Hi Brooke,
I have worked for the same company for 12 years and I have always thought that this was a place where I could retire from. I am the department head for Customer Retention, Sales and Training for my company. I really love what I do, and the people I get to do it with. The company is privately owned, and we have about 40 employees. For the past year or so, the VP of the company has really been tearing down my team as most of them have been there for years and the sales floor (which he oversees) has constant turnover. He will bring in new sales reps and they are motivated, compliant and full of energy, but most don’t last long. My frustration is that my team is consistently successful ( always over our sales goals) very team oriented and hard working. I am really proud of them and I get very frustrated that the VP (who is the owners son) treats my team as if they are the red headed step children of the organization. I am not the only person who sees it, my staff does and so do other within the organization. I am often having to defend my team because my boss will fire people on the spot if they have a personality flaw or show any sign of negativity. In my mind, I am dealing with human beings and each person is an individual and they each bring something to the table. They are always over their monthly sales goals and I am just having a hard time understanding how a company owner can view their loyal, tenured employees in such a negative way. He told me yesterday that they were “dinosaurs” and maybe need to be replaced.
I am starting to really feel like this is not the place for me any longer, but I am a big part of the daily operations of the company and he really relies on me. My loyalty of course is to him as it’s my responsibility to support his vision, but recently I have been feeling very discontent with his views.
On one hand, I look at this as an opportunity for me to really dig in and identify ways to take my team to another level, but I feel like even if I did, he would never give my team the recognition that they deserve. I take a lot of punches for them (and I am ok with that) but so much of it is not justified and based on his perception and not reality.
Sorry for this long vent, but making the choice to leave is a huge decision for me, and not one that I would make easily.
He has never worked in the corporate world and is a second generation owner, so his world and views are not necessarily what would be allowed on corporate America. He has been at the company since he was a teenager and this is all that he knows.
My tolerance is starting to go and I don’t want to act out of emotion, but out of doing what is best for my future.
Brooke, can you please offer me some guidance on what steps I should take to walk myself through this situation and how to make the decisions that will offer me the best outcome.

Thank you so much for all you do!
Joyce C