Full Control Insanity Boss

Once upon a time in a workplace, lived a relatively normal professional manager at first sight. Although relatively new to the company herself, about three years, it was filled with drama. Lots of drama. Lots of whispers. Lots of stories that didn’t make sense. Then lots of very odd behaviors.

In a family-owned company; where the siblings didn’t get along, it was an interesting place to work. The face of the business literally had almost no say in the business. Which was interesting, because he brought valid business changes that were desperately needed. Company was being choked by the eldest sister who was the founder’s favorite, therefore, she hired Lisa. They connected on a level, what level – didn’t matter.

It’s important to understand that the owner believed in harassment of those who did work and favored the ones who literally stole from the company, cause major problems and those who didn’t really work. This is generally typical behavior in a family-owned company. It was profound in this environment. The industry was male dominated. All male managers except for one, highly qualified and on top of there departments. All knew their numbers and weren’t afraid to voice errors that the controller made – Lisa.

Absolutely none of them liked Lisa, no one. Family members didn’t either, it was clear she was tunneled far up the owner’s final part of the digestive tract associated with final exit of materials. The role needed to be filled was accounts payable. The company generated a lot of double and triple invoices because of the CRM, old manual processes and QuickBooks set up. The termination and/or voluntary resignation of the individual in the role left about 90 days of work that needed to be processed.

Marlie started, rolled up her sleeves and went to work. As she uncovered, odd things in QuickBooks or duplicates or triplicates processed each was brought to Lisa’s attention. It was fractures to Lisa’s composure started showing. During the meeting together Lisa would frequently consult Google for GL postings. Which was odd, in it and of itself. And so, the cracks were opening.

Marlie was bonding strongly with the managers; getting work done and up to date. Lisa’s behavior by the 60-day mark was crazy. If Marlie was taking a break or had to go back to the manager for questions or anything else. Lisa would stalk her; watch the camera for Marlie leaving her office, and then just happened to run into her in a manager’s office. Managers took notice and weren’t afraid to call out her tracking behaviors.

The most ridiculous one was, Marlie was having a closed-door meeting with a manager in her office. The office had a window that anyone could see who was in the office. Marlie’s office was a rectangle, with a large L-shape desk. Therefore, the visitor’s chair was in the corner and blocked the path to the desk’s seating area and filed cabinet against back wall. Lisa slammed open the door, said nothing and climbed over to the manager in the visitor’s chair to open and close the file cabinet top drawer and she was gone. The Manager stood up and in the corner as Marlie and him both watched. The door was slammed shut.

Co-worker next door texted ‘WTH’ was that about. No idea outside of Lisa’s jealousy. It takes some deep-rooted insecurity and very low self-esteem to perform these actions. That manager let everyone know what happened. It was witnessed by several and all wanted to know what Marlie did. She had no idea what was going on with Lisa.

Prior to this major insane moment; the management team took assessments and had a meeting with the consultant week prior. All but Lisa attended. The assessment consultant (not knowing any of the managers in the meeting except for the assessment results); he jumped right in and called out Lisa’s as a fraud for someone who is in the controller’s seat and the personality the individual was trying to be. Owner said nothing, the rest of the managers were dying in their seats. He was ruthless in her traits, behaviors, contradictions, and so accurate.

The next week, Marlie was hoping to have an honest conversation with Lisa. It was immediately redirected to Marlie’s poor performance, errors, and Lisa came around her desk to lean over her and take control of Marlie’s mouse. Beyond invasion of personal space. That was Marlie’s breaking point. She left.

At the regularly scheduled manager’s meeting the next day, every single one of the managers was blunt and brutal to Lisa, to the point she left and went home. The owner tried to suggest it was Marlie; didn’t fly and she left the meeting as well.

Lisa’s behaviors still have not changed; it’s been a revolving door to anyone who she hired. A good manager doesn’t use monitor and controlling methods, to invade a closed-door meeting or stalk an employee is show all watching the person doesn’t have strong skills. Add hyper reactions and accusations that are unfounded, it makes the manager bungling joke. Some don’t have the ability to manage others