Jim!

I’ve been at RGIS for about 4 years now. Over three of those years it’s been as the Manager of Telecommunications.

On June 2nd that came to an end, as I was terminated. Why? Largely because of one douche bag we’ll call “Bob”.

Bob is the kind of person who manages not through motivation, inspiration, and challenge. No. Bob manages through bullying techniques, fear, intimidation and by dumping something he doesn’t want to do onto someone else, all the while smiling pretty and sucking up to the higher-ups he comes into contact with. He was extremely controlling and took away any autonomy I had to make the slightest decision.

I only wish that HR and others knew how truly demeaning and condescending he can be. It was not uncommon for him to refer to my team as “a bunch of fucking idiots”. On more than one occasion he told me to “quick fucking up”, or that I was, indeed, a fuck up. All very proper, professional terms, indeed. He’d get pissed and his face would turn red and the veins on the side of his neck would pop out…it was actually pretty amusing. He was also the type who wouldn’t simply state his case and move on…no…he’d have to beleaguer the point and just keep droning on and on and on about something, when I’d already lost interest and moved on to thinking about something more important…lunch…clouds…

For the better part of a year Bob was the acting (acting) director of IT. Technically we were at the same level, but he was the acting director, so I reported to him. Then along came a new CIO who saw through his bullshit and started taking things away from him. His kingdom got reduced in small increments until he was left with the Technical Support department and my department (Telecom).

About 4 months ago a true Director of IT was hired. It was, then, logical to assume that I would no longer report to Bob, since I reported to the Director of IT before Bob became the acting director. I kept waiting and no change was ever announced.

Then, about six weeks ago the technical support department that we has in charge of was given to a new-hire. Bob, then, was left without a department and without an office. Yes, he was moved back into a cube. At that point he was a manager without a department. Essentially it rolled down like this:

Anyone who knows anything knows that having two managers (especially over a department with only three employees is not a good idea, but Bob was determined…and it was when that happened that I saw my days being numbered at RGIS.

From that point forward I saw responsibilities being taken away, my authority usurped until I have virtually none, and incredible pressure from Bob. I was given tasks/documents to accomplish constantly, however anything that he would come up with became the top priority, regardless of everything else I was working on. He was not the kind of person you could go to for assistance, as he’d inevitably send me away with it and “come back when you have it updated”.

In short, he was making a power-play because he wanted the department to himself. He figured he was “the better” manager and that I was only in the way. This is interesting, because there were never any “problems” with the Telecom department until he came along.

Keep in mind he has very limited knowledge of telecommunications and would have to be educated or reminded about some of the simplest concepts…yet he wanted my department because he needed to feel important.

Well, push come to shove and I was escorted by the Director of IT (Bob didn’t have the testicular fortitude to take me there himself, and he has often show his cowardice toward this kind of thing) to HR, where I was counselled and released.

I wish my teammates well, sincerely, as they are truly great at what they do. He is the worst manager I have ever, ever worked for. Their jobs will not be easy. Also, there are a number of projects and skill sets I have that the company now completely lacks. No one else knows Vectoring and Prompting, CMS, how to manage the OC12, or the Call Accounting system.

Life for me is much better now, as I no longer worry about the douchebag.