Working for an elected official or having unions at your job can be so frustrating because penalties and incentives don’t determine who is kept on or who leaves their job.

This would be all right if all workers did their job right.

Here’s a story about an “untouchable” who wasn’t responsible or ethical.

No One Can Fire My Boss So She Does It Herself

I used to work at a state government agency where my boss was a political appointee.

Her mom was a bigwig in our governor’s party who wrangled a political appointment for her daughter, which meant she had some clout behind her.

Let’s call her Shannon.

Shannon was not good at her job. At all. She was frequently out of the office for “meetings” (e.g., two-hour lunches, coffee with friends, a bit of shopping).

She was also a bully and a tyrant. She bullied her staff and would hold the threat of firing over everyone’s heads to get them to do what she wanted.

Working with her was awful, but there’s was nothing anybody could do.

She wasn’t a micromanager because she was never around enough to actually micromanage anything.

And she was widely disliked throughout the entire building.

But as a political appointee, she was untouchable.

We got a new assistant director — we’ll call her Tricia — who was also a political appointee.

She was the number two person in the whole agency and she was great to work for. She was very serious about her job.

She had access to Shannon’s electronic calendar and saw what Shannon had been up to. She then cross-checked the security logs to see when Shannon was in and out of the building.

After her brief investigation, Tricia emailed Shannon with a list of dates and said, “Can you tell me more about these different meetings you were having? And why they took so long?” (I’m paraphrasing.)

Prepare yourself for a glorious self-own.

Shannon wrote a resignation letter and slammed it down on Tricia’s desk! That’ll show her!

After a few hours, she went back, hat in hand, and apologized for her attitude.

She said she was willing to try harder, and she asked Tricia if she could please possibly have her letter back?

Tricia said, “Oh, I’m sorry, you’re too late. I already processed the letter and sent it off to HR. I’m afraid I can’t undo that.”

The previously untouchable political appointee had just been fired by the only political appointee who had that power: herself.

And rather than protect her or do her a solid, Tricia would not undo her self-termination. She just let Shannon be her own undoing.

Shannon was out and everyone who had to deal with her was much happier than they had ever been in that job.

Check out what folks are saying.

LOL! I do, too.

Maybe they sang it during a celebratory pint?

That’s one of the benefits of working with someone who doesn’t think.

This would not surprise me at all, especially if it’s at a non-profit.

That sounds like quite a meeting.

Don’t let the door bump you on your way out!

Actually, let it!

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.