My ex-boss - P

I finally got back at my ex-female boss P in my own sweet way. It might seem so, what shall I say – insignificant, but it marks a big leap of confidence for me. First let’s get over the “female” emphasis here. I believe there are good women bosses just as there are good men bosses. But when it comes to bad bosses women take the cake over men any day. They can get mean, vicious, ugly and conniving. One has to experience it to know it. Coming back to P, she was none of these. P is someone who can smile at you and stab you royally at the back. She would praise you for doing something and then make that praise sound so artificial – beats the purpose really if you ask me. She would say so and so person said this and that about you (UNPROFESSIONAL!!).

P is also the first person to tell me that in order to get a promotion I should know how to lick up to her bosses. Hmm...did I hear that right? C’mon we are not talking about a small grocery store here. We work in a global multi-national company which has more than say 200,000 employees across the globe. P desperately needs to go for a man-management training. Any way P has worked in the same dept for 20 years and has seen people go in and out of the department. P’s strategy worked, ‘cause in the end she ended up being the boss. Now all this is fine. Problem is P has a soft spot for men. She quickly rewards men and tortures the women in her dept.

I could not figure out why till P finally, after a few drinks at an office party, told my colleague that her mother had abandoned her when she was 15 and she lived with her Dad whom she adored. OK so now what am I supposed to do with the information? My colleague told me that I should understand where P was coming from and why she behaved the way she did. I am sorry, but when you enter the door to the office building, please keep your worries, complexes and insecurities outside. I am not the one to stroke your sorrows.

Let’s come back to P and me. P begrudgingly approved of me. I cared two hoots about what she thought about me and I was too damn good at my job. You know, after a certain age, you don’t need someone to tell you you are good if you are genuinely good. The people around you will gush enough about how they need to get in touch with you to get work done. But during the three years that I worked with P she gave me crap increments and no rewards at all. So it was but natural for me to look for another job in the company, which I did and got selected in a one week flat.

I am happy with my decision to leave P’s dept and go to a dept where the male boss is really nice. Hey if a woman boss is not good enough then you go for the other gender.

Today I was called for a quick chat with P. Apparently P is responsible for this year’s annual salary increase as I had spent the good part of the year working in her dept. So P made it sound as if I had to attend this chat as she wanted to reward me for my good work. And the reward guys – a piddly 5% increase. Feel the fire coming out of my eyes, ears and any orifice that I have when I heard this. I don’t care how the global economy is doing, all I am bothered about is that my company is doing fantastically well and I should get better than a 5% increase.

I waited for exactly two minutes before I blurted out – “P do you have anything more to tell me? If you don’t I would like to end this chat.” Having said this I just walked out of the huddle room with my head held high. P, I believe, had thought that I would smile, thank her for what she had done and probably even licked her feet for it. Sorry I have had enough of this woman. And if you can’t beat the woman, then walk away. Amen.

Never in her life has P had a subordinate cut her short mid-way. And this, my friends, is my small little glory.