Power is an ugly thing, especially when the implications are real and awful.

However, power can be used for good.

Read on to see ugliness and beauty of power collide in this story.

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 Shannon, which meant she had some clout behind her.

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).

It was a super frustrating and stressful situation.

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.

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

And she was widely disliked throughout the entire building.

This was a large agency, so to have a building where almost everyone disliked you took a lot of work.

The problem is that, as a political appointee, she was untouchable.

The people who had the power to fire her couldn’t because of her family.

Even the number three person in the agency couldn’t do it, and he was a political appointee as well.

But after a year of mystery meetings and time out of the office, her excuses were catching up to her.

The agency director removed her from her job and put her in charge of “special projects.”

Anyone who’s worked in a corporate job knows that people get put in charge of special projects because they were largely incapable of doing their previous job.

They didn’t get fired, but they no longer had any power.

This was Shannon’s case.

For a while, she seemed to get the message.

She shaped up, didn’t have any more mystery meetings, didn’t disappear from the building for two hours, and treated people somewhat nicely.

Of course, it didn’t last and Shannon returned to her old ways.

Then comes the hero they desperately needed.

Around that time, we got a new assistant director, 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.)

Well, Shannon wasn’t having any of that!

How dare Tricia call her character into question?! This was an outrage!

It was so outrageous, in fact, that Shannon wrote a resignation letter and slammed it down on Tricia’s desk!

That’ll show her!

After a few hours, Shannon had time to think about what she had done.

She remembered that she had a 1-year-old at home.

She also remembered that her husband was an unskilled truck driver who made $8 an hour.

And she remembered that she was the primary breadwinner for her family.

What follows is like something out of a Shakespeare drama.

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, pretty please?

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.

When news of Shannon’s self-firing raced through the building, you could hear the cries of “What? Are you serious?” followed by howls of laughter as each new person heard the story.

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

Here is what folks are saying.

I’d buy this storybook and read it to my niece and nephew.

That’s a kind take, oh sarcastic one. LOL

Well said. I didn’t get that either.

*Chef’s kiss* I’m smiling.

I’m not sure. I guess it depends on the role and place.

Bye, Shannon!

No one is sorry to see you go.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.