I work for a private company and have done so for less than 2 years. When I started I had an excellent line manager with regular 1:1 meetings. No concerns about my performance were raised and I had excellent feedback.
My line manager suddenly went off sick a few months ago and very quickly my workload rocketed. I had no clear line manager and all of a sudden 4 senior management priorities became mine. I couldn’t cope. I was invited to a meeting where this was discussed and again no issues were raised about my performance and support offered. I don’t know why but this meeting, despite the “supportive measures” made me feel uneasy to the point I asked if I was being performance managed. I was reassured this was not the case and again no performance issues were identified.
A senior manager then began to oversee my department, again we had regular 1:1 meetings and no issues or concerns ever raised. For several months I have raised concerns about my workload and how unmanageable it has been.
I now have another line manager, someone who is new to the organisation and new to the role. Things seemed to be going well but again my workload intensified and I began to suffer with work related stress. After a few weeks it reached a peak where I was struggling to even manage my workload, didn’t know where to start and would just sit and cry in my office. One afternoon I was invited for a catch up where I was told there were issues with my performance and that I would need to meet with HR and my manager in a few days to discuss. I explained I agreed that my performance wasn’t great but this was as a direct result of the level of stress I was under at work. I thought I would be supported with this but my manager continued with informal capability management. I was given a list of things I had not done, many of which I would have been able to address and rectify if someone had actually just said to me these needed to change. I accept I wasn’t in a great place. I now feel that my job is not safe and I have no choice but to leave the organisation. I then had several weeks off with work related stress. Several of the things they asked me to do we’re supposed to have been picked up whilst I was off work but on my return I was told these were no longer needed. If this is the case why am I been managed because I didn’t do them? I had valid (or so I thought) reasons why I hadn’t done them earlier.
There is much more to this but any further information I give would be far too outing. Just to be clear I accept that there are areas I could have done better in but if there were issues, I certainly wasn’t informed of them and have not been given the opportunity to correct this.
Sorry this was so long but I’m hoping someone can offer guidance. I have consulted my trade union already and I am waiting to meet a rep. Like I say, there is more to this but can not elaborate further. There is currently someone else in my role and I have been asked to consider leaving my department to work so I can “catch-up”