Not everything in my last job was doom and gloom. There were three very significant shining lights before The Supervisor From Hell showed up. One, my former colleagues – people like Carina, Sarah and Mel make you feel like it isn’t a chore to come to work, and conversation is always fun and you know, I may be rubbish at keeping in touch (even via email), but I’d still try.

Two, The Supervisor From Hell’s predecessor. She was kind, considerate, and the most patient person I have ever met. The most important thing I have taken away from her is patience, that it is best to think about it for a few minutes before moving forward. I doubt anyone I would eventually meet in HR would have taught me this same lesson as effectively as she did.

Lastly, the boss. Old Man Nige, as I call him in my head, though he’s not that old (I did think he was like, 50 or something, much to his horror). He was so soft-spoken with us, it was difficult to imagine him facing down blue-collar union bosses, but we did catch glimpses of it when we occassionally hear his tone of voice rise from the thin wall separating our office and his.

While he had absolutely no inkling on exactly what we did on a day to day basis, he was supportive where he could be, and I guess at times we never really saw him as a boss. How could you when the guy would saunter into the department office, catch sight of a pile of hideous company uniforms for women, and proceed to put them on? And letting one of his employees take pictures? (They are such awesome blackmail material.) Or lecturing you all the way to McDonalds? Commenting that slouching on the chair is bad for your posture? It’s like having your dad at work, srsly.

Other times of course, you’d never forget he was the boss. But his management approach is vastly different, and I guess it comes from dealing with the brashness of the people he regularly comes into contact with, he might overcompensate by being overly…gentle; with us. Or perhaps more aware of the personalities within the team, thus his management and communication style was a way to bring out the best in us.

What brought this on? I was observing a cultural awareness training session and I thought of the contrast between Old Man Nige and the current Boss Lady. Perhaps what he had was a higher CQ (perhaps EQ as well), which made him more able to deal with the diversity within a globalized workforce. I’m not saying Boss Lady isn’t as able, I just think Old Man Nige may have a more fine-tuned sensitivity compared to Boss Lady, whom I’ve noticed is prone to certain gaffes, and I’m hoping they are only isolated to within the department, because heaven help us if she said any of those things to someone else.