For the first time in almost a year our CEO decided to come up to our office. He’s been travelling across North America meeting with all our major clients, instead of tending to the dysfunction that usually goes hand n’ hand when you merge two companies together. Of course my loser Manager insisted on tagging along for the trip, and even went to the lengths of rescheduling his own flight so he could sit on the CEO’s lap on the way up. Did I mention that he is the biggest “yes man” ass kisser that I have ever met? Well, he is… and he makes everyone in the company just want to puke. Another co-worker described him best when she said that he is like “nails on a chalk board”… he truly is the way he just grates of everyone’s nerves.

*Sigh* And this idiot is my boss….

So while Manager was in town he arranged to have one-on-one meetings with each of us to inform us of our raise. After rebutting my sh*tty review the other month, and being assured that I would receive an adequate raise, I had been looking forward to finally finding out what it was. Ha! I think I enjoyed the anticipation part much better. Manager tried to pass off my 2% cost of living increase as a raise based on merit. He even told me that the company wasn’t doing cost of living increases this year, and that I should feel lucky to be getting more than most others. (I guess Manager forgot that I have a fiancé who works in another department, who was told that the 2% increase was only for cost of living.) Anyhow, I just don’t appreciate being treated like a fool.

I decided not to accept his b.s. explanation, so I challenged his rationale asking why there wouldn’t be a cost of living increase, especially considering the cost of gas which is at a whopping $1.28.9/L. (I believe that’s approximately $4.88 a gallon for you American folk.) Manager danced around the issue in his usual mumbling, bumbling incoherent style. With a brow raise, I looked at him like him like he was a moron, (which he is), and he stopped his explanation to say, “You aren’t buying any of this, are you?”

What a friggin’ idiot….

Anyhoo, as I’m having my meeting with Manager, J’s department was meeting with the CEO. Even though it didn’t concern J, he decided to bring up my former co-worker’s exit letter that was sent to Human Resources, and asked why it was never addressed. I shared this letter in my blog post last month called, "Tellin’ It Like It Is." The CEO was apparently never made aware of this email and asked that he be sent a copy ASAP. Later that afternoon, my former co-worker received a phone call from a very apologetic HR lady, who gave him the opportunity to address Manager’s downfalls in detail. Needless to say that my former co-worker gave Manager a very poor review. When made aware of this news, my co-workers and I knew that it was our turn to back up everything that was in his letter with our own little meeting with the CEO. We had all been biding our time waiting to discuss our concerns with him, but we knew that we would never have the freedom to do so as long as Manager was around. That guy is all over the CEO like white on rice. It's truly pathetic. Fortunately, Manager had to return to LA a day early, so we tried to get a meeting with CEO after he left. Much to our disappointment, CEO’s schedule was booked solid. Ugh.

None-the-less, my two co-workers n’ myself (as there is only three of us left on the dwindling Marketing Communications Team), got together for lunch to outline the issues we’d like to address. We figured that if we couldn’t meet with the CEO face to face, then maybe we’d just send him an email instead. While we were eating at the café, our old VP of Marketing, who is now the VP of Sales, came over and sat down with us as he waited for his food.

“Are you sure you want to sit down over here?” I asked jokingly, giving him the opportunity to opt out of our b*tch-fest.

It didn’t take long before VP knew what we were meeting about. “I was wondering if you guys were going to meet with CEO,” VP smiled. “I’m glad you are. I’m planning to meet with him to discuss the leadership in Marketing as well.”

“Oh reallllly?” We all leaned in closer.

VP is well aware of our struggles. We had met with him once before to discuss our issues with Manager, and while there was temporary improvement, as soon as VP was moved to the Sales department, Manager was the only one left in charge of us. I shouldn’t need to tell you that life has been hell ever since. In fact, I’ve since heard through the grapevine that when made aware of this hell the MarCom team has been going through, VP has felt horrible and regretted that he didn’t take action and get rid of Manager when he had the chance.

Now, normally VP is very PC. He is not a gossip and always phrases things in a very non-biased way. But this conversation was different… VP was very candid, and it was incredibly refreshing.

Ack... I have so much more to say, but I have to leave this for now.

To be continued…