Random Public Thoughts #3 - 5 bosses in 7 years
After being a stay-at-home mom for years, I finally entered the corporate world about 7-1/2 years ago, at about age 44.
I was very lucky: I had passed my CPA exam and was working as a temp when my husband noticed an internal job posting at his company that he thought might be a good fit for me. My hubby is a far-seeing and practical man so he first made some discrete inquiries about the hiring manager. When he was satisfied that the hiring manager was a decent person with a good reputation, he suggested that I send in my resume.
The man who hired me was a Princeton philosophy graduate who once wanted to be a math major. My interview was very easy: we chatted about our families and found we had a lot in common. I had no experience, but for some reason, Ralph decided to take a chance on me, and I miraculously got the job! I LOVED him. Ralph was very smart and worked very hard, but he was also a warm and fuzzy kind of person, very sensitive to the others' feelings and a wonderful person to work for. He was a patient and clear teacher, easy to approach and easy to talk to. This was my very first "real" job and I was tense, nervous, and unsure of myself. I grew up with mimeographs and manual typewriters. Microfiches, faxes, xerox machines and computers were new to me. I barely knew how to turn on my computer, let alone navigate in the electronic world!?! It truly was a trial by fire for me. Ralph sent me out for some Excel training, and got a consultant to help me (I learned a LOT from him), and the people in his group started passing on some work to me. I was very slow and inefficient at first, but I worked as hard as I could and gradually learned. The tone starts at the top, and thus I was not surprised to find most of my colleagues to be warm, funny, hard-working, and decent people. There was one slacker but Ralph found a way to gently get rid of her. Thus, I found the working world to be WONDERFUL!!! Free coffee, nice and hard-working colleagues, a boss that I loved and respected, and a paycheck to boot! What more could I ask for?
Well, as my pessimistic hubby loves to say, "good things don't last forever."
After I'd only been working for about a year or so, Ralph announced that he was retiring. He was only about 51 but the stock market was roaring in the late 1990's and he apparently had invested well. I cried for the rest of the day after his announcement!
Actually, when Ralph interviewed me, he said something about expecting constant change. One of the training classes that he sent me to was "Business As Unusual," which was a class about how to roll with the punches in an ever-changing corporate world. He was SO right.
Not only was Ralph retiring, but our group was split apart completely. What's more, the finance VP retired shortly after Ralph. Herb was a short but warm, witty, smart, and shrewd Yale graduate who steered finance with a steady hand for years. He promoted good people and set a great tone at the top. Little did I know what was to come!
Ralph said that my new boss was a great guy, and he was right. Mike turned out to be a very good boss. He was VERY different from Ralph. Ralph had subtle and funny cartoons and quips on his wall. Mike had pictures of golf courses. Ralph liked movies and national parks and I imagine that he was a oenophile; Mike knew all the sports statistics and I'll bet he drank beer, from the can. Ralph was a warm and sensitive person; Mike was practical and to the point. But Mike, like Ralph, worked very hard and was impeccably honest and fair. Mike also was a terrific teacher - he made things look simple, easy, and very clear. He was very knowledgeable and I respected and trusted him completely.
So, I had a couple of good years with Mike, Boss #2. However, turmoil was taking place at the top. There was a vacuum for awhile after the retirement of the Finance VP. Herb had put an excellent controller and managers in place so the finance department continued to run just fine after he retired.
However, the vacuum could not continue forever. Our company's owners put a new, Type-A type VP in place. Unlike Herb, who knew everyone's names, this man only talked to "important" people and he wanted to put lots of number-crunching financial analysts in place. The managers were put under pressure and all of a sudden we had to constantly drop what we were doing and do urgently required analyses which probably ended up in the garbage. It wasn't a good environment and we were all relieved when we heard that the very ambitious and hard-charging VP decided to leave for a bigger pond.
However, our company, which is somewhat cyclical, was in one of its troughs so it was "reorganization" and RIF time. I went on vacation around then so I cleaned my desk out in case I didn't have a job when I returned.
I have a niche position so I still had my job when I got back. However, our controller was fired. This was a shock to me as he was a very good controller: his managers were all VERY good and he got rid of the bad ones in a very classy and humane way. Controller Jim was respectful and civil to everyone and as a whole he was an excellent leader, stepping up at the right moments and saying just the right thing. He was brought down by things that were beyond his control, and also by politics.
I now had Boss #3. Al was hired by ex-controller Jim after Ralph left. I always liked him, but he was relatively new and didn't understand all the ins and outs of SAP and the peculiarities of our company like Mike did. What he was very good at, though, was general accounting principles and he also was a good teacher. I also liked his personality: good-natured, good-hearted, respectful, tactful, and non-confrontational. Thus, I was OK with the change. We had a new and very ambitious controller, who was similar to the Type-A VP but who delivered his demands a bit more tactfully. We also got a new VP who seemed to be a lot more approachable and easier to live with than his predecessor. VP Tom was sharp & smart, but had a rumpled and genial demeanor.
The new & ambitious controller didn't stay too long: he too moved on to a bigger pond. At around the same time, a key person in the trenches also left for a better and more flexible job. Although I knew Diana F. was a terrific and extremely knowledgeable worker, I didn't work with her directly so I didn't think the changes would affect me much.
Was I wrong. . .! Diana's departure forced a shuffling of key people and I ended up with Boss #4 and Controller #3.
And I knew that I was going to be in trouble. Boss #4 was Claudia, one of four women who hung out together and who were hostile to me for reasons which I could not fathom (my husband had two words: "High School"). Her good friend was a woman who was very rude and hostile to me when no one was looking.
I tried to keep an open mind, but my worst fears were soon confirmed. Claudia was a terrible boss. She came and went as she pleased, and worked from home whenever she wanted to, but she said that I needed to be present during normal working hours. She was patronizing and accusing whenever she came to talk to me. She was self-aggrandizing and assumed (and told people) that any progress was the result of her telling me what to do. At the same time, although she demanded perfection, she never shared information, never taught me anything (unlike Mike, Ralph, and Al, who were all wonderful teachers), and was impatient and cryptic whenever I came to her with questions.
Well, Claudia left today - she, too, quit for a bigger pond. Before she left, she wrote 9 pages of an absolutely vicious performance review for me. We were asked to do a self-evaluation listing our 2004 accomplishments. She diminished or belittled just about every single accomplishment that I listed, dismissing them as minor, mechanical, or being accomplished only because she intervened. Worst of all, she implied that most of the feedback that she was getting from my colleagues was negative and stated that I had relationship problems and couldn't get along with others. When I asked for specific examples, she said it came from my "360's" (we submit a list of 6 people that she is supposed to ask for feedback from) and from the people in my group.
What she wrote was SO contrary to my self-image that I went to every single person that I had listed for a 360 and also to everyone in my group, to ask if I had offended them in any way. It turned out that Claudia only requested 360's from 3 of the 6 people that I listed. Every single one of the people said that they either wrote a positive 360 (and gave me a copy), or else, if they hadn't written an evaluation (because they weren't asked to), their feelings towards me were only positive and they felt that we had a good working relationship.
Thus, I concluded that Claudia's "feedback" was coming from the people that she hung out with socially, but that I didn't work with - the "Mean Girls." If this is the case, then she is unjust and wrong at best. Actually, "despicable" is the word that comes to my mind, because these 9 pages of criticisms deriding my work and impugning my ability to get along with others is going into my permanent personnel file. If I were to look for a job elsewhere in the company, a hiring manager would look at this and not hire me.
Luckily, I am not ambitious and I don't need to work. Still, this experience has left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth.
I was very lucky: I had passed my CPA exam and was working as a temp when my husband noticed an internal job posting at his company that he thought might be a good fit for me. My hubby is a far-seeing and practical man so he first made some discrete inquiries about the hiring manager. When he was satisfied that the hiring manager was a decent person with a good reputation, he suggested that I send in my resume.
The man who hired me was a Princeton philosophy graduate who once wanted to be a math major. My interview was very easy: we chatted about our families and found we had a lot in common. I had no experience, but for some reason, Ralph decided to take a chance on me, and I miraculously got the job! I LOVED him. Ralph was very smart and worked very hard, but he was also a warm and fuzzy kind of person, very sensitive to the others' feelings and a wonderful person to work for. He was a patient and clear teacher, easy to approach and easy to talk to. This was my very first "real" job and I was tense, nervous, and unsure of myself. I grew up with mimeographs and manual typewriters. Microfiches, faxes, xerox machines and computers were new to me. I barely knew how to turn on my computer, let alone navigate in the electronic world!?! It truly was a trial by fire for me. Ralph sent me out for some Excel training, and got a consultant to help me (I learned a LOT from him), and the people in his group started passing on some work to me. I was very slow and inefficient at first, but I worked as hard as I could and gradually learned. The tone starts at the top, and thus I was not surprised to find most of my colleagues to be warm, funny, hard-working, and decent people. There was one slacker but Ralph found a way to gently get rid of her. Thus, I found the working world to be WONDERFUL!!! Free coffee, nice and hard-working colleagues, a boss that I loved and respected, and a paycheck to boot! What more could I ask for?
Well, as my pessimistic hubby loves to say, "good things don't last forever."
After I'd only been working for about a year or so, Ralph announced that he was retiring. He was only about 51 but the stock market was roaring in the late 1990's and he apparently had invested well. I cried for the rest of the day after his announcement!
Actually, when Ralph interviewed me, he said something about expecting constant change. One of the training classes that he sent me to was "Business As Unusual," which was a class about how to roll with the punches in an ever-changing corporate world. He was SO right.
Not only was Ralph retiring, but our group was split apart completely. What's more, the finance VP retired shortly after Ralph. Herb was a short but warm, witty, smart, and shrewd Yale graduate who steered finance with a steady hand for years. He promoted good people and set a great tone at the top. Little did I know what was to come!
Ralph said that my new boss was a great guy, and he was right. Mike turned out to be a very good boss. He was VERY different from Ralph. Ralph had subtle and funny cartoons and quips on his wall. Mike had pictures of golf courses. Ralph liked movies and national parks and I imagine that he was a oenophile; Mike knew all the sports statistics and I'll bet he drank beer, from the can. Ralph was a warm and sensitive person; Mike was practical and to the point. But Mike, like Ralph, worked very hard and was impeccably honest and fair. Mike also was a terrific teacher - he made things look simple, easy, and very clear. He was very knowledgeable and I respected and trusted him completely.
So, I had a couple of good years with Mike, Boss #2. However, turmoil was taking place at the top. There was a vacuum for awhile after the retirement of the Finance VP. Herb had put an excellent controller and managers in place so the finance department continued to run just fine after he retired.
However, the vacuum could not continue forever. Our company's owners put a new, Type-A type VP in place. Unlike Herb, who knew everyone's names, this man only talked to "important" people and he wanted to put lots of number-crunching financial analysts in place. The managers were put under pressure and all of a sudden we had to constantly drop what we were doing and do urgently required analyses which probably ended up in the garbage. It wasn't a good environment and we were all relieved when we heard that the very ambitious and hard-charging VP decided to leave for a bigger pond.
However, our company, which is somewhat cyclical, was in one of its troughs so it was "reorganization" and RIF time. I went on vacation around then so I cleaned my desk out in case I didn't have a job when I returned.
I have a niche position so I still had my job when I got back. However, our controller was fired. This was a shock to me as he was a very good controller: his managers were all VERY good and he got rid of the bad ones in a very classy and humane way. Controller Jim was respectful and civil to everyone and as a whole he was an excellent leader, stepping up at the right moments and saying just the right thing. He was brought down by things that were beyond his control, and also by politics.
I now had Boss #3. Al was hired by ex-controller Jim after Ralph left. I always liked him, but he was relatively new and didn't understand all the ins and outs of SAP and the peculiarities of our company like Mike did. What he was very good at, though, was general accounting principles and he also was a good teacher. I also liked his personality: good-natured, good-hearted, respectful, tactful, and non-confrontational. Thus, I was OK with the change. We had a new and very ambitious controller, who was similar to the Type-A VP but who delivered his demands a bit more tactfully. We also got a new VP who seemed to be a lot more approachable and easier to live with than his predecessor. VP Tom was sharp & smart, but had a rumpled and genial demeanor.
The new & ambitious controller didn't stay too long: he too moved on to a bigger pond. At around the same time, a key person in the trenches also left for a better and more flexible job. Although I knew Diana F. was a terrific and extremely knowledgeable worker, I didn't work with her directly so I didn't think the changes would affect me much.
Was I wrong. . .! Diana's departure forced a shuffling of key people and I ended up with Boss #4 and Controller #3.
And I knew that I was going to be in trouble. Boss #4 was Claudia, one of four women who hung out together and who were hostile to me for reasons which I could not fathom (my husband had two words: "High School"). Her good friend was a woman who was very rude and hostile to me when no one was looking.
I tried to keep an open mind, but my worst fears were soon confirmed. Claudia was a terrible boss. She came and went as she pleased, and worked from home whenever she wanted to, but she said that I needed to be present during normal working hours. She was patronizing and accusing whenever she came to talk to me. She was self-aggrandizing and assumed (and told people) that any progress was the result of her telling me what to do. At the same time, although she demanded perfection, she never shared information, never taught me anything (unlike Mike, Ralph, and Al, who were all wonderful teachers), and was impatient and cryptic whenever I came to her with questions.
Well, Claudia left today - she, too, quit for a bigger pond. Before she left, she wrote 9 pages of an absolutely vicious performance review for me. We were asked to do a self-evaluation listing our 2004 accomplishments. She diminished or belittled just about every single accomplishment that I listed, dismissing them as minor, mechanical, or being accomplished only because she intervened. Worst of all, she implied that most of the feedback that she was getting from my colleagues was negative and stated that I had relationship problems and couldn't get along with others. When I asked for specific examples, she said it came from my "360's" (we submit a list of 6 people that she is supposed to ask for feedback from) and from the people in my group.
What she wrote was SO contrary to my self-image that I went to every single person that I had listed for a 360 and also to everyone in my group, to ask if I had offended them in any way. It turned out that Claudia only requested 360's from 3 of the 6 people that I listed. Every single one of the people said that they either wrote a positive 360 (and gave me a copy), or else, if they hadn't written an evaluation (because they weren't asked to), their feelings towards me were only positive and they felt that we had a good working relationship.
Thus, I concluded that Claudia's "feedback" was coming from the people that she hung out with socially, but that I didn't work with - the "Mean Girls." If this is the case, then she is unjust and wrong at best. Actually, "despicable" is the word that comes to my mind, because these 9 pages of criticisms deriding my work and impugning my ability to get along with others is going into my permanent personnel file. If I were to look for a job elsewhere in the company, a hiring manager would look at this and not hire me.
Luckily, I am not ambitious and I don't need to work. Still, this experience has left me with a very bitter taste in my mouth.
posted by Gaye Marasaki | 5:29 PM
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