My partner (30s) took a pay cut to pursue a career opportunity at a company whose mission he has a passion for. I won't get into details except to say it's clerical office work with much data entry, and he became a manager supervising a team integral to the company's operation.
Turns out the company lied to my partner during the interview process, and only after his first couple of days did it become apparent this place was in a mire. Disastrous levels of negligence and mismanagement, done by the previous person who held the job, someone in their 50s-60s.
When I say disastrous, I mean they simply did not do the basic core aspects of their job—quite literally refusing to do things that were asked of them—for years on end. Didn't show up to meetings. Didn't respond to emails or calls. Would ignore tasks that were asked of them. Wouldn't meet with their supervisor. Would allow members of their team to do anything they wanted. Neglected every process they were responsible for from here to the moon.
The aspects of the job are so important to the company's basic operation that I can't imagine anyone not getting fired after the first few months of negligence, but this person held the position and was allowed to ignore doing it. Keep in mind documentation and data entry was a huge part of this job, so everything is ridiculously inaccurate (or just absent) for several years.
My partner is a good person, better than I, and has stayed on with this company longer than they deserve, and helped them to get back on track. This has required meticulous sleuthing, reinvention of company policy and processes, creation and implementation of new ones, basically a complete reworking of the office's operation from the ground up. It's a slog. He rarely takes days off. 50+ hour workweeks. Goes without lunch some days. He comes home hollowed out, defeated, dreading to go back. All of this for a job that he took a pay cut to join, but he wants to help them.
His boss is the same age as the previous manager, someone in their 50s-60s. In my opinion, the supervisor enabled the former employee, made excuses for them, and as far as we can tell, did not hold them to any basic standards of work ethic. “They have a lot on their plate,” or “they have a lot going on at home” were some of the excuses.
An ocean of complaints were levied against this former employee from across all departments of the company. The supervisor was asked to fire this employee, and they refused to. Auditors recommended firing this employee, and it was ignored. Higher ups wanted this employee gone, but nothing ever changed.
My partner begins working at the company, and his supervisor is micromanaging his every move. Wanting constant progress updates. Adding more and more to his plate. Never appreciating the immense work being done to fix everything that went wrong. Barely acknowledging the office is beyond neglected, and have been for years. It's like a switch flipped and the supervisor realized they need to actually supervise.
Weirder still, they speak fondly of the former employee at times. Even offering them another job at a different part of the company. They weren't romantically involved, and they weren't friends, because their relationship was antagonistic, and they possibly hated each other.
Is this an age thing? A pride thing? Why the different standards? It's confusing and frustrating.