I totally know what you mean. My ‘Boss’ retired years ago but continues to hang around like a bad smell and many in here see his presence as a real hinderance but are too scared of him to say otherwise. Problem is that when he was the boss our company was right at the top and we almost had a monopoly on recruiting the best people, equipment and literally had people were falling over themselves to sponsor and fund us.
We were lauded from the rooftops and people in the industry blew smoke up our arses all the time and with-it success just seemed to fall on our lap like the people in our industry wanted and, in some cases, let us win. We thought those days would never end and when some American Venture Capitalists took us over, we thought our ongoing dominance and success was assured for a lifetime.
Anyway, he retired almost a decade ago now but still comes in almost every day (we always knew he liked a drink, but he seems pissed all the time now) and it’s like he still runs the show. We’ve had others come in to take over but it’s like they can’t perform in ‘the company way’ like he did, almost as if they are unable to make their own mark because he’s there in the shadows, pulling the strings, making things difficult.
I suppose the worse thing is, a company who always used to be our lap dogs and were pretty much just an object of ridicule to us secured some major funding just before his retirement and are flying high now. They are now taking up most of our share in the market and picking up all the awards, best people and funding we used to enjoy.
I can literally see no end to this change of fortunes as they seem to have a strategic plan for the future whereas we just seem to make the same mistakes and are either turning corners or just going round in circles. The company building is now literally falling down around us, and not only do we have a leaky roof, but we had a break in last year, but thankfully no real damage was done, and you could say it was all in vain.
Anyway, I really do not know what the future holds for us while he sticks around and most of us just turn up to get our pay check and have no real passion for this place anymore. I suppose the moral of the story is never rest on your laurels and think you’ll always be the best as you are in fact just arrogant arseholes who took advantage of a certain situations and made no real plans for the future as we were arrogant arseholes.
I’d like to say you live and learn but I just don’t think we have.
