I have needed to get these stories off my chest and I don’t feel comfortable telling actual people we know, because they may not want their professional frustrations shared around the community, but I thought this sub would appreciate it.
My boyfriend has worked for a local university in the athletics dept for the past few years. We have become close with a lot of his coworkers over that time. Their boss is a psychopath who clearly has no understanding his employees are actual people with actual lives and need money to live. Aside from the fact that they all work close to 80 hour weeks for a shockingly small salary (they’re expected to work their 9-5 but also every home game of every sport regardless of time or day), a few stories just blow my mind.
Story 1: Amy took on two grad assistants who would be getting credit for a degree in her specific position. They literally have to all agree with the professor what their responsibilities will be so they can get course credit and they all sign off on it. During this time, my boyfriend tried to talk to his boss, Kevin, about the fact that he was being asked to be in two places at once as one of his game-day responsibilities so he was physically unable to do his job. He assumed Kevin would take this to mean they either need to hire someone else, change the responsibilities, or Kevin himself would have to come in to help. Instead, Kevin called Amy and told her to give bf one of her GAs. She kept trying to explain to him she can’t just “give him a GA”. Kevin keeps saying to “just do it” and she keeps trying to explain how and why it doesn’t work like that. He seemed to be totally unable to understand and starts screaming at Amy that she isn’t being a team player. JUST GIVE HIM ONE.
Story 2: A new position opens up that would still be in the athletics dept but not under Kevin. Becky is asked by the hiring manager to apply. It would be a promotion. She asks him over and over if she actually has a shot because this will not go over well with Kevin, and she only wants to deal with that if she has a shot. She’s told over and over please apply. So she does. She gets to the final interview and it’s a panel with all the higher-ups in the dept. Including Kevin. They go around the room taking turns asking questions, but Kevin never even looks up from I guess his phone. Finally at the end he is specifically asked if he would like to ask anything before they disband. His response: “Uhhh yeah, I guess, how do you think I’m supposed to get your work done in the interim if you take this job?” So, she doesn’t get the job. She asks the hiring manager to coffee so she can get constructive criticism. He can’t think of anything she did wrong. She directly asks why she didn’t get it and he tries to dodge the question but ultimately implies it was because Kevin begged him not to hire her because he didn’t want to have to deal with backfilling the position.
Story 3: Cindy quits. Instead of looking for her replacement, Kevin tells Tim that he now has Cindy’s responsibilities in addition to his own. Tim says then we need to discuss a raise. Kevin’s response: “How dare you try to make this opportunity about money.”
Story 4: Bf quits. The first thing Kevin asks him is if he can still work the first football game (3 months away). Bf says no. Three weeks pass, bf gets a text from an unfamiliar number saying “hi, this is your replacement at [uni], Bill. Kevin gave me your number and told me you would get me up to speed and show me the ropes.”
As for where things are now, good and bad news. The good news is that all dozen-ish of the people who began the school year under Kevin have quit. He has only been able to replace a few so far. They all eviscerated him in the exit interviews. The bad news is that HR told one of them that the way uni contracts work, unless you’re a coach, you can’t get fired without cause. So unless he assaults someone or commits some other kind of crime, there’s nothing they can do even if they know that he’s directly responsible for the insane turnover that is going to have a massive impact on the success of athletics at this school.