I used hate dealing with my boss. From the very first minute I worked there we never gelled and I couldn’t stand it.
Every time I drove into the car park and I saw his car there I would get a pain in my stomach.
I was the financial controller of this sizeable operation and while it was a great role for my career CV it was tough going at times.
The culture was very strange as the MD used have moles everywhere running to him with selective tales about what was going on. I’m not sure if he realised it at the time but many of the cute ones used this opportunity to manipulate things for their benefit – it created a really awful atmosphere for everyone.
His secretary was the worst of all as she ran to him with everything, even things that she overheard incorrectly. Before you knew it people were being hauled into his office to answer for things that had never happened. As a result this young girl who was totally manipulated was despised in the place.
I was summoned to his office ..what’s up now??
“I’m no longer happy with my secretary and I want you to get rid of her. My wife will come in and replace her for a while” I was told.
I questioned what she had done that was so wrong as I felt this was a basic piece of information that was needed before we could do anything.
“Just get rid of her” I was told.
The culture at the time was very ‘macho’ – if you were a real manager and had “balls” you should be able to do things like that in your stride.
I was in the horrors. How could I do such a thing without any justification? I just couldn’t.
I never fired her and thankfully some other opportunity popped up in the organisation that she was interested in soon after that – phew!
Thankfully those ‘macho’ management bullying days are a thing of the past ….aren’t they?
Tags: Cork, Dublin, Fuzion Marketing, Graphic Design, Greg Canty, PR
Greg Canty Fuzion Blog 
November 10, 2014 at 12:15 am |
It sounds like an absolute nightmare. There was a line manager I had some contact once and she was absolutely toxic – very political and really poisonous (she used to read a book ‘Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office’). She was constantly pitting one member of her team against another and even instructed a temp to delete emails and not to provide reports to a manager who was entitled to them.
Whenever I spoke to her I had to choose my words extra carefully as she had a habit of using them as a weapon against you afterwards. Dealing with her really showed the value of email and having a paper trail.
Fortunately my own managers have mostly either been good or average – no demons. Someone I know very well had a manager who was brutal to her staff, particularly anyone who took any time off. When my friend was in hospital with appendicitis her manager sent her a present – a toy baby chicken. The message was: ‘You’re a chicken for not coming into work’.
November 13, 2014 at 10:03 pm |
How can anyone get away with that and manage to get any sort of performance from their team !
November 14, 2014 at 12:41 am
She must have had strengths in other areas, I assume. I think in large organisations a lot of that stuff can go unnoticed for a while, especially when the environment is very political.
November 14, 2014 at 12:49 am
Partly because of that manager my friend left the organisation and became a freelance consultant, which turned out to be a great move and very success.
It kind of shows that when you inevitably meet difficulties along the way the thing to do is to think about what will move you forward rather than stay and be stuck in a frustrating situation.
December 4, 2014 at 6:00 pm
you need to take control !
December 4, 2014 at 11:49 pm
Exactly!