Hey Pandas, What Is Something Nice Your Boss Has Done For You?

After beeing employed at the same company for over 10 years, climbing up the ladder to the point where I lead 2 whole departments and beeing responsible for a bunch of important and critical projects including strategic decisions affecting the whole company, budgets, HR, processes and so on, my stress level peaked so hard, that after some additional huge setbacks in my private life, I became a total wreck. Couldn't sleep, stomach issues, high blood pressure, depression and isolation, mental issues to name a few effects.

I was so full of fear, that I'd lose my job because the weeks of staying at home to recover, in which I wasn't able to work and above all that my performance within the last 6 months was soooo bad because of my condition (company lost lots of money because of bad decisions I made, people were quitting because haven't took care of them, deadlines exceeding, angry customers... I basically f****d up everything and there were things, that in other companies would have under garantee lead to immediate dismissal)

My boss (at that point my direct superior was the CEO) reached out to me and gave me a chance to explain what has gone wrong. His reaction was the opposite of what I had thought:

Take your time, I'l find a way to keep your departments running and offered me, and that is the answer to your question, the possibility to step back from all the team lead stuff and work as a simple technician (9to5, no big responsibilities, no heavy decisions etc) in my own department as long as I need to get my live back on track WITHOUT lowering my money or any other benefits or putting pressure in something.

Right now I am still recovering, my sleep cycle returns and everything gets better from day to day. And shall I tell you something: I don't see this as a step down in my career. For me it is like a new start: I am motivated to put the leader career aside and fully concentrate on becoming a technical specialist. So maybe in another ten years, I can put 2 things together, which are in general not so easy to unite: long lasting experience in leadship and specialized know how in whatever technical field I'll chose :)

I am a teacher. One day I had a student vomit on the rug. The custodian came in and put the sawdust stuff on it and wiped it as much as possible. Huge stain on the rug. The custodian said they would shampoo the rug. I came in the next day and still had a huge vomit stain on the rug. We went the whole day and no cleaning happened. I complained to my principal about it and asked if it could be done that evening. Next morning the stain was gone. Turns out my principal shampooed my whole rug that night on his own. He didn’t have to do that, but I was very grateful he did.

Today, my boss overheard me on the phone with my prescription drug insurance and my doctor's office. The insurance is now requiring a prior authorization for one of my very expensive medications. For those of you not in the pharmacy field, this means that the doctor's office has to justify to the insurance why I need this medication. I was out as of Friday. My boss asked me what med it was, and told me to take what I needed for the weekend. Unbelievable! Of course, I will pay it back when the authorization goes through, but still......

I've been working in the same facility since I was 8. And my boss is very strict about time and isn't very flexible around schedules. But thankfully he allowed me to schedule the times I go in around my cheer schedule. Which was surprising do to the fact that before when I had asked to schedule it around my volleyball schedule, he denied my request.

Give me extra mental health breaks .. I got tired fast because of anorexia

My first job out of uni I was in plans to buy my first car (used) and I was having some trouble transferring the vehicle (something was wrong on the seller's end) and they kept harassing me when I said I didn't want to buy it anymore. They even showed up at my workplace one day after I'd already left. The CEO, my boss at the time, invited them in and listened and explained to them that I don't owe them anything because something was clearly wrong and they were trying to cover it up. He told them that if they keep harassing me he would take call the cops.

The next day when I got to work he called me in his office and explained what happened and what he told them. He also told me he knows I'm young and I wasn't 100% what I was doing so he gave me some advice. The seller's never contacted me after that day.

I have heard many conflicting stories about people's negative experiences with him over the years but He helped me when I was unsure, young and naive and I will always be grateful. (He passed away a few years ago, RIP Dr.)

Twice my boss gave us money out of his own pocket for lunch, and I know he didn't look to be reimbursed by the company, nor would he be even if he requested it. The first time was when a well-liked employee was leaving the company and we were organizing a farewell lunch. The second time was when I and a few other guys had to drive to a different location and do some heavy lifting. We finished a bit before lunch and our boss (same guy) gave us some money for lunch. Both times he gave us more than we needed and never asked for change or brought it up again.

Once our Company participated at a charity run and I accidently fell and sprained my feet. Ambulance said, it is not broken, so it would take care and time, but no hsopital. Since I could barely walk but not drive on that very evening, my boss drove me home herself and made shure, I was fine until everything was healed.