I really enjoyed re-reading this topic this morning. It made SO clear to me why I am lucky I got myself fired. Subconscious rules!
Came up in my mind because I am about to get my distribution of employee-ownership "shares" -- which Nboss touted nonstop as evidence of his determination to make his employees secure, etc. All while he paid as little as he could get away with to warehouse workers and support staff, and while doing his delicious mental Nabuse.
Art Director (my good pal, the young man I shared an office with and still see--he's invited me to his wedding and comes over for a beer now and then) moved on a couple years ago. I wrote him an incredible letter of recommendation and he got a new position with better pay at an interesting company that values and respects him. CEO young man I thought was a friend was cowed by my departure and never picked up on future friendship, has since divorced and was seen drinking in his car in the parking lot. Nearly everyone else, sadly, got laid off during the pandemic.
My shares are worth 50% of what they were when I left, but it's still a small but nice boost to my emergency fund. They could legally delay paying me out for five years and did. Others, who had worked there for fewer years, got virtually nothing.
The other reason it popped up was an article about narcissistic bosses in the Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/30/after-suffering-abuse-two-narcissistic-bosses-im-leery-working-others/I think you do have to get an online subscription to read the Comments, but I enjoy them a lot (unless it's pure politics, which is endless sniping).
On a friend's recommendation I just subscribed (free) to Heather Cox Richardson's Letters from an American newsletter, which is like a drink of clear, cool water.
hugs,
Hops