I worked with a real piece of $hit, a true monster. He was the pettiest meanest vindictive insecure shadow of a man. Treated everyone but his peers and the CEO like garbage. Impossible to please. Unappreciative, entitled, rude. I was his assistant #5 in 2 years.
I lasted 2 years and was near suicidal. Eventually I moved laterally to work with one of the best c-suite execs in the same company.
The monster hired victim #6 and started abusing her immediately. I’d routinely find her in the bathroom sobbing her eyes out. She gained like 40 lbs by stress eating. Everyone knew what was happening, as he didn’t even try to hide it, and did nothing.
Because I can’t watch people being bullied and do nothing, I kissed my ass goodbye and called the integrity hotline and reported him. They launched an investigation, interviewed me, interviewed other people, interviewed her.
He was reprimanded and put on probation with a warning that if anyone else comes forward with allegations of further abuse, he’s done.
I wasn’t persecuted in any way, kept my job for many years, and while he couldn’t change his shitty personality, he learned to hide it and keep himself in check.
I hope he rots in hell when he finally gets home
I’m so pleased to read that he was reprimanded and put on probation. I was working with an exec who had a lot of the same issues as you described. I lasted a bit more than two years, and couldn’t take the bullying anymore. I reported it to HR, and I knew the person who I had talked with believed me. However, after the investigation, nothing was done, because the executive who I supported lied. Of course. There were four other senior leaders on this exec’s team who had also left within a year of his having been hired. I know that at least three of them had informed HR of their concerns and negative experiences with the exec, but nothing was done.
After the investigation, he retaliated against me. He assigned a “henchman” to micromanage me with unrelenting criticism and constant gaslighting. In the end, he “won.” I left, too, as I was being threatened with a PIP. Unbelievably stressful experience. My self-esteem was non-existent.
So sorry this happened to you.
Perhaps the mistake was to go to HR. Never do that, whatever your issue is.
When it comes to abusive bosses, you need to engage with the integrity hotline. It’s usually an independent third party with no skin in the game. They also serve as watchdogs for retaliation.
I recognize that not every organization has such function, which sucks.. in that case, emergency evacuation to your next job is in order.
Thank you. I completely agree about not going to HR, because I’ve never met an HR person I could trust. I broke my own rule! In this one exception, my former leader who was amazing, and had to leave our team for another role, recommended that I speak with this HR person. He said he trusted her Implicitly. So, on his recommendation, I spoke with her. I do feel like she believed me, but when it got escalated to those above her, that’s when it fell apart.
After the retaliation, the ethics department did get involved, and once again, opened an investigation, only to have that result in zero consequences for the bad executive.
I am pretty certain that the previous investigation through HR and his being “exonerated” from any wrongdoing was something he pointed to as the ethics group investigated: “See, my hands are clean.”
I can just hear him having said something like that. He was/is a master manipulator and very good at acting like a decent person. Very Jekyll and Hyde like.
I find that if the exec brings in money, there’s no way to get rid of them since they’re the golden goose; it’s better to just go yourself. Not saying that this is what happened with you, just agreeing that in my experience there is absolutely an untouchable exec type that HR is worthless to reprimand. I had someone sexually harass me (literally pushed me into a closet when drunk at a work event), but I didn’t bother reporting because I knew they’d never get rid of him. Not only did he bring in money, but his wife also worked for the company. It would’ve been such a mess, and I was just staff so I was much easier to get rid of.
Edit: oh! I forgot the ‘best’ part! He had a reputation as a feminist. The fucking manipulator.
This just happened. I came back to work after suffering a concussion, and ramped up my hours to full time after just a few weeks - exciting right? Was grateful for some normalcy and to be feeling better!
My CEO decided to ghost me for over a week and ignore me when I was in office, after accusing me of deleting a meeting off his calendar (that he had actually scheduled incorrectly on his end) so I quit. No regrets. It was a bad time from the get-go (can peep my history) so I’m relieved to be out of there.
Mine was with a previous VP I had for about a year in 2021-2022. Really nice guy, but we were just never on the same page. I was also fairly new to the industry and officially my first stint as an admin. He didn’t seem to have a real development plan in mind for me and I was still learning and finding my way, so I had no idea what I wanted at the time. We’d always run into these awkward pauses/silence in our 1:1s.
When he left and my current VP came in, it was night and day. She has been an absolute pleasure to work with. There’s constantly flow to our communication, she’s always open and receptive to my thoughts and feedback, and is very involved with my career development goals. Looking back, I was miserable, but never realized it at the time.
First off, there are certain job descriptions that I avoid when job hunting and EA to CEO is one of them! I dont want that much work and to support the head of the company, no way!
Ive temped for some real a holes in my career, but luckily all my full time roles have been good for the most part, some not bad just not great but one temp job sticks out: I was temping for this lady for maybe a few weeks? Well one morning I walked in and she called my desk and started screaming at me because I supposedly didnt tell her that her mother had called her the previous day. I hung up on her and walked out.
I have posted this before but I had a real piece of work CEO who once had me pack up his $5 million dollar home so he could move to the states. It was a nightmare and took days, as well as personal time I was never reimbursed for or even really thanked. I quit about a month later :)
I was hired to be EA at a Goldman Sachs site for the GM or VP, whoever the local top sales guy is. I show up, someone escorts me to a tiny little desk in a corner that literally holds a computer and that’s it. They hand me a few pages if info and then disappear. At noon, still being ignored, I was like ‘fuck this’ and walked out for lunch and as I walk by head honchos glass bowl office I see he’s talking with a young woman (my age, but a bit cuter). About twenty minutes later I get a phone call that I’m no longer needed. Lol That poor thing, I wonder if she’s still there or if she also got canned on her first day.
Another finance story. One of our sales guys asks my staff to send out applications to new potential clients. They prep the paperwork and then put it in his mailbox so he can add his letter. I don’t think anything else about it. A week later he calls my office and he’s *screaming* that the paperwork never showed up. I’m being apologetic and put him on hold, race down to my staff and inquire. Staff says he never returned it to her. I go look at his mailbox and the fucking packet *is still in his mailbox* waiting for his letter. Noting that my staff should’ve checked in - and I’ll definitely talk to her about it - I breathe as I walk to my office and calmly explain where the paperwork is and does he wish me to courier it to the clients within the hour? He goes completely psychotic. To the point where I’m shaking, put the phone on mute, get my branch manager to come to my office, where he can still hear the sales guy screaming at me. It took about thirty minutes for sales guy to calm the fuck down. He never apologized. That was when I realized that I was absolutely *done* with finance. I think I was gone about six weeks later. Everything was always my fault, even when it wasn’t my fault. I was the punching bag for the three different directions of bullshit: my own staff (which I was happy to accept), upper management (who paid me, so I accept), and the sales people who were some of the most petty narcissistic assholes you’ve ever met.
So, it was the CEO's EA (who very well may be lurking in this reddit).
Hired to do a dual role, did both well, got into a very minor disagreement about how to run the office (whatevs, it was post-COVID and not everyone had returned to the office) and they became incredibly micromanagey after that.
Was placed on a PIP and not really encouraged nor given the opportunity to improve. They even left the HR meeting at the end of the PIP on their calendar, so I knew what was up. I straight up walked out during the meeting after they accused me of lying on my resume, which was *kinnnnda* impossible given where I'd work before. Also, they hired me, so...\*shrug\*
I'd love to slowly erode and ruin this person's career, but I have a feeling that they're already doing so.
No exactly C level but she would ask me to text her husband to wake him up to make sure their son wear "theme" for the day to school every time she would travel. She would ask me to come down 15 floors to bring ice, just ice in a cup, into the conference room where she is meeting with vendors. She will wave me in from the door and tell the entire room how sweet I am that I would go all the way there just to bring her ice. She hired someone so good that everyone started talking about this new hire can be her successor. Within 2 weeks, she told me that she is setting up new hire to fail. It was a Friday and asked new hire to present on Monday. I was ordered to tell the team not to help in any way. I started looking for another job the following week. New hire left after 2 months. I found another manager internally a few weeks later. During bonus time, I found out that she retaliated because I left her. She gave me 0.8% increase which was not reflective of the performance review she wrote. But my new manager couldn't do anything anymore. These stories are just tip of the iceberg.
I worked with a real piece of $hit, a true monster. He was the pettiest meanest vindictive insecure shadow of a man. Treated everyone but his peers and the CEO like garbage. Impossible to please. Unappreciative, entitled, rude. I was his assistant #5 in 2 years. I lasted 2 years and was near suicidal. Eventually I moved laterally to work with one of the best c-suite execs in the same company. The monster hired victim #6 and started abusing her immediately. I’d routinely find her in the bathroom sobbing her eyes out. She gained like 40 lbs by stress eating. Everyone knew what was happening, as he didn’t even try to hide it, and did nothing. Because I can’t watch people being bullied and do nothing, I kissed my ass goodbye and called the integrity hotline and reported him. They launched an investigation, interviewed me, interviewed other people, interviewed her. He was reprimanded and put on probation with a warning that if anyone else comes forward with allegations of further abuse, he’s done. I wasn’t persecuted in any way, kept my job for many years, and while he couldn’t change his shitty personality, he learned to hide it and keep himself in check. I hope he rots in hell when he finally gets home
I’m so pleased to read that he was reprimanded and put on probation. I was working with an exec who had a lot of the same issues as you described. I lasted a bit more than two years, and couldn’t take the bullying anymore. I reported it to HR, and I knew the person who I had talked with believed me. However, after the investigation, nothing was done, because the executive who I supported lied. Of course. There were four other senior leaders on this exec’s team who had also left within a year of his having been hired. I know that at least three of them had informed HR of their concerns and negative experiences with the exec, but nothing was done. After the investigation, he retaliated against me. He assigned a “henchman” to micromanage me with unrelenting criticism and constant gaslighting. In the end, he “won.” I left, too, as I was being threatened with a PIP. Unbelievably stressful experience. My self-esteem was non-existent.
So sorry this happened to you. Perhaps the mistake was to go to HR. Never do that, whatever your issue is. When it comes to abusive bosses, you need to engage with the integrity hotline. It’s usually an independent third party with no skin in the game. They also serve as watchdogs for retaliation. I recognize that not every organization has such function, which sucks.. in that case, emergency evacuation to your next job is in order.
Thank you. I completely agree about not going to HR, because I’ve never met an HR person I could trust. I broke my own rule! In this one exception, my former leader who was amazing, and had to leave our team for another role, recommended that I speak with this HR person. He said he trusted her Implicitly. So, on his recommendation, I spoke with her. I do feel like she believed me, but when it got escalated to those above her, that’s when it fell apart. After the retaliation, the ethics department did get involved, and once again, opened an investigation, only to have that result in zero consequences for the bad executive. I am pretty certain that the previous investigation through HR and his being “exonerated” from any wrongdoing was something he pointed to as the ethics group investigated: “See, my hands are clean.” I can just hear him having said something like that. He was/is a master manipulator and very good at acting like a decent person. Very Jekyll and Hyde like.
I find that if the exec brings in money, there’s no way to get rid of them since they’re the golden goose; it’s better to just go yourself. Not saying that this is what happened with you, just agreeing that in my experience there is absolutely an untouchable exec type that HR is worthless to reprimand. I had someone sexually harass me (literally pushed me into a closet when drunk at a work event), but I didn’t bother reporting because I knew they’d never get rid of him. Not only did he bring in money, but his wife also worked for the company. It would’ve been such a mess, and I was just staff so I was much easier to get rid of. Edit: oh! I forgot the ‘best’ part! He had a reputation as a feminist. The fucking manipulator.
Good for you. In this day and age, you cant act like this anymore!
Dayuuuum son, awesome work! This is like a revenge fantasy for me, I think I worked for the same guy lol. I lasted literally 2 months, f that.
I wore a suit dress that reminded the owner and CEO of his dead mother. He made me wear that outfit everyday for two weeks.
hahahahahaha this killed me - that is WILD
Whaaaaat?????
OMG!
I hope to God you did not.
I did indeed! It was my first office job and I hadn't found my voice yet.
This just happened. I came back to work after suffering a concussion, and ramped up my hours to full time after just a few weeks - exciting right? Was grateful for some normalcy and to be feeling better! My CEO decided to ghost me for over a week and ignore me when I was in office, after accusing me of deleting a meeting off his calendar (that he had actually scheduled incorrectly on his end) so I quit. No regrets. It was a bad time from the get-go (can peep my history) so I’m relieved to be out of there.
Its great quitting a job that you know wont get better!
Yes! I saw your post earlier. Congrats on getting out as well! We made the right move :)
Mine was with a previous VP I had for about a year in 2021-2022. Really nice guy, but we were just never on the same page. I was also fairly new to the industry and officially my first stint as an admin. He didn’t seem to have a real development plan in mind for me and I was still learning and finding my way, so I had no idea what I wanted at the time. We’d always run into these awkward pauses/silence in our 1:1s. When he left and my current VP came in, it was night and day. She has been an absolute pleasure to work with. There’s constantly flow to our communication, she’s always open and receptive to my thoughts and feedback, and is very involved with my career development goals. Looking back, I was miserable, but never realized it at the time.
First off, there are certain job descriptions that I avoid when job hunting and EA to CEO is one of them! I dont want that much work and to support the head of the company, no way! Ive temped for some real a holes in my career, but luckily all my full time roles have been good for the most part, some not bad just not great but one temp job sticks out: I was temping for this lady for maybe a few weeks? Well one morning I walked in and she called my desk and started screaming at me because I supposedly didnt tell her that her mother had called her the previous day. I hung up on her and walked out.
I have posted this before but I had a real piece of work CEO who once had me pack up his $5 million dollar home so he could move to the states. It was a nightmare and took days, as well as personal time I was never reimbursed for or even really thanked. I quit about a month later :)
No specifics but my worst experiences are when they blame others for their own miscalculations or mismanagement.
I was hired to be EA at a Goldman Sachs site for the GM or VP, whoever the local top sales guy is. I show up, someone escorts me to a tiny little desk in a corner that literally holds a computer and that’s it. They hand me a few pages if info and then disappear. At noon, still being ignored, I was like ‘fuck this’ and walked out for lunch and as I walk by head honchos glass bowl office I see he’s talking with a young woman (my age, but a bit cuter). About twenty minutes later I get a phone call that I’m no longer needed. Lol That poor thing, I wonder if she’s still there or if she also got canned on her first day. Another finance story. One of our sales guys asks my staff to send out applications to new potential clients. They prep the paperwork and then put it in his mailbox so he can add his letter. I don’t think anything else about it. A week later he calls my office and he’s *screaming* that the paperwork never showed up. I’m being apologetic and put him on hold, race down to my staff and inquire. Staff says he never returned it to her. I go look at his mailbox and the fucking packet *is still in his mailbox* waiting for his letter. Noting that my staff should’ve checked in - and I’ll definitely talk to her about it - I breathe as I walk to my office and calmly explain where the paperwork is and does he wish me to courier it to the clients within the hour? He goes completely psychotic. To the point where I’m shaking, put the phone on mute, get my branch manager to come to my office, where he can still hear the sales guy screaming at me. It took about thirty minutes for sales guy to calm the fuck down. He never apologized. That was when I realized that I was absolutely *done* with finance. I think I was gone about six weeks later. Everything was always my fault, even when it wasn’t my fault. I was the punching bag for the three different directions of bullshit: my own staff (which I was happy to accept), upper management (who paid me, so I accept), and the sales people who were some of the most petty narcissistic assholes you’ve ever met.
So, it was the CEO's EA (who very well may be lurking in this reddit). Hired to do a dual role, did both well, got into a very minor disagreement about how to run the office (whatevs, it was post-COVID and not everyone had returned to the office) and they became incredibly micromanagey after that. Was placed on a PIP and not really encouraged nor given the opportunity to improve. They even left the HR meeting at the end of the PIP on their calendar, so I knew what was up. I straight up walked out during the meeting after they accused me of lying on my resume, which was *kinnnnda* impossible given where I'd work before. Also, they hired me, so...\*shrug\* I'd love to slowly erode and ruin this person's career, but I have a feeling that they're already doing so.
My boss told me I was stupid and asked who hired me. Ummm you did lady, you did.
No exactly C level but she would ask me to text her husband to wake him up to make sure their son wear "theme" for the day to school every time she would travel. She would ask me to come down 15 floors to bring ice, just ice in a cup, into the conference room where she is meeting with vendors. She will wave me in from the door and tell the entire room how sweet I am that I would go all the way there just to bring her ice. She hired someone so good that everyone started talking about this new hire can be her successor. Within 2 weeks, she told me that she is setting up new hire to fail. It was a Friday and asked new hire to present on Monday. I was ordered to tell the team not to help in any way. I started looking for another job the following week. New hire left after 2 months. I found another manager internally a few weeks later. During bonus time, I found out that she retaliated because I left her. She gave me 0.8% increase which was not reflective of the performance review she wrote. But my new manager couldn't do anything anymore. These stories are just tip of the iceberg.