My manager is a pedant

LegacyUser

I'm 4 months into a job with a 6 month probation period. I have an assessment coming up soon, and I'm terrified its going to be negative. Recently my boss has been picking at everything I do, double checking everything. When she finds a (usually small) error she stares at me, makes a comment, or generally exaggerates its importance. I can't breathe, I'm constantly being interrogated like this. Its incredibly demoralising and frightening. I can't sleep because of this, this woman is driving me mad. Objectively speaking I'm not bad at my job, I know I'm generally competant though capable of the odd slip up (Like most people) The thing is this woman now has it in for me and is double checking everything I do. Its impossible to do good work when your boss is breathing over your shoulder all the time. She is a complete pedant and she is smashing my confidence. I think she might be gearing up to fire me.

I'm honestly terrified. Has anyone else been in this position before? I think she only ever see's the bad and never the good, she literally wants me sacked, thats what I think.

tenchi-fan

She sounds like a useless manager. I worked with someone like that in my last job. In the end, her manager bumped her off the team because she was so useless. Then I left in the knowledge that I beat the dragon.

If I were you I'd start looking for a new job just to have something to fall back on in the event that they decide not to keep you beyond probation (it looks a lot better to jump rather than get pushed). Besides, you're clearly not happy at being micromanaged so hopefully you find a better job.

I think you might be worrying about nothing though. There's little benefit in a company keeping someone on for 6 months and waste all that training and experience (unless of course they have a FAS intern lined up)

LegacyUser

dear anxiousandgutted
I know how you feel as this sounds like an ex manager I had. My employer asked me to move into a different department where I was getting on well until this person became my manager. After that I was mico managed more than a child in pre-school. Even the other people where I worked commented to me on how I was treated by the manager.
I would speak to another person you work with outside work about your manager as they may have noticed how your been treated. They may be able to give you some tips from past experience on how to deal with your manager.
I would keep a note of all meetings and what is been said to you each day by your manager - note the comments ect and note who was around when the comment was made.
You can use this information to make a complaint about your boss to hr if this keeps up.
I would mention to hr that you have spoken to a solicitor about the way you have been treated. Hr legal cases can cost a company a lot of money so they will take notice.
If you don't want to do this see what your companies policy is regarding sick leave. You could use a few days sick leave if you can arrange a few interviews at the same time.
If you don't get another job soon I would go to hr about your manager. Why should you put up with been bullied each day.