*As told to Kally from someone who wishes to be anonymous
Short Story: I gave my best to my ex-company but still got stabbed in the back.
Long story? Here it goes..
I worked in a logistic company that grew from a small back office with just 10 manpower to 500 employees very quickly within 5 years. The money is okay but the working hours are great for me because I was studying at a night school so my boss, Ricky will give me unofficial time off to study during exam period.
In return, I worked very hard for him and the company. I worked in all areas from customer service, sales, operations, administration. You name it, I have all my fingers in it. So after 5 years, I’m the go-to guy if you encounter any problems and I’ll fix it quickly. When Ricky goes on family vacations, I’ll cover for his absence and make all the decisions. I doubled the company’s profit within 5 years and increased their productivity ten folds. I’ll jump in whenever there are shortage of manpower or take on shifts when someone is sick. I’m like a floater.
The owners are foreigners that we don’t see them at all. The whole company just listened to Ricky. Ricky is a great guy, he listened and he mentored. Those who left the company, will always returned quickly to work for him.
The trouble starts when Ricky retired. The foreign owners decided to come in and take over the whole company but in three months, they left because it was too much for them. They just want to see profits and didn’t care about operations at all. Ricky strongly suggested to them to promote me to run the place. Somehow, they didn’t want that, which was fine by me because I was just waiting to complete my degree before taking a long break and decide what to do next.
The bozos hired some guy (let’s call him Kelvin) who swaggered into the company, belittled everyone especially me and drove everyone nuts with changes that doesn’t make sense.
Kelvin’s first speech to me was “So I have heard about you. You know nothing. You are nothing. That’s why you don’t deserve to be in my seat. With me around, I don’t think you will last. In fact, I hope you will leave soon. That is why you are getting 10% pay cut starting right now.” I complained to the foreign owners but they relentlessly stated that Kelvin was in charge and he has the authority to do whatever he likes. That’s total bullshit. I don’t deserve that at all.
So I started to cut away my hours. You see, I have been putting extra hours and burn my weekends because I enjoyed working with Ricky. Now with this clown, there is nothing worth working for. I started working my assigned hours and doing things that are assigned to my role which is just paperwork.
My coworkers understood and didn’t give me any flake for sticking to my role and not lending a hand. They all hated Kelvin but couldn’t do much because they needed their jobs to feed their families. I’m the only guy with zero financial commitment. My school fees are fully paid for by my family, I’m living with my uncle and the old beat up car that I drove to work belongs to him.
The timing was just right as well. I graduated from my night school with top honours. I saved up a tidy sum from my salary because my parents brought me up to be frugal. I have enough savings to last me for at least a year without a job.
Most of all, I hate bullies with all my guts. I dropped out school early due to bullies in my previous schools. It was when I was working with Ricky that he encouraged me to attend night school.
System started to collapse slowly like dominoes. The changes Kelvin made was hampering productivity with most processes doubled the time and effort.
For example, clients used to be able to call us on urgent notice and we’ll pick up their parcels within the same hour. With Kelvin’s stupid processes, this no longer be possible so we stopped offering it. Ricky used to run through any new processes with me before implementation because he claimed I have “a quick mind” and I can spot flaws in the process easily and make changes before anything is official. With Kelvin, I doubt he wants my advice and I rather not to give him the chance to call me a smartarse.
Shift planning was almost non existent because Kelvin didn’t know how to plan it. The shift schedule will be out so late, people would start calling him on Sunday nights to ask if their shift starts on Monday morning. I used to be the one doing it (extra work) but since it is not my jurisdiction, I don’t care anymore.
During this period, many coworkers raised their concerns with the owners but was shot down one by one. Soon, people left when opportunities arises and Kelvin replaced them with his own pals who aren’t even qualified or competent to do the job. His friends are cutting corners, taking longer lunch breaks and leaving work early. More than once, the office was left unlocked because his friends forgot to lock it. We have clients’ goods that amount to thousands of dollars. If anything was stolen, I don’t think the insurance will cover stupid human error like forgetting to lock up. Sometimes, we will returned to work after a long weekend to find the office littered with empty beers cans and the smell of stale smoke.
Clients started to drop us like crazy and by the time, the foreign owners noticed, almost half of our best clients had gone over to our competitors. Kelvin was sacked on the spot. The owners asked Ricky to come out of retirement but he turned them down. Last resort, they tried to promote me to Kelvin’s position but by then, I had enough of this crap and I had a long vacation lined up for me. So I tendered my resignation.
That was a year ago. The company is still around but it has changed owners. I don’t know what happened to Kelvin and may I never meet him again.
Can’t get enough of Whispers Stories? Here are some of them here:
Whisper: I’m Pretending To Be Who I Am
Whisper: I Slept With My Bully
Whisper: I sabotaged my one of my staff’s career
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MiddleMe 
Wow 🤩
It never pays …
They got what they deserved
LikeLiked by 5 people
Absolutely.
LikeLiked by 4 people
smart and brave. excellent
LikeLiked by 4 people
Glad you like this post.
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Definitely smart and determined 🙂😉
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Thank you for your comment and welcome to MiddleMe! Check out the next story: https://middleme.net/2020/05/13/whisper-how-career-jealousy-destroy-my-relationship-with-my-sister/
LikeLiked by 2 people
That is the least he could do after all this sufferings.
LikeLiked by 3 people
That’s true. You may want to check out the next story: https://middleme.net/2020/05/13/whisper-how-career-jealousy-destroy-my-relationship-with-my-sister/
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Will definitely check it out 😊
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Most emoloyees quit their bosses not the job, and arrogance in management is a push to a faster collapse. It’s unfortunate to experience such but all experiences lead to growth and development.
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You are right.
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It’s a shame they did not treasure good employees.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Yes. Very sad and worse still that this is a common occurrence in many workplaces
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I believe it matters how one gets to the top if they worked hard and got to the top deservingly, they will treat everyone who works hard deservingly. But if getting on top was questionable, even their character is questionable.
Interesting story, very educative.
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Thank you. I think it is sad that the company did not recognise the value of keeping good employees.
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As one who has written a few resignation letters that told the bosses exactly what I thought, I give this anonymous revenge-taker two thumbs up.
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I thought you might enjoy this post. Thanks, Gregory.
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Awesome!
I’ve nominated you for the Liebster Award!
https://justmecompany.wordpress.com/2020/09/16/the-liebster-award-5th/
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Thank you for the honor!
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What goes around comes around 😉
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Retribution serves on a hot plate!
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Fascinating case study on what not to do. Glad your person was in a position to escape I’ve had stupid bosses but never to that extent.
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There are just too many self-entitled people in the world.
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Yes in the office and in politics.
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Great story; incompetent and bullying bosses, especially if they don’t recognize or disparage their staff’s contributions, are terrible. Would it be possible to say what country this took place in?
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Definitely not in Asia. 🙂
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Nice one
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Thank you.
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Wow. I salute his or her bravery – Having to let go and move on. 💯
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Absolutely. I just he is pretty fed up.
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I can very much relate to this unfortunate tale. Having an incompetent boss can not only bolster your project, but can leave a bad taste, and digress your passion towards your favourite work. And the road to recovery is hard and painful. Thank you for penning the person’s story. 🙂
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You’re most welcome. It is painful for him to do this but he has since recover for it.
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Thanks Kally, this guy has a legitimate “Beef”,
But I’m “Old School”….I have always felt compelled to do MY best….If and when circumstances beyond MY control prevented that; I continued to do my job to the best of my ability (extra hours and all the BS), until I could find other suitable employment.
Seems to ME, that Ricky and the company went out of their way to help them….With this incompetent boss; time would have buried him, so sticking it out seems to me to have possibly been a prudent decision.
I personally COIL at the idea of slacking…but hey; maybe that IS “just me?”
God Be with you my friend,
Patrick
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I guess we have the old school ways hard wired into us, Patrick. I can’t imagine slacking off otherwise this blog would never have been born. Many of the expat wives I know are happily shopping, not me! I prefer to be bury deep into work and learning.
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Splendid tale, Kally. Despite much angst within, everything worked out in the end. Indeed, our narrator isn’t the only one who got what he deserved.
One person I don’t understand, though, is Kelvin. In which universe, in what dimension, is his “management” style even remotely appropriate to the situation? Forget, even, managing effectively and maintaining professional respect. How was his attitude suitable on a human level? A relationship that starts with such confrontational hostility fails as soon as it starts.
In fact, in the end, Kelvin got what he had coming too. As did the newer (and now former) owners. Imposing someone like Kelvin, and standing by him, was a mistake. Especially when he insulted and abused those who had been there forever.
Seems like the now-former owners need to find their lives’-work. Running this company definitely wasn’t it.
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Ah.. we all know that “Kelvin” in our lives. I definitely can identify one or two “Kelvins” and quickly steer clear away from them. Perhaps he felt he is entitled or perhaps he might be spoiled. Who knows? They are just out to make everyone lives miserable.
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Excellent story! It sounds like the new company owners burned all of their bridges. Less revenge and more natural result.
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Yup it is.
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Oh wow this is such karma to the company! He/she is better off for not sticking with them. They didn’t appreciate him when they should’ve!
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I’m with you on this, Shelly! I would have left a lot sooner too.
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Your writing is so smart that I could not leave any line to read
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Thank you!
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It’s so sad how valuable talent can be neglected.
Kelvin’s attitude had flaws from the onset and the foreign owners couldn’t pay attention to the advice of a successful retiree.
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Yes, I agree that the talent goes to waste. Sad it is.
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Yeah, that is sad and wasted.
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Wow. This really illustrates how much damage a bad manager can do to a company. 🙁
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People quit because of bad bosses, not because of bad salaries.
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Very moving! Thank for sharing with us.
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Thank you so much for your comment. I truly appreciate it.
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