Today’s writing prompt is to take a negative comment and flip it into an essay or post. This was a tough one as I debated for a while about what to focus on here. My post below is about an experience I had nearly twenty years ago (eek), and the only people who would know who I’m talking about will be those who also worked with this guy, or who are in my life and know my work history! (googling his name I discovered he featured in a Bad Bosses Tv investigation a few years ago, so I’m sure this post will be very light-hearted in comparison!)

Dear Boss I thought only existed in 80s films,

That day you called me into your office when I was twenty-four for my ‘exit interview’ was a positive turning point in my life.

There you were…the boss who banned all holidays during a ‘launch’ period, paid us a pittance, boasted about your gold lined jackets, sent me on wild goose chases to costume shops, made chauvinistic comments to female employees, loved to sit in our airless/windowless office chain smoking when the smoking ban was already in place, had a gun sitting on your desk facing me and two other employees when we visited you at head office, greeting us with the comment; ‘It might be a toy, but it might not be. Hahaha…’

You were reading over my resignation letter, then reading through my CV (which you must have trolled through the HR files for), just so you could scan down it and smirk and say, ‘Well, what exactly are you going to do with your life? You’ve not exactly got a stellar career behind you. What kind of job do you think you’re going to walk in to after this?’

‘I have it all planned out thanks.’ I knew your style by now and I knew you were trying to intimidate and belittle me, and I was ready for you. What I really wanted to say was I am leaving because you are a bully, you treat your staff with no respect, your wages are laughable and that big idea you are trying to launch is about to fall flat on its face (and it did, three months later, and our local office shut).

Then you flashed me a bigger smirk (and this fleeting hobby was not on my CV so I can only wonder what kinds of conversations you were having with some of the male staff), ‘I mean what are you going to do, become a professional belly dancer?’

It was at this point I stood up and told you that our conversation was over and that you had my letter of resignation and I was working my notice and then I walked out.

You showed me something that day – that I had a choice. I had the power to walk away from men like you and walk out of the room as a way of silencing you.

And your comment, ‘you don’t exactly have a stellar career behind you.’ No I didn’t, because when I graduated from University at twenty-one I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do but during the worst days in your weird company it drove me to self-reflect and actually figure out what direction to take.

And I never looked back. That same year I enrolled on a postgraduate course, became a qualified careers adviser, secured a job before graduation, and went on to have a wee bit of writing success too.

Today when I hear stories from clients about horrible bosses and insufferable workplaces I nod in sympathy because I always think about you, and when I listen to my clients talk about their experience I think to myself, they’ve brought you here, and it’s making you want change and that’s a good thing  because hopefully then it will lead on to so many better and bigger things.