The ringtone of my phone brings me back to reality as I sit at home fuming over a two-day suspension that I’d been handed a week earlier. Not expecting anyone to be calling, I’m even more surprised to see it’s the office.

Debbie, a co-worker, asks me “have you heard?”

“No, what?”

“Kim’s resigned,” she says.

“Are you sure,” I ask, thinking this is too good to be true?

“Yes,” she responds. “I found out from a very reliable source. You won!”

As I stare at the phone after we hang up, my feelings are mixed. Relief it’s over, and rage over what I endured in the past year and a half.

It started slowly. For the first six months things were fine. Looking back, I saw glimpses of what was to come; it’s always easier to see those things when you’re looking back.

But, I clearly remember when the 18 months of hell began.

We were in a staff meeting when Kim mentioned she was planning on removing a communication tactic we’d had in place for more than 10 years. I jokingly laughed and said “good luck with that.”

Following the meeting, she pulled me into her office. The look on her face was pure rage. I remember thinking smoke should be coming out of her ears. When she started on me about making her look incompetent in front of her staff, I was baffled. I had no idea what I had done.

Once she clarified it was that I ‘mocked’ her when I laughed, I told her I laughed because things just don’t happen that way here. I stressed it was not personal yet she continued to berate me and threaten me if I ever insulted her again.

That was the beginning of the end for me. Everything I wrote, even emails, came back ripped apart. When I questioned her why all of a sudden I couldn’t write, she turned it around. She asked me why all of a sudden I was providing crappy copy.

I fought back. I told her writing was subjective. Anyone could rip apart someones writing. Another senior editor began to review my work when I complained. That put an end to that.

She still didn’t give up, she just looked for other ways to ‘write me up’ for investigative meetings she started having where she would provide me with a list of things I’d done wrong.

I work a four-day work week and worked longer hours. She started coming in early to see if she could ‘catch’ me coming in late. I’d just shake my head and think you are really desperate.

She would ‘make-up’ work for me and then not say anything about it until an investigative meeting. I never even saw the work after I gave it to her, just the feedback. Things like “the plan was not strategic enough,” but was never told why it wasn’t strategic enough.

Because I ‘didn’t know what I was doing,’ she started doing my work and attending meetings on my behalf. She gave me the junior tasks I did seven years prior. Then she’d complain about how much work she had to do because she had to do my work.

She set up weekly one-on-one meetings with me. She’d take me into a room that held a small table and two chairs and tell me everything I’d done wrong that week while telling me how stupid I was.

She took away my telework days, removed me from the crisis communication team and tried, but never succeeded, in making me work a five-day work week instead of four.

She changed my hours so I was in the office later.

I HAD TO take my lunch from noon to 1 p.m.

She questioned me anytime I was not at my desk.

She made me open my calendar to her so she could view it. She’d ask about any meetings that she didn’t know about. If I had a ‘private appointment’ scheduled she made me open it.

If she saw me having coffee with someone she’d question ‘why’ I was meeting with them.

She lied about a training session she said I was told to go to and refused. I was never told to go.

She lied and said I was told to do certain tasks and never did them. She never asked me to do them.

She excluded me from team building sessions and training sessions.

I went to her boss, he refused to do anything.

I went to HR, our advisor was advising Kim on how to get rid of me.

I went to the union. They were more interested in going to arbitration than fixing the problem.

I went to labour relations and was told she’s not breaking the Respectful Workplace Policy, she’s just a micro-manager.

I went on stress leave.

I went to counselling.

I learnt I was working for a sociopath. I learnt they were almost impossible to beat in their game. I was told to get away from her.

When I returned to work, I was handed a two-day suspension from Kim.

I had one more person that may be able to help me.

I went to her the same day I returned to work with a last hope that she would do something.

She saw my stress, she opened her office to me and listened.

I cried. I told her I use to love my job, I didn’t want to lose my job.

She listened.

She told me to go home, take care of myself and not to worry about losing my job.

She told me she’d take care of it.

She did.

Kim ‘resigned.’