A few of you may have heard by my griping/bemoaning my work situation.  Hoo boy.  I had an absolute psycho-boss. 

FYI, I went to work in Hotel Management after my graphic design companies failed (face it I'm not a sales man, I'm production when it comes to this)  I'd just moved from Northeast WI to St. Paul MN for my wife's Veterinarian School, and got the FDM/AGM position at a very nice hotel out here.  One problem, my GM was psycho.  During my interview (he didn't get a choice in hiring me, the owner did thank God!)  Did everything in his power to drive me away.  I never had to tell an interviewer before, that I won't tolerating him yelling at me or swearing at me, and if he did, we would have an altercation.  Yes this was actually said in the interview as a threat.  Small red flag there.  Anyway, the owner I loved, the GM I hated.  Then they broke out the golden handcuffs and offered me the exact salary I needed to say yes to the job, plus I'd be moved up to AGM once I integrated fully with the company.  So I took it praying that the GM was putting on a show.

Not so much.

I survived 3+ months of him tearing me down in front of employees, guests and management as a way to "motivate me to improve" instead of training me in processes that should have been in place.  The man was so duplicitous it was unbelievable chewing everyone out for not knowing how to do tasks they were never trained for or shown how to do.  I finally had had enough and was secretly looking to move on.  Then a miracle happened.  They fired his ass!  Darn near frog marched him out the door.  He tried to get another manager to quit out of loyalty to him!  He knew it was coming, and I was praying, but didn't dare hope, it would come to pass before I moved on.  But after enduring one hellacious night where I was developing ulcers just driving to work with the stress of the tearing down I was expecting, the corporate honchos who came in were there and told me the blessed news.

I never in my life felt a weight being lifted off me quite like this.  I damn near started cheering, laughing and crying all at once before and so quickly over the demise of one person!  I had to sit down and try to get my relief under control.  As that day progressed, I heard one constant theme run through my head "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead!".  Then I actually heard other employees in the hallway singing that song out loud.  The bar staff actually went up to the owner who was there that day, shook his hand and thanked him.  They're all going to give him a christmas card with 5 bucks from each of the staff in thank you!  We were given permission to hire back all the personnel that quit in the last month because of him.  It was about 10% of the total hotel staff! 

The new GM we got is outstanding, he even knew of this guy's reputation from a woman who used to work for him.  A very straight laced Christian woman who never said a bad thing about anyone.  She warned the new GM, that the "witch" was the most evil man she ever met in her life.  He said that was the equivilant to Mother Theresa calling someone evil incarnate.

So, that's the big news for me.  My early Christmas present of sorts.  Since then life has become absolutely grand, and at worst, only a bit exhausting.  Not the daily hell of Sysiphis pushing that boulder.  We've discovered all sorts of things about him that I dare not say because there could be legal proceedings too.

Now, my question is this.  Anyone else have the Schadenfreud joy of seeing an evil person with power over your life suddenly removed?  Ever have a total psycho-boss get his/her commupance while you were present?

It's glorious to feel this vindicated and avenged. 

That oughta get people talking.  What do you think Quest? ;c)

mdb

ps: if by some freakish chance he should come to read this, to quote Grandma Addams:
Lexor Nexor Burst and Burn!   Just a curse,  have a nice day.

Not quite a boss, but a co-worker who was in "management". EVERYONE in the company hated him, but the VP who hired him didn't want to lose face by admitting he made a bad hire, so we had to work with the man for a long while before he was finally fired. My code word for him was Showboat, and my creative director's code word for him was Mr. Bling Bling.

We did kind of miss him after he was gone though ... but only because he was a "character" unlike anyone we'd ever known. It was like he wasn't real, he was just sooo bad!

I think that anyone whos human, would feel the weight lifted off. I had a similar story, but quit because of my boss. I wouldn't wish an early demise on anyone, no matter how bad they were(within law) because I haven't lived their life, but I wouldn't cry after their demise either.

Good for you, mboncher! We're all happy for ya.

I've had so many managers, that I just wait them out..;)

Good for you, I had a boss who would strip everyone down to make his mates look better, I walked from that job after 20 years working there (he'd been boss for about 2 years). He took a walk just afterwards as life had become uncomfortable for him there. Now I wear a managers hat and hope I do an ok job at it.....

This sounds so familier, MB ! 
I had a boss who was on his way out of the company and he was giving me a hard time. Then one day I was gonna punch his lights out but thought better of it. He gave me a right mouthful and I took it knowing he was on his way out anyway. He then told the incoming boss that he had had to chew me out and the new boss asked me in private what had happened.
I told him and said I was about to deck the guy and that if they wanted me to go I was outa there! The new boss said that in the first place the company didn't want me to go anywhere and in the second place I wouldn't get fired for punching out the old boss!!
Guess who stayed?

At another place I worked the boss was a real PIA. Tried to take credit himself for things I did and innovations I'd come up with that made machining engineering parts quicker and therefore cheaper. When one job I'd done worked out more expensive than the company had quoted for he tried to get me fired even though I'd followed his instructions. I hated this guy so bad I nearly ran him over with my car.
Then wonder of wonders!!! He found a better job and left! The real joy came when I was given his job and found that he'd been stealing from the company and cheating on his time-sheets.
It was then I started believing in Kharma........

Congrats on your news, MB! I know just how you feel !

My favorite part was him calling me on the phone during an interview and accusing me of stealing from the company safe.

In my last month there, we had people actually call the corporate office who had just interviewed for positions and said no way if it means working for him.  He actually reduced our office manager to tears on her 2nd day causing her to quit.  He was directly responsible for 90% of our property's problems.  Just incredibly evil and potentially incompetant too which could explain why he never trained anyone and left us to figure it out for ourselves.  It's been so cathartic these last few weeks to be able to lay blame at his feet.

mdb

Oh yes i had a huge weight lifted from my shoulders the day my younger brother said he was moving to the other side of Australia. Now you say that GM was evil, then my brother was made with the same mold.
He is an evil manipulating uncaring spawn of the devil, he would walk into my house(without knocking) go to my cubbards or fridge help himself then sit there and just put me down for being disabled and not being able to get out and work so i could take care of my mother who by the way lived 2.5 hours drive from me. He would then turn on my wife and start telling her that she shouldn't be at home taking care of me but out at work getting money so we could travel to perth every weekend.
It got so bad that i actually had thoughts of me shooting him and pleading temporary insanity..then the day came when he told us he had got a job over in the eastern states boy was that a day i will never forget.

CD: He sounds like a right blodger.....................

Ouch CD, it's much worse when they're relations.  I've seen a few people like that go in on their family in front of me.  I completely understand why you felt the way you did.  Temporary insanity... hmmmmmmmmmm.... nah!  They'd get me with a hate crime, my ex GM's queer as a three dollar bill... but nobody notices >wink wink<. 

mdb

ps;  That phrase is not hate speech but a good old coloquialism used around here.  :c)

What tickles me is that in the Bahamas, they actually have $3 bills. And they're slightly pink (the actual color is carmine..;)

I had one boss that actually got to me. Ex-Professional-Wrestler, Electrical Engineering graduate, and the worst personality traits of both. The amusing thing is, is that every time he messed up, he got promoted. I trained him to be a technician, he got transferred to another account, whose entire staff threatened to quit, unless he was removed. He came back as my boss. Threatened to fire us every two weeks or so, until I got the hint that sooner or later, he'd carry through. Of a team of 5, 4 quit or transferred to other accounts. After that, he was promoted to manager, then regional, then district manager, before the company went 'tango uniform' (or into most of the chapters of the bankruptcy code..;) When they went south, he controlled several states.

Me, I wound up at a large company (went from power generation to pharmaceuticals), and I wished I'd done it years before. Until another company merged, it was the best place to work, and the whole atmosphere was better. I got hired by the company, spent 6 years as an employee, and hadn't looked back since.

Sometimes it just takes a change of scene to make your life better.

That's what I'm discovering too Pak.  Coming out to the twin cities has been a huge boost for me professionally, with a lot of positives.  I had been so beaten down that I was worthless just by my previous job situation, because it was a dead end job with no chance of promotion.  When I had to move, I was shocked at the fast and serious attention I got from Management level positions and companies.  One of the most uplifting experiences... till the witch got a house dropped on him.

mdb

* Coming out to the twin cities 

*Now why does that sound familier....?

I wouldn't know on that one Brycster. :c)  I had to move to the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area this last summer so my wife could start Vet school.  Been one of those mixed blessings all in all.  Career-wise, turning much better, but I have no friends to hang out with here, and a lot of stress with my wife's school (about as hard as you can get college-wise)  And a 4 hour drive to see any family. :c(  Plus I'm forced to learn "Big City Living", which I am most definately not used to.  Lots more paranoia.  So, at least it's improved for work and that's helped.

mdb

Congrats on the good fortune! I've heard of people like that. Fortunately I have not had to deal with anyone like that. How long was that GM there?

--Death at Midnight

My problem has not been with meanness it’s been with stupidity. I had this guy tell me two days before my wife died, “John, you've been spending too much time at the hospital. It's going to affect your raise next year."  So I'll get 1.8 instead of 2.2%? Who gives a rat’s ass! I'm 25% under market value now. 

This guy is supposed to direct our programs and get new funding. Instead he tries out every new computer management tool that is released. He asked me for my resume. I’m thinking, "Does he know something I don't?" Next week they announce that HR has developed an electronic resume system. Next week I get an email with the message, “a report has been made that you might like to be aware of." it turns out that this boss had reported an improperly stored visor in my LSM area. (That's right ES&H functions; OSHA, etc. have been pushed down onto the employee). Never mind that the employee had gone to the bathroom and I was in another building. It turns out that HR had developed another electronic tool he just had to try out.

This manager walks around making sure important things are done. He fishes aluminum cans out of the trash so they can go into the recycle bin. He even told one employee at lunch he should peel his naval orange pole to pole instead of around the equator. Our company eliminated time cards about fifteen years ago but he has a sign in sheet. He also expects me (not anyone else) to knock on his door and tell him I have arrived even though I have been working for another engineer for the last three months. There is this whole elitist strata going on and I don't have the letters PhD after my name. If I did I could come in naked and go to the bathroom in the office plants and he would not say anything.

We just blew $1500 on office moves because we can’t give up prestigious positions on the first floor, but no one knows if we'll have any money in our accounts after March. We don't have the money for his new laptop every other year or his two trips to France. When he got a $900 desk chair with a Kevlar back we joked he wanted a bulletproof one. We are supposed to get refills and replace the cores of our gel pins when they run out. I’ve pointed out that at $150/hour (not what I'm paid, what they charge the customers for me) If we take the time to change them our $2 pens become $5 pens with our added labor. In the meantime, our main roots pump is dead. Four big furnace systems are down because of it. Do we get a new one? No I scour the resellers for a deal and present him with quotes for rebuilt units. He says let me think about it. About two months later he tries to place an order and wonder of wonders all the units are sold. We can repeat this process two or three more times spending enough money to buy a new unit. Every time we are ready to make a decision he gets cold feet and checks again to see if he can get something cheaper. We need to concentrate all our efforts on things that only we can do, make a decision, and go foreword.

I lived in West Saint Paul, MN all my life (just off 52S, Butler Ave exit) and just moved to Akron area, Ohio last month :)

DbM:  My GM was there maybe 2 years.  Yikes huh?

Electroglyph:  Wow, that guy is a nut too.  Sounds like he was promoted to the level of his incompetance, plus being a personal jackass.

Sulferic... DOH!  just my luck. :c)  Yeah, I'm in the Phalen / Payne area of Saint Paul, near the Maryland / 61 interchange.  I'm right on the edge of a really good area and really bad area, so I don't do much outside since I'm only home at night it seems.