I once, many years back, worked as a Controller for a small college on the West Coast (cooler region). I worked directly under a highly-critical Vice President of Administration. This woman took exemplary pride in letting you know she was "the boss".

I was skilled, highly educated with graduate degrees in social sciences and Finance. I had over 20 years of Administration experience at that time. I was a divorced male. Raped, might I add. I was on the short list of people that this "boss" would like to get an excuse to fire. Read the following and you will understand why she wrote me up in my personnel file for wanting to essentially usurp her authority. All because I questioned how the college was doing business.

I opposed the Administration's thinking on different fronts. For example, my boss supported the (elderly) President when he refused to allow additional budgeting and strategic focus for marketing on the web. Now this was the mid-90's and we were just seeing the wondrous (at that time) positivity and hope for connectedness that this technology could bring about. Instead, I was given the directive, with words to the effect, that no one would ever use the web to review colleges...they would always use the printed catalog. We were a progressive college and promoted ourselves as such.

I also opposed her decision with our corporate attorney to give four years of free tuition (Big Bucks at the time) to two women who had claimed sexual harassment against a professor. As I understand it, these two "freshwomen" students lingered after class one night to ask follow-up questions. He told them he hadn't eaten any dinner yet and was going to a local restaurant and did they want to go there to finish the conversation. Also as I understand it, they claimed that it had made them feel uncomfortable and fearful.

It was foolish for that man to throw out that bait. (Men, you hook what you use for bait. Remember that.) Maybe he did have lascivious thoughts, who knows. It's a "he said", "she said" and it was the "she said" that won the contest. The man left the college (not voluntarily). I always wonder what became of him.

And then she thought she had found the way to fire me. Being on the cooler coast, we didn't have air conditioned buildings back then. That's certainly changed today. Well, one week in late summer, my boss took a vacation to her very tony summer cottage on the coast some hours away. For the first time in many years the heat index hit the college at over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The Registrar contacted me and asked what we should do. She had called the "boss" but had only gotten her answering machine. The President had left town and was not reachable. The "boss" had left no plan for backup. I told the Registrar that I thought the building was insufferable for staff and that temps in third floor offices had hit 95 degrees. I also told her that I could not be part of the decision to close. She would have to do that independently. God Bless her - she did.

The following day the "boss" called the college and talked to the Registrar and demanded "Who made the unilateral decision to close the college!" She responded.. "The Registrar did!" I loved that woman. She suffered no repercussions.

Shortly after all this, my dream job came through and I was able to resign on my own. Thanks for reading. True story.