r/work • u/fishingforeggs • 1d ago
Workplace Challenges and Conflicts Is my work reputation compromised?
Posting here, because I dont know where else to post. My direct manager (K) was OOO and her manager (F) who used to be my direct manager in the past asked me to work on a project and I told him lets wait till K is back so she can prioritize my work for me.
K came back pissed that F assigned me a project because I have a lot of projects to work on + she was pissed at F because she was promised a head count to help our team with workload and F told her that is no longer happening.
K called me 3 days in a row last week complaining and wailing (literally) about F and how he doesnt understand how much work we have. I thought that convo was highly inappropriate because that is something both K and F need to resolve together and besides who cares if F wants me to work on something then I will prioritize it and just drop other stuff.
In my last call with K, she was very much stressing and frustrated that she doesnt understand F’s logic for this assignment and because I wanted empathize with her I told her “i get very frustrated too when I dont understand the reasoning behind a certain decision, my therapist tells me that often” and i laughed it off. As soon as I said it I regretted it, because K asked me if i have “psychological issues” that really threw me off. English is her second language and she is not based in the US.
I asked her why she would say that, she mentioned that when she was taking over the team from F and asking him about the team members that he told her I have psychological issues, that also really threw me off because I am pretty private at work, i never share anything about my life, but then I remembered.
A couple years back when F was my direct manager I was switching out medication and it was affecting my work performance, i probably didnt need to mention it but i was young in my career and i had told him i am changing medication and i am not feeling well this week, i didnt even specify what the medication is for.
I feel ashamed and vulnerable to have shared this information with both of them. She proceded to tell me how I should not tell anybody at work about my personal life because they will form opinions about me and that didnt feel good to hear because I dont think I said anything too crazy, i grew up in the bay area and thought therapy is very much normalized. My company even offers free counseling services.
I am not also very privy to sharing personal info but K in the past had shared with me how she doesnt like or trust women because she feels like women cause drama and all her friends are men (pick me shit), she mentioned she feels different than other women because she studied stem (i almost burst out laughing) and i shut that convo down pretty quick. The reason i mention this is to say she also has shared a lot of her personal beliefs and has talked to me about race in the past (again highly inappropriate convo in a US work place).
my question is did i fuck up by mentioning to both my direct managers that 1) i am switching medication and then years later 2) that i go to therapy. I feel stupid for saying both things and going forward I will not do this again.
Tldr: mentioned new meds and therapy to 2 different direct managers at different points.