"Truth is the daughter of time" - Old Proverb
"History is more or less bunk" - Henry Ford
"History will be very kind to me, for I intend to write it" - Winston Churchill
This is a "mystery" written by Josephine Tey, one of the luminaries of the Golden Age of Mystery. As a History major and a mystery fan, this book is far above all the others in my estimation. It is widely acknowledged as the definitive exoneration of Richard III in the murder of his two young nephews.
I recall very vividly reading all about this in my high school history textbook. I was quite outraged at this brazen infanticide and considered Richard's death at Bosworth to be divine intervention.
It was quite a stunning eye-opener for me to read the full story as put forth by Tey in this book. Although it is a fictional mystery novel, she uses the device of having her bed-ridden, hospital-bound detective, Alan Grant, become immersed in and solve one of the most notorious of all historical crimes: If Richard III did not kill his nephews, who did?
I challenge anyone to read this book and still be certain that Richard was guilty.
Tey indicts all sorts of complicit slanderers including William Shakespeare, of all people. Shakespeare's play Richard III portrays Richard in the popular guise of that time, Richard Crookback. It ought to make every student of history interested to know that Richard did not have a hunchback at all. There is some evidence, however, that he may have suffered a mild attack of polio as a child. Hardly the sneering, lusting monster of the play. But then, you have to remember that Shakespeare received royal patronage from the very family of the man who killed Richard (and Henry Tudor was a man who had a very compelling motive to kill the two young princes).
At any rate, there is so much in this book that leaves absolutely no reasonable doubt that I will leave it to Readers everywhere to enlighten themselves.
NOTE: here in Texas, about fifteen years ago, an average, ordinary Dad got hold of a high school History book being considered by TEA. Using only an encyclopedia, this man found more than 3,000 FACTUAL errors - names, dates, places etc that were flat-out wrong. When he brought this to the attention of the committee that approves textbooks, he was informed that the book had already been approved by their panel of "experts".
Be very afraid.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Great Escape - The End - At Last!
My supervisor made it very easy for me to leave without even knowing so. The Best Friend had me cornered and in her gun sight. I already knew that my supervisor had a serious two-faced, passive/agressive quality, exhibited by her smiling and eager "good listener" face which was always followed by her surrogage happily undoing any good will. But my supervisor unzipped her fly, figuratively, when she appointed the Best Friend to be my "Team Lead". Here's the punch line: I was a team of ONE! My function was unique not only to our group but to our international corporation. So I needed a Team Lead? After nine years? After three promotions in nine years? And public kudos from our Divisional Manager?
This was nonsense. The most obvious purpose of this Team Lead concept was for the Best Friend to insert her name into my function and grab whatever kudos and recognition I could bring. But the real purpose was to put me in my place and to allow the Best Friend full approval to confront me at will and spill her animosity and jealousy under the guise of "leadership".
Nobody has to like me to work with me. But professionalism ought to supercede personal feelings. I guess I just provided a thumbnail sketch of the Best Friend. No professionalism, no business smarts, no organizational skills, no people skills, very little self control, and complete cluelessness.
I remember the exact date that I knew I was on the final leg of this exit: May 2, 2007. Exactly one week earlier, to the day, my supervisor had given me a glowing performance review and said, [exact quote]: "You are trusted completely at the highest levels of this company and no one will ever back-check on you." On May 2 my "Team Lead" scheduled a COUNSELING SESSION to officially rebuke me for an item from a MONTH earlier. Her point was that I had not used the source she would have used. So I was NOT trusted and someone DID back check on me. I won't even go into how minor a detail it was (or that her source would have charged almost double for the same item - she really was hopeless).
For the first time at work, I was absolutely furious. I think that was the angriest I have ever been in my life and I am still amazed tha I could stay calm. I doubt that my anger was obvious to the Best Friend because she was always so caught up in the sound of her own voice that she missed anything else going on.
During my years at this international corporation, I had redefined, expanded, and enhanced my particular function to a degree that was unmatched anywhere else in the company. I (me!) was actually a budget line in the company whereby they could track outsourced research because that was all I did. And there was absolutely no one else who even came close to the volume, level, and success ratio that I maintained. I gave them real-time, fully detailed dollar amounts and I gave their scientists items that others had told them were impossible to get. From a copy of an Italian scientific monologue published in 1937 to a journal article written in 1763, I found it.
But I needed a Team Lead? Pay attention, folks, because this is how you manufacture a promotion for someone who could never possibly earn one on their own. First, you give this person low-level tasks anyone can do and celebrate these vocally and publicly as astonishing achievements. Even better, you give this person "leadership" over a highly productive and valuable employee so that the schlub can poach as much acclaim and kudos as possible.
On August 3, 2007, I handed my resignation to my supervisor. She was stupefied and I think this was genuine. I doubt that she ever considered that I would quit such a lucrative and satisfying position. In my letter of resignation I wrote the following sentence, "There is nothing worse than being micromanaged, a tactic guaranteed to stifle creativity, productivity, and morale." As soon as she read that sentence she looked up at me and I could see that she FINALLY got it. And I could also see that she was teetering on the brink of offering to make changes to get me to stay. However, a leopard does not change its spots. She just couldn't let go. The flame in her eyes died and we hugged and parted.
Lessons Learned:
1. No job is worth driving 300 miles per week.
2. No job is worth having 3-4 migraines per week, which is where I was before August 2, 2007. Since then, I have had exactly two.
3. Cover your ass. In addition to copying my supervisor on the email trails, I also copied my home email just to make sure. I made damn sure I was never, ever rude or disrespectful to the Best Friend even in private. I had come to the point that I had no trust left at all.
4. You can survive leaving a job that you used to love. Re-focus and take pleasure in the simple things because they are what really matter.
I now temp for an agency close to home. I enjoy the challenge of absorbing new venues, new processes, and new tasks. I have temped for attorneys, CPAs and one mom-and-pop business as well as countless front offices. I meet some great people and I work when I feel like it.
This summer I have been "hired" by my daughter and son-in-law as a day-care provider for my two grandsons for about six weeks. Frankly, I am thrilled and am already planning the movies and activities we will share. The boys are aged 10 and 5 and tons of fun.
Life is good!
This was nonsense. The most obvious purpose of this Team Lead concept was for the Best Friend to insert her name into my function and grab whatever kudos and recognition I could bring. But the real purpose was to put me in my place and to allow the Best Friend full approval to confront me at will and spill her animosity and jealousy under the guise of "leadership".
Nobody has to like me to work with me. But professionalism ought to supercede personal feelings. I guess I just provided a thumbnail sketch of the Best Friend. No professionalism, no business smarts, no organizational skills, no people skills, very little self control, and complete cluelessness.
I remember the exact date that I knew I was on the final leg of this exit: May 2, 2007. Exactly one week earlier, to the day, my supervisor had given me a glowing performance review and said, [exact quote]: "You are trusted completely at the highest levels of this company and no one will ever back-check on you." On May 2 my "Team Lead" scheduled a COUNSELING SESSION to officially rebuke me for an item from a MONTH earlier. Her point was that I had not used the source she would have used. So I was NOT trusted and someone DID back check on me. I won't even go into how minor a detail it was (or that her source would have charged almost double for the same item - she really was hopeless).
For the first time at work, I was absolutely furious. I think that was the angriest I have ever been in my life and I am still amazed tha I could stay calm. I doubt that my anger was obvious to the Best Friend because she was always so caught up in the sound of her own voice that she missed anything else going on.
During my years at this international corporation, I had redefined, expanded, and enhanced my particular function to a degree that was unmatched anywhere else in the company. I (me!) was actually a budget line in the company whereby they could track outsourced research because that was all I did. And there was absolutely no one else who even came close to the volume, level, and success ratio that I maintained. I gave them real-time, fully detailed dollar amounts and I gave their scientists items that others had told them were impossible to get. From a copy of an Italian scientific monologue published in 1937 to a journal article written in 1763, I found it.
But I needed a Team Lead? Pay attention, folks, because this is how you manufacture a promotion for someone who could never possibly earn one on their own. First, you give this person low-level tasks anyone can do and celebrate these vocally and publicly as astonishing achievements. Even better, you give this person "leadership" over a highly productive and valuable employee so that the schlub can poach as much acclaim and kudos as possible.
On August 3, 2007, I handed my resignation to my supervisor. She was stupefied and I think this was genuine. I doubt that she ever considered that I would quit such a lucrative and satisfying position. In my letter of resignation I wrote the following sentence, "There is nothing worse than being micromanaged, a tactic guaranteed to stifle creativity, productivity, and morale." As soon as she read that sentence she looked up at me and I could see that she FINALLY got it. And I could also see that she was teetering on the brink of offering to make changes to get me to stay. However, a leopard does not change its spots. She just couldn't let go. The flame in her eyes died and we hugged and parted.
Lessons Learned:
1. No job is worth driving 300 miles per week.
2. No job is worth having 3-4 migraines per week, which is where I was before August 2, 2007. Since then, I have had exactly two.
3. Cover your ass. In addition to copying my supervisor on the email trails, I also copied my home email just to make sure. I made damn sure I was never, ever rude or disrespectful to the Best Friend even in private. I had come to the point that I had no trust left at all.
4. You can survive leaving a job that you used to love. Re-focus and take pleasure in the simple things because they are what really matter.
I now temp for an agency close to home. I enjoy the challenge of absorbing new venues, new processes, and new tasks. I have temped for attorneys, CPAs and one mom-and-pop business as well as countless front offices. I meet some great people and I work when I feel like it.
This summer I have been "hired" by my daughter and son-in-law as a day-care provider for my two grandsons for about six weeks. Frankly, I am thrilled and am already planning the movies and activities we will share. The boys are aged 10 and 5 and tons of fun.
Life is good!
To Make a Long Story Short (too late!)
It did not occur to me when I started this narrative that it would be this extensive. Maybe because I've never really put all this nonsense and frustration down in writing before and did not realize the scope of my situation. Or maybe it's because I'm just milking the drama. Whatever.
At this point I finally understood the dynamics of the Supervisor-hires-Best-Friend situation at my workplace. I had figured out that our supervisor was actually using the Best Friend as a surrogate to needle, pick, spy, agitate, and punish. And the Best Friend was really enjoying it.
But with me and the Best Friend, it was personal for her. I had been warned previously and rather foolishly brushed it off. After the incident that involved upper management, I was very highly aware of the danger.
I was lucky in one respect: others in my group had been company employees for quite a while. Retirement was close but they needed more time and thus had to hold their noses and try to hang on. However, I had been a stay-at-home mom until my children were in high school. I had only worked at this particular company for 10 years and I was free to leave any time I felt like it. So I sorted out options, examined my home situation, and with my wonderful and supportive husband began The Plan.
One: use my company benefits to the maximum during my final months.
Two: use my generous salary to make upgrades in our house
Three: To be very careful at work and make sure that, as much as possible, I documented every confrontation and event and word I exchanged with the Best Friend.
So first came any unfinished dental work, new contact lenses, a physical checkup, etc. Then we landscaped our back yard, expanded the patio with stamped concrete, installed granite countertops in the kitchen, and went on a fabulous cruise. The real strain was the tightrope act I had to perform at work.
Any conversation I had with the Best Friend was immortalized in emails by me. For example, if she confronted me and told me I had handled some particular item in a manner different than she wanted me to (did I mention she was a control freak?) I would simply send a response to her via email. In the email I detailed what I had done, the results, her criticism (usually silly nitpicking), my verbal response and any followup. I would end the email by saying "I'm afraid I missed your point and since my customer got exactly what they wanted I guess there is no need to pursue this matter" or "I followed the process set up by our supervisor - shall we meet with her so you can present your objections?" and so forth. There is an evil part of me that took great satisfaction in knowing that these emails bothered her. But primarily I considered them to be a necessary form of protection. Our supervisor and the Best Friend had already fired two employees and destroyed the careers of two others.
Being as dense as she was and with her blind animosity to me, she couldn't stop and I had plenty to work with. Time after time she tried to nail me, even publicly, and I won every bout. She just couldn't help herself. She lost all the battles because her depth of knowledge in our mission was so shallow and she always picked a losing cause. But every battle I won came at a price. The animosity level became almost unbearable, and she began coming into my office frequently every day to say "What are you doing now?" (like I needed a babysitter) and whenever I passed her doorway (couldn't avoid it!) she would bark my name and call me in for more useless pontificating.
So I embarked on the Final Stage of my escape.
At this point I finally understood the dynamics of the Supervisor-hires-Best-Friend situation at my workplace. I had figured out that our supervisor was actually using the Best Friend as a surrogate to needle, pick, spy, agitate, and punish. And the Best Friend was really enjoying it.
But with me and the Best Friend, it was personal for her. I had been warned previously and rather foolishly brushed it off. After the incident that involved upper management, I was very highly aware of the danger.
I was lucky in one respect: others in my group had been company employees for quite a while. Retirement was close but they needed more time and thus had to hold their noses and try to hang on. However, I had been a stay-at-home mom until my children were in high school. I had only worked at this particular company for 10 years and I was free to leave any time I felt like it. So I sorted out options, examined my home situation, and with my wonderful and supportive husband began The Plan.
One: use my company benefits to the maximum during my final months.
Two: use my generous salary to make upgrades in our house
Three: To be very careful at work and make sure that, as much as possible, I documented every confrontation and event and word I exchanged with the Best Friend.
So first came any unfinished dental work, new contact lenses, a physical checkup, etc. Then we landscaped our back yard, expanded the patio with stamped concrete, installed granite countertops in the kitchen, and went on a fabulous cruise. The real strain was the tightrope act I had to perform at work.
Any conversation I had with the Best Friend was immortalized in emails by me. For example, if she confronted me and told me I had handled some particular item in a manner different than she wanted me to (did I mention she was a control freak?) I would simply send a response to her via email. In the email I detailed what I had done, the results, her criticism (usually silly nitpicking), my verbal response and any followup. I would end the email by saying "I'm afraid I missed your point and since my customer got exactly what they wanted I guess there is no need to pursue this matter" or "I followed the process set up by our supervisor - shall we meet with her so you can present your objections?" and so forth. There is an evil part of me that took great satisfaction in knowing that these emails bothered her. But primarily I considered them to be a necessary form of protection. Our supervisor and the Best Friend had already fired two employees and destroyed the careers of two others.
Being as dense as she was and with her blind animosity to me, she couldn't stop and I had plenty to work with. Time after time she tried to nail me, even publicly, and I won every bout. She just couldn't help herself. She lost all the battles because her depth of knowledge in our mission was so shallow and she always picked a losing cause. But every battle I won came at a price. The animosity level became almost unbearable, and she began coming into my office frequently every day to say "What are you doing now?" (like I needed a babysitter) and whenever I passed her doorway (couldn't avoid it!) she would bark my name and call me in for more useless pontificating.
So I embarked on the Final Stage of my escape.
Storm Clouds Begin to Gather
To continue my previous post, I was not particularly concerned about my new location nor my new neighbor. I should have been. The Best Friend had been rapidly elevated to second-in-command ahead of people much more senior and much more productive. And she liked this status.
Some of my co-workers approached me and warned me that the Best Friend did not like me because she was jealous of both my professional success and the relatively amicable relationship I maintained with our supervisor. Honestly, for the first year of the New Regime, I was personally and professionally treated very well while others went through Hell. This changed when my office location changed.
And this is where it got confusing to me. In retrospect. I see now that, despite her outward confidence and decisiveness and friendliness, my supervisor was quite a master of double-talk and deceit. Actually, in personal dealings, I now think she was passive-agressive to a very high degree. No, I do not have a degree in Psychology. Trust me, she was quite a piece of work and a mass of insecurities. That's what I did not understand - how very deep the insecurity and how very sneaky the dishonesty. I still believed that my status carried some protection. Not true. The value I brought to her group through my professional reputation and success turned out to be the very thing both she and the Best Friend considered to be a serious threat. Their campaign began.
This period of my last employment I like to characterize as being like working in the palace of the Borgias. There was a strong underlying feeling of paranoia and not just on my part. It's actually kind of interesting how easy it is to keep a group of well-educated and previously well-adjusted business professionals so distracted and worried. We were never sure if something we did would catch the eye of the Best Friend, who was constantly scouting for anything and everything that she could critique ad nauseum (usually with little or no expertise on the subject) or steal if she saw the possibility of kudos or status for herself.
In my function as finder-of-obscurities, I usually dealt directly with researchers who were high rollers in our industry. They simply called me or emailed me directly to place their requests. The level of trust I had earned in many levels of this corporation was exceptionally high and any outcome, successful or not, was accepted without any question. If I said it was unavailable, that was conclusive.
One such requester was quite highly respected in his field, not just in our company but internationally. He was a well-known, prolific author of books and journal articles and a frequent speaker in many venues. Furthermore, he was a luminary among upper management and quite an interesting guy.
I had created a simple Access database of items that were requested from me. I had three corporate credit cards to purchase these items and by golly I intended to keep immaculate records because money changed hands. The Best Friend found my database one day (it was no secret - it was on our group's network drive, but no one else but me used it). She discovered the name of the high-roller and flipped out. Unbeknownst to me, the Best Friend, who was catastrophically clumsy when dealing with everyone, decided to call this gentleman directly and inform him that he was not allowed to contact me at all and that she would be handling all his requests now. The first I knew of this was when suddenly, one day, one of our Vice-Presidents leaned into my office and told me to come into our supervisor's office. I was a bit apprehensive; completely in the dark. I needn't have been. I received an apology for something I did not know had even happened.
It turns out that the gentleman/high-roller had taken great umbrage at the uppity Best Friend and her tone of voice, and had complained directly to the president of our company. The word came down that the Best Friend was never to contact this gentleman ever again. I know now that that was the day that the Best Friend painted a bull's-eye right between my shoulder blades. But now I was aware that I was a target and I began to contemplate options and strategies.
Some of my co-workers approached me and warned me that the Best Friend did not like me because she was jealous of both my professional success and the relatively amicable relationship I maintained with our supervisor. Honestly, for the first year of the New Regime, I was personally and professionally treated very well while others went through Hell. This changed when my office location changed.
And this is where it got confusing to me. In retrospect. I see now that, despite her outward confidence and decisiveness and friendliness, my supervisor was quite a master of double-talk and deceit. Actually, in personal dealings, I now think she was passive-agressive to a very high degree. No, I do not have a degree in Psychology. Trust me, she was quite a piece of work and a mass of insecurities. That's what I did not understand - how very deep the insecurity and how very sneaky the dishonesty. I still believed that my status carried some protection. Not true. The value I brought to her group through my professional reputation and success turned out to be the very thing both she and the Best Friend considered to be a serious threat. Their campaign began.
This period of my last employment I like to characterize as being like working in the palace of the Borgias. There was a strong underlying feeling of paranoia and not just on my part. It's actually kind of interesting how easy it is to keep a group of well-educated and previously well-adjusted business professionals so distracted and worried. We were never sure if something we did would catch the eye of the Best Friend, who was constantly scouting for anything and everything that she could critique ad nauseum (usually with little or no expertise on the subject) or steal if she saw the possibility of kudos or status for herself.
In my function as finder-of-obscurities, I usually dealt directly with researchers who were high rollers in our industry. They simply called me or emailed me directly to place their requests. The level of trust I had earned in many levels of this corporation was exceptionally high and any outcome, successful or not, was accepted without any question. If I said it was unavailable, that was conclusive.
One such requester was quite highly respected in his field, not just in our company but internationally. He was a well-known, prolific author of books and journal articles and a frequent speaker in many venues. Furthermore, he was a luminary among upper management and quite an interesting guy.
I had created a simple Access database of items that were requested from me. I had three corporate credit cards to purchase these items and by golly I intended to keep immaculate records because money changed hands. The Best Friend found my database one day (it was no secret - it was on our group's network drive, but no one else but me used it). She discovered the name of the high-roller and flipped out. Unbeknownst to me, the Best Friend, who was catastrophically clumsy when dealing with everyone, decided to call this gentleman directly and inform him that he was not allowed to contact me at all and that she would be handling all his requests now. The first I knew of this was when suddenly, one day, one of our Vice-Presidents leaned into my office and told me to come into our supervisor's office. I was a bit apprehensive; completely in the dark. I needn't have been. I received an apology for something I did not know had even happened.
It turns out that the gentleman/high-roller had taken great umbrage at the uppity Best Friend and her tone of voice, and had complained directly to the president of our company. The word came down that the Best Friend was never to contact this gentleman ever again. I know now that that was the day that the Best Friend painted a bull's-eye right between my shoulder blades. But now I was aware that I was a target and I began to contemplate options and strategies.
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