The Worst Job I Ever Had

     The worst job I ever had also came with the highest annual salary I've ever had.  I was making six figures and had been hired to work Monday-Friday as a corporate nurse consultant for a group of privately owned nursing facilities all within an hour driving distance of my home.  I'd been working in long term care in one form or fashion or another since 1991.  I'd started as a floor nurse working night shift in a nursing home and by 2017 had worked my way up the nursing home ladder.  This was supposed to be my dream job.  And it wasn't the job itself that it made it the worst ever.  It was my boss, my direct supervisor, that made this the worst job ever. 
     My boss, let's call him Donald, not his real name, oversaw all of the facilities now that his dad was semi-retired. Donald was 40 years old and he was the son of the owner of this group of nursing homes.  He drove a Saab, lived in a mansion, and was born into money.  To be fair he did have a college degree and he had obtained his license in nursing home administration. 
     On the first day he took me on a tour of one of the facilities.  He was actually serving as the interim administrator for this particular building at the moment because the prior administrator just "hadn't worked out."  I never did get the story as to whether she'd resigned or been fired or what.  As we entered the unit a resident was sitting on the floor next to her wheelchair.  She didn't appear to be in pain or distress.  I thought maybe she had fallen or perhaps she had decided of her own volition to sit on the floor.  I mean, after all, we were on the dementia unit and sometimes confused nursing home residents sit on the floor just for kicks or for reasons only known to themselves.  Two nursing assistants rushed to either side of her and lifted her into the wheelchair.  Not cool on their part.  Correct protocol would have been to have the nurse assess the resident for injury prior to moving the resident.  And then they should have used a gait belt to safely transfer the resident, but they did what is informally known as a "chicken wing" transfer to lift the lady back into her chair.  The gait belt is supposed to go around the resident's waist and instead of pulling on the persons arms and possibly injuring a frail elderly person you hold onto to the belt instead. 
     Donald began berating the nursing assistants in front of me, in front of the other staff in the area, and more importantly in front of the resident herself, "You guys are doing that all wrong!  Why the hell didn't you use a gait belt?!"  The nursing assistant looked at the ground and said she was sorry.  Donald then addressed the nurse behind the desk and told her she needed to write these people up. 
The resident looked frightened as if she had done something wrong and perhaps she was the one getting written up. 
     When we went downstairs to the laundry room we came upon an employee with her cell phone out.   Donald began yelling at her because she had broken the no cell phones in the work area rule.  She protested in broken English that she was taking a picture of a coat that had made it's way to the laundry room.  Her plan was to show the picture to one of the residents upstairs who was missing a coat.  She didn't want the lady to have to come down to the laundry and she thought it would save time so she didn't have to schlepp the coat upstairs. I thought it made good sense and in her defense there was a coat laid out on the table.  Her story seemed legit to me, but Donald wasn't having it and he found the laundry supervisor and within earshot of the lady and all of her coworkers proclaimed that she should be written up for having her cell phone out in the work area.  Then he introduced me and said she should be embarrassed for her behavior in front of the new corporate nurse.  This woman was old enough to be my mother and her eyes brimmed with tears.  "I'm sorry, Miss.  I love the residents here and I try my best to do a good job."  I took her hand and told her I was honored to meet her, that no apology was necessary and that I was sure she was an asset to the facility.  Donald had already headed upstairs. 
     After the tour we met in his office and he asked what I thought.  I told him it was a beautiful facility but that I thought our management styles were very different.  He asked how I would have handled the situations and I said that I would never reprimand an employee in front of a resident or in front of their coworkers.  I also said I'd want to get the employee's side of the story and pointed out that he hadn't given really given the employees a chance.  "I like to manage by fear," he told me.  "Fear can be a motivating factor," he told me.  Yes, Donald actually said that.  What had I gotten myself into?! 
     I've always preferred to work through lunch and eat at my desk.  Then at some point in the day I like to get out of the office and get a Starbuck's coffee.  This has been my habit for years and it probably started once I stopped being an hourly employee and entered management.  Imagine my surprise when during my second week of work, Donald followed me out into the parking lot as I was making my Starbucks run.  He explained that he didn't let his employees leave the building during the work day and that he couldn't have me getting to leave when they weren't allowed to leave.  I asked what the reasoning was behind this.  He said that they had coffee and free food in the break room and he wanted everyone to be available at all times.  I explained that I was just going to run up to Starbucks and that I'd be right back.  He told me he was going to have to insist that I go back inside and not go to Starbucks, that if I wanted coffee they had some downstairs.  I decided it was pointless to argue with him so I sullenly went back to my desk.  After that he got into his Saab and was gone for about 15 minutes.  He returned with a venti Starbucks cup in hand and casually stopped by my office ostensibly to discuss a work issue but the real point of his visit was to make sure I knew my place. 
     I almost quit that day but I decided to think about it first.  The next day I got called up to one of our facilities about an hour away because they were having their annual inspection survey.  The administrator was in a panic because her period had started and she didn't have any tampons.  She burst into the director of nursing's office and asked if any of us had any.   When we turned her down she became frantic, "What am I going to do?!"  I was puzzled and asked why she didn't just run down to the CVS and get some tampons.  She explained that they were not allowed to leave the building. And she didn't leave the building-she feared for her job. 
     The next morning I was back at the facility where Donald was filling in as administrator.  I sat in the morning meeting with the managers and he berated them and told them they were doing things half-assed and that he was tired of their shit.  Something snapped.  I gathered up my things and wordlessly walked out of the meeting and out the front door.  He texted me, "Where are you?" and "Call me ASAP!"  My phone began ringing as I drove home but I didn't answer. 
     I turned off the ringer and typed my resignation email.  I told him that I was resigning my position as Corporate Nurse Consultant effective immediately and that due to my brief tenure with the company I didn't think a two week notice was necessary or appropriate.  I thanked him for the opportunity and told him that due to the differences in our management styles, the job was not proving to be a good fit for me.  And I never looked back. 
     Now my job is being an inspector of nursing homes for the state of Ohio and once two years have elapsed since I worked for Donald I could be sent into one of his facilities.  I think I'm going to be carrying a venti Starbucks coffee in my hand when I walk through the front door.