Cruisin’ For A Bruisin’… To His Ego

A few years ago, I was sent to a cruise ship sailing to Cuba. It had been a few months since the ship started doing that particular itinerary, and my department was performing below expectations.

So, as soon as I got on board, I started changing operations. I introduced some new products into the lineup, worked with my shoreside team to add more events and make existing events better, etc. Operations changed drastically, and revenue improved, too. Nothing drastically much, but overall, it was 15% to 20% better than it used to be, enough to bring us in 90% to 100% of the target. Important to note is that, due to some specifics of that itinerary, a lot of events we did were done in a VERY specific manner, due to local regulations and also not to cause any tension with local government.

At the end of the contract, I was supposed to be replaced by a manager who was new to this cruise line and had never worked the Cuba itinerary. I wrote extremely detailed handover notes, but I was also asked by my operations manager to do a few hours of handover with my replacement so he could get familiarized and get the specifics directly from me since I had initiated most of the changes.

In the afternoon on the day of my departure, the new manager came on board, and he turned out to be a dude I’d heard about from my previous company. (We’d worked on a different cruise line before but never met.) He was a short guy with ego and attitude three times his size.

I greeted him and asked him if he wanted to go into the office so I could explain the operation to him.

New Manager: *Sneering up at me* “I did this job when you were in diapers.”

I was around forty-two at that time, with twelve years of experience in the industry and ten years as a manager. I just had to laugh at that and retort:

Me: “You started this job one year before me. But hey, if you don’t need any instructions, no problem.”

I asked our Human Resources team if I could disembark earlier, and they said yes, so I left early for the airport.

About three days later, I got an email from my replacement, asking about some specifics.

Me: “You have all the information in the handover notes. Just read them. As you said, you’re an experienced manager. You can do it.”

No more emails from him. Curiously, his performance was below mine, and he didn’t stay long on that ship or in the company.