I also get a massive set back and things never work out how I hope or want.
I won't go into the details but after years of PA type work where TWO bosses left me (!), I have started working in a different field, with a brand new manager, following a kind of merger. This is the opportunity and challenge I craved.
At first, all was good. Manager and I were working together quite intensely to set up and now there is less need with BAU but my new line manager is turning out to be overbearing, always hovering, checking on me - what's on my screen, when I eat. I feel like she spends more time watching me than actually doing her job some days. She changes her mind re what I should be doing day to day and I have had to abandon two pieces of work mid-way through, because she decided to change course.
This is compounded with lots of irritating personal traits such as not finishing her sentences, a fake tinkly laugh, and putting in meetings over lunch or just before home time, which inevitably overrun. I then look like an absolute jobsworth if I want to leave on time or to go eat!
I must stress at this point that I have never missed a deadline, I do my work, I put in overtime during busy periods but expect to go home on time the rest of the time. I also find it difficult to work without a break so I will look at my phone, etc, which line manager finds unacceptable. But of course her hourly smoking breaks are perfectly OK.
It's also bringing out a nasty, passive-aggressive side of me which I immensely dislike. For example, when I noticed she was watching my screen a lot I would put up articles to test my theory - they always related to her vices such as smoking, etc. She inevitably appears behind me asking of I'm busy, have enough work to do.
I dread going in every day. This constant shadow in my life is stressing me to the point of having sleeping issues, grinding my jaw in my sleep for the first time in years, losing my appetite and I'm even wondering if the stress is preventing conception. We have been TTC for a few months now, the plan being to have a baby then review my career. So far no luck.
DP and my friends tell me to just pack it in and go elsewhere but we have been trying for a while and I don't want to leave and find out I am, or fall, pregnant, then be left high and dry without maternity pay.