Working for an abusive boss

Letter #18

Hello Tom,

Re-reading your letter about there being good and bad in everyone inspired me to write about a topic that truly does make my blood boil. Today’s topic is about those in positions of authority that abuse their power.

I’m not talking about political power today; I’m talking about places of employment.

It’s probably in my top 3 things in life that make me the angriest.

This letter will have a lot of passion.

I always try to bring redemption to every letter I write, and today will be no different.

The bible says in the book of Ezekiel…. “With force and harshness, you have ruled them.”

Another quote I love that has been said by many people is “You can tell the character of a person by the way they treat someone that has absolutely nothing to offer them.”

That’s just another way of saying to love your neighbor as yourself. Or to do unto others as you would have them do to you.

A person’s place of employment is truly where most of us are the most vulnerable. A bad boss can make your life a living hell. Unfortunately, I’ve been in this position quite a few times in my working career.

As have family members and friends. This is a universal experience for the masses that will never end as long as there are fallible people in positions of authority. But the downright insensitivity and disregard for the value of a human being never ceases to appall me.

How can someone be so damn evil to people?

I will call my boss from hell Hunter; he was an assistant supervisor under a director who didn’t care what he did.

We had to put up with this jackass for 5 years.

Another interesting side note is that these people always seem to be the most incompetent. There must be some universal force somewhere that ensures these idiots get into positions of authority.

And I think they know it too, because they turn into micro managers. A micro manager is by nature an insecure person. Constantly trying to justify their job by questioning everything. And usually the most petty, inconsequential stuff you can imagine. Either way, whatever the reason, for the person under them it’s like carrying a millstone on your back.

So let me give you some examples of what Hunter did.

When Hunter first started, we knew immediately that the whole atmosphere was going to change for the bad.

For those of you that don’t know what I do, I am mainly an HVAC mechanic at a hospital. But I delve into many other trades as well. And by the way, Hunter had absolutely no experience whatsoever in any of the trades he was supervising. Which seems to be par for the course for most of these people.

So, he gets there from day one and immediately comes into the shop to throw his weight around by interrogating all of us as to our plans for the day and basically wanted us to inform him all day what we were doing.

Let me address this one aspect of supervision for a minute. A wise supervisor would come in and get to know his people and watch and learn and if they wanted to change things would do it slowly unless it was something major.

I can assure you this wasn’t the case with Hunter.

He picked out one coworker to be his whipping boy to be an example for the rest of us and would go to this co-worker’s desk and just sit there to violate his space to make a statement. He would sit there at times for over an hour. This was obviously a man with serious problems.

And that’s supposed to cause us under him to be loyal employees to see this wonderful example.

We were a bunch of battle-hardened veterans and tough guys that had taken care of this facility for years and had no time for this abuse.

Then he turned his attention to me.

One day I had a number of jobs to do one hot morning. Including moving a heavy ice machine that was mounted to a wall to bring to the shop to repair. I’m busting my ass like I always do, and I got the jobs done and I put everything away and I got a cup of ice water on the way back to the shop and I run into Hunter in the basement where our plant is.

He said to me… “while you were getting your ice water your co-workers have been moving things from CVA to TBI with no help from you.”

I said… “Hunter, are you even aware of what I was doing this morning before you assumed I was guilty.”

And then I rattled off what I was involved in and what all I had done as the man stood there looking stupid.

Moments like those are so satisfying!

Another story illustrates the inhumanity of the man.

When my dad was diagnosed with brain cancer this man seemed to go out of his way to make my life harder. Yes, you read that right.

There is a federal policy called the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that protects people having to take care of a sick family member. It ensures that an employer can’t abuse or even fire you for time missed taking care of a sick relative.

All you need is the necessary paperwork filled out from whatever medical establishment is providing the care.

I did this of course. I was taking dad to Hopkins for chemotherapy twice a week for the 4-6 weeks of treatment he needed.

In spite of getting all the paperwork and forms notarized Hunter still wanted me to have someone at Hopkins to verify I was there with dad with some type of form.

Needless to say, I told him I didn’t need to as the forms were already filled out and gave him a lesson on how the policy works.

He already knew it, he was just being what he was, a jackass.

One more example, dad started coming to my hospital for therapy during this time. I would grab a wheelchair and meet mom and him in the parking lot, one day Hunter saw me and said… “you know we have hospital staff that will do that, you’re on the clock when you do that.”

At the time much of the fight had been taken out of me as watching someone die from brain cancer is probably one of the most horrible experiences one can have. My co-worker saw me distraught and asked me what happened and when I told him he jumped all over Hunter. It was one of the kindest things I’ve ever had someone do for me and I haven’t forgotten it.

You get the picture.

I could literally write a book about this.

That’s how bad it was.

You name it, he did it.

The examples are endless.

When we would fight back against this abuse (and it was a war) he would say what every narcissist says, “you guys are way too sensitive.”

Then one day we got our answer from heaven when we found out the facilities director was leaving, Hunter was expecting to be promoted from assistant to facilities director.

To his horror (and our delight) he found out that was not the plan.

They brought in our Moses (obviously not his name but I’ll call him that) the man that would lead us to the promised land.

The kindest, most fair supervisor I ever had. The abuse with Hunter stopped almost immediately.

Moses didn’t play that game. Being a Christian that really practiced what he preached by understanding that he also is answerable to God with the way he used his authority brought about the immediate changes needed to make the department more productive.

Morale was non-existent when he got there. It changed almost overnight. You see Hunter had a reputation that Moses knew about from a previous job. When Hunter left his previous job people were literally dancing in the streets. That obviously doesn’t happen with everyone in a department unless the supervisor was abusive.

As time went on it was all exposed, Hunter really showed himself to be even worse than we could comprehend by deliberately doing things to set Moses up to be the fall guy for what he was doing.

Thank God for poetic justice.

Hunter is no longer here.

Moses gave me a promotion. We treat people with dignity and respect.

The department has never been more productive.

It’s been proven again and again that a happy crew is a more productive crew.

I would do anything for Moses. I really do love him.

Thank God for him.

Thanks for listening Tom.