Should I Apologize?

I know this is terribly long, but I feel as though the information is necessary in order to fully understand the situation I am faced with. I am hoping someone can provide some helpful advice.

I started working for a place almost a year ago. When I joined up, the business was in the midst of overhauling the place. A Supervisor from another location noticed potential in me and gave me the tools to run with so to speak. There were so many issues within my department that I was growing weary about the idea of staying within the department. So, I decided to aim and transfer. The Manager had been notified of my possible departure, and decided to counter offer under the table and behind closed doors. I had the support from two Supervisors and two Managers across three departments backing me to stay. Should I stay, I would be placed into a Leadership role, and my immediate Supervisor was going to do serious leg work to justify a merit raise that typically never happens at this location or in general. The merit raise has to go through a series of approvals before it is officially granted. In other words, you have to be very outstanding to achieve this. My immediate Supervisor had been texting me a few days before this meeting took place and told me how pleased she was in regard to my performance. However, I didn’t work with her as much as another Supervisor who invested the majority of time into my professional development. I was a bit caught off guard and surprised, but took it.

I turn down the transfer and accept this Leadership role with a merit raise. I took the job because I felt confident that I would have the support in order to achieve the department goals alongside the new Supervisor (my now immediate boss) for continued success. My fellow teammates take the announcement pretty well. Earlier, I had mentioned the department having issues. Other folks were having performance issues, and one person in particular had very poor performance and seemed to only have one true purpose, which was causing work place drama. Everything from trying to get out of work to attempting to pin employees against each other. This person had a severe issue with my recognition and felt as though it was unfair etc.

Part of my job was to report any issues to the Supervisor, which was my immediate boss. I cannot express enough to you that when I took this role, I inherited a lot of department issues. At one point, I was so frustrated with the whole thing, I told my boss, if she were to ask me again to do it, I wouldn’t. And in some ways, I meant it, because I felt like problems were not getting resolved and I was actually in no position of power to handle any problems. I could only simply report said issues, delegate work, and be a resource to my teammates. Occasionally, I would have to intervene with other coworkers arguing or keeping the productivity moving. I faced resistance, too.

I decided to ask another Lead what their experiences were when they first got the change in status and there I was comparing myself, which situations and structures are different at her facility, but wow… I thought… And I felt even more overwhelmed that maybe I just wasn’t effective. I tried talking to my Supervisor and, for the most part, she was supportive and then it was like something changed. Remember that I was told I would have the support needed to make this successful. There was a lot of conflict not with just me and the problematic coworker, but the department was just not getting along over half the time. I work in a very small department of about 4 other people.

My boss and I had established a good rapport with each other or so I thought. And then things changed with her, which also changed our dynamic. She began to avoid me, but would not avoid other team members. Would answer other team member’s questions or address concerns, but wouldn’t do the same for me. She used to shoot a text to me, updating me on changes she had made while I was off work, but then that quit. I was the Lead being the last to be informed of anything. It was like she just gave up on me being her Lead. I had taken over the training. I was basically acting Supervisor while she was tending to other areas in this location. I was a Supervisor without having Supervisor privileges. I could only half way deal with problems from performance to people just being downright rude and unprofessional making others very uncomfortable. I did the best I could, with what I was allowed to do. My teammates were looking to me for answers. So, basically the rule was that when she was present, she was in charge, and when she wasn’t, I was in charge, and on certain things I would have to seek guidance or approval first before shot calling. My reports were eventually read as complaints. Please note that not one time did this Supervisor ever call me into her office and reprimand me or tell me to do something different. I felt as though this Supervisor was literally letting me sink. I had been told by the AGM that this Supervisor would be a great boss for me and would be a great mentor for my development.

Somewhere along the way, a lot changed. I started to think that wow, maybe this isn’t the place for me, and maybe what they want is not jiving and that’s okay, right? Sometimes we just don’t fit for that role, and we move on or so I was thinking. I start to grow tired of these things, and I try to address them with my Supervisor. All in this mix of chaos, the toxic person gets fired, which causes more of a rift within the department. The problematic co-worker was calling me a d***head in front of other co-workers and even said the same to me in front of my immediate Supervisor. I actually really dealt with a lot of uncalled for things.

A co-worker tells me that our boss was always talking about me, telling her how I was unfit for the job. Basically, all of the things she had once so strongly backed are now out the window and she’s regretting it in a sense or so it felt. I had lined up another job, was very upset that I couldn’t get any office time with her, and I turned in my stuff and rage quit. The Manager sent a text asking me what was going on, and I unloaded. I explained why I was making the decision, and included my Supervisor in the conference, addressing what I previously stated. I received no response from them and after a couple of days, I sent my response to the Assistant GM. After a few days, she gets back to me and tells me that she will look into this matter and will be in contact. Several days pass, and no response from her either. I wasn’t too terribly shocked, because at this point, I had already resigned.

After some time away, I decide that I miss my job, and I miss the place. I contact my Manager, and she’s willing to pick up the phone and talk to me. She tells me that she doesn’t have any openings at my old location, but she might have something at her in-house location. I tell her that I’m interested, and we go from there. I meet with her in her office, and we gently talk about what happened without getting too wrapped up in it. After meeting with her, she offers my old job back in the old location with the same Supervisor. She tells me that she knows I was put into a very precarious situation. She tells me that she wants me to prove myself. Advises me to treat every day like it’s an interview. She and another Manager make it clear that they know I seek to advance. She tells me that I’m no longer in a Lead position, and that the AGM declared no Lead roles in my location because it’s not a compensated position and reminded me that they gave me a merit raise in lieu of that. And until it becomes a compensated position, they will no longer have that role as it once was. I did ask my Manager what the Supervisor thought about my return, and she told me that the Supervisor is a professional and that was pretty much it on that. She told me that she wanted me to just be concerned about myself.

I took secondhand information and linked it to all of my issues that I was having with my Supervisor and made a hasty decision. I’m wondering if now that I’m back, should I try to apologize and smooth things over with the Supervisor or should I just let it go entirely and act like it never happened while making good use of my Manager’s recommendations? If it is advisable to apologize then how should I professionally go about this? What would you do?