I can tell you that he is far more concerned about his resume that any company he works at. He has no company loyalty whatsoever. He also makes sweeping decisions and then tells people about them (by "people" I mean the people that actually have to do the work, not the stuffed suits with the grand visions). He's perfectly happy deciding things -- which may or may not directly involve you -- in a vacuum. And if you try to press him for details, you get a politician's answer which may or may not resemble anything close to the truth. The lower you are on the food chain, the farther from the truth his answers are likely to be. [The Grand Pooh Bah II] is one of those people you can tell just *thinks* he ought to be a leader, like he was born for the job. And you know what Douglas Adams has to say about those people who actually want to be president. He also looks, talks, and acts like Troy McClure from The Simpsons and that's bad.

The [Software product] group used to be run by [name of person] (the CEO's son, actually, and [name of person] did pretty well). Well, [name of person] wanted to move on to better things, and [The Grand Pooh Bah II] came in as his right hand man. Since [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II] came in (after [Software product] was effectively deconstructed and the dust had settled, [The Grand Pooh Bah II] moved on to other things and earned the nickname "[Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II]" from a senior VP here), [Software product] as a business unit went steadily down the tubes. I can't get into the exact details, but I can tell you that almost all of the people who had worked in the [Software product] Division for more than two years had left. Many of them left [Local corporation]. I heard one long-time [Software product] senior manager say (after the fact) that working in [Software product] was like watching a child die slowly from a wasting disease. [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II] was responsible for this.

So, one year (say, 1997) [Software product] is (and had been) fine, market share is increasing, we're making money, everyone is happy, we're hiring like mad, and things are taking off. The next year, [Software product] is no longer a separate business unit (mostly due to budgetary reasons, which were completely due to [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II]'s business acumen), most of the people have left, the new software we made/acquired are complete boat anchors, and market share has fallen because we can't even get normal [Software product] Pro out the door on time. What was different from one year to the next? [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II] took office.

I'll give you an example of life with [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II]. I remember one time last year [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II] gave a very motivational all-hands pep rally. In it he "frankly" gave us the straight dope about what had happened, why, where we were headed, and when we were going to get there. It was sort of refreshing, in a sick way, that he finally came out to talk to us all. The reason he came out to bolster our confidence? Well, it turns out that the Friday/weekend before this meeting, the seniorist VP of Sales launched into the most childish, emotional, irrational email tirade I've ever seen. It was like the man went insane and regressed back to his sixth birthday and he didn't get the pony he always wanted.

VP was mad at engineering, see, because we said that we didn't have the resources to work on his pet project (which was an incredibly dumb idea that has since thankfully gone away). Engineering thought it would be better to get [Software product] Pro -- our bread and butter -- out the door, and in the meantime hire new people or contract out the work needed for his project. This didn't sit well. In the emails (sent one after the other in serial fashion, like his anger was building and he couldn't help but mail everyone each time he got madder), he swore at us, he called us babies, he whined, he cajoled, he made a complete ass out of himself. I actually heard people laughing in shock and disgust. VP said he sent the emails because he was "jet lagged", but we all knew it was because the man was an infantile, emotionally stunted putz who didn't know what he was doing. So [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II] took control to defuse the situation. Finally.

Why wasn't he taking care of this months-long festering between sales/marketing and engineering before it came to a head? Hmm, very good question. Leaders ought to lead, after all. I think it's either because he didn't care, he didn't know, he liked the tension, or he was too busy at the driving range. Actually, I secretly think it was because he liked the VP's ideas (the ideas had a certain buzzword cachet to them, almost enough to get mentioned in the trades; [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II] likes to get his name in print), and knew that engineering didn't. His move to [Name of another corporation] bears this out, as the VP's ideas were tangentially related to what [Name of another corporation] did. Whatever the reason, there was no leadership until it got to the point where senior VPs are shouting at each other in email and in the halls and calling each other names. And when he did get involved, he gave the VP a sideways promotion (until he could take the VP to [Name of another corporation] with him), and told us to all play nice together, that we have a wonderful future ahead, that we need to work through it all together, that we have to be a team, yada yada yada. It was very motivational. It was also complete and utter bullshit and [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II] knew that when he said it. He was placating us, nothing more, and he meant little of what he said.

Not too long after this all happened, [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II], the VP and some other top S&M guys bailed out of [Software product] and went to [Name of another corporation]. It's worth noting that none of the engineers left. The rats left the sinking ship... after they had eaten all the food on board, pooped all over the place, and chewed holes in the hull. But what about his motivational speech? What about all the forging ahead with new alliances and re-examining new paradigms? Well, I guess [Software product] wasn't turning out to be that successful. [The Grand Pooh Bah II] knew [Name of another corporation] was coming along, he knew he was going to go there, and that didn't affect his speech to us -- or anything else -- one bit. [Name of another corporation] is where it was at, that was where [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II] could "forge even stronger links between functional departments as we tackle the competitive challenges ahead" (that was a direct quote from [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II], BTW, cut and pasted from one of his more motivational emails). For a while. That didn't work out too well either, I guess. And so now he's at [name of my company].

[Software product] was very much like a family to me, and to most other people as well. People used to work absolutely insane hours just because they wanted to. It was like that scene in Pirates of Silcon Valley at Apple (the one with the "90 hours a week and loving it" T-shirts). People were *proud* to work here. So was I. Now I don't really care anymore. [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II] basically ruined the coolest work/family experience I ever had (and could have had). The last year or so would have been several orders of magnitude better if [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II] had never been around. There's much bitterness about the whole thing. And not just from me (I overheard a senior engineer say, at the merest mention of [The Grand Pooh Bah II]'s name, something to the effect that [The Grand Pooh Bah II] ought to be repeatedly molested by gangs of diseased Turkish prison inmates; the term "fisted" was used, I believe).

The incident above is only one example of [Insulting name for the Grand Pooh Bah II]'s prowess as a manager. He's proof that the saying "Those that can, do; those that can't, manage" is true. He ruined [Software product] because he wanted a line item on his resume. And while [Software product] is recovering quite rapidly, none of the old camaraderie is there anymore. I doubt it ever will be. It's depressing. Anyway, there it is. Lunch is over, and I have to get going. Good luck to you.