I am just looking for help here on how to back myself up as I have had two very negative situations arise with my employer and a co-worker. To give the background on this, I have been working in this professional field for just three years- I’m 52 and retrained when my children were much older. I did my work experience in the very small town that I live in and that turned into a job for me. I am paid a very low wage (I could make the same in retail or a supermarket for example), but accepted the trade off for convenience and zero commuting time. A lifestyle choice.
One of the jobs I was responsible for was a bit beyond my capabilities and I asked my employer for help. This person is very busy and tends to leave tasks aside until they become urgent or will give them to a co-worker. This particular co-worker is a long term worker in my field, younger but more experienced, very small town minded but very good at her job. This is the second time that this has happened to me. She will go to employer and say that I have basically left the job a mess when I left unfinished business to employer to help me with. Employer does not remember because job was put on hold until he could give it to her to finish. Now they both blame me and throw me under the bus!
If I were to be cynical, I would feel that I am paid so poorly it’s not worth the stress to care anyway but I like the job, I want to learn more and improve and my employer can be a very good person. It’s just that we have a work environment with literally zero training, and you just hate interrupting people to help you out.
And this co-worker is pretty toxic. She’s happy to sell you out and go whisper to everybody about you. She pretends to be your friend but really is very gossipy.
What should I do to protect my job and my integrity? I don’t feel like a person who is incompetent for their position but as somebody older who re-trained I feel they take for granted that I should have the 20 years or so experience they have even though I really have 3???