Employee Says She Was Wrongfully Targeted By A New Female Boss After Thriving With Her Former Male Boss
She emphasizes the challenges women face from other women in the workplace and the need for supportive environments.
Antonio Guillem / Shutterstock A woman is devastated after being forced to leave the company where she worked for five years. While she claims that there was nothing wrong with her job position itself, her boss became a nightmare to work with, leaving her with no choice but to leave the company.
Prior to working with her, the woman alleges that she had no issues with her former employer and cannot help but wonder if her gender had anything to do with it.
The woman says that she was mistreated by her female boss after working for a male boss with no issues for two years.
Zoe (@zoe61443), who recently left her corporate job due to her female boss’ treatment of her, took to TikTok to share her story. She hopes to raise awareness among other young workers, especially young women, who this may happen to at their workplaces.
According to Zoe, she worked for the undisclosed company for five years. After working in the same department over the last two years, Zoe and her team received new leadership in November.
Right off the bat, Zoe said her new female boss appeared to have an issue with her. “It’s not going well, and I have no idea why,” she recalled. “I can tell she just doesn’t like me.”
Prior to having a female boss, Zoe says that she worked with a male employer and everything was smooth sailing.
Zoe’s new boss eventually put her on an “improvement plan” for metrics. In the corporate world, a metrics improvement plan involves a systematic approach to identify areas of improvement, set specific goals, and implement strategies to enhance performance.
This was all new territory for Zoe and her team, as they had never used metric plans before. “I never had a chance to get my metrics up because we never had metrics,” Zoe said.
Photo: Africa images / Canva Pro
Although she was able to eventually increase her metrics, Zoe claimed that when the holidays came around, the workload at her job dropped significantly and there was not much to do.
Therefore, her metrics began to decline. “I had one week before Christmas where my metrics were really low and it was honesty because there was nothing to do,” she said.
Four weeks after steadily increasing her metrics, Zoe said that she had “one slip up” involving a time clock issue at work. She claimed that her boss was “livid” and held a meeting with her and HR.
“When HR ever comes on a meeting, you’re getting fired,” Zoe said.
Although they did not end up firing her during the meeting, Zoe was given the option either to leave the company of her own free will or abide by a new improvement plan. Zoe decided to stay and reached out to her boss’ leader to resolve the time-clock issue and get her metrics back up.
After the issue was cleared, Zoe said that her metrics were where they needed to be “90% of the time.”
Still, she alleged that her boss made false allegations about her, claiming that she was “unproductive” and “unable to communicate with the team.” She was also angry that Zoe had gone to her leader to work out the time clock issue instead of agreeing to the new improvement plan.
Believing that the damage was beyond repair, Zoe made the heartbreaking decision to leave her job.
Zoe felt that she had no recourse other than to leave her job due to the toxic work environment, however, after learning that she was quitting, Zoe’s boss claimed that she had “made a terrible mistake.”
“[She said] that I am one of the highest performing people on the team and that she’s really sad to see me leave and that she wishes I would have done the improvement plan because she never thought that I was going to leave,” she said.
Zoe said that her boss’ apology came far too late.
“I don’t know how she sleeps at night,” she said. “They created a whole narrative about me that was completely false and when I challenged them they ended up being wrong, and now I’m stuck jobless because I decided that I’m not gonna be treated that way.”
Other people praised Zoe for having the self-respect to leave her job and agreed with her claims that female bosses could be toxic toward other female employees.
“All of the female managers I’ve had have been awful. I’m so sorry this happened to you,” one TikTok user commented.
“I was in an all-female department. I was almost fired because of false claims. Now I’m thriving in a mostly male department. The other department is now on its third in my old position,” another user shared. “This is outrageous. You did the right thing,” another user wrote.
Others encouraged Zoe to seek the help of an attorney or contact HR to report her former boss.
Despite her boss’ attempt to smooth things over and get Zoe back to work, she said that she has no plans to return and 'deal with her deceptive and jealous ways.'
As upset as she is that she felt forced to leave her job, Zoe admitted she doesn't want to put herself back in that situation again. Instead, she has taken her severance and moved on.
Unfortunately, what she gleaned from her bad boss was that “women hate other women,” especially in the workplace.
It is no secret that women can be rather cut-throat toward each other at work.
A study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that women report rudeness from their female co-workers much more often than their male colleagues.
“Women, rather than building each other up and helping — sometimes we tear each other down,” author of the study, psychologist, and assistant professor of management and organizations at the University of Arizona, Alison Gabriel told Today “It’s problematic. We found that women who reported this type of incivility from other women were more likely to say that they were unsatisfied at work … it can also be reflected in their emotional well-being.”
Even if they may feel threatened by other females in the work environment, lifting each other up rather than tearing each other down will only promote work productivity and a steady work environment.
Photo: PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock
Supporting fellow women creates a sense of empowerment, fostering a culture where everyone feels valued, confident, and capable.
A supportive environment fosters a culture of collective success, where achievements are celebrated together, creating a positive and motivating atmosphere. In essence, this creates a productive work environment overall, and one where employees never feel as if they have no choice but to leave a position they once loved.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.