posted on October 14, 2001 02:07:37 AM new
On October 16, in many parts of the country we will celebrate Bosses Day. A day set aside for recognition of the great boss you may have. However, some people don't have a great boss. Their boss is a real Ba$tard. Every one has probably had one in their life time. Why not share your worst experience with others. You may find out that your current boss is not so bad after all.
Here's mine:
Mr W. was a real pr*ck! He never judged anyone by work performance, but by personality. If he didn't like you, he would do anything to make your continued employment diffucult. With one employee, mailed his paycheck to the Post Office. On payday, when the employee wanted to receive his paycheck, he was told to go to the PO and sign for it on general delivery. The employee reported him to the state department of labor.
He always sought a way to find somebody doing something wrong. When nothing major was happening, then something small was conjured up.
Have you ever had a miserable jackass for a boss?
[ edited by yeager on Oct 14, 2001 02:10 AM ]
posted on October 14, 2001 02:56:20 AM new
Yes - I have had both good and bad bosses and if you have ant way to find out there is usually a reson or reasons for that. Rarely is it just that the person has a vile personality.
I had a boss working for the state of Ohio and the people there clued me in that he never won any arguements at home so he had to wiin them all at work.
When we went to a picnic for the department I finally understood it. His wife sat and berated him to everyone the whole time saying how stupid and useless he was and how much less in every way than the men in her family.
After a long tirade I asked well if he is such a useless pile of dog dung why have you stayed around - why have you not left and improved your situation? Nobody ever had the nerve to ask her apparently and she started saying how good he was, so I asked - You mean you are going to retract all that terrible stuff you have been saying all afternoon? I don't know if she thought we weren't listening or what?
posted on October 14, 2001 08:53:57 AM new
Goddess yes! Technically, she wasn't my boss, because I was a long-term temp, but she was the worst human being I've ever had the misfortune to work for.
First, she couldn't keep a temp for more than 6 weeks, 3 was the norm. When I first started for her, I thought it was just because the work was a little harder than most temp assignments and because she was a little pickier about things - tons of revisions, etc. This stuff doesn't bother me. Well, because she couldn't find any fault w/my work, I guess she had to come up w/other ways to torture my soul. First thing she did was take away my voice-mail. Since part of my job was to arrange her travel, I had lots of call-backs, but she just woke up one day and decided none of her temps should have voice mail. I retaliated by calling in sick for a week. Still, it was more fun to screw w/me than to fire me, so she just kept getting worse and worse.
When she found out I have a slight tremor in my hands (I'd rather type 500 pages than draw or cut one straight line), she looked for stupid menial jobs where this would be a problem for me.
I asked my agency to find me another assignment, but they were too into the commission they were getting. Finally I got myself fired by not showing up the day after the xmas party.
I should actually thank her because prior to her, all my temp bosses had been wonderful, and all too happy to have an intelligent temp, with good skills show up. After her, other things fell into place and I moved back west. Complacency might have kept me from moving.
All in all, she was the nastiest witch I have ever worked with or for. Yuk.
[ edited by sadie999 on Oct 14, 2001 08:55 AM ]
[ edited by sadie999 on Oct 14, 2001 08:57 AM ]
posted on October 14, 2001 10:10:40 AM new
Try this one on for size. He never paid me a dime for the six weeks I worked for him. He doesn't deny that he owes me the money--just hands out lots of promises and excuses. Now he has stopped taking my phone calls or responding to email. He knows that since he is headquartered in another state and the work was done in this one, I have no realistic chance of ever collecting. I can go to small claims court--in this state--but he won't show and will simply disregard any judgement I get. Unless I fly to his state and register the judgement there, I will never get any $$$$. What could be worse?!
posted on October 14, 2001 10:44:37 AM new
The worst person I ever worked for was an attorney. A grumpy, miserable, mean, cheap old man. I was his legal secretary. I worked there all of 6 months and I would NEVER work for another attorney again. My last day as his employee I had to take the day off for an interview for another job (I had been looking for a different job, he was totally unbearable). I had gotten an interview and I called in sick and that was the ONLY day I ever called in sick. He told me "fine, but I'm not paying you for this sick day". I hung up and went to my interview anyways.
When I got home a few hours later I found out I had gotten the job. I called him up and my last words to him were "I quit. I just got another job. You can take your job and shove it up your butt". And I hung up. Never heard from him again. And he had already paid me for the week because I got paid 1 week in advance. Good riddens!
posted on October 14, 2001 11:30:32 AM new
I can only think of one boss, and that was many years ago. I was a cashier in a large department store, similar to SavOn. This guy was so obnoxious, he would lecture the clerks in front of the customers, waiting in line to be checked out with their purchases. He never got on to me, until one day, he noticed me for some reason, whereas before, I was beneath his notice. Anyway, he decided to berate me in front of the customers and this was a LONG line because it was lunch time and everyone was doing their thing on their lunch hour. When he started in on me, I just kept ringing up, and that ticked him off worse, so he got louder and louder and I kept ignoring and ignoring...finally I had had enough, so I took off my apron (they made us wear blue ones with our names on it) and I handed it to him and said "here, you do it, a$$hole" and I walked out.
Then there was the time I worked for Burger King and a customer said the burger tasted like sh!t and through it at me. I ducked and said "Ooohh...we wanna play catch, do we? Well ALRIGHTY THEN!"...and I reached for the styrofoam coffee cups, the plastic knives and spoons, the sugar packets..and I commenced to throw them at him...the boss hollered at me to CEASE AND DESIST and I started aiming at HIM too.....
posted on October 14, 2001 12:32:16 PM new
Once I went to work for a fellow and three weeks after I hired on I showed up at work and the business had been sold to a new person. Since we were to be paid every two weeks this was the day my first pay check was due.
I asked if he wanted to retain me as the new owner and he said no. Actually he said more than NO to me - he was very rude and profane for no real reson. I said OK I am due wages. He said talk to the old owner it is not my problem to pay you. I said Hey - Don't give me that - you are going to pay the electric company and the gas company when they bill you for the last month or they will cut your service off. He said yeah? What are you going to cut off? I already told you I don'y want you. I told him - your choice if I am not paid within the week I will burn the place to the ground. I will try to make sure nobody is in it however. He said you have the nerve to tell me ahead of time you are going to do that? The next day you will be sitting in jail! I said yes - a place I have been before, and that won't rebuild the business and if you do foolishly rebuild it when I get out I will do it all over again and your home also if I can find it. --- He cut me a check.
I would like to suggest customerssuck.com to all of you
My worst boss actually bought a gourmet deli that I had worked at for a couple of years. The manager they chose to run the store was liberating funds, so to speak ... so they fired him ... and promoted me to his job. After that, the wife decided I was there to abuse ..too many incidents to even list here. Finally on my final day I brought hubby to work (6'5", lotsa muscles ) and stood up to her. She demoted me on the spot ... I loved it ... that day 3 coolers broke, vendors needed paid. I had the same stock answer, "I'm sorry, I am only a deli clerk
The real fun was when she realized that all of my notes .. all of the supplier information, etc .... was in my personal notebook .... and I gave it to a new company who were planning on opening a deli to compete against her. In return, they gave us information on how to open a video store.
Oh, and they needed my testimony to nab the old manager. OOPS! I don't think so ....
I went on to open several successful businesses ... they sold the deli at a huge loss. Oh, and the former manager could only get charged with a tiny portion of what he "liberated" without my testimony.
posted on October 14, 2001 09:36:17 PM new
I've got another quick one. On a particular day the Incompetent Ba$tards running the place were running low on employees and asked "John" to work a double shift. "John" was just given a day off for disipline earlier in the week. His reply was "Sorry, I can't help you out. Remember the day off you gave me? If I worked this double shift I'd be making it up, and I can't do that."
Mrs Santa Claus,
It sound to me that everyone should have a Becky as a co-worker.
posted on October 14, 2001 10:02:28 PM new
Boy, I have a doozy for this thread. I was 20, young, fresh out of college, and, well, I pretty much didn't have a clue about the work world.
A friend of mine that I went to college with talked to one of the three owners of a local electrical contracting firm about me, told him about my computer training, and he called me and asked me to come in for an interview.
I went in, was hired on the spot, but immediately got the impression that something wasn't quite "right" about the company. The people there seemed nice enough, but they seemed so ... fake. Fake smiles, fake "nice-to-meet-you's", etc.
Well, I soon found out why. I should have went with my gut feeling, but I blamed it on my being nervous about the interview.
Come to find out, I was hired to replace a girl that they fired after finding out that she and one of the bosses' sons (who also worked there) was having an affair. They FIRED her, and did NOTHING to him.
Apparently the bosses' son thought I was fair game seeing as how I was hired to replace his previous "interest" (nevermind that I was married!). He made my life a living he**. He'd ask me out, only to be turned down each time. He'd slip into my office and sit down BEHIND ME in my chair, and the way my office was arranged, there was barely room for a desk and chair. I couldn't just get up and walk away when he started that crap ... he would block the door. And (being young and not knowing any better) I was too afraid to yell out "LEAVE ME ALONE!" for fear that I would get fired like the previous girl did.
And every time I turned him down, he would set me up to make it look like I wasn't doing my job. He'd go along behind me and either lie about me or alter the work I had done so that it looked like I was a total idiot. And of course, that would get me in trouble with the three owners. I was too scared to tell what REALLY happened. On most days, I drove home in tears.
And I was stupid/naive enough to put up with it for FIVE YEARS. Yes, I know ... DUH! ... but I honestly didn't know how to quit. "Quitting" wasn't in my vocabulary. I kept thinking it would get better, but it only got worse.
Finally I got called to one of the owners' offices for yet another chewing out, and I was so angry about it, than when he shut the door and started to fuss at me, I up and told him that I'd had enough, that I was working a 2-week notice and that was it. No more.
It was kind of funny when I said it, because he immediately started backpedalling on his "big speech". Suddenly I wasn't such a bad employee after all.
There's more that happened as well, but there's too much to post. As an example, one of the owners would walk past me and pat me on the behind, ask me what color my underwear was, and stuff like that. It was apparent that I wasn't going to get ANYwhere up the corporate ladder unless I hopped in the bed with one/some of them, and THAT wasn't going to happen.
8 years later, a little older and a LOT wiser, I keep kicking myself for putting up with it as long as I did. I *should* have got 'em for sexual harassment, and in hindsight, I think they were afraid that I would, because they were incredibly nice to me after I turned in my notice.
But at least I'm out of there now! That's the only "real" job I've ever had. After I quit, I went into business for myself and have been making it just fine on my own ever since.
Never, never, never again will I allow myself to be treated that way.
posted on October 14, 2001 10:21:52 PM new
The worst bosses are the ones who think they are your boss when they really aren't! You know-the co-worker who thinks she knows what you do and tells you when and how to do your job. The kind of person that think they know everything about your job. She's the one who stands over you, checks what you've done and listens to your calls from a superior just so she can see if you've made a mistake. If you do make a mistake it is all over the building in two minutes flat. Of course the whole time she is telling everyone about your mistake she is complaining about how much she has to do and how she can't ever take a break.
