So, E finally told Whackjob he was leaving. Before he went in to tell her, he called me and said, “If you hear me screaming for help, come in and help me! Feel free to put your knee on her neck.”
So, he went in, two minutes later they came back out and they went for a walk (okay, people around here are taking WAY too many walks). When they came back, she looked shaken and stunned.
The highlights of what he told her as to why he was leaving are:
1. With T and L leaving, he didn’t see us ever being able to succeed because the push out of the launch of the product was a death sentence.
2. He didn’t believe that with her running the company we could continue to thrive.
3. That she was a horrible manager, that she was without doubt the worst manager he has ever had, and that she should really consider whether she should be in a management role because she is “really, really awful at it.”
4. That her interaction with me made him sick (Yay, E!!!!).
5. That he didn’t believe the company would ever secure VC funding with her at the head.
6. That we’ve missed our window of opportunity for launching the product.
She tried to get him to stay by telling him about the opportunity to make huge money if this venture pays off and he told her that he felt the chances of this company succeeding with her at the helm were about the same as 1 over the number shown on the AMD billboard on 101 (this billboard shows how much money has been and is being saved by people using AMD processors and it is a digital display that continues to increment every second and is currently displaying a number around 1.8 billion).
She, of course, told the investors that he was leaving because of the financial instability of the company so they sent him a semi-nasty email explaining how companies at this stage are always cash strapped, how they’re talking with her about additional funding, how there is impending VC money on the horizon (bullshit), etc. So, E wrote back telling them the truth of why he’s leaving so . . . that will make her happy.
Since I began writing this, the investors have responded to E telling him that as a manager of the company it is his responsibility to try to retain employees, etc., and trying to shift the blame of everyone leaving to him. Apparently there is some sort of disconnect somewhere in their understanding of what is going on which, I’m sure, is attributable to what Whackjob is telling them. I’m sure that if I had been the first manager to turn in my resignation, I’d be getting the same but . . . I’m not! I’m a follower, dontcha know.
So, my resignation is being turned in today. Monday will be my last day.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Whackjob Update
Scorecard:
L is officially gone on Friday. He moved his last day up 2 weeks because he was “tired of her bullshit”.
T is gone as of next Friday.
E is gone as of Monday, he’s informing her today.
Conundrum:
I haven’t decided what to do. Part of me thinks I should just go in today and quit. Another part of me thinks I should go in and tell her, that with E, T and L leaving, there really isn’t any reason for me to be there and that I know that money is tight (if non-existent) and offer for her to lay me off. I think I’ll wait to see how she reacts to E giving notice and decide at that point.
E leaving will be the thing that pushes her over the edge. He was her first hire and really the only person at the company that she feels any loyalty to. She wants very much to be his friend but, unfortunately for her, he despises her which, of course, is my fault. As you know, I have alienated his respect and friendship from her.
So . . . when he tells her he’s leaving, she will either be calm from shock or she will come completely unglued and yell and scream and cry and threaten and beg, etc.
Miscellanea:
I’m beginning to think that B (our sales guy) is right and that Whackjob is a pathological liar. When E talked with her after T gave his notice (the, oh no what are we going to do talk) she told him, “Oh, by the way, L just turned in his notice today as well.” We all know that L turned in his notice on the 7th.
So, maybe B is right and she’s pathological because, in my mind, one of the traits of a pathological liar is lying about things that: a) don’t have any possible reason to be lied about; and b) can be easily known or proven to be a lie. Both apply here. She’s so odd that it never dawns on her that L might have already told us . . . she does this all the time and it is really disturbing. She’s very scary in that way.
B (our sales guy) went to lunch with E, T and L yesterday and when he got back, Whackjob started grilling him about what they talked about at lunch, etc. B told her they just talked about general stuff and then Whackjob insisted that he take a walk with her.
As they walked around the building, they ran into E taking a walk and Whackjob started grilling B about whether he knew why E was taking so many walks lately. B told her over and over that he had no idea but assumed it was because he just wanted to get out and move. Whackjob then asked him if he thought the plan for T to leave was “hatched” during the weekend that E and T spent in Tahoe and whether he thought E and I were also going to leave. B said that from what he understood, T just wants to move back to SoCal to be near his family and friends.
The funny thing is, during the Tahoe trip, we never discussed work at all. I admit that maybe once or twice someone might have made a joke about Whackjob but we were too busy having fun to discuss work. But, it’s just like Whackjob to honestly believe that it was some insidious, nefarious confab. Her world is a sad and scary place.
B says he finally told her that he didn’t think it was appropriate for her to pump him for information because: a) he doesn’t know anything; and b) if he did know anything it would have been told to him in confidence and he wouldn’t tell her. Which . . . of course, made her freak and start shouting, “See!!!! You DO know something!! You have an obligation to tell me, the president, whatever you know, right now!!” She apparently yelled at him for 10 minutes trying to force him to tell what he knows before he just walked away (which, of course, made her start screaming at him that he can’t walk away from her and so on). The sad thing is, he doesn’t know anything. He was just trying to make a point to her that he wouldn’t betray a confidence if he knew of any.
When I got home from dinner with a friend, he had sent me an email – to my AOL account – attaching his resume and asking for my help in updating it.
One of our investors was seen arriving late in the day yesterday and was behind closed doors with Whackjob for quite some time. I’m sure it wasn’t a pleasant meeting for either of them.
So . . . today will be a very interesting day. No matter what the truth is, Whackjob will believe that the Tahoe trip was a summit of the axis of evil at which her demise was planned and I, of course, was the ringmaster when all it really was, was a fun weekend with friends. The only role the Tahoe trip played in people quitting is that everyone was so absolutely disgusted with her freak out about the trip that I do think it pushed them over the edge and made them decide to leave. Everyone who has turned in their notice has done so either because of being tired of working with her, not believing she can actually run a company, or being tired of the instability of the company. But, reality doesn’t play any part in Whackjob’s world . . . because then, she might have to admit fault in something.
So, if around 11:00 a.m. PST, you hear an odd, angry, anguished cry on the wind . . . you’ll know where it’s coming from.
L is officially gone on Friday. He moved his last day up 2 weeks because he was “tired of her bullshit”.
T is gone as of next Friday.
E is gone as of Monday, he’s informing her today.
Conundrum:
I haven’t decided what to do. Part of me thinks I should just go in today and quit. Another part of me thinks I should go in and tell her, that with E, T and L leaving, there really isn’t any reason for me to be there and that I know that money is tight (if non-existent) and offer for her to lay me off. I think I’ll wait to see how she reacts to E giving notice and decide at that point.
E leaving will be the thing that pushes her over the edge. He was her first hire and really the only person at the company that she feels any loyalty to. She wants very much to be his friend but, unfortunately for her, he despises her which, of course, is my fault. As you know, I have alienated his respect and friendship from her.
So . . . when he tells her he’s leaving, she will either be calm from shock or she will come completely unglued and yell and scream and cry and threaten and beg, etc.
Miscellanea:
I’m beginning to think that B (our sales guy) is right and that Whackjob is a pathological liar. When E talked with her after T gave his notice (the, oh no what are we going to do talk) she told him, “Oh, by the way, L just turned in his notice today as well.” We all know that L turned in his notice on the 7th.
So, maybe B is right and she’s pathological because, in my mind, one of the traits of a pathological liar is lying about things that: a) don’t have any possible reason to be lied about; and b) can be easily known or proven to be a lie. Both apply here. She’s so odd that it never dawns on her that L might have already told us . . . she does this all the time and it is really disturbing. She’s very scary in that way.
B (our sales guy) went to lunch with E, T and L yesterday and when he got back, Whackjob started grilling him about what they talked about at lunch, etc. B told her they just talked about general stuff and then Whackjob insisted that he take a walk with her.
As they walked around the building, they ran into E taking a walk and Whackjob started grilling B about whether he knew why E was taking so many walks lately. B told her over and over that he had no idea but assumed it was because he just wanted to get out and move. Whackjob then asked him if he thought the plan for T to leave was “hatched” during the weekend that E and T spent in Tahoe and whether he thought E and I were also going to leave. B said that from what he understood, T just wants to move back to SoCal to be near his family and friends.
The funny thing is, during the Tahoe trip, we never discussed work at all. I admit that maybe once or twice someone might have made a joke about Whackjob but we were too busy having fun to discuss work. But, it’s just like Whackjob to honestly believe that it was some insidious, nefarious confab. Her world is a sad and scary place.
B says he finally told her that he didn’t think it was appropriate for her to pump him for information because: a) he doesn’t know anything; and b) if he did know anything it would have been told to him in confidence and he wouldn’t tell her. Which . . . of course, made her freak and start shouting, “See!!!! You DO know something!! You have an obligation to tell me, the president, whatever you know, right now!!” She apparently yelled at him for 10 minutes trying to force him to tell what he knows before he just walked away (which, of course, made her start screaming at him that he can’t walk away from her and so on). The sad thing is, he doesn’t know anything. He was just trying to make a point to her that he wouldn’t betray a confidence if he knew of any.
When I got home from dinner with a friend, he had sent me an email – to my AOL account – attaching his resume and asking for my help in updating it.
One of our investors was seen arriving late in the day yesterday and was behind closed doors with Whackjob for quite some time. I’m sure it wasn’t a pleasant meeting for either of them.
So . . . today will be a very interesting day. No matter what the truth is, Whackjob will believe that the Tahoe trip was a summit of the axis of evil at which her demise was planned and I, of course, was the ringmaster when all it really was, was a fun weekend with friends. The only role the Tahoe trip played in people quitting is that everyone was so absolutely disgusted with her freak out about the trip that I do think it pushed them over the edge and made them decide to leave. Everyone who has turned in their notice has done so either because of being tired of working with her, not believing she can actually run a company, or being tired of the instability of the company. But, reality doesn’t play any part in Whackjob’s world . . . because then, she might have to admit fault in something.
So, if around 11:00 a.m. PST, you hear an odd, angry, anguished cry on the wind . . . you’ll know where it’s coming from.
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