I read so many stories of bad bosses on subreddits. I’m curious if anyone out there really has a good boss.

I’ve had my fair share of poor management, toxic workplaces (yes, places), backstabbing co-workers, and office bullies. 5 years ago I left a toxic job that ruined my mental health. A month later, I landed a job in a company that gave me a different perspective on people in leadership. There was no drama. There were no petty or catty people. There was no self-fulfilling leadership. People came into work and went home without causing trouble with other people in the office. It was a rare sight and I thought it was BS. I was still trying to heal from the trauma. I had worked for a company that didn’t care about the people who worked for them. The same people who contributed to their high profits that just get higher every year.

My manager was nice. He didn’t care what time I came in as long as I gave him a heads-up. If I had a doctor’s appointment that day he would let me WFH so I didn’t waste my time commuting. If I was sick I WFH. I finally got comfortable. He didn’t put up with people talking bad about each other or clients who were rude to us. He had 0 tolerance for bullying in the workplace. The only time he had to make an executive decision to fire someone was because the employee was threatening other co-workers. The employee was also messing up projects while blaming other people for his mistakes.

Then COVID happened and we had to WFH indefinitely and we all ended up being remote and hybrid. They kept paying the rent for 5 offices all over the country for those who wanted to go in. They didn’t force us to come in if we didn’t want to. Some people went in once or twice a week. Some went in every day because they just worked better in an office setting. Some people would work a week in the office every month just to get out of the house. Whatever the reasons why others preferred WFH, they didn’t care as long as work was getting done. And it was getting done. People relocated across the country to stay close to family. Others moved to live in an area with LCOL. They were still paid a high salary because of where they lived when they got hired.

They also had an unlimited PTO policy. I know that people say it’s bad. Yes, the part where we couldn’t cash in our PTO if we left sucks. But when they implemented the unlimited PTO policy, they also paid us for the hours that we accrued. That was a nice surprise on my paycheck. No one was scared to take 2 weeks off at a time to travel. The policy was to give ample notice so your manager can find coverage. This way, you can travel to London to attend a week-long wedding celebration. You also do tourist stuff the week after. Oh, and if you would like to stay longer, you can also work 6 hours away. We had an employee who spent summers in Egypt and worked from Egypt.

I got 7% raises every year. I received large bonuses twice a year. I also got a $5k referral bonus when someone I referred to got hired full-time. $2,500 when they got hired then another $2,500 when they pass the 90-day probationary period. They also paid for OT.

I don’t remember ever complaining about the work or the people. I mean some had to get used to the culture. One started out being dramatic over every little thing. She then loosened up when she realized no one was treating her emergencies like five-alarm fires. I ended up talking to her for a while at a networking event and I was seeing her real personality. She shared her experience working for a micromanager and it all made sense.

Last spring, I had to get surgery. I used my sick leave (we started with 30 days every year) to have the surgery and to recuperate. It was a total of 6 days. Then I got sepsis a month later and had to be hospitalized for 5 days. My manager didn’t panic. He told me to take care of my health first. He found someone to cover my projects. He didn’t even ask for a doctor’s note for the surgery or a doctor’s note for the hospital stay. HR didn’t ask for a note from my surgeon about the date of surgery and how long I should recover. They didn’t ask for a doctor’s note. They didn’t ask why I had to be rushed to the hospital on a Monday morning. They also didn’t ask why I didn’t get home until Saturday morning. They didn’t ask if I had a set date for when I was going to come back. I don’t even know if they knew I was taking sick leave. I felt better after the 5-day stint and was home by the weekend. I felt good enough to go back to work that Monday. Or work from home. Whatever I felt like what I wanted to do. My manager and I had a chat over Teams later in the week and he never brought up work. He just asked how I was feeling and if I needed to take more time off. I told him I had it handled which was the truth. Whoever took over my projects did such a good job. There were no delays in deliverables or reports. There was no lack of communication during my absence about project updates.

The threat of a recession loomed over last year. They began a reduction in force and started laying people off. I was one of those who got laid off. They gave me a good severance. When it was time, they put more money into my ESOP and safe harbor plans.

Getting laid off sucks (this was my 2nd one) but they didn’t contest my unemployment so I was getting that. I was not as bitter as I thought I would be because they treated me right. I’ve worked in corporate America long enough to learn not to take business decisions personally. It is what it is. I never had a problem finding a job. But I learned a lot more about the industry I accidentally fell into where I had 0 experience. I acquired new skills from my 4 years of working there. These skills gave me the opportunity to work at an equally humanizing company.

I finally found a new job 4 months later. That’s the longest I’ve ever been unemployed. I didn’t apply for the position because I didn’t even know it existed. The owner found me on Indeed. He sent me a message to text him for a position. He briefly described the position in the message. I sent him a text and I asked if the position was remote because it was out of state. It is with quarterly in-person team meeting trips for a week. The first one I went to was in SC. I’ve never traveled to work before and I’ve never been to SC. The next one will be in Texas. I found out that they just randomly pick a state to meet every 3 months. Flights, meals, lodging, and Uber rides are paid by the company.

So here I am. I find myself fortunate to land a job at a company that isn’t weird. It is also not run by people with fragile egos. We don’t have unlimited PTO or an ESOP. But, we do get 10 days of PTO the first year. We also get paid federal holidays and flexible hours. I support 2 project managers with projects on the West Coast and Hawaii and I’m on the East Coast. All our meetings on Teams aren’t camera required. We only see each other’s faces 16-20 days a year.

The one thing that stood out was how everyone I work with really cared about everyone. A project manager had to take some time off because of an illness. The owner stepped up and split the projects between himself and another PM. This ensured there was no delay in the schedule. We work hard. No one is struggling or burnt out. If someone needs help, we all jump in to help. We all have the same mindset that unnecessary drama hinders productivity.

This week, a vendor we requested a proposal from started to irritate me with his rudeness and poor customer service. He was blowing up my work phone about having the proposal signed off right away. I told him that the person responsible wasn’t available to review the proposal. He started getting pushy with me. I sent a screenshot of part of the conversation we had to one of my PMs.

Dude, why? Then I sent a text to both of the PMs…

What?! Is that a manager standing up for one of their team members? People like them really do exist?

I’m not as jaded as I used to be about jobs anymore. I still don’t trust the way corporations and businesses make their decisions. Especially when there’s a financial crisis. This country was built on capitalism and the more money you have, the more pull you have with policy makers. We’re never going to be in the EU that provides universal healthcare. Most workers don’t even have a semblance of a work/life balance. We don’t have affordable/free higher education. Our educational system will never improve.

People are starting to normalize greed among the rich and powerful. As a result, corporations and business owners will continue to exploit their workers. This needs to be addressed. Otherwise, corporations and business owners will exploit their workers without restraint.

There’s a quote from Bill Marriott that made me realize that there are good leaders out there.

I don’t like billionaires one bit. They’re all out of touch. Bill Marriott isn’t some dude who pulled himself up by the bootstraps to get to where he is. He inherited his father’s already thriving business. But that one quote seemed sincere. Because I experienced it myself when I worked there for a few years. Burn out took over and that was when I started to pay attention to my mental health.

It sucks that I had to experience more bad bosses than good bosses all in one place a few times. Then I found a job that really had good bosses overall. I hate people for the most part. I appreciate it when a few can make me hate them less.