I believe I am in a hostile work environment, being set up for failure

[fallendown]

I work at a Fortune 500 company, and I am certain I am being set up for failure.

I have worked at this company as a supervisor 3 and a half years with a record of excellent employee performance reviews.

My company promoted a peer of mine to become my manager about 7 months ago (we'll call him John). Things seemingly went well during the past 7 months.

 

Suddenly, he is on a mission to make a poor written record of my performance. He has called me multiple times at home during my day off (including Christmas Day) to yell at me I did not properly reply to all of the emails in an inbox. Because of this stress, I felt compelled to log on to my computer the next day (Sunday) to make a log of all of the emails in the inbox to prove they had indeed been answered correctly. (I get paid hourly, not salary, and I am not paid for these phone calls or the time working on proofing my work)

It has been a non-stop ordeal for the past 2 weeks where I am constantly sending reports proving his most current assertion is ungrounded or false. 

In December his review of me said "Dan has demonstrated behaviors by engaging in team work and being consistent in assisting clients and customers.---Dan continues to be consistent in his performances and produced results."

Yesterday, I sent him an email stating "I understand you believe my performance has been inconsistent for the past 2 weeks?" 

His response was "Your performances has not been consistent for the past 3 years however the documentation has begun in 2022."

I deliberately used his own words in my question to see if he would send an obvious contradiction, he did. Now I'm not sure what to do. His boss tends to really listen and value him, but this seems too obvious to me. 

From a glance, how does this appear to an outsider? What advice do you have?

 

[Rose Mosse]

Ask to meet with him or have a call to go over if you’re missing anything. 

Take this as an opportunity to learn and see what’s missing in your work or review again what the employer’s expectations are. 

I had this happen once to me and realized quickly I must be missing something. The person above me was trying to tell me more was expected. As soon as I got the info I needed I was able to excel quicker and did very well. 

Your new manager just sounds new and green in the role too. Take the opportunity to learn exactly what he wants and be open to suggestions.

[reinventmyself]

Go to HR with what you just shared here.

[DancingFool]

2 hours ago, fallendown said:

He has called me multiple times at home during my day off (including Christmas Day) to yell at me I did not properly reply to all of the emails in an inbox. Because of this stress, I felt compelled to log on to my computer the next day (Sunday) to make a log of all of the emails in the inbox to prove they had indeed been answered correctly. (I get paid hourly, not salary, and I am not paid for these phone calls or the time working on proofing my work)

What's in bold is literally illegal. Start documenting every single phone call, as in get a recording app and start recording these calls. Also, document every single minute you are spending working because the company owes you money for it. Take all the documentation, including any abusive calls and go to HR.

If HR does nothing, go to an employment law attorney and take the company to the cleaners over this. You can also file formal complaints about unfair wage practices with your state employment division as well as federal Department of Labor WHD.

Meanwhile, start looking for another job. Good time for that regardless. Fighting with a toxic manager who is in bed with the manager above him is a waste of time, unless you have the means to go above both of them and become best buds with a higher up manager who can kick both of them where it hurts.

[Jibralta]

3 hours ago, fallendown said:

how does this appear to an outsider? What advice do you have?

I agree that documentation and logging is important. 

Your situation seems a lot like a situation I was in just as I was starting my career change. It was so inconvenient because it happened right as I was studying for my GREs. I found myself, for various reasons, cornered and persecuted by my direct manager (Ti) and the division manager (Mary Ann).

I'd gotten four star performance reviews every year at this company-the highest you could get--since I'd started five years before. And one day, my work was suddenly substandard. They were saying that my coworkers were more productive that I was, that I did less work, and that I was taking longer to complete my tasks than everyone else.

It was total B.S. 

I had to have these weekly 'remedial' meetings with Ti and Mary Ann to show them what I was doing and 'justify' why my work was 'slow' and 'substandard.' It was crazy. This went on for about two months, but felt like forever. It was especially stressful because I was spending all of my free time studying for the GREs. I went from loving my job to dreading it.

Finally, I decided to take action. My job involved heavy analysis and I was very, very good at hashing massive 40,000-line spreadsheets into digestible reports. Despite the fact that these two yo-yos claimed to know what was going on, they were actually clueless. I downloaded two years' worth of data and prepared a report that showed that not only was I doing more work than my coworkers, I was also doing their work for them, and I was doing all of it faster than anyone else!!!

When I presented the report to Ti and Mary Ann at our next meeting, Ti shrugged it away, but Mary Ann was the division manager and she knew better. As Ti embarked upon her customary list of criticisms of my work, Mary Ann poured over the analysis. Not long after that, Ti was reprimanded and they both left me alone. Mary Ann was actually a bigger snake than Ti, but she didn't face any consequences. That year, my sixth year, I got a three star review lol! 

[Alex39]

On 1/11/2022 at 9:54 AM, fallendown said:

I work at a Fortune 500 company, and I am certain I am being set up for failure.

I have worked at this company as a supervisor 3 and a half years with a record of excellent employee performance reviews.

My company promoted a peer of mine to become my manager about 7 months ago (we'll call him John). Things seemingly went well during the past 7 months.

 

Suddenly, he is on a mission to make a poor written record of my performance. He has called me multiple times at home during my day off (including Christmas Day) to yell at me I did not properly reply to all of the emails in an inbox. Because of this stress, I felt compelled to log on to my computer the next day (Sunday) to make a log of all of the emails in the inbox to prove they had indeed been answered correctly. (I get paid hourly, not salary, and I am not paid for these phone calls or the time working on proofing my work)

It has been a non-stop ordeal for the past 2 weeks where I am constantly sending reports proving his most current assertion is ungrounded or false. 

In December his review of me said "Dan has demonstrated behaviors by engaging in team work and being consistent in assisting clients and customers.---Dan continues to be consistent in his performances and produced results."

Yesterday, I sent him an email stating "I understand you believe my performance has been inconsistent for the past 2 weeks?" 

His response was "Your performances has not been consistent for the past 3 years however the documentation has begun in 2022."

I deliberately used his own words in my question to see if he would send an obvious contradiction, he did. Now I'm not sure what to do. His boss tends to really listen and value him, but this seems too obvious to me. 

From a glance, how does this appear to an outsider? What advice do you have?

 

This happens to me too in the past. This guy is tracking your every move and sadly sounds like he's building a case against you to get rid of you. He may be doing this per himself or someone else in the company is saying to get rid of you. Do not take this personally or feel like you aren't a good worker. When this happened to me I was so hurt and upset. I finally left my company. 

I highly suggest looking for other jobs. This is only going to get worse.