Looking back over the last 30 years or so, I’ve had three brilliant bosses, three nightmare bosses, and the rest falling somewhere in-between, but trending towards good. The only way the nightmare bosses would have improved would have been to put someone else over them as their supervisor.

I’ve had a few hairy dismissals which I would have tried to appeal against, if there had been a realistic option for appeal. I generally don’t dredge up details but for better or for worse some of the more interesting moments have been:

• getting dismissed for (I think) preaching a complementarian view of 1 Timothy 2, although this was denied at the time – it’s just that the reasons given for being dismissed varied depending on who was asking.
• being lied to, and about, in order to diminish my reputation amongst those charged with supporting me.
• being told by one minister that it didn’t matter that he had promised that I could stay in the parish, because (I quote) “I’m the rector and I can do what I want.

These things are ancient history now and I don’t feel a great deal of angst about them anymore, although it was pretty awful to watch the family suffer because of the wickedness and deceit (no better words for it) of those in power.

It also appears to me that Bishops are more likely to smooth the way for the Senior Minister than for the Assistant.