My late father was a UCC (United Church of Christ) minister for 50 years. While I was never heavily involved in the church, the title of this piece is one of the terms he occasionally used and which has stuck in my mind after all of these years. He was not referring to God sending a series of plagues or striking someone down with a lightning bolt. He was saying that, sometimes life hands someone punishment for what they have inflicted upon other. Even though we may be mistreated and would like to have some sort of revenge, sometimes life takes care of this for us.
Having worked in two large academic medical centers (one with 8000 employees and the other with 15000 employees), I have been exposed to some world-class sociopaths. Fortunately, with most of them, my dealings were minimal, but I have had the misfortune to have had to work for some people who can most politely be referred to as sociopathic bullies. In public, these people were all invariably polite, enthusiastic "team players". A few had to cope with their ambition exceeding their competence by a wide margin, which could make life frustrating and challenging to those of us who had to work for them. In private, these people were sometimes polite, mixed with interactions in which one would be berated, insulted, and threatened; one never knew what to expect. I did not get to be where I am professionally by being incompetent or dishonest, so being accused of either is more than a bit disturbing.
It is said that the first casualty of war is truth. The same can be said for having to work with or for this type of individual. Saying whatever is convenient at the moment (similar to at least one of the current presidential candidates) creates a challenge for people like me because, what was OK today may not be OK tomorrow.
Fortunately for me, the people like this with whom I have had to work closely over the last 40 years can be counted on one hand, so I guess I am lucky. Two of them, in particular, have experienced Divine Retribution and are no longer in their jobs because of the institutional politics. It can only be hoped that they did not move on to similar positions elsewhere so that they could continue their bullying. Regardless, while I will never forget them, I am free from their negative behavior.
Working with people like this, there are three things that can happen: you quit and move on somewhere else, you get fired, or you do your best to hunker down and tolerate it. I have experienced all of them, and all can be unpleasant to some degree. If they aren't going anywhere, moving on if you can is always best.
From my experience, Divine Retribution is a good thing. Unfortunately, it just doesn't happen as often as it should.
