The Best of July - Horror Stories From Advertising

About this time last year - I started hassling my real estate agent. Our house had been on the market for 3 months and had only been looked at 2 times. My agent finally came out and told me that she had over estimated what our home was worth, and that it was time to take action. She said no one would be interested in paying what we were asking for a house with only 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Nevermind that we had more finished floor space than most of the homes on the market in our area (a den and a rec room) - it is a family neighborhood and it wouldn't make sense for anyone to buy our house when they could get another bedroom in a smaller house for the same price (WTF?).

On top of that - my husband went from living with our friends in DC to living in a studio apartment. The pressure was on for us to stick to our plan of me maintaining the house here and keeping my job so we could afford the mortgage and the rent. Crappy times.

Honestly, when we had told The Boss we were leaving - I thought I'd only have to look at her ugly mug another month...

The worst part of being apart from my hubby during that time was going in to the office and being badgered daily by the most hateful troll on the face of the planet. Believe me - if I could have told her exactly what I thought of her at the time I would have, but instead I had to simply put up with her because I had to keep my job (again - paying mortgage and rent). Pretty lame considering I was in the best position to tell her what everyone felt - but even I couldn't do it for the same reason as everyone else.

I am feeling good now though - because I recently learned that my team of co-workers from my old department had a Come-To-Jesus meeting with the C.O.O. of the company last month. The Boss has been up to her old tricks of randomly yelling at people for reasons only she can comprehend, using words to describe employees in front of their peers that included "Stupid", "Retarded", and "Dumb" - and she actually threw paperwork at one gal just because she didn't understand a question The Boss had asked. So the threat was made that The Boss needed to straighten out for good - and was then placed on 90-days probation.

A small victory - but with each reprimand the little bloodhound-faced toad only straightens up her attitude and mouth for about 8 business days (you can count them like clockwork). Unfortunately, my old company makes empty threats to employees because that is how the company has been handled for years. There is not one manager in the building who has had ANY sort of actual management training... they all got their positions by outlasting other employees to the retirement of their superiors.

Sadly, the company won't last much longer because as the man who created it retires only has the option to hand the reins over to a troop of Napoleons who think bigger than their britches... They can't even buy-out their greatest harassment liability - an angry little woman who thinks it is okay to throw things at people - whose vocabulary is that of a 15-year-old sailor - and who thinks name-calling is inappropriate for children but alright for her.