Being Targeted at work as scapegoat bu demoted boss

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no1nct

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I work at a small not for profit in CT. Recently our Executive Director was fired for mismanagement of funds and the Department of Mental Health brought in an interim ED to get the program solvent again. He is making a lot of changes. One change he made was to promote one of the coordinators to Program Director and me to Assistant Coordinator. From the start the new PD was not happy with his choice of me. She had in mind a coworker who is her close friend(almost like a daughter). She told me she did not think it was legal that I was promoted without giving others a chance to apply. I tried to talk to her about it and she blew me off so I asked for a meeting with her and the ED. He told her that her favorite was never even considered because he had heard nothing good about her performance. He did not care that she had more seniority and that we needed to work together or he did not need either of us.

Since then she has made my life miserable. The ED started calling me at home to run things by me and asked me to come to his office to go over scheduling. When I questioned why he was asking me and not her he told me he wanted to fire her because she could not do the job, but the Board would not let him so he was going to demote her. I made no comment to this, but I had been trying to defend her in previous conversations. His second(a woman appointed by the board of directors) is good friends with my PD and told her that he called me.

Well she was demoted this week and did not take it well of course. She handed in her keys and for about 5 minutes pointed at me and ranted about how I was a snake and back bitter and how I would get what was coming to me. I was dumbfounded since I had nothing to do with her demise as far as I can tell.

Now her good friend is our Office manager. She has been begging this woman to come back. The PD(demoted) told her the only way she would come back was if they got rid of me. Now this office manager has told other coworkers that she is going to go to the board to make the case that I should be fired even though there is not any real grounds to do so. I am sick about this. I have been looking for another job for a few weeks because of the toxic nature of our office. I have a second interview tomorrow and really hope I can just leave this all behind. I am not good at all of the drama, just want to do a job I am good at and go home to my family. But if I don't find a job soon I really need this one.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Thanks.
 
Yes - keep looking for that new job.

I've got nothing buy sympathy for your situation, don't get me wrong. BTDT and got the tee-shirt. But it's not illegal to manage your business badly and nothing you've mentioned gives you any grounds for legal action; there is no law you can invoke to force her to leave you alone or that will protect your job.
 
I didn't think so. However in CT I found instructions to the jury in slander and defamation cases that seems to fit. Adding to the bad getting worse, today she told one coworker in earshot of another that she is waiting for me to mess up so she can right me up twice and fire me. However, she does not have that authority thankfully.

I just wanted to add that all of this current plotting occured after I reported a claim of sexual harassment in behalf of a female coworker. She came to me as her supervisor on duty. When I reported it to the Program Director, she contacted this woman(at the time our Grievance Officer) against the wishes of the person who was harassed. They both loudly protested the fact that I was told first and convinced the woman to withdraw her complaint since she didn't tell them first. When I objected to the handling of the matter the GO told me not to cross her. I dropped the matter since they did talk to the person who did the harassing, and the person who complained doesn't want me to take it any further because she feels bad she got me in trouble. I assured her that none of this is her fault and she should not withdraw her complaint because of it, but she refuses to go forward because she is afraid I will get fired over it. She is afraid that if I leave the company she will have to leave as well because of the situation.
 
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Now that would have been a good detail to include in your original post. Did you mention any of this to HR?
 
We don't have an HR department. Very small company. I formed an outline of the incident and gave it to the interim Executive Director. I haven't heard anything from him.
 
We went from a staff of 13 at my location to just 6 in 2 months. At our sister location there are about 14.

After sleeping on it and talking it over with my family, I have decided to just pretend I haven't heard what she is up to. I am going to continue to do my job as well as I have been and keep looking for another job. I had a great second interview today, but I am still sending out resumes. I had been offered two other jobs in the past year, but declined because I used to enjoy working where I am. I am sure I will find something.
 
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I think that's wise. Particularly since with only 14 employees, you're under the radar for harassment/discrimination issues which limits your options. Good luck to you.
 
Though the Ct. Fair Employment Practices Act protects employees from harassment/discrimination if the employer has 3 or more employees.
 
True enough. But I really don't think this OP has a strong enough case to pursue at this time. If the situation continues AND he can tie it to the SH report, possibly.

Defamation, no. Not happening.
 
I was just saying since thread got into # of employees & protections.
 
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