The Powers That Be (actually, they be nincompoops) have taken it upon themselves to fire my boss for no good reason. (Well, no good reason they can give. More on that in a moment.) The announcement came out today, though she told all of her direct reports on Friday. She’s here through the end of April. I love my boss - she’s been great to work for, and she’s very knowledgable and professional. In addition to being lots of fun to be around.
So. Why have they decided to let her go? Officially - I don’t know. The real reason? She’s married to her direct boss on the client side (also my boss - also awesome). Now - he wasn’t always her direct boss. During their engagement, she reported to a completely different department. However, The Powers That Be Nincompoops (same guy) approved a change in her responsibilities (and gave her more money for it) that had her reporting directly to her fiance. She checked with HR both before she accepted the job and also before they got married to make absolutely sure there were no issues and was so assured each time. Now, however, the Nincompoop has decided he has a beef with her husband (over whom he has no power), and so decided to let her go. It really sucks. And, since her organization is spread all over the country, I will probably wind up reporting to the National Director, who is a woman stuck in the 80s, including big hair and spike heels. She moves in a cloud of hairspray. In general, none of us are particularly thrilled with her as a National Director, (aside from the hairspray issue) and I’m really peeved about the idea of reporting directly to her. But The Nincompoop was so concerned about getting his way that it never occurred to him to figure out what was going to happen to the very disparate operations my boss oversees. So these operations will probably be higgledy-piggledy for a while.
There’s also some concern that she’s just Leaving Early to Avoid the Rush. Another Director gave his resignation Friday (his choice, though). And it probably won’t be long before some other key people start to drift away.
It’s too bad. Our team here has been intact for a long time, and we work very well together. We accomplish a lot, and have fun doing it. Now these people come in from corporate and make hash out of everything, thinking they can do it better when what they’re recommending are just mistakes we’ve already made and learned from. We don’t need to do it again. They also want to put their corporate stamp on the account as they have for others they’ve worked on. They don’t understand that the client is very hands-on. He knows what he wants, and is more insightful than most. And he cares about his employees. Unlike The Nincompoop and his ilk.
It just sucks. This has been a great workplace. I hope these Nincompoops don’t mess it up more than they already have.
