Nine years ago I was hired as marketing director by a company president and vice president. Marketing duties were shifted away from the HR director to me. That the HR director was not involved in my hiring should have been my first clue that something was amiss, but I was naive at the time.
Immediately, I began having problems with staffers assigned to me. The HR director seemed unable to solve them. In fact, she seemed to make them worse. But I was working seven days a week just to keep my head above water. It seemed more and more duties were being heaped on me. This is typical in small organizations when you hold a marketing or corporate communications post. I accepted it and did the work, delegating what I could.
I would return from a day off or a vacation to find various types of trouble. I began to suspect the HR director was behind some of it, but no one would believe me. Individual tasks and projects I performed were highly successful, but overall, I felt as though I was failing. I was determined to stick it out and make it successful.
To be fair, some of the organization's senior management team tried to be helpful. I did my best, but the company president was a difficult person who made it hard for anyone to be successful.
Eventually, the vice president to whom I reported, convinced me I could not succeed. My previous employer took me back. Marketging duties were again assigned to the HR director and she got a promotion!
Trying to get my pension contribution rolled over took six months, with the HR director holding the paperwork on her desk during that time. Eventually, I went to the company president with the problem and it was resolved.
After I'd been away from the firm for a few more months, I began — with the help of friends inside the company — to put the whole thing together. The HR director had been sabotaging me from the start. It began happening to other employees who showed promise, including one younger woman begin mentored by the company president. She, too, eventually left the company.
Six years after I left — and one more promotion later — the HR director left, too and moved out of town. So, thankfully, I am spared the necessity of dealing with her.
It gives me great satisfaction to note that most people who worked with her on volunteer boards and committees have little respect for her work ethic, not to mention her lack of ethics on the job.
But, overall, the experience still causes me some pain.
POST A COMMENTavid reader(06/13/2006)
VICIOUS! So the owner or CEO of this company doesn't realize what's going on? If that was my company I would want to know! I am glad you got out of this but it sucks that they wasted your time like that. Hopefully you at least got some good resume adds from your experience there.
sheila(06/13/2006)
"Eventually, the vice president to whom I reported, convinced me I could not succeed" --- Was he or she in on it too? This whole thing reeks of an inside job so to speak.
Spencer(06/13/2006)
I think we should create a new corporate slogan that says: "Got Corruption?"
just me(06/13/2006)
ROTFLMAO! So true.
M. in Wisconsin(06/13/2006)
I think the HR director persuaded my boss I was the wrong choice for the job, so she could grab control of the marketing function again. I felt I had no choice but to get out fast. The upside is that I learned a valuable lesson about myself and the kind of environment in which I thrive or don't thrive. The downside is that I've now been at my current job for more than a decade, minus the 18 months I was in the marketing job. My current job had good benefits, but it is a dead-end job. I live in a small town where good jobs are hard to find. And, the HR director is working in another city, probably causing more problems. M in Wisconsin
the confessor(06/14/2006)
Again, an insecure, passive aggressive serial bully. Glad you moved on. Once again, go to bullyonline.org for more information on this. The HR witch is sick-you need not suffer from her illness!!
BoneyardDiva(06/16/2006)
She sounds like a sociopath. I'm just glad to hear she's in your past.
M. in Wisconsin(08/28/2006)
I Google her from time to time just to see where she is making trouble from now. She's still in HR, so I can only guess she is inflicting her evil on someone else these days. Here's what I think is hilarious: Although she does not have a common name, there is apparently someone else with the same name in the same business in just a few hundred miles away. Wonder if that person is a sociopath, too?
Dharmadee(08/29/2006)
I have come to the understanding that Human Resources is sadly, a misnomer...unless of course,one looks upon "humans" as "inventory resources". Then it makes complete sense...use them up, and replace with others! That is why I am studying to get a Bachelors Degree in Human Services. Sounds the same, but is totally different. I am studying to help people, not use them up.
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