When good jobs turn bad

I was once told by a former manager that you had to be careful what you wished for, be it work or in life. I never quite understood what he meant until I was transferred to Boston for a few weeks that turned into almost two years. I thought that was cool, something I hadn't asked for, so why should I be sorry? However, his words of warning did come true this time.  I was interviewed for a job in May 2015, the job description met my wish list and the people who interviewed me were lovely, what could go wrong!? The gap between the interview and starting was almost 5 weeks due to security checks etc.  Once I started, both those lovely people from the interview had resigned and my adventure and downward spiral began.  I won't name the place I worked, for obvious legal reasons, let’s call it the Commission and see how many of you guess where it is? 

My first 2 months weren't too bad but when the vacancy for my line manager was finally filled, so my troubles began.  We clashed almost every day (she didn't just clash with me), undermined me, criticized me, changed how my work was done without consultation etc. and made decisions about the team that impacted more on me and my assistant more than anyone else. Now I have never been a workaholic and think my work life balance is a good one but it reached the point at which I dreaded going in to work.

My level of education, intelligence and my integrity were all questioned by my new line manager.  By November I was ready to leave but she had temporarily been demoted back to her old job due to unfinished projects and I was given breathing space, or so I thought.  The new, temporary, line manager was less of a tyrant but more of a snitch and certainly two faced, I was warned about her but naivety struck and this came to bite me on my arse by February. I took some of the criticism on board, realized that the CEO and Chair were very very difficult to please and that I was never going to be as good as the person I replaced (she was often mentioned in meetings when my work was being talked about) but I could try and remove the look of disdain on their faces when I met with them.  It never happened.

I returned to work after a lovely holiday in Italy to be confronted with an accusation of time-sheet fraud by my line manager that had been brought to her attention by her temporary replacement, the person I thought was my friend, now known to people there as the “poison dwarf”  How wrong I have been. The accusation was more of an implication/insinuation/snide gossip and though I could respond to it by explaining I was bad at time recording rather than being the fraudster they thought me to be, I realized it was time to go.  They couldn't tell me how much time I owed them despite my requests. I resigned the following day, reluctantly and certainly under duress. Now I await their response. A job I thought would be a good one, in an admirable organization but even the best organization has bad people in it!

I started writing this post 2 months ago, when my feelings about the Commission were raw.  I found another job pretty quickly (a temp job in a great regulator with great people) and but this was not long lasting for positive reasons. I was interviewed for a much senior, much more demanding role on May 19th and was offered the role on May 20th and I start on June 6th. I am nervous and my confidence has not yet recovered from my time at the Commission and I am still waiting for them to respond to my formal complaint, it has taken them 2 months so far with excuses galore. 

Update

So I finally received my response to my complaint, as I suspected, they sided with my manager, said we had a clash of personality, ignoring her poor management style etc. and the tone of the email from the CEO was basically telling me to get stuffed.  

June 4, 2016