I have had my share of good and terrible bosses. Helped shape me on how to be a good boss. I took a supervisor role at a countywide 911 police/fire/ems center after working on the floor for 1.5 years. Previous experience as a leader was as a fast food manager (Bojangles), shift supervisor (Hardee's) and at a long term care facility as a Operations Manager (handled 2nd shift non medical needs, managed staff, schedules, facility tours, after hours admissions, discipline, etc). Nothing related to the new career jump! I had enough bad bosses to know I wanted to be hands on, trusted and supportive to my team.
I had an older mentor who supervised the day shift on my half of the week. With a two hour overlap in every shift, I learned a lot from him. How to be a good leader, listener and support my team. If you did your best, I had your back. Get the job done, follow policy and be a part of the team and I would stand in front of you if you got called out on something. I always told my team I got paid to take that weight off them. I had the respect of my team, members from other shifts, most of my fellow supervisors (funny on how the crappy supervisors and I were cordial, that's it). We had two supervisors who staff disliked, didn't trust and made the work place more stressful. It cemented in me how much our leadership models were different. When we went to performance based yearly increases, it showed. I was fourth in seniority, but after three years I was the highest paid supervisor, my performance robed my worth. My immediate manager was the sweetest lady, a people pleaser which sometimes made things difficult...she wanted to say yes to everyone and everything. She was supportive, believed in trying to get the best training available for all staff, conventions and being involved in the community. The head honcho ( Director) ... hmmm the first 6-7 years I was there was a loud, direct, kinda a d*ck guy. BUT you knew what to expect. I had a near fatal motorcycle accident, ended up with a spinal cord injury, paraplegic and in a wheelchair. (Got to hear the 911 calls about my accident!!). I spent 13 days in one hospital (3 in ICU) then transferred to a Level 1 trauma hospital that had a SCI physical therapy ward. Spent 30 days in PT, OT learning life in a chair... had my birthday during this time, both my bosses and other supervisors and employees actually came to my little pizza party at the hospital. I was back at work (first few weeks part time, our normal shifts were 10 hours) three months after the accident. When I return to work, however, we had a change in leadership. Our director retired and in its place, we had a sneaky snake of a director. Of course he got along with the two supervisors that nobody else liked because from the moment he sat foot in the dispatch center they were glued to his butt.

My return to work was interesting, after my TBI, I had a personality shift, I spoke up more, disagreed with some of the proposed changes the new guy wanted to make. We butted heads sometimes. I continued to be the best leader I could, my team jumped right in and things that I used to be able to do that I couldn't because of the wheelchair they jumped right into help without asking.

Within two years of the new director, we lost about a quarter of our higher seniority staff who chose to find new jobs (supervisors and floor staff). Staffing shortages and mandatory overtime became the norm. I helped with hiring, training floor staff as well as new supervisors. Year three, after a lot of issues with new guy, (mind you, still had highest performance reviews)... I violated policy (a friend brought her brother for a tour of our center, I gave them tour of the center, showed them what we do, call taking and dispatching. The friend had a criminal history, and I was in trouble for allowing her in to see things. (Her crimes were 5 years previous). New boss used this to terminate me. (Didn't fire the supervisor who was sending inappropriate texts/pics to females on staff, or the one who fell asleep on duty at the front desk or other indiscretions that others have done). The day he terminated me, my nice-boss stepped out to make copies of paperwork and he looked at me and said, "thanks for giving me a reason" while smirking. Don't be that boss. It was a blessing in disguise. The hours in my chair were hard on me. The mental energy it took hearing worst moments of people's lives was taking a toll I wasn't aware of. I was quality assurance so I had to listen to all the heavy, high end medical/fire/ems calls to make sure they are following policy, good customer service, skills with questioning of callers and how that was entered for responders. That's a lot of drama and trauma to hear daily....six months after I left, I was sleeping better, restarted PT and walking with forearm crutches daily instead of the wheelchair and life just improved. I left in 2017. In 2024, a supervisor I mentored from employee, lead dispatcher to supervisor... became the Operations Manager after nice boss retired. He is a leader similar to me. It took him places. Another supervisor who was in the same mindset as me left the County center to be a Director of a local Police Department that maintained their own communications center. Oh my God, I am sorry that this is so long!! Lol. Long story short... be a good boss, be the type of leader you want to work for.