THE MOST HORRIBLE BULLY OF A BOSS
NG was the boss and unfortunately the owner of this accountancy firm. I'm sure that if he hadn't been the owner he would have been out the door really quickly.
I believe he had decided from the start to victimise me because I have Asperger's Syndrome and was therefore a perfect target. I am a really good, loyal worker ( no other boss I've ever had has accused me of being lazy and stupid ) and perhaps he felt threatened in case these qualities highlighted his inadequacies.
I have a Maths degree and as a result am really comfortable working with figures, a much-sought quality in accountancy firms. NG managed to ultimately use this skill of mine against me. He refused to give me adequate training and often never bothered to explain to me properly how to do a job. For all that, he'd always be down on me like a ton of bricks if I ever made any kind of mistake - I'd be publicly chastised.
Here is the kind of thing he used to shout at me for any kind of mistake: "Oh for f*** sake! Here I am waiting for - - and you go and type the whole f***ing lot out! I can't say whether it's to do with your Asperger's Syndrome or just lazy thinking as I'm not a psychologist, but personally I'd think just lazy thinking 'cause surely having Asperger's Syndrome doesn't make you as stupid as that! I think you just have a very lazy mind! Your attitude is Numbers, Numbers, dah-dah-dah-dah-dah - F*** sake!"
Additionally NG used to make me work extra hours and have short lunches without ever reimbursing me. In fact, I discovered only after leaving that he'd been cheating me on pay all along.
Not only would NG always publicly shout at me for mistakes, but he also used to come up to the person sitting next to me and right in front of my face tell her horrible things about me, things to the effect that I was a really bad, lazy employee who was completely incompetent at everything. Nobody there would stick up for me - they say the boss's attitude will rub off on the other staff. Quite a few of them too appeared to have the attitude that I was a bad, lazy, stupid person.
One time in fact NG had lost a document he was desperately needing for a client meeting (he was always very messy, yet once gave me a big row in front of the whole office for letting my desk get somewhat untidy) and started stomping round the office, blurting out about how, "The problem in this office is that Gandalf is completely incapable of - - From now on we're all to ignore Gandalf -"
NG was an extremely arrogant and self-important person and very full of himself. For all that he used to act in unbelievably stupid ways at times. For example, he might tell whoever was answering the phone to say that he was in a meeting. He would then tell that person as they were on the phone to tell or ask the client something. The client would then hear him speaking and so refuse to believe that he was in a meeting. This would ultimately be NG's loss as the client would subsequenly be likely to leave him.
NG was maverick in that he had a slightly posh, upper-class accent, but was very foul-mouthed. Normally he would be nice to clients' faces, but might talk about them behind their backs (as I mentioned he did not always even have the curtesy to talk about me behind my back), and was constantly talking about how either they or people from the Inland Revenue were "a complete f***ing a***", or "a f***ing b**ch", or "a stupid cow". A very hypercritical individual, he once made the racist comment that he hated American people because they were so full of themselves.
Like a lot of bad people NG was good at making himself appear like a good, nice person. I remember the first time I met him I thought he just seemed like a nice, pleasant person. Hence he was obviously able to attract both clients and staff. Unsurprisingly, the place had a sky-high staff turnover rate, plus a pretty high client one as well.
Just why was NG such an awful individual? I will never know. He appeared to be happily married with two grown children who were both doing quite well for themselves. Perhaps he felt unhappy about his lack of interpersonal and management skills. Perhaps he did not like hard work (he once threw a job at me because he was going out for a game of golf, and aggressively and rudely refused to tell me how to go about doing it, saying I needed to use my brains and work it out for myself, just expecting to find it all done correctly upon returning from his game of golf) and was projecting his laziness onto me, possibly using my Asperger's Syndrome as *proof* that I was lazy.
Thankfully I am now working for another accountancy firm which is far, far better, and am flourishing in an environment which is infinitely more supportive. I have learnt so much more there than I ever did whilst working for NG, and have achieved far more for my bosses there than I ever did for NG. This just shows that you achieve far more for a good boss than you do for a bad one.
(Gandalf, Wed 24 Jun 2009, 21:10, 2 replies)

Paragraphs, please.
With line breaks?
( Bats, Thu 25 Jun 2009, 7:37, closed)

^^
this ... reading your post is like pouring acid on my eyes.
(zenmeban thinks the weather could be better, Thu 25 Jun 2009, 13:07, closed)