Anonymous 2m 512 #karma
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Karma Got The Boss
I have a fairly nice cozy desk job where I do mostly editing for the media. I had been there for several years and had recently been moved cross-country to another office. A few months later, I got a new boss, one who had no experience in my department, but someone who had been there for 15 years. He got the job because he’s good friends with one of the upper bosses.
I had to teach him how to do the job, what everyone did, and get him up to speed. Afterwards, he would tell me how to do my job, get on my case for every mistake made, and always take me into the “meeting room” for a discussion on why I made the mistake, what led up to it, what safety measures could be taken into account to prevent it from happening again, and so on. These meetings would last an hour. I figured I would be losing my job. It never did happen, but the reality was it was torture and fear everyday. Whenever someone else made the same mistake, there was nothing done to anyone else. No words said, no one was spoken to, and no one had to go into the “meeting room”.
I knew I was the target of them trying to fire me, but unfortunately, they just couldn’t bring themselves to ever do it. After a year, the harassment stopped. The mistakes were certainly far and few. I am no longer taken into the “meeting room” any longer. But the relationship between my boss and I has been completely severed forever. Now I am not one to disrespect a boss at all. No matter what, I know I am there to do a job. Not once did I yell back or tell the boss he was wrong. I simply accepted my mistakes, attempted to learn from them, and not make them again. Persistence eventually paid off.
There was, however, karma that would eventually kick in. By not getting on anyone else for their mistakes, my boss has no control over anyone. They make mistakes and he tries to tell them about it and they don’t care. There are some on our team that he oversees who no longer talk with him. The communication is kept at a minimum, which is horrible for a boss and the team he oversees. While the company is not doing bad, by any means, the fact is: the atmosphere certainly changed.
Do I feel sorry for him? Not at all. I have to look at him everyday, knowing that he tortured me for nearly a year, making me fear the loss of my job everyday, and put on a fake smile. I knew that by doing what I had to do, not arguing or fighting back — karma would get the best of him, and it sure did. Now it is him who has to go into work everyday, miserable because his entire team won’t listen to him and most of them are not even talking to him.
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