Try not to fall into assuming you will be fired golden. I have a feeling the CEO likes the fact that you point out things to him that are not right and he likes to think it over. Also, from what you have shared, you have never interacted with the CEO where you have made him feel faulted but instead you pointed out to him what you noticed was not being run right. Then he is also looking at your performance which is a positive for him. It's very possible that what he is seeing in you is a person who CARES about how things are run and can step up and identify things that are not being run right where it's affecting the quality of the company.

When you make it a point to talk to him and tell him what you had expected and how you discovered that something was just not being run right, that's information that he needs to know from his standpoint as the owner. You have worked in this kind of business for years and you had been auditing this kind of business all that time so your input is important to him because he needs to know what isn't being run right in his company. You spent time in Social only to discover how poorly run that area had been, you have important information about that that the CEO needs to know and probably did not hear from other individuals who worked in those areas.

You are right in that it doesn't make sense to fire someone who has a glowing review when it comes to their performance. Think about it golden, if you owned that company and need it to be productive would you fire an employee that has a glowing review? Of course not! I have a feeling golden that his "I like you" means that he can see you have been productive AND he also has noticed that you will say something when you see something is not being run right too. Your boss is threatened by you golden because YOU happen to notice what isn't working where HE doesn't really see it. After all, think about it, he was just a web designer and he probably doesn't really know how ALL the different areas need to function a certain way the way you have experienced.

A lot of times when it comes to a company often what does happen is "it's not what you know but who you know" that gets you ahead. However, when it comes to a company being productive, the WHAT YOU KNOW is crucial.

This is something the CEO needs to know, this is important in that it's a red flag as to why a person would just up an quit. You should have been introduced as "this is one of our new directors" so the unsatisfied client gets a chance to think "improved" rather than more of the same ole that was not working. The CEO probably has no idea how badly that area of the business was being run either. He needs someone who can step up and tell him and even hire someone who CAN run that department better. This manager web designer expecting YOU to suddenly run that department clearly was not experienced enough to know that while you wanted to move to and explore that area, you were not expecting to suddenly run it OR even say you were part of what had not been run right. Actually, from what you have shared golden you still had clients you were handling in the SEO area and you were not ready to have to also suddenly be expected to run Social on top of that especially when Social was not really being affectively run and you were expected to be responsible for that? That's just crazy and something the CEO most likely isn't even aware of but should be because it's a reason something is failing and most likely costing him.

You are willing to state your case, even when that means not going through the manager/boss you have. And I think that while at first he was nice, as time went on you began to "feel" his lacks before you got to see what was really lacking in him that you are noticing now. I think you can see more than your boss can see and that was stressing you. Actually, it's very likely that your not liking all that report work you had to deal with that was too much, too many pages that needed to be reduced would have been something your boss would not have been able to sit and talk about affectively to the CEO that tended to think that was a plus in that company. Actually, what did your boss actually KNOW about that and how it was just too much? He is a web designer, how would HE really know?

It's VERY possible that what you are seeing as unethical is something the CEO isn't really aware of golden. If the different areas in that company are not being run right where different employees can be confident, then that company will just continue to face a high turnover. You are right, "you don't fire an employee that has a glowing review and is doing a good job".

I think that you had expected this company to be run better than what you are seeing and you were not expecting it to be running so poorly that suddenly you are expected to take over things you are not ready to take over but wanted to instead expand into where it was already being run right.

Exit statements of employees that leave are important to pay attention to. One employee needed to talk about "low moral" and that is most likely due to that employee realizing things were not being run right and employees were unhappy.