Two jobs back I had a really horrible boss for several years. When I left, she had previously been fired (the exactly facts that I’m aware of is she “took 2 weeks of vacation” and then gave notice that she would not be returning to work at Heller Ehrman having found a job… since she went from a Manager of Telecom Operations for the entire company to a Project Manager at Google… I surmised she was fired.)
As I pack for my move I found the notebook I used to keep for reviewing with the HR department. One of the entries from that notebook is dated February 19, 2004 at 2 PM: I had an argument with her over RightFax Support: We had been providing the local IT team for the San Francisco office (our groups responsibility was to the entire company so each office still had it’s own IT department.) We’d recently been having problems with the RightFax device. (Footnote: RightFax is a fax device that allows you to run multiple Fax lines over a T1 line and convert those faxes to Adobe PDF format and delivered via Email. It’s a significant upgrade to having multiple fax machines, since you need neither paper nor multiple bulky devices…)
Anyway my boss asked me to send an email to her boss, the Director of IT for the corporate entity, to outline our support (probably to make her look good to her boss, I didn’t record my assumptions regarding her motivation.) But from the notes, I surmise that it would not reflect well upon the local IT Manager because I sent an instant message to the IT Manager to give her a heads up out of professional courtesy. For some reason (again, not recorded) the topic came up with my boss.
My notes say my boss asked why I had done that. I responded “to be nice.” She repeated her question, I repeated my answer. She asked “but why?” I responded “because I have to work with these people and I think it’s important try to be nice.” To which she answered, “You don’t have to be nice to anyone but me. You need to remember who’s important here.”
Needless to say, it was one of the worst jobs I had ever suffered in while she worked there. Once she left, I still suffered some and felt isolated from my coworkers, but I found myself some measure in happiness in my work. I debate whether to keep the notes, but will hold on to them for now. If nothing else, it helps remind me of how bad it can get and helps me continue under the weight of occasional unpleasantness.
Edit: many typos.
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