Dear Reader
The post you’re about to read may be fact or fiction. I’m not going to confirm either way. But I’ll let you make your own mind up.
Let’s just call the main protagonist “Chaos”.
Cheers
Adam
I was trawling through social media the other day and came across an old line manager of mine, which just got me thinking. Social media networks like LinkedIn allow for praise and recommendation, but shouldn’t there also be a social media network unmasking some of these people for what they really are?
No doubt we don’t always get along with people, and it is taken to the extreme when you are dealing with your direct line manager who has the ability to hire and fire you in equal measures, but at the same time, they are also there to help you develop and do your job to the best of your ability.
So I won’t name this person or the organisation that I worked for, but I would like to give you a flavour of why they were the worst person I have ever worked with.
To start off with, I was very happy at my workplace. I had worked there for a reasonable amount of time, survived redundancies and was in a role I enjoyed. I was after a pay rise and some more recognition, but then again aren’t most people? Our little team got on brilliantly and we worked hard, but at the same time we had fun. However, things took a turn for the worse when a new line manager was brought in.
From the very start, this person looked like trouble. Our outgoing manager had arranged some drinks in the local pub with the incoming manager to introduce him to the team. He ended up getting extremely drunk, very quickly – developing a strange twitch and generally making everyone feel massively uncomfortable.
After joining, he embarked on a series of drinks evenings to carry on ingratiating himself with the incumbent team. At first, my colleagues and I thought this was great as he would pay for all the drinks and even food, but as time elapsed, we slowly found these evenings more and more excruciating.
One of the first evenings he took us out, he drunkenly explained how he used to visit prostitutes in his last job, even falling in love with one. Then he went on to explain about the drug-taking that went on. All as if he were talking in confidence to some old mates. At no point had any of my colleagues even brought up any of these topics!
Despite, what we put down to as eccentricity, he actually promoted me, giving me a sizeable pay rise and a really good position of responsibility. The new job role wasn’t too far from what I had already been doing, so I felt comfortable. He even promised me an extra £5k based on performance – so I was more than willing to put up with his oddities if it meant a fair whack on top of what I was already earning! I was excited, motivated and eager to learn more.
Moving on, his behaviour started to become even more erratic and it became apparent that he was all over the shop when it came to his management style. He moved homes to be closer to work, and when I am talking about close, I mean virtually across the road from the office! The man appeared to be a complete workaholic, staying in the office until the wee hours and at weekends. A state of mind none of us shared with him. He was also seemingly downloading hours upon hours of films and content from the web in his office and would often call us in to watch funny videos he’d seen on YouTube.
It was during one of these meetings that he started making comments about female members of staff and “how fit” they looked etc. Whilst this could be construed as “banter” it was making me feel uncomfortable and when I didn’t roar in approval at one such comment he asked “are you gay?”.
At this point I should have immediately walked to HR and reported him, but until you end up in a position where you are absolutely and utterly petrified about the prospect of losing your job, I don’t think you’d understand the pressures placed upon you and the difficult decisions you have to make. It got worse, in the middle of the office he told a racist joke. No one laughed and one of my colleagues, credit to him, said “You can’t say that.” To which he replied “Well, John (Director) thought it was funny.” To this day, I feel angry and ashamed that I never had the guts to report this.
Then there just came the boasting and downright lies. He claimed to have slept with one of my colleagues (who ended up leaving – which he blamed on me!) and then went on to claim to have slept with “the girl from Subway” and other women.
Around the same time, a local pub had started running a lap dancing night each week. So he started using the company credit card he’d been given to treat himself and other “contacts” to lap dances, and he claimed to have taken this further – which I have no doubt was true.
On the work side of things, the man always seemed busy and no doubt had a very agile mind, but you could never work out what he was going to do next. In my time, I saw him do nothing of any real worth to the company, except cause chaos, panic and confusion.
After several months, a new Dept Head was brought in to be his line manager, meaning his failings and chaotic management style were suddenly exposed. The Mr Nice Guy episode came to an abrupt halt. Suddenly we were all expected to wear suits into work and work til at least 7 in the evening. Any little issue was magnified and ranted about. He would start raising his voice to people in the office, trying to assert his authority. All in some panicky way to show that he was boss to the new guy. Yet, at the same time, his chaotic ways continued unabated.
He would stroll into a meeting 5 minutes late, because he had wanted to go and get a coffee and then wouldn’t even listen to what was being said.
Our weekly 5-a-side football (which had always been looked upon by the company as an excellent team bonding opportunity) was banned because it slightly ran over our lunchtime. Again, this seemed overly harsh as it was something he had actually stated was a good thing when he first joined. Plus, this ignored the fact that many of us worked well over our allotted hours. He wasn’t interested in football and it seemed to us that he was merely stamping his feet in a petulant manner because he wasn’t involved.
Some of my colleagues were having an even worse time than me and were getting to the point where the stress they were experiencing was making them ill. It was shocking to see.
We were also encouraged to act in a very unethical manner when working, thankfully something none of us acted upon.
One strange thing that played out was a real hate-hate relationship between him and one of our fiery marketing managers. Neither was subordinate to the other, so they could really tear into each other, which erupted in my manager being punched in the nose in a meeting (sadly we didn’t witness this, but we witnessed him the next morning having to go to the Doctors with a “nose issue”!)
Talking of noses, another thing that became a running joke in the office, was the regularity with which he would go off to the toilet and come back, sniffing and saying how “pumped up” he was or “woooah! How strong is that coffee!” After telling us all about his previous drug taking habits in his first few weeks at the company, it seemed pretty obvious to all and sundry what he was up to on those trips to the toilet.
Sadly things kept going downhill. One of my more vocal colleagues, never afraid to say his mind, challenged him on a few things. This was his death knell, as he took a huge dislike to him and gradually eased him out. Even boasting “I need to get back to get someone sacked” to an external partner. Something he never realised I witnessed.
He would regularly embarrass at external meetings. At one such meeting with an external partner, one of the team members told us he was a part-time comedian.
“So tell us a joke” says Chaos.
“What do you call a Black Pilot” says the Comedian.
“Oh, I’m so glad you can tell jokes like that….” Starts Chaos.
“A pilot, you racist!” says the Comedian.
Chaos’s face sort of crumbled as he realised this wasn’t actually a racist joke and his approval quickly became very embarrassing.
His micromanagement and reluctance to relinquish any control over anything was really bad. I was not developing in my role because he continually wouldn’t allow me to attend any training or do anything off my own back. He had the gall to say in my review that I wasn’t showing initiative…despite him continually turning my requests down.
We went through the process of hiring a direct report for me. Sadly he insisted on being overly involved in this too and eventually plumped for two attractive girls, purely on looks – instead of my favoured selections who had really good experience.
He continued to do bizarre things, like wipe a bogie on the sleeve of a colleague, threw a doughnut out of a second storey window onto a busy pedestrian walkway below and wash his fingers in a colleague’s glass of water when at lunch. These erratic and unexplainable actions were becoming the norm rather than the exception.
But at the same time, he was an ogre to work with. He employed a friend to effectively help him manage us as a team. His friend was actually normal and seemed a good person to work with, but unfortunately Chaos continued to pull the strings.
We would receive strangely worded emails, which were, no doubt, being bcc’d to HR and his own manager. Every time I received one of these emails I would cover my back and reply in the same wordy jibberish citing how I had followed any instructions to the letter.
My latter colleague reached the end of the road with him and swiftly found himself another job and as I wasn’t playing ball with him (I had refused his request “to become a spy” for him), I could see me going the same way.
Things came to a head when one day a new girl turned up in the office. “Hi I’m Zara, and I am the (my job title)” I was gobsmacked as she announced my exact job title.
Of course, I was fuming – This girl had no doubt done nothing wrong, but I couldn’t even look at her. I felt humiliated and angry all at the same time. Chaos was uncontactable and I ended up blowing up in a meeting with his friend, who told me to calm down, as she had been brought in “to help”. I couldn’t quite fathom why he couldn’t see the reason I was hopping mad and actually shaking with anger at this appointment.
So it came down to a meeting with Chaos, his manager and me. Chaos started reeling out lie after lie about my performance while I tried to explain the issues I was having with him. But to no avail. His manager took his side.
After another 2 weeks, he reeled off another pack of lies. Engineering the situation so it appeared I had badly missed an important - which he never even let me be aware of in the first place.
I have to explain, by this point my morale had been shot away. I was at my lowest ebb in years, regularly experiencing real bouts of depression and anxiety. With the enjoyment in my work effectively at zero, I reluctantly agreed to resign, with his manager offering a sweetener of a couple of months pay to see me through to my next position (which, I should have realised, seemed an admission of guilt on their part). Amazingly, I managed to remain composed and magnanimous about the whole thing. I was glad to be going as it did open up new opportunities for me and I simply couldn’t stand working underneath him for one moment longer. I could have gone on and literally fought tooth and nail to keep my job, but I felt exhausted and simply didn’t have the fight in me anymore.
My leaving speech and leaving do was almost farcical as he tried to hijack which venue we would be going to, plus he ended up coming. The last person I wanted there. Shaking my hand and saying “what a great guy” I was.
And so it was I left, still a bit shell-shocked by the whole period I had just endured under his tenure. As the next few weeks and months went on I would wake up feeling angry and resentful at the whole sorry episode. I had done nothing to spoil my position and the speed in which I had gone from being employee of the month to being forced out the door was shocking.
So I spoke to a senior director about it. From what he said to me, he sounded like he was on my side, and if I wanted to go ahead and take the company to industrial tribunal, it would be with his blessing.
So I went ahead with an industrial tribunal for constructive dismissal. I received a list of rebuttals to my claims back. More lies from Chaos. So I forged ahead with my tribunal proceedings. Thankfully, the company backed down, and admitted they had been at fault and compensated me out of court.
Looking back, I probably would have been wiser settling for more and taking the tribunal to its full conclusion – but to be honest, I was tired of arguing and I wanted to concentrate on my new position, so I took the payment offered.
Sadly for my remaining colleagues, the company seemed rotten to the core and in massive disarray, leading to a huge restructuring which took place over the course of the following year. I think if I had taken the tribunal the whole way, they wouldn’t have had a leg to stand on.
The anger subsided a bit, but I was very annoyed to hear that Chaos had left the company not 2 months later and had also taken them to tribunal – settling for far more than I had received.
After a short period temping, I found a new job and the settlement meant I could buy a decent car to help me with my commute. But above all, the settlement said that I was in the right. The anger went and I started to sleep easier.
So for all those good managers out there, there is always one who can rightfully claim to be the worst manager on earth!
Labels: Work
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