Not nice

This story, "Can 'Nice Girls' Negotiate?", reminded me of a particularly nasty period in my career. It's kind of a tangent, but stay with me.
Going back a few years, I was editing a magazine at a major publisher when the powers that be decided to shut the shop on the title. Okay, this happens all the time in magazine publishing we hear you say, what's the story?
Well, the editorial director at the company offered me a job at another magazine in the same department. This is where things get going. The editors at the other magazine flat out refused to have me on the magazine. I know! Can you believe it? Apparently I was too bossy and opinionated.
Ahem. Let's recap. I was the editor, which kind of involved being bossy and opinionated. I mean, that is what they pay us to to do, after all. We have strong ideas on how the magazine should be run and tell the assorted folk who work on the magazine what to do so the damn thing gets to newsstand on time and keep people reading it.
Anyway, long story short, I stuck around for a while getting paid to go shopping and waiting for the squabbling to stop. In the meantime I was offered another job more suited to my skills at the same rate. Cut to two weeks later: new job and hefty redundancy payout that I used to pay the stamp duty on my first house.
I think there are a few morals to this story, not least the fact that women are judged more harshly if that take a stand at work, but I will let you draw your own conclusions. At the time I thought it was a win for my determination to not be walked all over.
Alternatively, sometimes it, literally, pays to be the person people don't like.