RE: Working for a liar

[Paul Hanson <PHanson -at- Quintrex -dot- com>]

It just occurred to me that even if you have left a company, which is
what the majority of advice seems to be here, a liar can effectively
present your contributions to the company as meaningless. At the first
company I worked at, there were three of us. One co-worker left in 12/97
for a better opportunity after a lot of years of service, I left in 2/98
for a better opportunity after 3 years, and the third resigned b/c of
issues with our manager after 8 years of service. The experience in the
department was depleted.

Before the third left, they began interviewing for tech writers, since
they were going to be down to the one that had started in 12/97 and
called our manuals "awful." One candidate that the company hired was
talking to the third and causually mentioned that the candidate had
asked the VP (the liar) why there had been such a turn-over in the
Documentation department. He told her that the three of us were "not up
to snuff" and that "if we hadn't resigned, we were going to be asked to
leave." 

I found this out at the third's farewell luncheon. I fired off an email
to the VP (who I thought I had always got along with (he was the one
that hired me so I felt I had always had a fierce allegiance to him so
on a personal level, I was upset) that asked him to confirm or deny this
allegation. Well, he responded with a generically toned message in which
he chided me for even asking about a rumour.  In my opinion, he had the
chance to say, "No, I didn't say that" but he didn't seize it. It
definitely tainted the 3 years of hard work I put in at that company.

He was fired within 6 months of my departure.

Paul Hanson