Everybody knew it was coming and that's the problem. The signs were there long before the departure was confirmed. When you realise your boss is on the way out it is very unsettling. Checking out whether the others in the team think the writing is on the wall confirms that they too have noticed the deteriorating relationship between the boss and the chief executive.

There was the public belittling at the last senior managers' meeting when in response to a question from the floor the chief executive suddenly turned to the boss and said: ‘Perhaps you would like to answer this question.' The boss was forced to admit they did not know the organisation's position on this matter thus confirming to everyone present that they were out of the decision making loop. This explained the difficulty we were having with the budget. Proposals were being put under far more scrutiny than was expected, and there were repeated requests for more supporting information only for the message to comeback , ‘be more realistic'  or ‘more creative' and even ,'more ruthless'. Now we were thinking it wasn't the proposals so much as who was putting them forward that was the problem.