One of the payoffs when you do a lot of thinking (and writing) is that you start to clear in your mind what things actually are. Not a "Eureka!" moment really but it was not as yesterday's blog post a moral dilemma at all. In fact there is no moral ground at play here. It's not about business either, it's about some sort of revenge. It's a bit around about face in as much as clearly, in his mind, I have wronged him and he is going to destroy everything albeit he does not realise that even if he could replace me, he'd have to compensate me for all the work I've done and the investment.
He doesn't give a toss about me and he is being motivated by blind rage. The initial shot across the bow was deeply troubling but smacked of something wrong. Once I had returned fire it wasn't really accepted (even though I supplied the evidence) and the threats toned right down but the illogical questions remained. Now we have a business procedure to endure to remove me and the reasons given are the same as the first and second letters. Then you can see through the cracks of it all. The headlines for why he wants me gone are actually down to his own actions in the first place and he cannot see that his actions have consequences.
I know people generally cannot see the wood through the trees but this is another level really. When someone initiates an argument and then shifts the blame back onto you, it is known as blame-shifting or scapegoating within the practice of gas-lighting, a manipulative behaviour intended to avoid responsibility and make you feel guilty or ashamed. This is a form of emotional manipulation designed to deflect attention and control the narrative, often used by individuals with narcissistic tendencies or in abusive dynamics. That is very broadly what is happening here, he seems to now live in a dream world where, in his mind, he can run a tech business but he owns no IT equipment and almost lives off grid.
This fantasy appears to be the problem as he instructed me to do a series of things which I did and then accused me of doing those exact things!
So rather than me feeling sorry for him or pitying him, my whole attitude has changed. It's a matter of survival and he needs to get it off his chest I guess but his actions if they were successful would damage the whole business and his "friends" interest in the business too. If they vote with him at least I will know who is for or against and that will determine what to do after that. I doubt that any of them and him have the detailed business knowledge to make the decision that is required and have no idea other than my statement to comprehend the magnitude of the problem.
In his blind rage, he has lost the logical argument and he has not undertaken his research. You should never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake" is a famous aphorism attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte. There's whole books relating to this and I've used it throughout my career. On one occasion, a number "team" members were out to make my life hell, the customer however, was very supportive of my work. So much was piled on me that I had to keep going to the customer and request extra time and money for the project which I submitted in new plans to the "team" at regular meetings. It was an 18 month project and my 6 months turned out to be close to a year. Once I had my work signed off by the customer, I casually slipped into the conversation as I was about to handover and leave whether he had granted extensions to the other teams who were responsible to complete the 12 months work (originally). The customer had granted no extensions, no extra money etc because no one had asked for it.
So there we have it, they made my life hell but can you imagine that they had asked for no more money - they were still paying out for quite large teams (£ Millions) and no extension of time so they had 6 months left to do 1 years worth of work. It was interesting watching the penny drop on the team and my arsehole boss who had turned the dogs on me. My part of the project made money, delivered a sound piece of work, commended by the customer and they had taken their eye off the ball. They didn't look like they were laughing at all.
I still have my Programme Manager's Mantra from all those years back written by Sir John Harvey Jones: “The only good thing about no planning, is that failure comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by a period of anguish and fear.”
And so, whilst it has taken me a while to get there. It's now pretty clear that this is just a sad angry old man who's made a huge miscalculation, now doubling down and digging further into trouble. He ignored the olive branches and life raft thrown to him by me. Blinded by rage he probably needs to play this card which he supremely confident of winning, if he gets his friends on his side he will turn up confident of victory as he thinks (incorrectly) that he has the required votes to win. I can just let things go on for a few minutes, let him have his say, and then watch as his victory and dreams dissolve into dust before his eyes - you need a 51% poll but the number of share votes you have totalled do not 51 share votes do not make 51% it doesn't work that way.
Recalling a similar outcome many years ago, my right hand man, when you could say such things to people, having been accused of something and we proved beyond a doubt that it was someone else, the culprit caught red handed as we were investigation with the customer, looked directly at the accusers and stated "Well, do I get a f*****g apology or does someone get a smack in the mouth?" We actually got a very nice slap up meal!
So the main thing is that if you play the scenarios and try and understand what the motivation is and work out your numbers, then you can enjoy them getting their comeuppance!
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