Something Is So Rotten That I Can Smell The Stench From Here!

I sit here tonight devastated by the news I received late this afternoon. My friend and former boss was fired by Census management today. I am so very sorry that those who are both inept and uninformed are given the power to crush a person. Based on many years of successful management; I fired no one, wrote up only one, and brought my projects in on time and budget, it is my opinion that the two persons who are mainly responsible for the act of the firing aren't qualified to carry my boss's briefcase. Given the same circumstances that she faced, neither of them is capable of either doing her job or inspiring their employees to work nearly as hard for them as her own team members did for her. I feel at least partly responsible. Possibly I had a chance to support and protect her. Until she had the time and training to learn the responsibilities of her new position, something that wasn't granted to her, I could have at least partly protected her back. When I finally gave in to depression and the pressure of the job and allowed management to run me out, there was no one left to support and protect her. You can bet your backside that her own management wasn't capable of doing it nor did they want to do it. That might have put their own head on the chopping block. There are observations that are easy to make that seem to be very telling concerning the management of the Winston-Salem Census office. First of all, I believe that my friend has had to report directly to two of the worst managers I've ever experienced. In spite of this she has managed to reach and exceed her assigned goals more often than not. One of the reasons for this is that her self pride had her putting in more work hours than anyone else in the office. Another reason for this is that she so obviously cared for her team members, that they would very often put in lots of unpaid overtime and extra effort to try to make her successful. I don't believe that either of the two persons responsible for firing her command that kind of respect and affection. Perhaps the most telling observation is that, only months ago, the Winston-Salem Census office opened with a local office manager and five assistant managers. One of the assistant managers is not a direct report to the local office manager and is, therefore, relatively safe from being fired. Of all the other managers, only one of the originals still remains. Draw your own conclusions about capabilities of an upper management that will ignore the cost of hiring, training, and then replacing a series of managers. It will be a long time before I can escape the stench of this latest incident. In the meantime, I intend to write to my senators and my congresswoman concerning my evaluation of how our tax dollars are being used and how their constituents, employees of the Winston-Salem Census Office, are being abused. I'll copy those letters to everyone in Census management that I am able to identify from the Secretary of the Department of Commerce to the Winston-Salem assistant managers. One last thing I need to say... "S", I am so very sorry that I wasn't there for you and I hope that you will be able to forgive me for letting you down.