As a preface to my narrative, I have 15 years of experience in the IT field. I have worked on and have a cursory knowledge of everything from long haul terrestrial and satellite communications to pc repair. I am not an expert in any particular subject, but have a general knowledge of several aspects of the IT industry.
After I sat down at my desk on day one, not one or two people, but almost EVERYONE that I spoke to told me, in one way or another, “Watch out for the boss." I presumed that was just everyone venting as it is a common workplace theme in most office settings to fear the “Big Bad Bossman”. After two weeks of working at NacSpace, I hadn't seen the CEO once. Finally, Monday of week three, I spotted him while he was walking through the work area. I said, "Hello sir" to which he didn't reply. He looked at me and kept walking.
There were several unfavorable encounters that I had witnessed between not only myself, but many others in the organization and the CEO afterward. When presented with an idea from one of his employees, the CEO would disregard it off-hand. Later in the week/month he would ask in an email why a certain procedure or protocol isn't being followed or why tasks aren't being performed. When told that the idea had been brought up before, he would either claim no knowledge or simply not reply to the message.
To generalize the CEOs behavior, it is very demeaning and dismissive. He demands others be quiet when he is speaking, even if they aren't addressing him, but not afford the same considerations to anyone else and constantly interrupts others to talk over them. I understand that he is in charge, but he demands respect while showing none for his employees.
When describing his work practices, I unfortunately haven't seen many of them, but the ones I did observe, did not instill me with a lot of confidence. When discussing projects, he would rarely convey his specific desires for the project and give generalized “goals” to meet, leaving his employees with no direction distinct enough to provide a suitable result. When asked for clarification on what he meant he would often retort with phrases akin to, "Just get it done" or "I don't have time to tell you how to do your job." Later, when presented with the results of the completed task, he'd inform the team that it was insufficient and that they should have done "X", "Y", & "Z" to get the results he desired.
As a veteran, I have had my fair share of good and bad supervisors/bosses. While I was an NCO, I had the responsibility of leading a team of junior enlisted in the performance of their duties. I have never been shown, nor have I exhibited, the level of disrespect that I received while working at NacSpace. I didn't file any complaints while employed due to fear of reprisal. I truly believe this is the reason no one else would ever say a word about the poor treatment while working there also.
I was fired, without any formal reprimand or prior notice of poor performance and unfortunately, I cannot divulge the intricate details around my firing due to possible compromise of Nacspace client's information. Simply put, I made a mistake that led to a delayed backup for Client A, and sent an email detailing a practice that is an industry standard for ANY organization, which led to Client B demanding answers from the CEO.
I accepted responsibility for the backup issue and apologized to the customer and CEO for the oversight. I never got a chance to justify the need for the change for Client B. I was simply fired the next day. My supervisor told me it was because the CEO said I had "pissed-off our customers" and “become a liability”.
I understand that I was at fault for Client A, but it is my professional opinion that I performed my duties as assigned and as anyone should for Client B and that no error was made.
