Monument

The manager they brought in to bring him in line has been one of the best, kindest, and most human managers I’ve ever met. (But she doesn’t fuck around.)

She’s also an absolute shark at knowing the system, and without going into specifics, has done very well for everyone on my team that has been even modestly competent.

I honestly feel bad for the guy. He was too far in the hole of anger and resentment to realize that he’d been handed a whole new opportunity before he squandered it.
Shortly after I was hired, several other people were hired in to help with the flow of work, and my team went from being sort of an embarrassment to one that, quite frankly, is awesome. (And we still have a good work-life balance.)

You’re both speaking to the same point.

In the process of enforcing good boundaries at work, you shouldn’t be a jerk. Firm, no-nonsense, but polite. And the flip side is to use your capacity wisely.

That’s weirdly sort of how I got my job.

Apparently my predecessor was a nice guy with low boundaries that (at the time) lacked managerial support. When he painted himself into a corner on his commitments, didn’t get the accolades or raises he thought he should get, he got bitter, started to act out, stopped doing work he should have done, and finally, when management started pressing him to clean up some messes he had created over a year+ of neglecting his responsibilities, he left an unsigned resignation letter on his desk and didn’t come to work for a few days.
He called to discuss the terms of his return, expecting a raise, and they just told him they accepted his resignation.

I don’t think they know you run your own instance.