World's worst bosses that I had the privilege of working for
I have some good news and bad news. The good news is I get to keep my job after relocating to NYC less than 6 months ago. The bad news is I only had my 4 million dollar project cut by 85%. Fortunately, no jobs were lost by the cuts. I work for a boss and a team of leaders who have great faith in my abilities. I recognize that I am very lucky right now and I really appreciate the confidence they have in me.
It wasn't always that way. I reflected this past weekend about every insufferable manager for whom I've had the privilege of working. In my professional career I have worked for some of the most incompetent, egotistical, narcissistic, cruel, and ethically challenged people on the planet. Gender plays no role in the demography. Bad bosses apparently are equal opportunity PITAs.
So let's take a walk down memory lane of the Worst Bosses to work for. You might have bumped into them.
The Station Manager (Master Motivator): After winning the daypart radio ratings in the our market for the first time in 5 years, I asked the Station Manager for a $10 per week raise (1970s dollars). His motivating response, "You know I could find 500 people out there tomorrow who would work for $10 a week less than you. You're lucky you have a job. Now don't bother me again." Inspirational, wasn't he?
The Superintendent of Adminstration (Always Inclusive): This icon of superiority never looked you in the eye or talked directly to you, only through (his words) "his underlings." When I once asked a him a direct question, his response was, "I don't talk to people at your level." Hmmm, I was standing on the same level as he was.
The Entrpreneur (Commitment to Employees): I should have seen this one coming when a peer was fired because she couldn't work 70 hours that week because she had no daycare. I took a two week vacation and was told when I returned that I was being fired because "I lacked the commitment to keeping this business running." Since I was a part owner and responsible for all sales, at least I got a hefty check from her buying me out of the business.
The Absentee Station Owner (Empowering): It's hard to develop a relationship with your boss when he works 200 miles away from you. All of his communications were typed by his executive assistant, but his comments were of the colored highlighter/magic marker variety. I think they took all the sharp objects away from him. He micromanaged, and second and third guessed and was consistently inconsistent. Did I mention he micromanaged? His ethical highlight...never having enough cash in the company bank account to cover everyone's paychecks. Did I mention he micromanaged? I hope he's living in a cardboard box somewhere in a cold climate.
The Production Manager (Recognition): You could never do enough, work hard enough, do the right thing at the right time. When you did offer up a good solution or idea, he would be the first to implement it and, of course, take credit for it. He always stood behind his employees, but only in a large room.
Madame Vice President (Advancement Opportunities): This individual left the company during hard times and then staged a triumphant return where she could be seen as savior. Always one to indicate that she "took a big pay cut to return," she lauded the virtues of austerity, headcount reduction and improved efficiency. She refused to performance manage conflicts among her direct reports, and demonstrated favoritism whenever possible. When I completed my executive MBA I asked what opportunities there might be for me within the organization. She paused, looked in deep thought and said, "I have nothing for you. " Always ambitious, she climbed the corporate ladder and pulled it up behind her.
It was a privilege to work for thess people, because I learned how to be come a good leader, by not acting like any of them.
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People need to know they're not the only ones who have to put up with this kind of treatment. What are you gonna do if you don't have voodoo powers?
One time I was having kidney problems and had the audacity to take a bathroom break during my ONLY planning period of the day. (At 2:30 in the afternoon) My boss (who sits up front at church and cries on Good Friday) came and knocked on the door.. loudly...scaring the piss out of me and demanding that I get out of there and get ready for a fire drill. I am convinced she scheduled the fire drill for that moment to hassle me. With my pants down, no less. I haven't forgiven her. May I not burn in hell for not forgiving this woman.
Woops, I just thought I'd share. Maybe TMI.
What goes around comes around, though.
Gayle -- What an utterly humiliating thing to do to another human being. You're right what goes around comes around..
Coogansbluf -- the back charge for breakage really got under my skin. What an awful person.
Dogmom -- Just the person you feel safe with when something big has gone wrong and you have to break the news to him. Been there done that. Search for the guilty followed by punishment of the innocent.
Karin -- I understand the repressed anger. I knew it was time to leave one company when the "HR professional" (oxymoronic term) said, "I don't have time to waste on people issues, when I have more important work that needs attention."
One twit, a lower than middle manager, would start talking, right on the spot wherever he was , and would go on for 45 minutes, rambling on about old aircraft parts stories. God help the fool who tried to get away during these bizarre moments, the a&&&hole had a nasty temper.
Another clown had a penchant for calling Black men "Boy". And got away with it for years.
My favorite would be so incoherent at times that you couldn't understand a word that he was saying. Fortunately he would disappear for hours at a time. No one could find him or get him on a phone, in the pre cell phone age. In one case, he disappeared for several days.
One of my very first bosses was a recovering addict. I would baby sit for her at night (extra cash for me!) when she would go to her art therapy appointments. But then one of us would find her passed out on the bathroom floor at work from relapsing. (When she was sober, she was great. ) Another man I worked for would continually, and covertly, try to get me to take on additionaly duties - mainly, the duty of me "servicing" him. (Ew. Ew. Ew.) My current boss is a very sweet lady, but she's a little bit ... manic? She gave me a lemon (yes, the fruit) one morning, and then a raise that afternoon.
The one who hired her called a staff meeting, and halfway through, asked me to leave. While I was gone, she told the rest of the staff that, individually, they were nice people, but collectively, they were assholes. This to a staff of people who had been cranking out everything Boss #1 wanted in record time.
AnniThyme - I hope your first boss was more sober, than high. Boss#2 Ew is correct. Boss#3: Great you got a raise, even better that you're less like to get scurvy, too.
Annie -- It sure is hard work thinking up stuff for you to do. How come you were asked to leave in the middle of the meeting? Was that punishment or reward?
I started looking for another job. I could not stomach working for someone so brazenly ugly and mean toward another human being. They fired me before I could find another job. They handed me a 7-page termination letter that did not state the reason for my dismissal. Then they tried to contest my unemployment claim. I appealed on won! Although it was the most infuriating and stressful experience of my life to date, they did me a huge favor when they fired me!
When I went back toward the coffee station, the manager berated me for taking 'her' coffee and started telling me what a lousy waitress I was and disparaged my character.
You have to understand, I was never late to work, neat as a pin in grooming, very attentive to my customers and vigilant in keeping their food coming and I am quite a cleaner too. My customers got what they paid for and then some.
I put the coffee pot down. I told her, that "I didn't know that 'her coffee' was more important than getting coffee for the customers" at the very top of my lungs.
Next I untied my apron, taking my tips out of the apron pocket with my right hand shoving them into my pants pocket, I threw the apron in her face, shouting
"Fuck YOU, If I am such a lousy fucking waitress, then I suppose you will be happy to get the fuck off your lazy counter stool and take care of these customers because no amount of money would make it worth my time to work for the likes of you, or anyone like you ever again."
And I walked out with my purse, got in my car and started a new life the led me to graduate degrees and away from petty dictators.
Every time that something like this has happened I have said "NO" as powerfully as I can. I have quit jobs that paid fairly well so that I could look myself in the mirror and feel like I still respected myself. That practice made things difficult sometimes. It isn't always easy to find a new job when the old one has gone stale or wrong.
Now I am a boss, and this makes me wonder...
Gratefuldan -- Did Simon Wiesenthal ever find out about your boss?
Susanne -- Best advice I ever got about job hunting was look for your next job while you love what you're currently doing. It's how I got my current job.
Bill Beck -- You must a really classy guy to survive that experience. Thanks for working in law enforcment. It is a thankless job.
What part of the country is you brother looking in? There has to be a better option than this?
Sounds like you've had more bosses than me but then I've owned my own biz for 1/2 my working life. And have tried to never be the bosses that I worked for.
The worst boss changed from a moderate drinker off the job to a drunk ass all the time. Would come in 2 hours before quitting time or not at all spending all day in the bar down the street. Any meetings that between us had to happen in a bar after hours. I was always on edge not knowing if he would come in the office and start yelling or worse. So now I don't like drunks. When I started we were friendly - I have spent Christmas in his house, ten years later I probably won't cross the street to put him out if he was on fire.
Second worst was in the navy. One officer I reported to would tell you anything to be your "friend" and then stab you in the back the next minute. Just had to wait for one of us to be re-assigned.
I've worked for some real pricks and prickettes in my lifetime as well.
One thing I've always kept in mind to keep me motivated is, no matter how good a job I always do, I am always replaceable. Never fool yourself by thinking otherwise.
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I too became a better leader of people by other people's shortcomings. That means you empathize like I do. It's not such a bad way to be...
Then there was the guy who couldn't understand how, exactly, it was both insulting and illegal to proclaim that since I had the "wardrobe" to work in the office then why would I want to be out in the field? (I told him that's where the money was.)
The worst, however, was the guy who fired everyone in the department then wondered out loud why I (one of four people doing the work formerly done by more than eight in three different departments) was "still here after six o'clock" in the evening. This same gem proclaimed to three of us remaining in the department that we had work due the day after Christmas and he would love to stay and help with that, but he had plans already. (It was typical in our company to take those few days around the holidays off due to general unproductivity.) As one of my co-workers declared, "well, I had plans, too, to sit around and watch tv over the break, but I guess I'll be coming in here instead!)
The best part about crummy bosses, though, is that they teach you how much you will put up with. And eventually that bar keeps getting higher and higher until even the psychos won't screw with you because they know you won't take it.
I'm not sure I would trade in my hard-earned stripes.
The second worst was a micromanaging boss who had no time for my project. If he offered advice, it was detailed, but he never could be bothered to figure out what was actually going on in the project. He wanted to review all my reports before I sent them out, but never could be bothered to read them. The worst, was he was away a lot on business and even though 5 pm my time was 9am his time, he never got to the overseas office before 10, and I was never a priority, so if I wanted to talk to him (like say the report is way overdue to the client, can you read it please), I'd have to stay long after hours or call overseas on my own dime.
The final touch was when the company moved to a matrix hierarchy system and the HR department didn't know where to put me. My boss provided no input, so I was put in too low a level. I met with him to complain and he spent the entire meeting comparing me with another woman (who was in the level I belonged in), obviously not realizing I was in a lower level. When I happily pointed out that he had just made my argument -- that I belonged in the same level, the guy had the gall to tell me that I'd move up in a year or two and what level I was in now wouldn't make a difference in the long run. In short, he hadn't wasted a minute filling out HRs forms to put me in the right place and he wasn't going to waste a minute fixing the resulting problem.
I quit as soon as I found another job. I was replace by 2 people, one 2 levels above me, the other one level above. At no point did I get any recognition for having done the work of two people. If anything, I got crap because I hadn't managed to do a good job of the lower priority stuff in my remit -- I didn't have the time.
Douglas -- I feel your pain. You became a contract so you wouldn't have to put up with that crap.
Greg -- Empathy goes a long way in the workplace. It helps instill employee loyalty. You remember employee loyalty don't you?
Note to commenters: It ended in American around 1980.
Liz L -The only sheepdogs with long hair are at dog shows or they grow it out during the winter.
Critical Path -- Those clueless ones who come in late and leave early are the same one who drop off the assignment at 4:30 on Friday afternoon demanding they need for a 7:30 Monday morning meeting.
Juli - I had a boss not mentioned above who was a recovering micromanager. He had developed a 57 page annual performance evaluation for production employees who made $20,000 a year.
He realized he had a problem, and he got out of management. I give him kudos for that. He never met a detail he didn't like.
Malusinka -- These idiots are never accountable. I always they had incriminating pictures of their boss at a holiday party or with banyard animals.
Susanne - Do you ever go back as customer?? The possiblilites.
Emma Peel -- I enjoyed your post the other day on all things OS. It sounds like that company with employee returning to rehab and the boss who threw the wine at you had a zero tolerence policy for sobriety.