Terri Jones clashed with a new VP whose management style didn't match her expectations, so she showed up hostile every day. Her boyfriend told her to just do the job. She eventually realized her anger was self-generated and learned from the VP instead, becoming a stronger team member.
You are now listening to Workplace War Stories on the I Never Worry Podcast, the number one place to unpack that emotional baggage you've been carrying around for far too long. Here's your opportunity to process those challenging situations at work through emotionally intelligent conversations with the EI Guy, DB Bedford, and his co-host, Terri Jones.
I, I had a particular boss that I was not getting along with, a VP. He was the vice president that I—
Why wasn't y'all getting along?
He had— he just had his— he was totally different from the guy before, right? The guy before, Terry, do what you want, take care of it. He trusted me. I had earned my— he knew that I would get my job done. This guy ain't know me from Adam. So he comes in and he wants to do things his way, which I didn't particularly care for his way. And no particular— I just didn't. It was different from what we were doing. I thought he should do things the way I want. Okay. So I—
So were you showing up every day with that?
With an attitude. I showed up every day already mad because I know he was going to say something that was for me that was stupid. Now this is a VP. But then someone said to me, why don't you just go to work and do your job? My boyfriend at the time. I was mad at him for telling me that.
So how did you receive that? So when he says, just go to work and do your job, was the first thing you thought about like, I am doing my damn job? Did you kind of think that way?
I was like, I'm doing my job. And we became a great team because I learned so much from him. But if I would have kept fighting, because what I was thinking is, I got to find another— I'm going to move. I'm going to move to a different position because that was my way.
And even though he hadn't done anything to you, right?
But I thought he had done a whole lot. I'm just being honest. I thought he had done something to me.
People used to come at me sideways a lot, and a lot of— I let a lot of stuff go, and there's some stuff I came straight head-on. But I tried to have understanding that I know a lot of people were jealous of me because I, I, I got promoted over a lot of people fast. So that I knew, that was always raining, uh, ringing. I was somebody— now on my behalf, I could have done better when I first got promoted because I definitely was like, I ain't these other cats. Like, I—
Yeah, yeah.
I was like, you know, because they used to punk all the other supervisors. Like, you know, where I work was wild. Like, uh, a person to come to work at like 7:15, they got to be to work at 7, they show up at 7:15, 7:20 with Starbucks and McDonald's in their hands and look at you like, what? You know what I'm saying? And, and, and previous supervisor wasn't given no Nothing. And then when I became in the seat, I'm like, no, like, putting everybody on notice, right? First I put everybody on notice, we're not doing that no more. And somebody always show it up, and then you give them the, the, the, the corrective action or the warning. And now DB tripping, right?
Because see, this is the old Terry would have been like, what makes him think that he could come in here and start putting this stuff out there?
I was literally kicked off a Southwest flight before for being disrespectful.
