Out to get me? Or just plain bullying?

Hi.

I work for a small business, approximately 10 employees, including the owner and one of his offspring.

I am employed basically as assistant manager, I am the main customer service person, and am often viewed as being "in charge" when the owner isn't around, along with his daughter.

I earn what I consider to be a good wage for the position.

Recently we are not quite as busy as we usually are, and although the business is still profitable, I suspect the owner sees me as an easy target and fancies saving my salary.

He used to be very hands-on but recently he has taken to spending most of his time sitting in the same office as me, dealing with a few customers and calls, and tinkering with the computer/internet, occasionally venturing into the technical dept to impart wisdom or carry out specialised procedures that our lesser fitters are incapable of.

I have worked here for around 8 years and the owner has always been very moody, sometimes downright rude or uncommunicative but I am usually the opposite, courteous, polite and friendly and I like to build up a rapport with my customers and a lot of them have become friends.

Recently, within the last few months I seem to be being blamed and chastised for certain things which I find unreasonable and sometimes downright ridiculous.

Here's an example. I purchase components as part of my job. We have a regular supplier of a certain type of replacement part, which is not the original manufacturer, but is supposed to be equivalent quality, and indeed I have seen this makers name on brand new assemblies many times. We purchase perhaps 75% of our filters from this manufacturer.

Recently we had a customer return with a leak, and it turned out that the fitter had installed a filter incorrectly, partly because the seal supplied with the filter wasn't quite thick enough and caused a leak. This was apparently my fault for purchasing this item rather than a "genuine" filter, despite my instructions previously being to use the cheaper option as they were cheap, and had been reliable.
I had to endure a lengthy lecture regarding this and my comments were ignored as the tirade continued.

I kind of let that one go and put it down to him having a bad day, but there have been several similar incidents lately, unreasonable rows basically, where he perceives or asserts that something has been my fault, despite it being often the opposite.

Today we had a major issue with a customer's item being damaged beyond repair by basically a fitter's incompetence.
The owner had a hospital appointment so wasn't around when this happened.

I had given the fitter a very specific instruction which he had ignored and decided to go his own way, carrying out a COMPLETELY different procedure, not even remotely related to my instructions, against my wishes, causing major damage which will cost the company a lot of money to rectify.

For some reason I have been the one who has been blamed for this, apparently I didn't make it specifically clear to the fitter that he wasn't to carry out the procedure which caused the damage. This is despite me giving a completely different instruction which would have resulted in a guaranteed ZERO damage being caused.

I was spoken to in great length this morning and it was implied that I am not up to the job and he feels that he cannot trust me in his absence. My day to day work is good, with no problems, but I seem to be being blamed for issues which arise from others failures.

The problem is I can put my points across forever and a day but they are ignored. Todays example the fitter was not disciplined at all, despite being the cause of the damage, and was only asked what I had said to him. I then took the brunt of the backlash.

I am very, very angry/upset and feel I am being bullied here, to the extent that for weeks now the owner barely speaks to me other than to issue instructions and give out lectures for supposed flaws.

It is also very difficult to ask for time off for medical appointments, holidays etc, as he rarely gives a straight answer and seems to enjoy messing with his employee's dates, not just me.

I recently found myself asking for a lunchtime finish on a Saturday for an event I was attending, asking 10 full weeks before I needed it, and only finding out on the Friday evening the day before that it was ok to finish early the next day.

My view is as I said above, that he fancies saving a wage and I think he is trying to "persuade" me to resign, which I think I intend to do as soon as I can find another position. My cv will be updated by tomorrow evening. I am usually laid-back, almost horizontal but I feel a line was crossed today and there's no going back as far as I can see.

I am sorry to be so vague, but I am also being discrete.

Just interested in folks thoughts, and partly wanted to vent.

I have no-one to speak to at work about this as it is the owner himself who is the problem(s), or maybe it is me who is the problem after all...:think: