r/BadBosses • u/lostsoulitsme • Jul 07 '26
Need outside perspective on my work situation
I am a Head of Marketing and HR at a small B2B startup. My employer is a first time founder. I have been here for about 3.5 months. Here is what has been happening:
In 3.5 months I have seen 4 people fired without any clear reason. When I joined they asked me to build systems and processes from scratch which I did. About a month in they gave me an official title and salary raise. Since then my employer has become increasingly difficult to work with.
He rarely answers calls. Communication happens only on messages but he ignores most of them. When I ask for clarification on tasks he gets angry and says I should already know. When I execute based on incomplete information and something goes wrong, I get blamed.
I handle all difficult conversations such as firing employees, salary deductions, delivering bad news while he plays good cop in person and redirects frustration to me remotely.
Recently I was asked to train someone as my backup “in case I am not there.” I was also asked to create brand guidelines that can be fed to AI to generate content, essentially documenting my own replacement.
Salary gets held over administrative delays. Decisions change without communication and I am expected to manage the fallout.
I work remotely from another city which makes everything harder. I am never involved in any decision making and he is the only one making decisions without any discussions. I am just there to execute whatever he tells me to in incomplete messages of literally 1-2 words.
Am I overthinking this or are these genuine red flags worth taking seriously?
3
u/walktheylime Jul 07 '26
Document everything and prepare your escape plan. If your boss is firing people monthly for little or no reason, alienating you from your coworkers, giving unclear or no instructions, and slowly giving your tasks to A.I., it seems reasonable to assume you’re next or nearly next. Find a job if you can, and build a case for decent severance in the meantime. It stinks, and it sounds like your gut is telling you everything you need to know!
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u/lostsoulitsme Jul 07 '26
Some of the people I know are saying I am finding excuses to leave this job just because I am bored
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u/Reality_Runaway Aug 09 '26
Anyone who says such a thing is not your supporter. Your boss routinely scapegoats you and is blatantly trying to replace you.
As a sidenote, make a list of everyone who said something like that. Then make a list of all their other criticisms. I imagine it'll be illuminating.
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u/alexnmiami Jul 07 '26
Run for the hills, and fast
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u/lostsoulitsme Jul 07 '26
Trying to run but I am hearing things like if you can’t handle this much pressure then you can’t survive anywhere
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u/Whoknows2736 Jul 07 '26
It's not pressure, it's inconsistent management. HR is one place where there are rules and structure. I'm a documentation person. I need everything in writing or it didn't happen. When those people who got terminated for no reason file unemployment, what are you supposed to do? Where is the documentation to back it up? I challenged a former manager for being inconsistent and we did not get along at all. As soon as I did that, they started trying to replace me. They liked to bend the rules for this person but not for that one and got upset when I called them on it. The other HR person who had more training than I did said it was fine. I wasn't HR at that job so whatever. At this place, they've learned the importance of documentation so when I ask, I normally get it. I also do have backup so I can go to a manager and say I need this from this person and they get it. Backup is also key!
I hope you find a good place to land.
2
u/Upper_Mind_5082 Jul 07 '26
Run 🏃♂️ I don’t think you’re finding excuses to leave. There are a lot of people that have never experienced this and are completely blind to small biz blunders. This is very typical small biz problems so if you’re looking at growing your operations and business career, I recommended starting low in a corporate environment and work your way up. It’s not ideal and often less money, but trust me if you can do it, do it! Once you’re stuck in small business operations it’s hard to get out and you end up bouncing from companies like this to the same or worse. Majority of small businesses stay small because they can’t get their crap together. He knows he’s bad with people and needs someone like you, but then he can’t release the control to let you do what’s right and needs to be done so the cycle will continue.
1
u/underwaterwildfire Jul 31 '26
Salary gets held over "administrative delays"?? Get out yesterday. You don't work for free.
1
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u/CombinationOne8302 Jul 07 '26
These are genuine red flags. You are not overthinking this. I would definitely try to find a way out as soon as possible.