Has anyone had a mentor they cherished talk badly about you behind your back?
Before I worked for my mentor, I was a bartender trying to better my life by getting a stable job. I applied to be his assistant and even though I had absolutely no administrative experience, he took a chance on me and gave me the job. I was a hard egg to crack but I eventually had a real talk with him about my future and any feedback so I can be better at my job and hopefully a career. He was real with me and I listened to every constructive criticism he had to say about me and my work ethic. After that I feel like our work relationship grew closer, not just with us two but our team of three, all different personalities but somehow made it work and got along so well. Work was effective and we all learned how to deal with each others mood swings and never took anything personal, we had each others back and he was our Yoda, the sounding voice of rationality. I grew to cherish this man so much I took his word like it was gold, if he didn’t like someone, I didn’t either. If he trusted someone, I did too.
After two years of working with this team, I was approached by our department chief and offered me a position as his assistant. I would have a lot more responsibilities since I will be handling all of the branches within our department. At the same time I was applying for a different position, I wasn’t sure what route to take so I asked him for his advice in what I should do. His advice was to take the assistant position due to the networking opportunities and learning experience, so I took the job. I loved this job and learned so much as well but he did not get along with my now new boss and vice versa. Both had apposing perspectives when it came to problem solving and I often felt like I was put in the middle of their petty problems. I tried to stay out of it as much as possible but this was the one time I did not dislike someone he disliked.
The department chief took me under his wing while I was working for him and in his own way mentored me as well, so I had no reason to dislike him just because of their petty problems.
Today I work for a whole different department, there are rumors that I used my department chiefs name to get what I want and get away with anything which isn’t true and I didn’t care what anyone said bc I had my people who know me having my back. Until I heard that my mentor who I first worked for wasn’t saying very good things about me before I got hired into my new job.
People from my new job were asking around about me to make sure I’m a good worker and the type of person I am before I even started. Apparently, he wasn’t saying good things about me. Part of me thinks it’s because of his beef with the department chief and by association he took it out on me, but I have worked so hard to stay professional at work, to stay humble, to have my shit together, to stay organized and on time and it’s all thanks to his constructive criticism.
It hurts my feelings knowing that his personal beef got so bad he tarnished my name and reputation, knowing how important it is for me to upkeep a decent reputation. I definitely cried and everything in me wants to confront him but at the same time I want to just let it go and just be careful who I trust next time.
I cherished everything he said and I took his word like gold and would talk very highly about him to everyone, is it even worth confronting?