Issues with manager - long Read

Issues with manager - long Read

Good afternoon,

I was welcomed into an organization based on my experience and new perspectives, considering I was new to this particular conglomerate. I ended up joining a small team who I learned were sorely under staffed, undervalued, overworked and disgruntled due to, who I learned, was a selfish micromanager. The manager was also used to scolding and demeaning their team, so they were all mentally checked out.

I found out quickly that there was WAY more to the job than explained during my interview (surprise). Initially, I tried my best to step up when asked to volunteer, especially when no one else would. I found out they had NO established written policies, procedures or job aids. I had to remember what the manager said to know how to do the job. I immediately started looking for a job, but I was quickly overwhelmed and couldn’t summarize the totality of this job for it to make sense on a resume.

In meetings, I questioned a lot because although I’m not new to the work, the way this department did things was completely different and didn’t make sense according to laws and guidance I’d been following for several years in previous positions. Initially, the questions were welcomed, until later, I saw more things that were clear audit findings. I expressed my concerns, even asking who the was regulatory agency. The manager said there are no audits or any known regulatory agency.

Fast forward- I had an evaluation with the manager and all of a sudden, there were “complaints” about my tone. Manager said they understood my frustrations due lack of training and job aids, but I had to remain composed even when they piled on more work. I asked them to give me examples of the complaints and they couldn’t or they tried to bring up things that happened months prior to the previous evaluation that I thought were discussed and resolved. Eventually more people quit, so duties piled on even more. Things became more confusing, more people emailing me for things I’d never seen or done before or requesting my signature, so I would forward them to the manager asking for guidance. I started getting very nasty, unprofessional and threatening replies from the manager in response to my inquiries, and that prompted me to join the union.

Recently, I was asked to approve funding and I could not verify in the accounting system. Random numbers were provided by the manager that I was told to apply, so I asked them, “where did you get these numbers from and how can I verify them?” In that email, I provided screenshots from the system to show them what I saw - the account balance didn’t match they sent, so, I applied the accounting based on what I saw in the system, not according to their email. Instead of providing guidance for my understanding, the manager decided put a note into the financial system that I was breaking the law by exceeding the budgeted amount based on part of the accounting. Part of the accounting, that they later confirmed through email, couldn’t be verified in the system because the system didn’t have that capability. So, if the system doesn’t have the capability to verify the numbers provided to me, thus admitting there’s no way for me to verify the information they gave, HOW was I breaking the law? And why was the manager so compelled to make that statement in the system instead of having the discussion with me, when we were already corresponding through email? I just did what the manager told me to do, since that’s clearly the issue here, and kept the email for my records. I sent all of this information to my union representative.

The next day, before I logged off, I received a very long email from the manager with their expectations of professionalism and a copy of the organization’s ethics policy. They never mentioned how we could collaborate or work better as a team, or took responsibility for their actions that led to this mess (I know, why would I expect that?) I’ve been diligently applying for jobs because I know this manager is going to reflect all of this on my final evaluation to give me a low score, thus preventing me from moving on to another organization under this conglomerate.

What should I do, besides the obvious (find another job and quit)?