Hi, I need help.
I’m an immigrant 33F and have been working at a chip manufacturing company for the past seven years. Recently, a colleague 38M I’ve had professional tensions with was promoted to be my director. We both work as machine learning engineers, and in the past, I’ve challenged some of his work. Back then, he often spoke to me rudely, and I reported his behavior to our previous director, who gave him a warning.
Since he became my director, I’ve been facing what feels like retaliation. He consistently bullies me — he micromanages my work, criticizes me in front of teammates, and assigns me poor projects while keeping better opportunities away. He even tried to block my code from going into production. Almost daily, he sends emails to the whole team pointing out my mistakes in a way that feels targeted and humiliating.
I’m feeling stuck and unsure of what to do. Should I ask him in a private meeting to stop treating me this way, or should I bring it up in front of the team? Should I go to HR? I’m scared that if I do, I might face further retaliation or even get laid off.
Please, I really need advice.
Comments
Time to look for a new job. The business won’t want to hear it and you don’t have a future there anymore.
Record every interaction, print out or save into your personal email/laptop a copy of every email he sent to the team that contains bullying. Save any Teams/whatsapp messages, take screenshots. Write down every negative interaction with time and date. Save any proof of the previous interaction with the director when he was given a warning. As much as possible, discuss things with him via email citing verbal interactions, e.g., “following up on our discussion in the office today about X, I’m doing Y” so there is an email trail of what’s been agreed on regarding a task.
Save all of these on a personal laptop which your company doesn’t have access to. Join a union if it’s possible.
You need to start looking for a new job while building a solid case against this guy. Depending on where you live, there might be external support available from state institutions or charities. Start doing interviews and planning your exit whilst building a paper trail against this guy. Then escalate to senior leadership and HR and, if that doesn’t work, employment tribunal.
Record interactions and speak to your HR business partner