First Time HR?

I recently took a promotion at work that was full of red flags. Even though my gut said otherwise, I listened to the usual advice that you should never turn down a promotion. Oh boy. Oh boy.

It turns out that what was going to be a “hybrid” position turned out to be 2-40 hour work week jobs into one. My old role and my new one. Combined into a new role. I wasn’t able to finish my duties from my “old” job until December 31. So I technically started January 5, but I was officially signed on for the role on November. it was known that things were not going to be rolling along for awhile . They’ve decided/realized that this isn’t feasible. There is going to be a point at some stage this year where these two jobs are going to spike in workload. Way too much than one person can hold. The funny part is that I mentioned this when they offered it to me. They told me to “just trust them” and it’ll all go fine.

The only issue is that I have had very little ramp up time to learn this job at all. I’ve been entirely thrown to the wolves, which I can manage. But my new manager (I report to two now. One great, one bad) is completely toxic and one of the hardest people I’ve ever worked with in my life. I don’t want to make this post a mile long, but I have a solid list of bad emails/messages against her. She’s simply rude and entirely unforgiving. If I don’t know something, I shouldn’t be afraid to ask her a question out of fear of retaliation.

Anywho, this all came to a head. They’re aware that they’re going to need to hire someone, but they can’t fire me. I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m actually picking up on things quickly. I mean, my mental health is fucking wrecked right now but I’m sticking through it. I’ve never been in this situation before, but it seems clear to me that she is making my life hell to get me to step back so she can hire someone that can do the job full time not a 50/50 split. There have been situations already where I had to turn down a few meetings for the new role, because I was double booked with my old role.

They gave me the option to step down which I absolutely want to do. I want my old everything back. This is was a private conversation between myself and the bad manager today. I verbally took it, but nothing in writing yet. I walked back on it and said I’ll take the weekend to think about it.

My coworker just about lost his shit when I told him and said I absolutely need to run this by my boss’s boss. My other nice manager said the same thing. Head of the department. I sat down and had a great meeting with her today. She was basically appalled and said that she will set up a meeting with HR immediately. She wasn’t not involved in my promotion process.

Look, I want to walk from it. I think the workload is unsustainable. I was entirely misled. They weren’t even aware of the workload because we’ve had some policy changes in 2026 which caused more work to fall on my desk. Coupled with truly one of the most difficult, rudest bosses I’ve ever had. I could MAYBE make the workload work, but the boss I never want to be around again. But I know I’m being forced out because of their mistake. When I accepted the role. I got a 15k pay bump. I think I’m entitled to “some” of it even if I transition back. Especially after this whole song and dance.

I’ve never spoken to HR about anything before. I was curious about how to approach this and also what could possibly come of it? I know I’m not going to get to keep the money, but I want to try. Also, I genuinely don’t think this person should be in management (I’m one of her first). My coworker said I have a responsibility to the next person who comes into this role to make sure they’re not taken advantage of by them.

I’m just curious on how to approach this.