Ever had a boss investigated?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Learned Monday that the head of our office is being investigated, and may be fired. I believe the charge is general gross incompetence rather than any specific malfeasance, but I have not been let into the decision-making process. Wondering if any of you had experience in such a situation?

My main concern is making sure no shit ends up on me. Tho I suspect that possibility is remote, as I am just a little peon.
A secondary concern is that this person is so woefully ignorant and incompetent, that it really would be good to get them out of here, and I would like to help achieve that result if I could.
Cutting the other way is the whole “devil you know” thing. Though our office has become a joke, my job is currently very easy since my sole goal is to fly under the radar. Not sure what I’d do if some ballbuster came in and I actually had to do some work! (Only partially kidding – I’ve never had a problem being one of the top producers in our office.)

Our office has about 60 employees, 50 professionals and 10 support.
We are one of approximately 10 regional offices, with a national HQ.
There is one big boss with a single deputy.
We got our big boss about 3 years ago, to replace our old boss, who is now numero uno nationally.
Then there are 3 supervisors, each of whom directly supervise 1/3 of the remaining staff.
The deputy was hand-selected by our #1 – a total yes-man, he had a meteoric rise over the past year, from staff to supervisor, to deputy.

I am just a member of the staff – tho I recently applied for, and was denied, a promotion to supervisor. Tho I think I was treated poorly in that process, not a day has gone by since then that I am not thankful that I do not have to work closely under the chief and the deputy.

HQ has sent an HR team out to our region – they are setting up shop all week conducting an investigation. Certain people have been contacted and asked to cooperate, as well as to tell other folks who might have something to offer.

My understanding is that a limited number of folks from our office had contacted HQ with specific complaints. I’m not sure I have any specific personal grievances against this individual, other than just that I cannot imagine why anyone would have ever thought they were capable of running an office such as ours.

As you might imagine, there is quite a buzz going thru our office. As I said, I was wondering what experience any of you might have had in similar situations.

2

Unless you have specific examples of how this person directly affected the company’s productivity, and not just a general sense of “How did this person get this job in the first place?” you probably won’t be able to help. It sounds like they’ve contacted everyone they need to talk to and won’t need your input.

Funny, I just went through a similar situation at my work. No criminal investigation, though.

3

If you weren’t involved in anything, you have nothing to worry about. They may ask for you to confirm things they’ve heard from others, but most likely you won’t be involved.

It happened to me – one was a criminal investigation, but that was long after I had left. The other was an SEC investigation about inside information. It was totally bogus (screw you Marvel Comics!), but I had to provide copies of all the work I had done on the project.

4

At one of my former jobs, the head of the department I worked in was very controversial. At the time I started, she was one of four assistant directors, and the other three were constantly trying to get her fired. Problem was, she (let’s call her Maria) was the one of the four who consistently got the best results. So as the years went by, one after another, the rival assistant directors all left. At one point, they almost succeeded in their goal, and a termination order was in the works when a bunch of Maria’s team members (myself among them) appealed to the president for a reversal. When the dust cleared, Maria was not only the last one standing among the ranks of the assistant directors, but was promoted to departmental director.

Now that Maria was the top dog, she could call the shots her way, and she continued to get great results. But at the same time, a lot of the people who worked in the department had been under one or another of the three departed assistant directors, and they continued to circulate stories of how underneath her shining, glittering facade, Maria was a corrupt, ruthless, vindictive nasty who had slept her way to the top (well, not slept). Maria took it in stride, and never took any action against the mumblers and grumblers. And everything continued to go smoothly, with one big success after another.

Then came the fatal day. The assistant to the president met with our team and told us that Maria had gotten the axe. And the VP who had been Maria’s patron saint for all these years, and had been responsible for her many promotions (and who was rumored to be her lover) had now been asked to resign. What’s more, all of the folks that Maria had promoted to fill the vacant assistant director positions were also getting pink slips. In other words, the whole 150-person department was being whacked from the shoulders up.

And why, you may ask? Well it turns out that the rumors were all true. An internal investigation had been going on for some time, and the evidence collected was incontrovertible. Maria, as I understand it, was only saved from criminal charges by the fact that the company wanted to avoid public embarrassment.

While I was too much of a peon to have been in any danger, I was pretty much devastated by the whole thing. I had idolized Maria, and had defended her for years from all of the rumors – which I assumed to have been the fabrications of malcontents. Going back over my career, I could even find instances where things I had been asked to do had helped her accomplish some of her under-the-table dealings. Needless to say, I felt betrayed, used, and incredibly naiive.

Very, very happy to have left that behind.

5

Just got back from an hour and a half interview.
Agreed to participate after repeated assurances that I was not a target, nothing would be used against me, no info would be attributed to me by name…

Weird stuff.
I had some info, as I served 2 supervisory details in the past year or so, and have been in the office for 20 years.
One one hand, this person is completely unqualified to run our office, and has instituted a ton of ridiculous policies, pretty much turning our office into a joke.
OTOH - someone higher up named this person to their position, so I’m not sure our office boss is completely to blame for failing completely at a job for which they were pretty obviously completely unqualified.

Apparently there were some irregularities in their use of sick leave taken while obtaining a real estate license. My guess is that will be the hook from which they hang them.

Also allegations of various discrimination.

But my interviewer was also interested in hearing about the person’s interest in astrology, the “snap cup,” the surfboards, the required handwriting analysis and personality testing, the unbridled end-of-fiscal-year spending …

The big boss is out of the office all week, at previously scheduled conferences at HQ. My understanding is that they learned of this stuff Monday when appearing at HQ. It will be interesting when/if they return to the office.

6

Not to put too fine a point on it, but should you really be discussing this here?

7

Probably right.
And not from work.