I started my current job in lockdown. All was well until previous happy line manager left for new job. She wasn't replaced so my line manager automatically became the director of the company. A stern man who constantly talks about how busy he is and dismisses any new ideas. I was pretty much left alone in my role which was fine to begin with. However, in the past couple of months I was given several high level tasks by the director that were not in my original job spec and I did these to the best of my ability. Being new to the company there were many things I did not know the answers to or just not aware of eg. future aims, company direction etc. To do these specific things I asked the director many questions to which he usually replies 'yes' or 'no' via email in quite a rude approach or giving a one line response with an exclamation mark and never saying thank you for anything. A couple of things I completed have never been done within the company before. I spent a lot of time on these including working well into the evening and I was happy with the result. Members of the team gave much positive feedback except director who said it was not exactly what he had asked for and expected me to focus on other areas instead. He said thank you for one bit of work I had done but it seemed like a real strain for him just to say that!
I had another task to do recently which the director asked me to assist in. It was hugely complicated and in order to complete it I needed decisions to be made by people higher up. I emailed all of them asking for clear direction and in the meantime did all I could, spent many extra hours on it and sent this to the director. I didn't receive any reply before I left which I thought was a bit rude. I was away for a few days on leave which had been scheduled long before this deadline. I had a meeting with director today and could not believe how rude he was. He said he was very disappointed I didn't complete the task and how other members of the team had to pick up all the missing pieces! He asked how I would change things if I had to do said task again because I hadn't done what was required and he has expected much more! I stuck up for myself, saying I couldn't complete task because I was waiting for other decisions to be made higher up. He said I should have preempted these answers and completed task prior to the deadline. I said again I did all I could and went into detail about all the thing I did do! I feel what he has said was completely uncalled for and really unnecessary. I've put so much effort in that task and this role generally, feel I have worked above and beyond as well as starting in lockdown and having no direct line manager and am shocked and upset by this meeting. He went on to ask how I saw my role progressing in the next few months and if I need more support I should just say so (despite many emails to him that he barely answer). Where do I go from here? I can't see his attitude or lack of appreciation ever improving. The role and colleagues are the pros in this job as well as the security etc but after today's meeting I feel incredibly under-appreciated and feel like leaving now. Wwyd?