U.S. Capitol Double TakeI've been doing some reflecting since learning that my Wretched Former Boss was canned last week. I know it's probably wrong for me to gloat about someone else's downfall. I wouldn't wish a vote of no-confidence and being fired on anyone. As someone who's been on the receiving end of downsizing, being told I was tedious to work with, and having a slew of wretched bosses, I wouldn't wish what happened to K.ate on my very worst, vilest enemy. But that's the rub. K.ate wasn't my very worst, vilest enemy. She was/is a good person with a desire to do right by the world who flatters herself and everyone around her to be an advocate for the downtrodden. She prides herself on coming from a place where live and let live is the standard and being someone who embodies that.
And that is why I gloat. She is none of that. She, like so many in this town, is driven by fear and an overabundance of self-protectionism. In the process, she ignored her primary responsibility: to manage and collaborate with a team of staff members who put their hearts into making this little non-profit-with-the-mission-that-could shine. Rather than seeing us as assets, we were a threat. Rather than collaborate with us and tie us in with the board of directors in a joint effort, she sabotaged us. Rather than accepting personal responsibility as the leader, she passed the buck and threw us under the bus.
The bottomline is, K.ate got what she deserved and what she got was a board of directors that was increasingly upset with her (lack of) performance and who finally passed a vote of no confidence in K.ate's leadership and fired her. While I'm not sorry she was fired, I am sorry it took the board so long to arrive at this action. It was long overdue.
RestfulHaving said all that, I'm going to spend the weekend working in the yard and getting it shaped up. I think on Sunday I'm having dinner at my parents. Yesterday was my dad's 64th birthday, so I see cake in the immediate future.
Happy (Photo) Friday everyone! And have a great weekend!
Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential
12 comments:
Do I think it is bad to gloat?
No.
Should you gloat?
For a little while at least.
As for the Capitol Reflection.
Awesome pic.
Your dad is my age? You could be my daughter? How do these things happen. And when do I get outta here. My daughter is 40? Huh...when did that happen.
Oh yeah....1967. I do remember that. :(
Yeesh, you are human. Feel whatever you feel; no judgement from us.
Happy Belated to Pops! Let them eat cake!!
I want to lounge in that chair. That's what your pictures do for me -- make me want to live in them.
- Phoebe
Old Boss will find something else she likes to do; might be a good change for her.
Cele: Thanks!
Lucy: Yep. Although, my mother is only 59. I don't remember 1967. That was the year I was conceived. It was just a lot of sloshing around in a really dark space. Or so I'm told.
Wicked: Thank you! I think cake is the perfect antidote to my less than charitable feelings.
Pheebs: Come on over. We're lounge together. There's a horse corral across the way. Bring some carrots and we'll feed the Park Police horsies.
As for the OB, I've no doubt she'll find something new (in fact, it wouldn't surprise me to learn she's already landed on her feet somewhere.) That doesn't bother me. What bothers me is, she'll land on her feet and meddle nastily with more lives.
Wow, just read the NEWS and I'm reeling!
I and sending a hearty hug and handshake from here in Brooklyn. Not that you got her fired. It just seems the thing to do.
How satisfying that must feel! I'm just so happy for you that you got this kind of closure.
Eh, gloat a little. You're human. Just as long as you then move on. But of course you will -- you've got your own groovy things going on now.
Wow. w o w. What a fitting end to the tale. The only problem that I see in all this was that you had to be a casualty in the first instance. It (and she) really KNOCKED your professional confidence and could, if you had let it, ruined your (and probably others') career...I wonder if she will ever get to the point of reflecting upon that? Doubtful. However, it would be nice for her to call you in a few years and say 'Sorry I f*cked you over'.
Adriana: Reeling is a good word for it. I was Virginia Reeling, that's fer sure! It brings a little bit of closure, I suppose. I've effectively (and I mean that in its purest definition, not as a degree of scale) moved on and put it behind me. I know I would have continued to achieve results for NRC and I'd probably still be there, if not for Kate. But, I've got other things going right now and I can no longer wonder all the 'what ifs' or I'd go nuts. That doesn't, however, preclude my gloating. :-)
HM: I think Kate will never truly appreciate the impact she had on the lives of her staff. About a year or so after she let me go, she also shafted our freelance web designer and consultant who had been a personal/professional friend of Kate's for more than a decade. She let Jimmy, the America Recycles Day coordinator, go. That was followed by Richard, the Nike and Dell programs coordinator; Michael, the policy wonk; and Jenelle, the communications and administrative coordinator. That's what? Five lives she affected? And there's no telling how many countless others she's bamboozled in the span of her career.
As for whether she'll ever call and apologize to any of us, I'm not waiting for it. I'll waste the rest of my life waiting for that!
Well, I can't think of a more deserving karmic recipient--and not just for what she did to you, but for you AND ALL THOSE OTHER PEOPLE!
I'm guessing that someone who'd shitcan a decade-old personal/professional friend isn't gonna have an epiphany about screwing up other people's lives. Just a hunch.
If she stays in DC, that kind of reputation will trail behind her like an escaping fart.
A little schadenfreude never hurt anyone. Sometimes it is that simple, as you told me the other day.
Btw-- shower and new jammies? Great piece of advice. Thank you so much.
ME: Oh, I can think of one other person in my life who deserves a little karmic justice, but for now I'm happy to limit it to Kate. I wonder if she'll stay in D.C. now that she's experienced the headiness of self-importance here? I just have a hard time imagining her going back to little, quiet, Humboldt County, California and communing with nature. Apparently she ruined lives there, too, before she came here. She's a one-woman path of destruction wherever she goes!
Mme. Meow: Glad you're feeling better. And I think you're right: This is just simple schadenfreude and, as we say in German, es freut mich sehr! :-)
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