Definitely Burned that Bridge...

I recently quit my job of four years to go back to school. I knew I would miss certain people when I left but I knew there were some that I would never care to see again. As I walked out the doors, I realized that it felt like I had been to hell and back. I wish I could go into detail about everything I had gone through working there but I don't think you would believe me. There were screaming matches, drunks, harassment suits...pretty much anything and everything you can think of. Since there was no in house HR, everyone pretty much did whatever they wanted and no one ever got reprimanded for anything especially if you were a man or a brown nosing woman in tight clothing. Upper management is lacking any sort of spine.

The day before I left, I had an email run in with the business development officer who loves throwing around his title and gets paid for eating and sleeping. Really. Let's just say he hasn't developed any business in the past year and a half that he has been there. Well, this email exchange really got under my skin and on my last day I typed up an email addressed to him about respecting his coworkers. Trust me, this was not the first issue that I or my employees had with this guy. He is a condescending jerk that makes you pay even if you were slightly reluctant about doing something he wanted. He wanted us to break rules, policies, guidelines and plain and simple work ethics just to get his way and he never asked nicely. I can't count how many times we complained to management and nothing ever got done or said. The truth is that I worked in a "good ol' boys" kind of place where men were in charge and were spineless about standing up to each other so all the little women at the bottom of the totem pole always got the crappy end of the deal.

Well, I found out that apparently my email caused a lot of chaos the week after I was gone. I talked to one of employees that I got really close to and she said it was a horrible week and never wants to talk about that email ever again. I'm not sure what exactly went down but I did hear that he cried, he apologized to all of them and is actually working his 40 hours a week. Despite accomplishing what I wanted, I somehow caused trouble for my girls which was the exact opposite of what I wanted.

This whole situation brings up something that I've been told over and over again...that's just the way it is. I don't know how many older women have told me this and I find it to be a completely and utterly ridiculous excuse. We live in the year 2011 and we have to settle with this pathetic excuse because we're women? Trust me, I'm no feminist but I believe in treating others with respect if you want to be respected. I don't care about your title, salary or experience...if you want to be respected, be respectful. So if I hadn't written this email, all the women in my work place would have continued to put up with this macho pig of a man, meeting his demands and complaining to each other behind closed doors instead of standing up for themselves? Do we really think we don't have that right? We rather be put down that cause "trouble"? Give me a break. The only reason that 'that's the way it is' is because no one has the guts to not put up with it. Guaranteed that if all the women in that work place marched into the president's office and stated that something needs to change, it would change. But, instead, they rather whisper to each other about what a jerk this guy is.

I never meant to cause bad feelings by writing this email, at least not to the ones I cared about. I merely did something that management refused to do...call this guy's attention and tell him to start being more respectful towards the women doing his dirty work. Unfortunately, I'm thinking that instead of the women backing me up, they cowered and told him everything was ok because...that's just the way it is...