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One Of Those Bosses Who Loved To Drive One Crazy…personal

jacquelineobyikocha

In the earlier days of my 9 to 5 working life, I held a vital position in a multinational company, with a very special kind of boss, the word special used for want of another adjective.

He was nothing short of a slave-driver whose primary goal in life was to push his subordinates to the tethers of their limits until their elasticity broke it’s bounds. I think a lot of us went to bed, dreaming of a thousand different ways to kill a boss 😉

One particular occasion that comes easily to my mind, was when we hosted the West and Central Africa Top Team Leaders Convention and Team building program, when I was right in the thick of planning these affairs.

This program involved almost two hundred team leads flying in from so many parts of Africa as well as the United Kingdom. Since my ex-boss was the Top Team lead for our operational unit and as his special assistant, guess who had the responsibility to organize a perfect program down to the fine details of it, meanwhile, it was taking place in Abuja and not Lagos where my office was.

From sorting out hundreds of letters for visas, to airport pick-ups and security details, hotel accommodation, printing of programs, gift items, commissioning Tee-shirts with peoples specifics and other special Nigerian outfits, I had to fly to Abuja every few days to iron out arrangements of so many fine details of things….it was one hectic time and the program was made sweeter by some adults who got ill, a few managed to miss their flights, one got drunk and misplaced his international passport and all sent me into a tizzy.

Meanwhile, during the preparation of the convention, as incredible as it might sound, dear yours faithful and special boss took some vacation time to the UK and left me to wade alone in the entire matter. Mercifully, I had a colleague in Abuja who assisted in tying up some loose ends at that side to save me having to fly down every other day.

Certain things that needed approval from him, I had to give the go-ahead because getting him to approve stuff from UK was a major feat in itself.

The annoying part was that he flew in from London directly to the program, only to start pointing at what was not perfect from his point of view.

As a matter of fact he got so annoying, when he requested that I should take the last flight from Abuja to Lagos to get the printers to redo the program which was not the exact shade of blue of the up-country operations unit and I was expected to get it fixed and to take the red-eye back to the program the following day.

I was livid and had to go to the Area Director who was his boss from London. It was such a sweet moment when the AD nicely reminded him that everything had been handled by me, while he was off on a merry jaunt and confirmed that we could use the programs as they were.

Anyway, it was a whale of a job working with him. Somehow, I endured, thrived and I came away learning so much. It simply made me stronger, smarter and expanded the scope of my events coordination capabilities and looking back now, I realize that his actions were possibly due to the fact that he had garnered enough trust in me to leave me in charge of certain things.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha.

The Daily Post Sink or Swim.

Tell us about a time when you were left on your own, to fend for yourself in an overwhelming situation — on the job, at home, at school. What was the outcome?

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Published by jacquelineobyikocha

A wordsmith with a vivid imagination, an eager mind and a burning desire to carve out tales. As I journey with my muse to that land of all possibilities and self discovery, I hope my personal evolution will serve as a beacon of inspiration for anyone who chooses to stop by.

47 thoughts on “One Of Those Bosses Who Loved To Drive One Crazy…personal”

  2. He couldn’t take the heat so he quickly got out of the kitchen. The pettiness when he returned was the fact that he wanted to feel like he actually contributed in some way…even if that meant making you hop on a plane just to change shades of color. You did the right thing by going over his head to his boss. What a waste of money and resources.

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    1. Honestly Tasha, the guy gave me some real anxiety and ulcer inducing times. I simply learnt to ignore some of his nonsense and just did my best *which was never good enough for him* it was no surprise when he was redeployed due to silent outvoting by others and I was still there to watch him leave 😉

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  3. Bosses come in all shapes and sizes. I had a boss who was a firm believer that he was god’s gift to women, but only if they looked good. On the other hand he did his job. Read the newspaper in the morning for an hour, made telephone calls and gave instructions which were “look that it gets organised”. I loved that boss. It was so simple. He threw a question about something and I would answer “I am dealing with it” and I never heard another word about it. Yes, there are bosses and bosses in this world, you just have to keep one step ahead of them.

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  5. Jacqueline,
    The one place where I had to take care of myself on my own that I can remember is when I had the major car accident last week. I blogged about it too. I had no cell phone( it was one of those days), a truck had hit my car from the behind and the behind had got entangled in the back tyre so the car refused to move and blocked the two laned road and I had to wait by the roadside, facing people’s stares and honks, until a kind army man stopped and called the police for me. From his phone, I tried to call my husband but hubby couldn’t get out of hospital at that time, so I was completely alone and at the mercy of the police till a tow truck came to move my car out of the way. I realised that day, that we are all wired to take any emergency and we need to just go with the flow.
    I congratulate you on your successful handling of the conference and the blow the Area Director gave your supervisor. I wish there were more Area Director supervisors like that.
    Susie

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  6. The Reading Cottage: The Platform For Books, Health, Music, Features, Tourism And Travel's avatar The Reading Cottage: The Platform For Books, Feature Articles, Book Reviews, Interview, Culture, Lifestyle , Entertainment says:

    Always you. Interesting article. Thanks for sharing.

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      1. I am happy that you love them Jacky. It’s not like boasting but I have worked with people younger than me a lot for many years and that has given me the gift of quickly recognizing talent. I see it a mile away. The blogosphere is helping me strengthen that gift. A nice day to you.

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  9. “Special” bosses are the best teachers, aren’t they? We learn so many lessons about who we are and who we don’t want to become when we “grow up.” A great story, Jacqueline, and something to laugh about when it’s a long-ago memory.

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  10. Oh he tried it! Absolutely disgraceful. My first thought was: “Oh, you don’t like what I did? It doesn’t meet your standard? Where were you when I was asking for your opinion on the matter? Oh! On vacation? Well, your opinion is now irrelevant. Sorry. Oh! You want me to change everything? No, but what I can do is give you the layout of everything and you can change it. Go ahead. I’ll wait.”
    Things along those lines. But I’m glad you made it out alive! I’m sure you were stressed out of your mind. And if he felt that you could handle things which is why he entrusted them to you, he could’ve told you that and left some requirements or something so that everyone would be happy… Ugh! Such situations are the bane of my existence. One of them anyway…
    Thank you for posting though. It was inspiring 🙂

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    1. Carlos, your words are very polite. I think the thoughts that I had at that time were so colourful that they would have turned the Pope purple 😉 There are truly some humans that we come across who make us pray for steadfast grace so that we don’t kill them. He was one stressful boss.

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  11. Poor example of a boss. If this was so important he shold of been there leading the weay not going off on vacation. Then, he returns to finger point and complaint about what was not to his liking. What a loser. Thankfully, you this was in the past.

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  13. A great positive spin for those special bosses 😉 lol I can’t even go there right now…you read my cover letter lol. At the very least, there is always something we can learn and take away on our journey. You can see it as a road block and wait for it to move or you can simply walk around it 🙂 Your reblog of Jason’s post reminded me I need to reach out and appreciate those who have supported me. I can safely say you are one of those people 🙂 (((hugs))) xo

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    1. My dear Rosema, he did try but I keep telling people, that greater is he that is in me, so each day as I went to work, I had to ask for the grace to get through. Grace and Mercy kept showing up daily. Have a lovely weekend my dear.

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  16. The worst is when a boss blames you for their mistakes and you end up looking like the stupid one in front of the client.
    I dream of not having a 9-5!

    You’re job sounded interesting and stressful, I’m sorry you had to deal with such a jerk.

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