Favorite "Bad" Boss Story
Zanne
289 Posts
Around here, we have a radio station that has a "Sweet Old Boss" contest. I was just curious if you have any "Sweet Old Boss" stories.
One of Mine:
I was hired by a man who looked a lot like George Kastanza (Seinfield) and was shorter than me. (important to the story later) After about a week, he stopped talking directly to me and began leaving me notes on my desk when I would go to the bathroom. He also would give me directions via voice mail - even though our offices were 10 feet apart. I would usually try to ask questions when he came and went to his office - which required me jumping up from my desk and chasing him down.
One day, I decided life was too short to work for this man any more, so I began wearing my tallest heels to the office and towering over him every chance I got. I began using the words, "little, short, small, shrimp" as much as possible. It was with relief when I resigned and began working elsewhere. By the way, he went through about five other office managers in 18 months before his boss decided he needed a new "little" career opportunity.
Your stories?
Zanne
One of Mine:
I was hired by a man who looked a lot like George Kastanza (Seinfield) and was shorter than me. (important to the story later) After about a week, he stopped talking directly to me and began leaving me notes on my desk when I would go to the bathroom. He also would give me directions via voice mail - even though our offices were 10 feet apart. I would usually try to ask questions when he came and went to his office - which required me jumping up from my desk and chasing him down.
One day, I decided life was too short to work for this man any more, so I began wearing my tallest heels to the office and towering over him every chance I got. I began using the words, "little, short, small, shrimp" as much as possible. It was with relief when I resigned and began working elsewhere. By the way, he went through about five other office managers in 18 months before his boss decided he needed a new "little" career opportunity.
Your stories?
Zanne
Comments
How's that go? "The pot calling the kettle, black".
Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]
Zanne
the Boss gave me a cake for my birthday ~ and then told me I was being laid off...PS: that company went out of business eventually.
Chari
Once I didn't check his sandwich (yes I opened it and checked it) and I missed the tomato. He came over, threw the opened sandwich on my desk and asked if I was happy that he couldn't eat now.
There's more to this story..but let's just say he wasn't a nice person.
He's the same boss who also told me that he hired me for my looks (in my younger days) so that I could persuade the Board Of Directors to do things his way. I gave my immediate resignation and was packing my office when he decided I was seriously offended and he apologized.
He ultimately got an "Involuntary Career Opportunity" from the company and now practices his brand of leadership in Chicago.
I thanked him for the letter opener and gave 3 weeks notice. For a minute there, I thought he was going to ask for his letter opener back. x:o
For example(one of many), at my boss' request, I spent a great deal of time and energy researching and then writing a suspicion based drug testing policy for our company. I was told to forward it to the President of the Co. I did so, and didn't hear one single solitary word about it. No "Thanks," no "we've decided not to go that way, but good work." Nothing.
Until several months later during my Performance Appraisal when my boss, apparently lacking any real benefits to play up about my position (because there weren't any) told me how special I should feel because when I wrote that policy, I had a "direct, written link to the President of the company, and not everyone has that." I guess either she was too stupid to realize, or thought that I was, that a monkey could have written a policy, forwarded it to the President, and never heard another word about it. I put in my two weeks shortly there after, and she had the nerve to be surprised.
After calling her house all morning to find out what I had done, I learned that I wasn't the culprit. My boss - who used my secretary more than I did - had a weeklong conference in Atlanta and flew out on Saturday. When he arrived at the airport, he realized he had forgotten his SHAVING KIT. He called my secretary at home, and ordered her to drive to his house, pick up his SHAVING KIT and take it to the airport.
She actually did it - and then he berated her in the airport because it took her too long and his boarding number had already passed. Never mind that she hung up the phone, drove 10 miles to his house, drove 15 miles to the airport, parked, found the right terminal and gate, and delivered his SHAVING KIT - all in 30 minutes.
I told my secretary to come in, and we'd go discuss it with the VP of HR. She did, and he "allowed" her to come back, on one condition. She had to switch places with HIS secretary, who wouldn't even go downstairs to the deli and get him a sandwich during her lunch. (not that she should... I'm paraphrasing his remarks)
Anyway, I'm not sure who was the worse boss, but they both are right up there in my book.
During her 1st 6 months she arrived late every day (15-30 minutes), took long lunches, left early (15-30 minutes) and was out of the office 2 afternoons a week to have her braces adjusted. During this time she would stand at my door and gossip for hours at a time. It took awhile, but I finally managed to hint that I had work to do (she didn't like it).
I then bought a house and took 2 days off to move. This was the 1st time I had taken since I started working there. A week later my daughter became ill and I had to take another day off. I ended up running in to make sure a job was done that had some issues surrounding it (it still counted towards my leave time).
The next day I returned to find I had been written up for excessive absenteeism (and the memo was full of misspellings and unbelievably poor grammer). When I confronted her about it, she was astonished that I would think anything of it since she had received those kinds of warnings all the time in her previous job and they didn't really mean anything.
About 6 months later I finally told the Operations Manager that I had had it and was quitting. He made it clear she would go first, or, I could just be removed from having to report to her. That's when I found out that of the 4 or 5 departments answering to her originally, mine was the only one left. I opted not to report to her and stay with the company.
Long story...but boy what a nightmare! She was still there when I left 2 years later, spending her time visiting with the CEO.
What a romantic!
Sometimes I worry about you guys. x;-)