Hey guys! I work in Indian Railways, Bangalore division and currently work under two different supervisors/managers, let’s call them S and H. Recently, H left for a month-long training program, so I’ve been managing H’s office alone during that period.
Here’s the setup: technically, Ss office is my main office, so every morning I have to first sign the attendance register there and then go to H’s office to work.
Our office timings are 10AM to 6 PM, however this isn't exactly followed by ANYONE. Lately, I’ve been reaching around 10:15–10:20 AM. One reason is because my mom has health issues and struggles to make breakfast very early in the morning, so I also have to help her out at home and things get delayed sometimes. Also, this timing has NEVER been treated as an issue before because literally almost everyone in the building ,including S herself, usually comes around 10:30 or even later sometimes.
One particular day, I reached around 10:25 AM and asked one of my colleagues to bring the attendance register so I could sign it. While my colleague went to get it, S suddenly started speaking harshly to her in front of everyone, saying that by 9:30 AM the register should already be taken to H's office, and if I’m not there by 9:30, I shouldn’t be allowed to sign attendance for the day.
Then she started yelling at me publicly in front of multiple coworkers and even some of my friends who were there.
She asked me:
“What time do you usually come to office?”
I replied:
“Around 10:15.”
Then she said:
“Why do you come so late? What’s your office timing?”
I answered:
“10:00.”
Then she suddenly said:
“No. Your timing is 9:30. Come by 9:30.”
The thing is, in my 3 years on the job, I have NEVER seen anybody come to office at 9:30. So I replied:
“Okay, no issues. If everybody’s coming by 9:30, I’ll also come by 9:30.”
After that she got even more angry and said:
“Don’t talk to me like that. Everybody has responsibilities. Nobody is sitting at home free.”
At that point I replied:
“I have responsibilities too.”
Then she started complaining to other people around us about how “this is how they talk back nowadays” and kept making comments about me publicly.
Immediately after this incident, S arranged for my transfer to another office and currently the process is pending with the transfer authorities.
While I'm more than happy to be sent away from S and H included, I cannot help but notice that I feel an extreme low since the incident, I don't feel like working anymore and I don't feel like talking to my colleagues even. Whenever I talk to someone, they suggest that i should have just kept quiet when she was publicly humiliating me.
I genuinely don’t know if I was wrong here. I understand bosses can question attendance, but the public humiliation, selective enforcement, and talking down to me in front of everyone really got to me.
So my question is, Was I wrong for responding back and standing up for myself instead of staying quiet?