From The Straits Times    |
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Things went smoothly in the first few months of my new job. My boss Jessica* and I got along well and while we weren’t exactly lunch buddies, we never had any major conflicts to shout home about.

While Jessica was initially happy to introduce me to people in the industry at business lunches and after-work events, I noticed around the two-month mark that these invitations were getting less frequent; I thought that perhaps she felt there was no longer a need for her to ‘babysit’ me.

A couple of weeks later, I bumped into her at one such event and she was absolutely shocked to see me. This was a gala dinner that marks one of the most important nights in our industry, and neither of us had told the other that we had been invited. Throughout the night, I mingled with ease but Jessica never left her table.

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But nothing prepared me for Jessica’s wrath at work the next morning. She screamed at me for not telling her that I was going to the dinner and said that she was so embarrassed that her junior was making professional connections, as that was her duty.

This was stupefying to me; I had behaved exactly as I did at every work event I had attended over the years and if my boss had a problem with that, I wasn’t to blame. So I told her that I didn’t understand why my actions upset her as me being friendly with contacts in our industry was surely good for the company as a whole. She then told me that I was never to attend another industry event without telling her. I found that harsh but I said nothing at that point.

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Made A Mess At Work

Our relationship then became strained and she was even less chatty than before. Whatever anger she had, she took it out on not just me but everyone in the company. We were a small enterprise and because the big bosses travelled a lot for work, Jessica was the most senior person in the office on most days. She treated us like children and scolded us when we were even just five minutes late for work, and was in a foul mood on most days.

It was business as usual for the rest of us as we tried our best to ignore our boss who had suddenly turned into a Dragon Lady. Her secretary got the brunt of her mood swings and I felt sorry for her as it seemed like it was that work event that had turned Jessica into this vicious person.

I had planned to go for a short holiday and wanted to take three days of leave. Jessica stormed to my desk from her office and chastened me for having the gall to want to go on a holiday when I had made such a mess at work.  Everyone in the office fell silent and I calmly asked her what ‘mess’ I had created as I had no knowledge of any such wrongdoing.

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My boss couldn’t give me an answer. She just said that I had conducted myself in an unprofessional manner and that there was no way she was going to approve my leave as I didn’t ‘deserve’ a holiday. There was no way I could talk sense into her so I left it as is.

A week later, a young girl none of us knew came in for a meeting with Jessica. The giggles that emanated from Jessica’s office baffled the rest of us (we didn’t think that Jessica was capable of joy and laughter at this point). Jessica walked the girl out about an hour later and said nothing to any of us.

That was a Thursday and, on Monday morning, Lily* showed up for work. Jessica led her to an empty desk and went back to her office. A couple of hours later, Jessica’s long-suffering secretary whispered to me that Lily had been hired to fill the same position as me, as she had seen her employment letter. A few of us went for lunch together and tried to work out the puzzle of what was going on, but none of us could make sense of the situation.

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Threatened To Take Action

Later that afternoon, Jessica asked both Lily and I into her office. She calmly explained that Lily was to take over my job because I was obviously incapable of doing it. I was stunned. Jessica had never flagged up her concerns regarding my work not being up to snuff, and the fact that she had already hired my replacement was something I never expected. I was also embarrassed in front of Lily who, for some reason, didn’t seem at all uncomfortable to be in a situation that was obviously unpleasant, to say the least.

I was in a daze when I walked out of Jessica’s office. When I left work that evening, I knew that I had to make a decision – and a quick one too. I could either stay on to fight her and my new ‘nemesis’ Lily. Or I could just admit defeat and quit. I had no idea what exactly I was admitting defeat to, but I knew that there was a very high chance that my working life would be hell if I stayed on.

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So, the next day, I walked in confidently (even though I felt sick to my stomach) and handed Jessica my resignation letter. She was trying very hard not to smirk but, of course, I could see that she was glad that her sneaky trick had worked. I told her that I was happy to leave that day and not serve my notice, if she was okay with it. I didn’t want to hand over anything to Lily and felt that if Jessica was so confident that she was the better candidate for my job, then surely she didn’t need any help from me.

I threatened to take action against her for the fact that she hired someone to take over my job while I was still there. I had no idea if I had any way of taking such action – I was jumping the gun there – so thankfully the threat of it was enough for Jessica to shut up and not make my last day any more uncomfortable than it already was.

I left that afternoon and never ever saw Jessica or Lily again. With my contacts in the industry, I was offered a job the following week and accepted it – but had a short holiday first, to clear my head of all the nastiness that Jessica had put me through during the preceding months.

*Names have been changed.