Sometimes, no matter how hard you work at your job, it just isn’t good enough for those above you.

And, even worse, sometimes you simply end up being the fall guy.

In situations like this, it’s important that you get out as smoothly and quickly as you can, to keep your health intact – as well as leaving these toxic people to their own devices.

And, like the guy in this story, hopefully you’ll find something better elsewhere.

Read on to find out what happened to him.

Getting demoted at work for just trying to do my job

I am an assistant manager at a local, somewhat popular, pawn shop chain.

I got this job because the previous general manager quit and his assistant manager was relocated to a different store for more training.

I was asked to step up as assistant manager because I am good at my job.

I figured why not, I get to learn some new skills and make some more money.

But all did not go as expected.

Enter the new general manager. He’s a cool guy, we get along fine, but he’s new to the role too.

There’s been so many rules change under him – fair enough, it’s his shop now, I’ll play along because I’m his assistant.

I do what he asks me to do, I make sure the team under me is stay productive, and I help the business stay profitable.

However, every time something goes wrong, I’m always the first to be blamed, and since the new general manager has been with the company for years he obviously can’t do anything wrong.

Let’s see how this plays out.

I would say “I’m going to focus on x today,” get shot down by the manager, and then get blamed that x wasn’t done.

I would make a small mistake filing paperwork I’ve never filed before, get berated by the manager and the owners, and then never trusted with the paperwork again.

But the general manager would leave the paperwork undone for WEEKS way past the deadline.

His excuse? “Oh, we are so busy I can’t break away!”

And it’s leaving this assistant manager in a sticky situation.

It’s like I’m in this gray area where I’m expected to do my job, but no one wants to let me do my job and everyone is upset that I’m not doing my job.

It feels like he’s trying so hard to show how good he is at his job that he’s willing to dump on me to make sure he gets the good boy points from the owners.

Now I’m wondering if I should just eat the demotion and pay decrease until I find a new gig, or whether I should just hand in my keys and spend the holidays with my family?

It sucks that this guy is being put in this position, all because the new manager is trying to win favor with his higher-ups.

Honestly, it seems like a position that this guy is never going to win in.

And his demotion? Not his fault.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit thought about this.

This person encouraged him to find a new job.

While others thought that without this guy as his assistant, the blame could only go on the manager – and he could watch his downfall.

Meanwhile, this Redditor encouraged him to plan rather than simply jump.

It’s absolutely the best thing to find a new job before he jumps ship, but it’s understandably frustrating that he’s being demoted when he’s been prevented from doing his job all along.

The general manager is going to fail, and now this guy has had a demotion, there will be nobody else to blame it on.

Sure it would be satisfying to bear witness to this, but for his mental health – and pride?

He needs to get out of there.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.