Before we proceed
Let me conclude before I start, these are the lessons from my story.
When you have resigned, strive to maintain your professional integrity but not at the expense of your well-being.
No matter who is your mentor, do not become a clone just in case you also clone the terrible traits.
You can be a good manager without having to subsume your integrity for the purpose of fulfilling your role, honest definitely garners more respect.
You have every right to be different and act differently but beware of the universe of stupidity bordering on the utterly absurd from which you will never recover once you have arrived.
Honestly aspiring to great things is noble, pretending to be great when you are not is not an aspiration.
Learn from history and move on to make a productive future.
Always seek the light of knowledge in all your circumstances, knowing where you are at is the most important part of knowing where you are going.
Just move on when you are done
You might be well acquainted with the saga of my career progress in the summer months of last year where one encountered the unusual phenomenon of the resigning party being on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
It transpired that on learning that my then boss (Mr Tragedian) had nothing to offer but more of the same, the only option left to me was to seek more productive prospects for my career.
This was coupled with the complete lack of support for my decision to undertake a post-graduate programme in Information Technology.
One has moved on, though it is with amusement and incredulity that Mr Tragedian lack of foresight has left my role unfilled and that function in complete disarray within that organisation.
As it goes, the systems one used are still quarantined in the concern that information contained therein might still be relevant; the same systems still hold a pride of place even after an office move.
Door signs of hopeful excess
One notes with interest the fact that the department one worked was named CIO where the O inferred Office and not Officer. Mr Tragedian was beaming when an old colleague from another placement visited and could have thought the sign on the door to his office meant Mr Tragedian was the CIO.
Mr Tragedian was Chief indeed and obviously some kind of Officer in the organisation; but spare me the Information part.
Indolent, Insolent, Idiot, Irresponsible, Irreverent, Irritable, Indiscrete and Insulting would read better for the "I" part. He was most of that to many but that trait was literally Invisible to his bosses or he had something on them such that he had it all sewn up. The mind boggles.
Situations vacant filled from without
Most recently, the CIO retired, fine lady she was, considering anytime we met in the elevators we talked about hats, being a wearer of hats myself.
There is something about the sophistication of ladies in executive positions that sets them apart from ladies who are not in the fast track. [Just an observation, corroborated by a few.]
The way things were last year, there was the fear that the CIO would be replaced by Mr Tragedian who somehow exuded the schizophrenic ability of being able to smell like roses to his superiors and like dog-shit to those below him.
Mushrooms would be more content with their culture of farming than staff that had to report to him. [Mushroom farming is a euphemism indicating the act of keeping ones staff uninformed, de-motivated, treating them dishonestly, disrespectfully and with disdain - expressed as "keep them in the dark and feed them shit" - just how mushrooms are cultivated.]
As good fortune would have it, someone else was brought in to fill that post and rightly so. Mr Tragedian had so clogged up every progressive function that helped the enterprise that the attrition rate could beat world records. His promotion would have just promoted the range of his damaging influence.
Protégés of shame
Even more word comes out of the grapevine of how protégés of Mr Tragedian who have mastered the art of management by utter insolence have been read the Riot-Act by the new CIO.
The whole culture of terminological inexactitudes [lies] to embellish untenable situations [failures] as problems created by others have been busted; big time.
Those managers now live in the same terror that they have to-date unleashed on the others they manage. One cannot complain; what goes around comes around - that is good enough for anyone.
It is rumoured that Mr Tragedian probably has the fattest complaint file in the toothless and ineffective HR department that seems to be so efficient in handling holiday requests but not resolve weightier matters of employee conflict.
It is even a greater shame that one of the managers who had a good case on the Mr Tragedian's incompetence did not have the bottle to pursue it to a conclusion; he is now on his way out. Well, a manager without balls will not fit in any ball game. Anyway, lessons might be learnt from this situation.
Ridicule beyond expression
Mr Tragedian once had as part of his quite generous remuneration a well-appointed Mercedes Benz car befitting of his status in the company. He then negotiated a settlement in that allowed him acquired a mobile home truck which has replaced his car.
That truck is now his working vehicle that it elicited the most unkind of comments from the new CIO to ensure that the truck is parked not only appropriately but out-of-sight.
The joke in town however is the warning parents should give their kids when it ends up in a caravan park - whilst some may say "Don't play with that man", the better command is "Don't even as much as look at that man and run like hell if he as much as steps in your direction screaming at the top of your lungs"
As one just has an indifferent view of the whole matter, ones unconcerned distraction is diverted by the question - How ridiculous can one get? With Mr Tragedian, he has only just begun.
References
