This describes a situation I was in almost perfectly; I was demoted in favor of a new hire. I went to the HR department one black day, turned in my keys and walked out. That was the worst mistake I ever made, job-wise.
I agree completely with gonzomax: Find a new job ASAP.
Yeah, don’t buy no green bananas, diggerwam, as they say. 
Not to make light of your troubles or anything, but having direct client communication taken away from me would be the day I went home and celebrated. Different strokes for different folks. 
But yeah, like everyone else has said, it doesn’t look good for you. I too would be looking for another job.
I think this is more important than a lot of people realize. I was fired from the job I had before my current one, but my current boss called a guy from the old job whom he knew personally (who was not the guy who fired me), and got a good reference. I don’t think he would’ve hired me for anything less.
Now, I’ve been here two years, and the guy who hired me is the best boss I’ve ever had, all because of one good reference from the shithole that was my old job.
Georgia is what we call a “right to work” state. This means, in the true tradition of Doublespeak, you have no right to work. You can be fired for any time, for any reason, so long as that reason does not violate your civil rights (i.e., you’re fired for reasons of age, race, sex, etc.) and you can demonstrate that you were fired for such a reason.
Any employer with half a brain knows how to avoid being tagged for that. Since employment discrimination claims effectively require the victim to prove intent on the part of the employer, the laws are pretty much toothless in the vast majority of cases. In essence, employers in Georgia can fire at will so long as they’re careful to make sure they have some rationale other than sheer bigotry going.
And Georgia is one of many “right to work” states.
All that said, I agree with Harriett the Spry and others – whatever is going on, your best bet is to look hard for another job.
I just hope I can drop the bomb on them before it’s dropped on my head. Damn right, some powerful folks don’t like me…the odd part though, is that doesn’t translate to my clients. For the most part, 90%, of my clients love me and my hope is that when they find out that I’m no longer their rep, they will say glowing things about me. Not that it would save me and not that I’d want it to save me, but it would definitely send a message that I obviously cannot send on my own. And if the info trickled down to me, it would be a great ego boost when I need it the most.
I’ve accepted that I’m going to get a new job, and honestly it’s a great weight off my shoulders. Now it’s a game of who can move faster. I don’t need the job offer of a lifetime, I just need employment with someone who can pick me up soon. I really can’t afford to be picky.
I know office politics is a reality in all types of work, I just naively thought that if I made my clients happy, the rest would take care of itself.
*Right to work * relates to union membership. You’re referring to employment at will. These terms are misused more often than they are used correctly, I think.
My lowly advice: if you’re posting to, or accessing this thread (or board) from work, STOP. This ain’t the sort of thing you want them to find on your computer.
Daniel
If you’re using Internet Explorer;
Tools
Internet Options
Delete Cookies (Will delete auto-logins to stuff, so beware)
Delete Files
Clear History
Won’t stop them from looking at the server history, but it will make a casual perusal of your PC look clean.
Well there is a legal term called constructive termination wherein the employer makes life miserable for the reasons you mentioned. The legal result is the same as firing in some states if it becomes intolerable and you are forced to quit.
I haven’t had time to read every comment, so maybe this has been mentioned, but I would just add that it truly could be your communication skills, especially since we have no idea what you do for your clients. I must say when I see a written communication of any type, but particularly of a professional nature, that contains misspellings (competence) incorrect word (do instead of due) or improper usage (infer instead of imply) it raises a flag to me, both in the area of comptence and the area of effort and professionalism. It is possible that sloppy memos create the impression that you are sloppy in other areas. Just a thought. Maybe you can find someone you can trust who can prrofread things for you before they go out to clients and co-workers.
Fortunately my job does not require me to put anything in writing. lol.
Infer instead of imply? Who are you, Nero Wolfe? Next thing you know, you’ll be getting on people’s cases for using “contact” as a verb. Gotta tell ya, that ship sailed a long time ago.
Yes, prrofreading good. Fire bad!
Care good, carelessness bad. knowledge good, ignorance bad. If you think there is no difference between infer and imply you need a new dictionary. They are not interchangeable.
I am not saying he would be fired for using the wrong word - I am saying that maybe his communication skills are not as sharp as they could be and he is being warned. If there has been a change in upper management, as he has intimated, maybe the new guy is a nitpicker like me.
Phui. 
I think dennis made a valid point, especially if diggerwam is expected to communicate in writing, and his writing at work is as sloppy as his writing has been in this thread.
That’s probably what they want, actually. Voluntary resignation means they don’t have to pay you unemployment.
I know that. My allusion to Nero Wolfe might have given you a clue there, but I guess you didn’t grasp its implication. My point was that knowing the difference between infer and imply is a very fine point on which to judge a customer service rep unless you’re in the “persnickety English major help desk” field, in which case, yes, it’s important. Otherwise, not so much.
Y’know, I write and edit professionally, and I often let stuff go on this board that I would never let go at work, because I’m getting paid bupkis to write here. In fact, I’m the one who pays, and that being the case, I just try to make sure I’m saying what I intend to. I do not give a flying fuck about fine points of grammar, spelling or punctuation. I imagine this is true of most posters to this board. I’m really surprised you do not know this already.
On the one hand, I agree with you: it’s a pretty fine point, and the use of “infer” as a synonym for “imply” is so common that I consider “imply” to be an alternate definition of “infer” at this point.
On the other hand, it’s not your opinion or my opinion of the word’s meaning that matters: it’s his boss’s opinion, and the opinion of the clients. If any of them are prescriptivists, this may well irritate them and cause them to form negative opinions of his writing skills.
It was certainly something I noticed when reading the posts as well.
Daniel
Actually I am a probationer and just found this site, so there is a lot I don’t know about it I am sure. One thing I have noticed however is the care with which most posters take in making their arguments. I am not part of the grammar police going around and telling people that you don’t pluralize words by adding apostrophe “s” or that lose and loose don’t mean the same thing or that obbligato has 2 b’s (oh I see, some things do get pluralized with an apostrophe.) But, this particular poster is concerned because his communication skills have been questioned and since everyone else was too tactful to suggest that maybe he is being careless or is not as knowledgeable as he should be, given his duties I decided to suggest this possibility.
Now as to your Nero Wofe allusion and the fact that you just want to make sure that your point comes across as you intended even when not done with “Strunk and White” accuracy. Well, you failed. I did not get it when you said it and I don’t get it now. As to knowing the difference between the words, yes I know that many people use them interchangeably when they are not. I would not have mentioned that one single error at all, or commented at all, had that been the sole error in his post.
I am surprised that someone who writes and edits professionally does not “give a fuck about the fine points of grammar” since it is these points that allow subtle distinctions in arguments to be clear to the reader. Maybe you just meant that you can’t be bothered correcting spelling errors since you do it all day at work. Very nicely put.