AIBU to think that this woman is giving

[AbsofCroissant]

women in business/working women a bad name?

Background - I moved jobs a couple of months ago. The place where I previously worked, there is a senior woman in the department who is running riot. Lets call her A.

Back in the day, I had a fabulous manager, lets call her B. B clashed with A on a number of issues (for instance, doubting A's integrity), so A engineered it that B could not progress in her role. In the end, B got head-hunted for another position and left. A then managed to get her best friend C in to replace B. Then C managed to hire another best friend, D, even though she was not qualified at ALL for the job. So, C and D ended up as my managers, decided they didn't like me, and bullied me until I left (even had a go at me for resigning).
In the meantime, A got promoted, and built up some powerful contacts, and is currently on a mission to get rid of anyone who crosses her path. To date, two senior managers have been made redundant at her insistence (and she's taken over their roles). Now she's going after more junior staff who she doesn't like.

AIBU to think - for a start, she's giving Stalin a run for his money, and next that it's exactly this kind of crazy ego-tripping mania that gives women in powerful positions a bad name? My previous manager B, is now very senior at another organisation - and is amazing. She's very well known in the industry, but is also a great person. This one is just a maniac.

No, bollocks. She is one woman on her own crazy mission. If people judge all women by her, that is entirely their problem

she doesn't sound very nice, but it is prejudice that gives women in powerful positions a bad name, not the actions of one woman.

why the hell should all women have to get tarred with the same brush just because this one is an arsehole?

if she was a black man instead you wouldn't be saying 'This is exactly the sort of thing that gives black man a bad name' would you?

by all means rant about this woman, but if other women who have nothing to do with her are being given a bad name, then rant about the prejudiced idiots who think this is a reasonable logical leap to make.

Pfft.

What about men who do this sort of shit?

Are they giving men a bad name?

If she is as bad as you say she is then everyone will know that she is a power tripping egomaniac and therefore the only person she is giving a bad name is herself.

I often think it is difficult being in a senior position as a female - behaviour that would be not only acceptable in a man but admired is often used as a stick to beat a woman who acts similarly.

sorry, typo, should read 'sort of thing that gives black men a bad name'

It just sounds like she's really pissed you off..

YABU - you could just as well have written the opposing post "AIBU to think that Woman B is showing the world how women in senior roles can do really well without power-tripping"

People will judge each person on their own merit and behaviour.

YABU.

I don't think it has much to do with women/working women/women's position in society. However, I have known and worked for similar characters (male and female) and I think it reflects very badly on organisations when such people are able to get to positions of power.

I am also interested in the social question: how is it that we allow such characteristics to flourish to such an extent? Why are some people allowed to go so far beyond social norms and others just shrug it off and say 'well, that's how they are'.

She has pissed me off I found out yesterday that a really lovely senior manager has been made redundant by her.

It's not because she is a woman. It is because she is an egomaniac.

branchingout - I have often wondered that as well. I used to work somewhere where we had a training period, followed by an oral exam to move out of the trainee level. One of my colleagues barely passed this exam, indeed was put on a 3m probation (rare to almost never happens) - yet she was the one who got promoted ahead of various others. NOT because she was better (she really wasn't and I had left by then so no sour grapes) - but because she knew how to suck up to the bosses.

It's the people above these idiots who fall for their suck-ups that are at fault - they shouldn't be allowing egomaniacs to climb the ladder so well.

Do you work for a water company OP because I went through the exact same thing.

It all came to a head when she hired her cousin (who was only 20) to be the manager of my dept. Said cousin then went on holiday for 3 weeks, but didn't mention to me that she had recruited 3 new members of staff and that they would be arriving while she was away.

She then had the cheek to tell me off for not hitting targets while she was away on holiday.

The day before I was due to go on holiday they pulled me into the office and said it was probably best that I don't go back to work afterwards seeing as the new staff members weren't treating her with respect as they knew that it was me doing the bloody job.

I'd been there just less than a year so had not a leg to stand on.

Raging lunatics they were.

Nah, not a water company.

I have just found out that A also screwed over her own protegee. She hired said protegee a couple of years ago, groomed her to become just like A. Protegee then got offered another job (as she is actually very good at what she does), A wanted to keep her so offered her a promotion and the opportunity to move internally. The person controlling the budget stepped in and said it would be too expensive to do both, so A said to protegee - either promotion or internal move, not both. Protegee said in that case, she'd take the job elsewhere. A then said "well, you weren't good enough to be promoted anyway" (so why were you wanting to promote her?).

I used to like protegee, thought she was nice, but then she started blanking me at one point, so I'm kind of glad A turned against her.

There's all types of craziness going on there at the moment, including trying to promote an ex-colleague of mine who has actually admitted he doesn't know what he's doing, to a very senior position. Every who works with him says he's clueless and gives the wrong advice. BUT - A likes him and is in charge of the compensation and promotions board. It's insanity over there. So, so so glad I left.

YABU

As everyone else has said, she's giving HERSELF a bad name. Not women in general.

(Unless every egomaniacal man is also deemed to be giving men a bad name - but I don't see that happening).

Okay, I admit. IABU.

....yet another thread that is making me want to cheer because MNers are so unanimously right

have only read the OP, but YABU to say she is giving 'women' a bad name, i know men who are just like her, there will always be people like this who will do anything to get where they want, gender has fuck all to do with it