Matthew Gates 2m 528 #toxicboss
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
I’d say for the past decade, with maybe just a few months of a breaks in between. To make a long story short — I got my start in programming in the professional world — by getting hired by a toxic boss. He taught me everything I would need to know to survive in this world. I learned all I could from him and after a year and a half, took that knowledge, and told him, well… I was polite in my departure, while he was not, but he underestimated and mistook my genuine kindness and passive-assertiveness for weakness. Such are predators who lie in wait and are sure to strike when the prey is so sure of itself.
After that job, I worked remotely for a few years before being reassigned across the country, and then having to train my own boss, who then proceeded to become arrogant in his leadership position, spending the next 7 years making every effort to fire me. Just 2 months ago, he was fired. Again, with my passive-assertive techniques, I lie in wait, with the patience of a saint and a deep understanding of karma, for which, every bad leader, supervisor, or boss always makes the mistake of overconfidence in their own abilities, particularly, when dealing with their own bosses. People who tend to lead other people have a harder time being led themselves. And that is something I often seen in weak leaders and have used to my advantage.
Seeing another person recently departure from my company, who was on medical leave, decided to retire, and not return to work, and had been an employee with my company for 25 years. He was an employee for 20 years. She was wished a farewell with a great email, while there was absolutely no mention of him at all. No honor, no appreciation for his loyalty of service. And that is karma at its finest. If I had to guess, there are many complaints over the years about him with seemingly nothing that was being done about it. While I personally never complained about him, I unfortunately, was diagnosed with PTSD and although he is not the sole reason for it, he was a contributing factor. Nowadays, I don’t care what happens to me, whether I am let go or fired, the fact that he will never get the satisfaction of having been the one to fire me is a bittersweet symphony.
It has been a pleasure to be without a toxic boss for the past few months, but unfortunately, it did take its toll psychologically. I just hope I may continue for the next few years without a toxic boss, as I am older now and have outgrown my tolerance for such bullshit, especially if it comes to having to deal with it from a younger person. At the moment, these two men were older than I was. And to make this an even sweeter story.. without these two episodes happening in my life, confessionsoftheprofessions.com would not exist nor many of the things I’ve been able to accomplish in my life, so sometimes… fate is just intertwined for certain things to happen as such.
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