How do you want to be remembered by your co-workers long after you are gone?

The world tends to remember emotionally intelligent people with fondness, love, and admiration, long after they are gone or have left their jobs. Here are twelve statements, remembering emotionally intelligent employees with fondness long after they have left their jobs:

1 “He was a great guy to work with. If all employees were like him, my job would have been a breeze. He made me feel like getting out of bed every morning and enjoying my hour-long train ride to work.”

2’ Once, I saw my CEO taking the toilet brush and cleaning the office bathroom that the employees use. Right after doing that, he got into his chauffeur-driven limousine to ride to the airport to hop on his private jet leaving for Europe. I was a janitor for that company at the time. I was on his payroll to clean the toilets. I couldn’t believe my eyes, that he was doing what he pays me to do as a janitor. He put himself in my shoes.”

3 “I was going through a hard time. I had gotten pregnant, and my boyfriend skipped town. My supervisor gave me ten minutes of her billion-dollar schedule to listen to me. Those ten minutes changed the way I saw her thereafter. She made me feel like giving beyond my best for that company after that day. I loved her as a human being, long after she left the company.”

4 “She is one of us”

5 “No matter how wealthy he is, I feel like he relates to my struggles. He cares about what I am going through.”

6 She has not forgotten her roots. She is one of the wealthiest people in the world, yet, she is humble in ways I cannot imagine.”

7 “He is kind and humble. My previous CEO was such a proud jerk, so I know the symptoms of humility quite intimately.”

8 “He treated me with dignity, even when he fired me because I had taken some office products which I shouldn’t have.”

9 “I’d take a massive pay cut to work for a boss like that, any day.”

10 “When she led the organization there was no toxicity. No behind-the-scenes manipulation. No hidden agenda. She understood what a waste of time, money, and energy all that stuff was. Everyone was at ease because of that.”

11 “He was a neighbor with a heart”

12 “She changed the poor image of corporate CEOs of being greedy, selfish, and power hungry, to one of compassion, understanding, and kindness. Nearly everybody who ever worked for her, only had great things to say about her.”

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How to be Remembered with Contempt, Bitterness, and Remorse

In contrast here are ten statements that are likely to be echoed by staff members who have worked with a boss or co-worker with unhealthy and destructive emotional intelligence, and are no longer at their mercy for a paycheck:

1 “He was a nasty co-worker”

3 “She was a …” (fill in your own blank)

4 “I had been working for the company selflessly, for twenty years. This was when we all had to show up at the office, punch in, punch out, and remote work was not even heard of. When it was time to let me go, the company attorney sent me a standard e-mail saying my services were no longer needed. That was it. No thank you, nothing. What happened to loyalty?”

5 “Whenever she pulled into the parking lot, we all watched from the windows as our stomachs began to cringe”

6 “She made me sick.”

6 “He had all the academic degrees from the finest of schools but had zero empathy. Everyone hated him with a passion. We all needed the money to support our lives, so we faked our smiles and stuck with it.”

7 “All she cared about was “How can I use my staff to make me rich?” And she did whatever she needed to do, to achieve that goal. We all saw through it. That was her vision for the company. Boy, was she mean. We called her the ‘Queen of Mean’ She showed a very sweet and kind face to the media though.”

8 “Everyone was afraid to speak up. If anyone said a word at the Thanksgiving table when that relative was around that was not to her liking, she would manipulate the whole family to detest you. We got used to the dysfunction after several decades in fear. Boy did I feel uncomfortable whenever she walked in to the house.”

9 “When he became the CEO all the talented, brilliant, high performing employees, left, one by one. They knew what was coming. I overstayed- unfortunately.”

10 “She flaunted company wealth, while we slaved away. Whenever we brought up our concerns it was like “if there is no bread, eat cake” type of callous answer. So, we began to give less and less than our best to our jobs. She was the cause; for that company to plummet; not the product. The product didn’t drive that company to go bankrupt; she did.” ?

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