One day, top management decided that it would be a ‘step in the right direction’ to get an assistant for our overworked CFO. It turned out the decision was not so smart since the CFO was not willing to delegate anything to anyone, least of all a new recruit. When the new guy was finally brought in, he was given pretty much the same tasks that we did with the added onus of coordinating and supervising our work - big job since that meant trying to control and supervise four unruly, laid back junior accountants. The new guy looked ok at first – a little bit too quiet and reserved for our liking - but halfway through his second week, he said something that put us off. We were called for a meeting in his office and he was telling us how things were to be done, handing out detailed work schedules and six-month forecasts printed in tiny fonts. ‘We’ll try to cut late stays at the office to a minimum’ he said and we were like ‘Dude, we cut late stays at the office down to zero!’ From then on it could only get worse. We would be called to his office individually, spending an hour being told something or other that could have been thrashed out in five minutes. He would spend hours trying to grapple with something that we would normally conclude in a fraction of the time, complicating matters needlessly, and losing himself in detail while missing more salient matters and expecting us to do the same. The CFO was getting annoyed and so were we. The ‘minimum’ late stays at the office became the norm (for him not for us) and we would all be gone by half past five while he labored on. We would joke with him telling him the office would still be there tomorrow morning but it was a lost cause! Sometimes, one or two of us would linger on for an hour – more out of pity than anything else – but only occasionally. The CFO is the type of bastard who constantly shouts us down and while we would systematically ignore his tantrums, the supervisor would take it so bad he would come back from these sessions to his office like a beaten dog. Many times his zeal clashed with our lack of it and it became clear that someone would have to go. Needless to say it was him. The amount of grief he got from the CFO coupled with the lack of cooperation from our side was just too much. He left within a few months (how did he last so long?) and life was back to normal – sort of. Two months on, we’re still suffering from the fallout – unfinished work on his part, trying to catch up where he left off and converting his overcomplicated systems to more manageable ones. Co-worker from hell no doubt – but then again, he’s probably thinking the same about us.
comments (3)
digg |
share on Facebook | 
e-mail it
POST A COMMENT
