Welcome back, Dear Reader! In this blog post, Part VI of my slog of a series of posts on my relationship with money, my job experiences, and how all that combined to making me want to FIRE, I’ll get more into my time with Employer #5. For those of you who’ve not been following along or who want to torture yourselves by again reading prior missives, here are links to Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V of the series.
Boss #9 . . . and Vice-Boss #1
Following Boss #8’s sacking, Employer #5 began what ultimately became a painfully long search for her replacement. In fact, what I later came to learn, is that the process was so long because Vice-Boss #1 managed it. Vice-Boss #1, whom I then knew little about, was a full-time practicing lawyer in the organization. He’d never held any administrative position. Nor had he ever much engaged with any administrative staff. In time, I would learn a great deal about Vice-Boss #1. All of it would be bad.
The organization ultimately hired Boss #9. He came from a similar organization and he and I shared a fair amount in common. Boss #9 ended up being my favorite boss over the course of my career. He was smart, deft as to internal politics, plugged in seemingly everywhere, generally laid back, and protected his staff. He also made the workplace generally enjoyable to work in, notwithstanding the inherent stressful nature of the work and industry.
It wasn’t all sunshine and roses though. First, while Boss #9 and I shared a lot in common, our personalities didn’t mesh perfectly, even if they didn’t grate against each other. Put another way, we got along well in the workplace, but I’m pretty sure that absent that connection, we’d have at best been great acquaintances, not close friends. I found that unfortunate. Seeing as I spent so many waking hours with coworkers, I strived for great relationships with each one of them.
But the biggest problem with Boss #9 was that he and I didn’t see eye to eye about what I should spend my time working on. Whereas under Boss #8, I worked a lot on Areas A and B, with an emphasis on Area A (the area I liked most out of the two categories), Boss #9 wanted me to spend most of my time on Area B, which admittedly was, on the surface, the most urgent area that our group handled.
Ultimately, I made a dynamic case to Boss #9 as to how to restructure my role such that I’d not only focus more on Area A, but do so in such a way that it was far more valuable to the organization. But Boss #9 found Area A not to be a priority and something that the group should spend only the bare minimum amount of time on. When Boss #9 shot down my suggestion, I retorted with only a limp protest because on paper, his position was sound. But I remained convinced that were my suggestion to have been accepted, the organization would have greatly benefitted.
Overlaying this personal issue was a far greater problem that affected our whole group. As mentioned, Vice-Boss #1 managed the hiring process for Boss #9. The reason that Vice-Boss #1 was involved at all was that just before the process started, our organization’s leader tapped him to take on an administrative role in addition to his full-time job. That new role was a major one, but its responsibilities were at best ill defined. Maybe only barely defined at all. In any event, part of Vice-Boss #1’s ill-defined responsibilities was to “oversee” our group’s work and, in the immediate term, hire the person who’d lead our group.
Vice-Boss #1 was in no way, shape, or form trained in the substantive area that my group handled. Neither did he have any practical experience in, or appreciation for, it. Or any of the organization’s administrative departments for that matter. Our organization’s leader may have had reasons for appointing Vice-Boss #1 to this position, but merit absolutely was not one of them.
As became apparent in time, Vice-Boss #1 absolutely loved having this new high-profile administrative-oversight title. But he had precisely no interest in performing the role’s duties. On top of this, Vice-Boss #1 was egocentric, vindictive, incompetent, and, most impactful on Boss #9 and our department, almost completely unresponsive when Boss #9 or anyone else tried to reach him. This isn’t just sour grapes on my part. Almost everyone in the organization shared my assessment. In fact, it ultimately led to Vice-Boss #1’s spectacular and delicious downfall. More on that in a future post.
Boss #9 had every reason to believe that he and Vice-Boss #1 would work closely together. I mean, why wouldn’t he? The relationship on its face required collaboration on direction, strategy, tactics and more, with ideas being offered and debated on the merits.
Would that it had been so.
Vice-Boss #1 was a disaster. The practical results of his nonresponsiveness to Boss #9 were twofold. First, in order for Boss #9 to get anything done, he had to just move forward, regardless of Vice-Boss #1’s not having officially endorsed the action. Of course, the reason Vice-Boss #1 hadn’t formally blessed whatever it was that Boss #9 was running with was his own nonresponsiveness. Boss #9’s moving ahead without Vice-Boss #1’s sign-off most certainly didn’t result from any lack of trying.
As a result, the way things inevitably played out would be that Boss #9 would reasonably determine that he had to run with this or that sensible action, and Vice-Boss #1 then would get upset that Boss #9 was acting without the formal blessing. It was an unwinnable situation for Boss #9, and he and our group were powerless to do anything about it, except for Boss #9 to do as he was doing.
In time, Vice-Boss #1’s total failure to do his job was paired with impressive vigor in undermining Boss #9. It was as if we were living in a bizarro universe: Boss #9 would try mightily and in vain to get Vice-Boss #1’s input and/or blessing for this or that activity, and then Vice-Boss #1 would lash out when Boss #9 took action because there was no other choice but to do so. I’m not sure how Boss #9 put up with Vice-Boss #1 for as long as he did. Ultimately, Boss #9 had enough. But more on that in a future blog post.
In addition to the awful experience of my having to deal with Vice-Boss #1 and bite my tongue every time I became exasperated with him, there was one other colossally bad thing that happened on Boss #9’s watch: the hiring of X.
X had a more senior role than me (and I semi-reported to her), but we generally did similar work. As I quickly came to appreciate, X was brilliant at almost all substantive aspects of the job. She made me and my other colleagues look like novices. Looking back now, I think that X was either the most or second most gifted (in all but a few areas, which I’ll get into) colleague I ever worked with.
But X had a fatal flaw, which led to her getting fired within a year of her hiring: a volatile temper. Looking back, I believe that X was bipolar. If you’ve read prior posts in this series, you may recall that I had a prior boss who appeared to have that condition.
When X was happy, she was a great colleague. Cheerful, helpful, and fun to be around. But that disposition could change on a dime. And when it did . . . well, let’s just say that it was close to miserable to be around her. Each day in the office I (and my other coworkers) walked on eggshells, not knowing whether X was in a good or hostile mood or if she’d turn nasty at some time during the day.
I learned to steer clear of X, but her personality introduced toxicity to the workplace. And it further drove home the point I’d long since learned from experience that while one’s job conditions can be great today, they can be awful tomorrow. This planted in my brain yet another seed of wanting to build a moat around me to protect me from the uncertainties of the workplace. When I later discovered FIRE, that seed would soak up the water of that knowledge.
Ultimately, X lost Boss #9’s faith, as well as that of each of her coworkers and many of those we worked with, and was canned. That undeniably was a positive development and immediately removed a poison from our group.
Regardless of the bad apples that were Vice-Boss #1 and X, Boss #9 restored my faith that there were good bosses out there. What’s more, Boss #9 also was fairly generous to me (and other staff) as to bonuses and raises, with the result that The Family’s financial situation got stronger and stronger.
I also was able to finally pay off my law school loans during Boss #9’s tenure. The significance of getting rid of them was far more than just the mere accomplishment and deleting a sizable expense item from our budget. Though there was that. No, instead, it was like getting rid of a cumbersome albatross.
The mental benefit of the student loan payoff for me cannot be understated. For the first time since graduating law school, I felt that our financial car was in a high gear. The only question was how high I could rev the engine. A few years later, when I discovered FIRE, I’d learn even more.
And in the end . . .
Dear Reader, after Boss #9 had been on the job for a few years (and not too long after X getting the axe), my career took a somewhat interesting turn. Tune in to Part VII of this series for details. Same bat time, same bat channel.
