I always approach my work and my knowledge as I am always learning. If I am controller and the assistant controller calls me out maybe I should listen. No one respects my boss because he is clearly an idiot. Yes I should not have called him out on it I suppose. He was a caricature of a controller.

Regarding being a know it all - that really wasn’t my attitude. I always tried to share my knowledge and educate folks I worked with. And I was always willing to admit when I was wrong. If I didn’t know something I would seek to understand and inform others of my findings.

Regarding the story, I am not sure what else to tell you. The two folks who retired did so because they could not stand working with my boss anymore and another coworker. They retired together in protest, letting my boss’s boss know the department was being mismanaged. They had combined 50 years experience. The next accountant in line had 8 months experience. It was too bad they left but I don’t blame them. Then my boss tried to withhold their pay. I still talk to the two of them. One of whom babysits for me sometimes.

Our department then was run by me and one mid level accountant under me who came on board around the same time as me. I was basically running the accounting for a $75 million College (Bursar/Financial Aid booked some cash, but that’s it). At the same time I had to single-handedly handle previous year audit by myself. I was only one person and lacked resources to help me in any way. And my boss didn’t know the difference between our accounting software and budgeting platform. He was of no help and relied on my predecessor to do everything. My predecessor was already gone for a month when I started so I had zero training or overlap.

Hope that explains a little. My predecessor golfs with my boss’s boss and is good friends with the other employee who did not like me. It is what it is.