Power Struggle
My boss lost an internal power struggle and was soon fired. The official reason given was that he was submitting doctored expense reports. I wasn’t promoted, but was still given all of his responsibilities…plus I inherited his administrative assistant.
Suddenly, charges for car service, local hotels, and local stores appeared on my corporate credit card. I asked the assistant about the charges and she gave me an explanation that was plausible but that I knew wasn’t accurate.
So I called the credit card company and contested the charges until they provided more information. I also started doing some of my own research on the charges. That’s when it all became frighteningly clear.
Turns out, the assistant was a drinker who lived with her dog in the local hotel—a hotel that I was getting charged for. She was also having the car service pick up her booze at the local store and deliver it to her at the hotel. Why? Apparently, her dog had a nervous condition and he liked that hotel.
He would get upset if she went out to the store after she got back from work, so she used the car service so she wouldn’t leave and upset the dog. She charged the expenses to our corporate cards because we “owed” her for making her come to work and leave her dog alone.
I got her fired and successfully fought the credit card charges. Even though I found the person actually committing the expense report problems, my boss was still considered “fired for cause” because he signed those expense reports.