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This is a question Absolute Power

Have you ever been put in a position of power? Did you become a rabid dictator, or did you completely arse it up and end up publicly humiliated? We demand you tell us your stories.

Thanks to The Supreme Crow for the suggestion

(, Thu 8 Jul 2010, 14:09)
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I worked for the Terminator
Seriously, this is what she prided herself on being known as, due to her prediliction for firing people she didn't like.

I worked for the evil bitch for six months and was getting to the point that I wanted to stop working in accounts - she decimated my self confidence. Despite working late every night (til at least 7, often 10)picking up the systems we used (written in German, nice)because no one knew how to do what I was meant to be doing (only her, and she had no patience to show me)she constantly had a stream of my colleagues in her office to bitch about me (she made it pretty obvious) Not that I was the only one, but I'd only been there a few months, what could I do?

The main part of my job was organising purchase of high value machinery from our European siblings and ensuring the finance was in place for us to sell it on - not an easy thing when a lot of the guys we dealt with were in Southern Ireland. The whole thing came to a head when I put a halt to a 2M euro deal as the finance hadn't been finalised - potentially we were delivering this stuff to a company that didn't have the means to pay for it.

However, largely due to the fact that she was shagging the sales guy who was organising it, she let it go ahead. Big mistake - for 2 months I was constantly on the phone, trying to get the guy to see the customer and sort it out (he'd already had his commission btw, what did he care?) Eventually my boss (FD) got into trouble with her boss (rabid angry German) and blamed it all on me. Her actual reason for firing me (with a smug smile, saying she knew I didn't like working there anyway) was because I'd not filed an invoice I'd done that morning...

Took me ages to get over that one, I still don't tell the guys where I currently work about it (luckily for me I got a new job within a week, as a temp and went permanent after two weeks, still there, loving it)

I think the most frustrating thing was, even though I had a good case for unfair dismissal (she'd also refused to give me any formal terms of employment - this was her favourite trick, she had some people working there for several years in the same position) it wouldn't have done me any good, nothing I could have done about it.

Still, I stayed friends with a couple of the girls and recently went to one of their hen nights - knowing the munter would be there, but determined not to let her spoil a good night out.

She was very obviously uncomfortable that I treated her just like someone you got on with, just hadn't seen for a couple of years, she thrives on tense situations and I genuinely think she believed I'd be awkward or upset or maybe even scared of her!

A big part of why people are like that is because they enjoy abusing their power by making others desperately unhappy - no way was I going to let her do that to me. She obviously has a lot lacking in her life, I don't! :)

Edit - sorry for the long post! I always post too much!!
(, Sun 11 Jul 2010, 16:46, 2 replies)
Does she post on /qotw?
Cause she could probably answer this week's question.
(, Sun 11 Jul 2010, 17:36, closed)
Been there.
Oddly I too worked for an FD who cocked up tremendously while belittling her staff.

Still, these days I document everything I do, ensure there's an email trail for every decision I make or on which I have been overruled, and keep evidence on the tiniest, stupidest of work-related facts. Which came out in my favour in my last job when a politicking SoB decided to try and get me fired.

Alas due to my comprehensive records, he ended up getting the sales guy fired instead. Even though I fought tooth and claw to point out that Sales Guy was new to the company and this should be a cock-up the poor boy could just learn from. SoB had cocked it by thinking he had the upper hand and CCing most of the company directors and using inflammatory language to get them all worked up, so alas someone's head was going to have to roll.

Hopefully SoB learned HIS lesson. But I doubt it.
(, Sun 11 Jul 2010, 18:43, closed)

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