The bad boss
About a dozen years ago, I was employed as an administrator of sorts (the details of which I won't go into here). It was a "family owned" business with the youngest child given rights of rule in this one province of many. I witnessed many things, including his passing of his mortgage bill into the hands of the head accountant, along with the utility bills, to be paid for out of the company accounts. Having seen the higher-end of four figures of his bi-weekly paycheck, I found this more than puzzling.
As an individual, I found him, shall we say, disagreeable in the worst sense. One of the few employers I've had who never hit on me at one time or another, he dignified the creation of a whole new classification of "ew."
A visitor to the office once spied him across the room, noticed his attempt at hiding the fact he was scratching himself with his hands in his trouser pockets. A moment later he walked up to said visitor with his hand held out in greeting. Said visitor (a female) refused to shake his hand, remarking, "You know, they make a cream for that." My ex-employer turned about ten shades of red and purple, putting any decent bruise to shame in its lack of comparable brilliance.
I bring this up, because it spoke to his over-all character -- self-serving, unconcerned for others' well-being, and not liking to being questioned or called out. I don't remember his ever giving a compliment to me or any other employee of the company, but he was more than happy to point out when we made mistakes or erred in some way that didn't please him. My office manager did plenty of damage control between him and me, usually talking him down while still managing to take my side.
Because I was really good at my job.
She even got me two raises he didn't want to give me simply because of our personality conflict.
When I walked in to give my notice for a job I was taking for the opportunity and not the money (which was, in fact, more -- bonus!), she offered me another raise just to keep me.
After the first week I was completely on my own at my new job (about two weeks in), I sat down at the weekly managers' meeting to hear the marketing & advertising director saying that he wanted to publicly thank me for the amazing job I had done in that first week, jumping right in and taking over everything I had to in order to get the job done and by deadline.
It was my turn to deepen five shades of red.
I wasn't used to being complimented or told I was doing a good job, much less in front of anyone or even a group of folks.
Almost 10 years later I found myself in a very similar situation as the first. This time, though, I recognized the problem -- a spoiled, passive-aggressive, egoistic, middle-aged three-year-old, stamping his feet and turning red.
Did this make me work harder for him? No. My work ethic already had that covered. Did I like my job? No. Did I want to do a good job? Yes. Did I need that job? Yes.
What changed was the way I handled it. I didn't take any of it personally.
When he would get angry with me, he'd leave and cool off. I'd continue about the day until he was ready to talk to me again. So, yes, I ignored the temper-tantrum.
What he would ask of me in these moments wasn't unreasonable: They either weren't within my expansive brief or they were beyond my knowledge base, albeit broad, and would take months to research, practice and hone well enough to do what he wanted done. What he would attempt to add would have made me deficient in my primary responsibilities, and he wanted them done within a few days' time.
And still, no compliments, no atta-girls.
A bad manager can take a good staff and destroy it, causing the best employees to flee and the remainder to lose all motivation.
~ Unknown
It was my turn to field all the conflicts between owner and employees. Honestly, in most cases, the employees were completely justified. Those who were unwilling to compromise would walk, sometimes that same day. The ones who stayed because they needed the income would leave as soon as they had other employment, but their productivity would suffer for it. It then would become my job to motivate them as best I could, without making promises that would rely on the owner's willingness to keep them.
Ironically (or perhaps not), the owner would complain about the lack of quality of employee he would end up with but never saw himself as the source of the problem.
But, I knew I did a great job. And I knew that once I got ready to leave, anyone taking my place would be lost.
Revenge? No.
Maybe I'm just too efficient for anyone taking my place. (Might need to work on the ego, though ...)
Justified? Oh, hell, yes.
