I can't believe what I just learned about my ex-boss!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Ever known somebody about whom there was something weird, but you couldn’t quite figure out what it is?

I’ve spent the last two years being supervised by someone about half my age. I started working in our business before he was born. He seemed distant and aloof but not uncivil. I got a ride to work with him every day. In all that time, I learned very little about him, as he was not forthcoming with any information about his life beyond the small talk, and there was very little of that, so I never really got to know him.

Now, I’ve been having a difficult time at work for two years. All my important duties were given to somebody else, and I spent large amounts of time doing nothing. I could not get him to give me more work. I asked for it every few days. He’d always say OK, but it never happened. At the end of July, he called me in for a meeting and told me the GM said there wasn’t enough on my plate to warrant my being there for 40 hours a week, and she wanted him to cut my hours in half. He would get this hangdog look on his face, and tell me that he was trying to get her to change her mind, but there was nothing he could do. But he’d keep trying for me.

One day, about a month ago, he was removed from the premises and we’ve never seen him again. The only thing the GM said to any of us is that he had some legal problems to take care of, but he was banished from the property and we were not to contact him. Naturally, we’re all WTF??? No information whatsoever. In his job, he received no money or merchandise, so he wasn’t embezzling or stealing stuff. What can a person have done to get excommunicated from his job?

Yesterday, I was talking with two people from another department about chaos in our respective jobs. I mentioned that we didn’t have this person anymore, and the two of us left didn’t really know how to do his job ourselves, so with our limited knowledge of it, we were both keeping the place running. I mentioned how we were all in the dark about what happened to him, one day he just disappeared and is banished from the building. They asked what his name was, and then they both got this look on their faces, and said they knew but they couldn’t tell me, either. Then one said that I could find it out for myself, as it was public information, and told me where to look.

I looked it up, and the guy is a registered sex offender. The category under which he was convicted, in police shorthand, said “Sex bat / Phys helpless resist (principal)”. I don’t know how to accurately translate that, unless it actually means sexual battery where the victim was helpless to resist. Or maybe he resisted arrest, I dunno. Got any suggestions? In any case, the guy has beaten and raped someone.

This answers a lot of questions, but opens up a lot more. As it turns out, it was not the GM working against me, it was this creep’s idea to fuck with me. He gave all my important jobs to a kid, he told the GM there wasn’t anything for me to do, and it was his idea to cut my hours in half. It cost me and my wife more than $1000. And you know what? Almost all of my difficulties at work started when he got that job. He was playing me like a goddamned violin.

Now, earlier this year, he told us he had cancer. He was going to have to go get radiation and chemotherapy, and he was off work a lot. I have reason to believe now that it was all lies, to cover up the fact that he had to go to court and other related places. My mother had chemotherapy and radiation, and he didn’t look like a person receiving that kind of treatment.

I don’t know what else to add. I feel used, because I was used. Got any words of wisdom or comfort on how I can deal with this?

2

Go to the GM ands ask for training to take over his job (or at least enough for you to handle the stuff with which you are not now familiar). Then forget about the departed guy and get on with establishing yourself in your position. (Make sure the GM knows about your asking for work–I hope you e-mailed him regularly so you have documentation). The important point, now, is not worrying over someone who passed through your life and left, but making sure that the company does not use the “chaos” in your department to “reorganize it” out of existence.

3

God, what a bizarre story!

I have no idea what the charges mean, so can’t help you there (but rest assured I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread…).

As far as your job is concerned – maybe you should go to the GM and explain the story from your point of view and see if you can go back to full-time? It sounds like you’ve been doing what you can to keep things running, and presumably they’re aware that you’ve, ah, stepped up to the plate during this difficult period.

Weird, weird, weird.

And you’ve ridden in this guy’s car? :eek:

4

Regarding the suggestion that I go to the GM and ask for training to do his job, it’s way more complicated than that. It’s a State job, and a degree is required for it. I don’t have one. There is no training for his job, because there is no one in the whole building who knows how to do it, other than the parts I know and the parts our other person knows. They hire people who ostensibly know how to do it.

The GM knows that the two of us are keeping the ship running. There are no promotions from within, there are no thanks, no nothing here but office politics. It’s just like Peyton Place. I’ve worked with a lot of people in the last 30 years, but none like the ones I’ve encountered here. Two people have tried to get me fired out of spite since I’ve been here. I suppose the only thanks I’ve got is continued employment. I’ve outlasted a staff and a half in only three and a half years. I’m convinced that the only reason I’m still here is because I’ve been making them look good to their superiors and the community. Before I came here, there had never been one of me at the company. If I leave, 1) they won’t find another one of me who will work for what they’re paying me, and 2) the funding for my position goes away permanently.

The department can’t be reorganized out of existence, because there are only three people in it. Only three people are required to do what we do, and our public face is a direct result of what we do. So we go on doing it, even with the office politics and other crap. Why? It’s what we know how to do, and they can’t do it without us. If they brought in three different people, the place would go to crap in less than a week.

Oh well. Thanks for the responses so far. Any suggestions on how to stop feeling like I’ve been hit by a truck will be most welcome.

5

I’m really glad they found him out. What a nutcase.

My boss is a very good liar. He’s sweet and charming when around multiple people, or when it works to his advantage. I won’t hijack your thread by telling all the nasty, manipulative he’s done to me, but I have a feeling that besides being a manipulative, conniving asshole, there’s something “off” or just not right about him, and I get constant gut feelings not to trust him. I would not at all be surprised if someday I heard that he had raped or killed someone. I just hope they find him out sooner than later.

(BTW, If you want to read my thread on him, it’s here. )

6

I googled around a bit, and I think your ex-boss sexually battered someone who could not physically resist. Some police codes from Flordia suggest he might have battered an elderly person or a child.
Creepy.

7

The FDLE page with his mug shot on it says that the victim was not a minor, but that’s all it says. Even the person’s gender is listed as unknown. That’s puzzling.

8

Maybe as therapy you could write a big steamy novel. Unless going over things again would send your blood pressure up.

For direct stress release, maybe a massage. Then, are there any seminars at Lake Tahoe or some other interesting place that they could send you to, by way of appreciation? I know that your salary is locked in, but budgets for other perks are more fluid.

Is your chair ergonomically correct (comfortable)? While you’re doing double-duty, they can’t want you to develop any repetitive stress problems. Try to think of some way that they can improve your work life in some small way. It sure sounds like you deserve it.

9

If they aren’t a minor but they are keeping gender and everything secret, my bet is someone who is disabled in some way, maybe in the care of someone else.

10

Your situation gives me the willies. I can’t imagine what has done/is doing to you.
Good luck with the job. I hope you outlast them all and keep your sanity.

11

Or perhaps he drugged them or took advantage of someone was drunk or passed out.

12

Thanks, Shirley.

And to Yllaria, thanks, too. Unfortunately, the chances of them sending me anywhere are zero and none. I don’t even get a vacation. As for stress, it’s not causing me physical discomfort, it’s more psychic. I might be one of the few people you may ever know of who hates massages. I’m not a tense guy. Office politics is what negates the possibility of their doing anything to improve my lot at work. I am in a job classification that, I guess for want of a better description, is completely at will. I’m sure they are totally aware of what I am capable of accomplishing, but what with the backstabbing and lying and deceptions going on all the time, it feels like I’m being punished, only for something they aren’t willing to articulate.

So now you’re all asking, well why the hell don’t you get another job? I’ll tell you. In this business, in this state, I am in the best place there is. Every other similar place is like amateur night. I would have to move hundreds of miles to get a significantly more crappy job doing the same thing. I’m doing what I’ve wanted to do for a living since I was 13. If this job were to go down the tubes, I’d have to get a real job, and at my age, there aren’t any. My wife has two careers here, and we want to buy the house we live in. So I put up with it, with the knowledge that I’ve outlasted a crew and a half, and the hope that we’ll eventually get some decent people to work for. And then it won’t be so bad.

13

Without knowing more about your work, the business etc. I wouldn’t presume to give advice. But I would be interested in hearing from people who have successfully dealt with bad bosses. If your immediate supervisor is undercutting you, is it smart to go over his head? Are there techniques for doing that which might be more likely to get a positive response? Or can it backfire? If, for example, you don’t have enough to do, and you regularly request more work, does that constitute documentation that you are ready and willing to contribute more? Or could that be used as documentation to prove that you’re not needed? If your supervisor is lying about you to the managers, how do you protect yourself without calling him a liar? Bad bosses are not uncommon (and I define “bad” as dishonest, corrupt and incompetent, not just tough or demanding). How do you deal with them?

14

Or maybe he was convicted of something he didn’t do. I myself was accused of sexual assault when I was 18, luckily I had witnesses proving my alibi and the detectives didn’t arrest me. I still shudder to think what might have happened if I had been convicted. :frowning:
For this boss I’d be more pissed at his shabby treatment, and not something that he kept hidden and can’t explain anyways.

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15

Have you tried Googling his name? Maybe there’s a news story on him from one of the local papers.