The thing That I Have Feared...

has come upon me.

I've feared it from the beginning.

You don't "fear" something happening that you hope will happen. You fear that something good will be taken away from you.

It didn't take long to realize that we had a "jewel" in our new boss. He worked hard to do everything just right. He was a good manager. He didn't mind confronting and dealing with problems. He worked hard to get our store on the same page as upper management. I mean really worked hard and conscientiously.

And he's a nice guy. He treats us good. He requires us to do our job but he didn't take his stress out on his employees. A genuinely NICE GUY.

First I found out that he had to drive an hour and twenty minutes to get to work each day. That put a fear on me right then. I wondered how long he'd be willing to keep on doing that. But he had worked for over a year at the other store as co-manager and it took him an hour to get there. So, I consoled myself thinking that maybe he'd adjust and be willing to stay.

Then the blows begin to fall. I mean, this poor guy did not even get a "honeymoon". He was working as hard as he could to straighten out every thing that was pointed out to him as an "issue" and he was getting it done, but instead of saying, "We appreciate the good job you're doing, keep up the good work", it was more like, "Well, you survived that pounding; let's see if you can take this one. POUND. POUND. POUND." He once told me, "In seventeen years of working in retail"-- and he was a manager for much of that time--"I've NEVER been talked to like I was today." And that was not an isolated incident.

Everything had to be done yesterday. It got to where he was even working Sundays  in order to try to get things done just like they wanted it done.. Anyway, I think his wife and he had had enough. He has a five year old girl that he only got to see when she was asleep except on Sundays... and then he had to start doing all that Sunday work. He had an an eleven or twelve year old boy who is playing ball. Out of 54 games, he only got to attend four of them. When his wife called him and told him his son just hit a ball out of the ball park, it was hard on him that he was not even there to see it. He feels like a boy needs his dad.

There was just not enough positive to offset all of the negative, so...he will be leaving.

I am so sorry. He's been such a great guy to work for. I doubt I'll see him ever again after he leaves us. He lives way too far away for our paths to accidentally cross.

It will soon be coming up on a year that I've been praying for God to resolve this upper management problem. I know He hears me. I just need to be patient. In His time, in His way, He'll come through for me.

Addendum:  Guess who's being SUPER nice now that the manager has turned in his notice?  The SAME ONE who was POUNDING him before.   The same one who was super nice to my other boss AFTER he turned in his notice but who he aslo POUNDED unmercifully until that end was achieved.

So, it's not that he doesn't know how to be nice.