Last week I was asked to stay away from screens for a few days due to a possible injury (I’m fine), so today and tomorrow will include some posts from the archives. It was originally published in 2015.
A reader writes:
I took a job at a nonprofit as an economic researcher about seven months ago. Overall, I love my job and what I get to do and help people, but there is one major issue: my boss, who is the founder and head of the organization, thinks he is an illusionist. i am not joking.
He spends wild amounts of money (sometimes company money) to finance his “spiritual projects” and has recently been asking me to do ridiculous projects like comparing chakra colors in different cultures and staring at a candle to find a sacred angle. seriously. I’ve been able to handle it okay so far. He is getting crazier by the day and I don’t know how to handle it now because if I tell him anything, he will say “darkness has taken over me” and then he will become uncommunicative when I need information.
What can I do? Is there anything, because I don’t want to quit my job but it’s getting out of hand. He messages us at midnight with his “visions” and when one of our employees was pregnant he called her a “Christ child” and said a quarter of the DNA should be his. I swear this is not a fake situation or question.
I guess exorcists have a day’s work to do.
And he is welcome to believe that he is a magician. Who knows, maybe he is. But the problem here is that he is letting his spiritual beliefs interfere with work and apparently misusing the resources of the organization.
But I doubt there’s much you can do here. This is your boss, the head of the organization, and ultimately he is the one making the decisions here. If you really want to try to address it, you’ll have two options: talk to him directly, or talk to the board of directors.
If you talk to him directly, I would say something like this: “Percival, I respect your religious beliefs, but I am not comfortable discussing religion at work or being given religious assignments to work on. I was hired to conduct economic research and our organization is not religious in nature. Is there a way for us to work together without involving religion?” Ideally, you’ll do this with a group of coworkers who feel the same way as you; It’s harder to ignore a group of employees than a single employee – but either way, it’s a fair thing to say.
That said, will this work? I doubt it. This is the guy telling you that darkness has taken possession of you and is claiming some kind of paternity over a quarter of an employee’s child. In other words, possibly not ready to have a reasoned conversation on these topics.
So that leaves you with another option: talk to the board. Every nonprofit is required to have a board of directors that serves as its ultimate governing body and which is responsible for ensuring that the organization is well-managed and financially sound. The board is basically this person’s boss – even though he or she is the founder and even though he or she is in charge of day-to-day operations. He may have a seat on the board, but there will likely be other board members, which means he could be outvoted.
The board will likely want to know that the leader of the organization is using resources to find sacred candle angles and leaving employees out in the cold when they feel darkness has taken over them.
But that said… unless you care passionately about this organization and want to play an active role in fixing this situation, you might be better off leaving. This is unlikely to change overnight, there will likely be some tension if you go on board, and – perhaps most importantly – do you really trust this guy’s leadership, even if he cools it by talking embarrassment at work? I mean, let’s say the board bans all the behavior you wrote about, and it happens quickly enough – you’re still going to work in an organization led by the person who thought it was all right to begin with. Is this the job you want?
In light of this, it may be advisable to skip all these steps and simply start working on quitting.
(Alternatively, perhaps own the whole thing and ask him to influence the spiritual world in your favor. This might also be useful.)
Read the update of this letter here.
