My job since 2003 may soon be over. I feel sick. [Great news update!]

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

SeaDragonTattoo, I am sorry to hear about your job. That really sucks.

Regarding the passwords for your accounts, I would do the following:

  1. In your browser, turn off the Password Memorization feature.

  2. In your browser, remove all stored passwords (or at least just the passwords for your drug-ordering sites).

  3. Go into each drug-ordering site and change your password. Upthread, some people mentioned password managers. If you don’t use one of those, you might try something like what I do. Following “Best Practices”, I don’t use the same password for each site. However, many of my passwords are a combination of an acronym for the website plus a “base phrase”. For example, my Straight Dope password might be “sd!FooBarrgh”, and my Yahoo Mail password might be “ym!FooBarrgh”. (No, those are not my real passwords and those are not my real password patterns, they are just examples.) The advantage of this pattern is that it creates strong passwords that are easy to remember.

  4. When you change the password for a site, uncheck the “Remember me” option so that you have to enter the password each time you log in or at least after each time your browser has been closed completely. I know, it is a PITA, but if you followed something like what I described in #3, it isn’t that big of a PITA.

  5. For each of your drug-ordering sites, search around for a tech support email address and save them somewhere. If you do decide to leave, you might be able to send them an email telling them you no longer need that account and to disable it. (Alternatively, you may be able to lock yourself out of each account by entering an incorrect password three or more times.)

  6. From the drug-ordering company’s perspective, it is generally a violation of the Terms of Service for a user to share an account, and particularly if the account is tied to you directly and not to your company. In other words, if you are leaving and your employer requests your account name and password (and the account is tied directly to you), your company may be in violation of the websites Terms of Service. You may need to review the Terms for each of your websites.

You could even volunteer to help your employer set up new accounts for your replacement, if you have a mind to do that.

  1. If you are forced to turn over your credentials for the drug-ordering sites, I would demand that your employer log into each account and change the password to something you do not know, and do it immediately while you are watching. (Obviously, don’t watch them enter the password, just watch them change it.) You need to protect yourself so that someone doesn’t order drugs inappropriately using your account login and have them claim it was you. If you do not have access to the account, you minimize the possibility that someone will blame you. You can spin this entirely as “protecting your employer” since your employer is now assured that you do not have access to the accounts and cannot order drugs and have them shipped somewhere other than your employer’s office.
    The above steps should be enough to minimize the possibility that someone will misuse your account information. If you want to discuss this further privately, please feel free to PM me.
22

I think that’s probably all she’s been thinking about.

23

All’s fair in love & war.

Line up that change to FT at the PT job, change your passwords, put your important personal stuff in a box & take that to your car. Then talk to the board. Calmly explain that you are about to be the fifth person to quit rather than work for asshat & there may be more once others line up alternate employment. Explain how much experience they are going to lose with this guy at the top show them why it wasn’t the best choice & give them some time to mull it over. If you do it right, it looks like you’re looking out for the company you love rather than being spiteful.
At best it might work, & at worst, well you were going to leave anyway. If you lose the battle & worst case get fired, at least you’re ready to go w/of worries of what’s left behind.

24

Did you even read the entire post? Why call a head hunter when SeaDragonTattoo has a full time job in the wings if necessary?

25

I feel your pain. In a past position, through attrition, I ended up reporting to a man I could not stand. I told them I would not work for him. I told them I’d end up leaving if they moved me under him. They did it anyway. I applied immediately for new jobs and was accepted. I handed in my 2 weeks notice about 2 days after the switch was official. He was the only reason I left that job. Some people are not worth dealing with.

26

Keeping in mind what the laws are in your state, would it be possible (and legal) for you to secretly record one of his temper tantrums to show to a higher up?

27

It really depends on your data retention policies. There will be logs of your access, your email archive will be backed up, and even if you delete these things, they can pull data from X number of days in the past and restore it. Most of the time the local drives aren’t fully backed up, but that is not a given. As far as your Windows login account, you won’t have access to delete that. I find it REALLY hard to believe they’d try to get your passwords, though.

28

Have you taken your six weeks of vacation yet this year?

29

Did you talk to the Medical Director about this? Maybe there’s something else you can do. It’s at least worth a try, and if nothing else you’ll confirm that you’ve read the situation right and have to leave.

Really sorry to hear about this, sort of, I know someone else in a similar situation about a year ago and now she’s in a new job and thrilled to death about it. So you could end up better off.

30

I kinda agree with Blackstock above. It may make sense to take a few breaths and perhaps wait a few days or weeks to see how things start to look after the shock of the change wears off. Change is upsetting, and we all go thru the different stages of change. You are in the early stage where you are fighting it and looking for a way to flee. However, all the benefits you presented would be gone if you bolt.

I have heard that bad bosses last 2 years or less, so if you can keep your head down for a while and do the best you can, maybe under the radar, this guy may not last long anyway. It would suck if you left a job you love only to learn the source of your irritation only lasted a few months.

31

I’ll be back to answer more questions later. Fighting a headache and needing to get ready for work right now. As of right now, 9 resignations have been tendered, not including me. I’ll be giving notice to the Executive Director’s face when he’s back in the office tomorrow.

I’m considering sending an email to the Board President. I really think they have no idea how bad a decision this is. This guy meddles, inrerferes, micromanages whenever he gets around to managing at all, and whenever he can get away with it, yells at and intimidates people. He’s an idea man with zero follow through. So he’ll come up with a change that sounds great on paper, come up with a sort of plan to implement it, and then drop it. Then blame anybody else when it fails because no one was actually given responsibility for it.

32

My sympathies.

Though I think you guys kinda screwed the pooch. If so many of you were so “ohh fuck noes”, everybody that serious about leaving should have got together and complained in mass and then if needed left in mass.

Hopefully all the mass leavings will STILL have the desired effect.

33

Thank you, yes I’m just wanting to make sure no one can hack my login to my Windows User Name and then have access to all my Firefox bookmarks where work logins and passwords for supplies and drug ordering are all autofilled. I’ve copied all my contacts, my Drive files, and my paper files that I’ll need - did that all last night so if I do leave suddenly that’s all done.

Luckily for others, he can’t change anything with regards to leave and benefits - that’s all decided by the Board and cannot be messed with. He CAN mess with schedules and lunch breaks and all the other piddly stuff that makes people’s day-to-day work life a pain in the ass.

Yes, his connections are a problem. He’s been really good at coming up with reasons to attend Board meetings, or otherwise meet Board members, and he’s a consummate schmoozer. Many people, especially ladies, find him very charming and good looking. I’m the type who sees past the schmaltz with guys who act like he does, and I was never charmed or found him to be someone I’d like to know. My reaction to him and his type is mostly “ew”. Iv’e worked around him for 13 years. Never could stand him. I’ve been quiet about it because he leaves me alone and I leave him alone and so it appears we get along.

Hoping you’ve gotten more from posts subsequent to the above.

I’ve considered this. But I’m a second shifter who often doesn’t get here til 4pm or so, and I also only share two workdays a week with him. When these outbursts happen they’re usually during Managers Meetings (on Thursdays, my weekday off), or before I arrive. I remember them from back when I was here on morning shifts years ago. Nothing’s changed. I keep hearing about them. I’m not sure why no one’s recorded them.

I wish. I think I’ll only get two weeks paid out if/when I quit, too.

The Medical Director is the doctor I work for - who is leaving. The plan is to work out tomorrow what we’re going to do with the controlled substances she’s responsible for. The company I buy all of the Schedule II and III stuff from has a Controlled Substances Manager who will be back in the office tomorrow and he’s the guy I need to figure out how to handle this.

I’ve known this guy too long to tolerate working with directly. I just can’t do it. The E.D. replied to my email this morning and clarified my direct report will continue to be the Clinic Supervisor and/or Doctor. So if Ollie decides to start getting in my grill about more than the weather, I’m walking with no notice. If he keeps it to saying “hi” in the hall like we have for the last decade, I’ll stay long enough to transition whoever’s left with my responsibilities.

It’s hard to do something like that because we operate 7am-8pm, 7 days a week. There are lots of people who don’t even see each other for days or weeks depending on their schedule. Coordinated efforts are difficult. This many people giving notice was also not even foreseen by those of us who knew some sort of objection would occur.

34

Thanks so much everyone for your sympathies and commiseration. Wednesday will be the day that determines how things go forward for me. I can’t imagine staying. I can imagine giving things a week or two so I can show someone what they need to know from my job, but seriously, only if Ollie keeps his oozy mug outta my office.

35

How many people work at this facility? I’m assuming it’s some kind of clinic?

36

We’re a feline rescue with two locations. Total staff is around 50. The internal Clinic that I’m a part of was a staff of 19 (I wasn’t counting part-timers earlier but should have). Two walked out yesterday and 7 more have given notice, I’ll be #10.

37

Take a week off. In the current climate it’s as good as giving notice, it’ll give time for you to clear your head, and you might get an offer you like out of the deal.

38

How did it go?

39

No, the kind of upper management that promotes this kind of jerk will never think that.

Instead, they’ll say admiringly “first thing he did was clear out a lot of old deadwood employees!” And they will all be deadwood, because everything that goes wrong for the next 6 months or more will be blamed on one of them.

Get out while you can!

40

Awkward.

It’s been clarified that this guy is not my direct report. Though of course the position I direct report to is now empty. I said I’ll give it a month or so to see how things settle. If it’s in a way that makes me even more unhappy, I’ll have to give notice. Unless something really drastic happens, I will give plenty of notice like up to a month, so as to train the 3 to 5 people I’ll need to train to take over different aspects of what I do.

Considering how many people are leaving, I do not feel good about flying the coop right now. The Clinic will be floundering badly as it is, and I’m the only one with any medical training left. Between that, and wanting to make sure the doctor’s license remains protected after she leaves, I feel the need to stay at least a little while.

I implied without saying as much that as long as I don’t feel screwed around with, and as long as the person in question stays out of my hair, it will be OK on my end. For now. We’ll see.

My ER job will be happy to take me full time whenever I say the word. So whatever happens here, I’m covered anyway.