Sorry for the long read but this covers 46 years.
So I joined a US military service in 1975 to do four years active duty. I was forced to retire after 31 years due to current law. During that time I had a pretty stellar (mostly luck and being in the right time at the right place) rising to the top 1% of the enlisted ranks. During this time I was involved in several high profile operations that made national headlines, was lucky enough to attend the service's academy for several years (important for later) , and retired very highly decorated and well-known. I loved my job.
During my last hitch a major, major operation came up that I was highly involved in behind the scenes and became more well known in the upper upper management circles (read CEO on down.) I was asked to extend an extra year to continue to assist with the operation but eventually was time to retire from active duty. I loved my job and I was devoted to my company that gave me such a great career. So….
I got a job with the same company as a general services worker (aka: a civilian.) It was also at a new office that was just being formed. The first 10 years it was awesome. I worked my way up to front line supervisor of a shop of 21 people doing a unique job that these 21 people were the only people doing this particular job in the country. These folks had been together since the office opened. The company was awesome! It was a great place to work and I fully intended to work for this company for 50 years if my health held out.
Immediately upon becoming the supervisor I found out my shop was in crises. The other supervisor and both of ours' boss had never directly supervised people before and their lack of people skills had the other 18 employees ready to quit. It took me five years to be accepted, trusted and make a crew out of these disgruntled folks. But then once again, life was grand. I loved my folks (and feel they very much trusted me and were happy.) Only person had quit. Definitely was going for 50 years!
Now since our office was a military command, our commanding officer (CO) would transfer or retire and be replaced every 3 years or so. And then it happened. The newest CO was supposedly owed a favor and given the job to lead the 300 person office. They were totally unqualified for the position. And they also had never led one person in their past. And things went to shit.
About a year into their tenure morale at the company bottomed out. People started to quit (but not in my shop.) They also drove upper middle management away one at a time and hired folks that were of their politics and saw things the way they saw things. There's an old saying that goes something like this: Those that can lead, lead. Those that can't lead manage and only know the rule book. They could not lead.
It also became apparent during upper upper management (corporate) came for visits that they knew me personally and very well. When they came for a visit, they would invariably interrupt the dog and pony show and come give me a bear hug, joke a bit, etc. I would do the same since I had known them for upwards of 30 years and hadn't seen them in 10 years or so. That did not make the CO happy and she was worried, knowing the problems the office was having, that I had a direct link to upper management. I also think she was a bit jealous. The result was that for the first time in my career, I started to get In trouble.
I had drawn attention to myself. I started to get nitpicked for rule infractions, getting written up, and was suspended twice. A visually impaired person could see I was being set up for dismissal.
Then COVID hit.
The immediate issue was we were locked out the building and had to set up telework systems with zero training, very little support and as soon as possible. Thank God one of my employees was computer savvy. They would figure things out one problem at a time, let me know how to do it, and I would relay it to the rest of the shop. We were up and running within a week (which was no small feat and included many hours of what would be considered OT but we were salary.)
Now my shop had never fallen behind on work but during this two weeks of being unable to work and the time it took to learn the new telework systems, we did. For various reasons it took awhile to catch up but we eventually did. But the rest of the building still hasn't. This was in large part because I would work my 8 hours in the building (after it reopened) then go home and work another 2+ hours to run the reports necessary for the shop's next day work. Now I'm a Boomer and always had faith and was devoted to my company so it didn't bother me and I'd done it all my life. I wanted the shop to shine in hopes my/our hard work kept us up to speed and not fall behind.
Then out of the blue I was brought up on charges of Fraud, Being a lousy supervisor, and Theft of work time. The fraud was since I approved time cards for my employees and one of them had worked from home for a week, but his time card said he was in the building for 2 days that week I had defrauded the company (he worked from home that week due to COVID but I screwed up the time card), I took too many smoke breaks (was authorized one 15 minute break in the morning and afternoon and a 30 minute lunch – I broke them up into 6 10 minute breaks and worked through lunch plus worked when I got home) and my lousy supervising was because when I went on a smoke break, ~4 or 5 employees would join me. They worked the same hours and did the same routine as I just said. (I called it team building and cross shop talking since we would talk shop while smoking going over issues and problems, or do the same thing with other shop's folks that happened to be smoking.)
Eventually I was given the choice to quit, retire or be fired. I retired.
I am so pissed off at my upper command, I have totally soured against the company I was devoted to for 46 years that I just walked away. And retired.
You know what I've learned? Company loyalty is shit these days. People are assholes, and Coors Lite is delicious! Once again, sorry for the long read, and thanks for listening. And if anyone recognizes who I am, drop me an IM and say hi!