Horrible (& weird) Bosses

[youvalss]

I thought it would be interesting to hear about your past/present horrible/weird bosses.

I'll start with the first boss I had when I first came to Canada. I must say I appreciate him giving me my first job here, but he was a weird guy.

He was a depressed/lonely (divorced)/schizophrenic and seemed to have lots of issues. Some weird/funny things he used to do:

- He would think that you're not feeling well (which didn't necessarily had much to do with your real condition) and stand not to far from you, looking at you and say: "You look sick, are you sick? I don't want you here...you look sick".

- He would come in every day around 1pm, never earlier, and he never missed a day from what I remember.

- If we stayed a few minutes after 5pm, he would just shut the lights and tell us to leave.

- I was designing some posters and things like that, and he would come over every now and then, stand next to me and ask: "So...what are you working on?"... and if he didn't like the answer - instead of discussing it with me, he would call/yell to my supervisor and say "Why is he working on that?" - instead of just telling it directly to me... (keep in mind that there were only 6-7 people working there).

- He hated holidays (being lonely, I guess), so he thought others shouldn't get in holiday spirit as well. He didn't feel like letting us go early on Christmas eve, and I'm sure that if he could he would have had us working on the 25th and 26th.

- I was told he had a house in Arizona and would go there for a while every winter. So after the New Year's Day, he was just gone and we were told he already left for the month. He also took his son and our supervisor with him, and since it was a very small company, we didn't really have any supervisor while they were away, so it was like a small vacation.
But he did talk to us on the camera (Skype)...he would sit on the bad shirtless (maybe even wearing only underwear) and ask how things were doing and all that (sometimes we would email him some of the things we had created).

- Oh yea, he didn't really care about any workplace culture, so he cursed as much as he wanted...

I must say it was a weird, yet entertaining experience for the most part.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

I've been pretty lucky. I've had one boss for a summer cleaning job on campus who was miserable with his place in life and took it out on us. Other than that my bosses have always been fair, sane, and let us get our work done without hovering.

[C the Lyte]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

I fear becoming a horrible/weird boss.


Contribution time:


Had 1 that was real touchy feely kinda person. He would pat you on the back, but leave his hand on your back, and it wasn't a manly pat either. He was training a guy one day, grabbed the guy's hand (hand was still on the mouse), and proceeded with training that way. Also, had a weird fascination with younger boys... like tweeners and pre-teens. And, adopted multiple young men and mentored them...


So, yeah.

[youvalss]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

Lyte, I think you have set the bar...

[kehlis]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

Yea, that guy needs to have a seat over there...

[Cusefan]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

The company I worked for before my current job had a pretty bad boss. He just wasn't good at at giving orders. he fired me because I complied with police in a DOT inspection. I looked into legal action and was told I might have a legitimate claim but I decided to just wipe my hands of it and move on. That is not until I called state troopers and the Syracuse PD to let them know that every single one of those company CDL trucks had illegal defects.

I also had a real bad LT in the Army, he was the most incompetent person I had ever seen in a leadership role. Maybe he was dyslexic but he couldn't read out loud, he was fat and out of shape, and on one occasion he nearly got me and three others shot. This man had no idea how a chain of command worked so he would discipline soldiers without going to their sergeant. When we were doing a nighttime live fire exercise, he was supposed to set off a flair to shift machine gun fire then so the flanking team could move then another flair to cease fire. He set off the shift fire flair twice... It was a good thing my platoon SGT noticed the mistake because we were very nearly killed.

[RockinDaMike]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

I really only had one mean boss but she was a hot MILF with fire red hair and had perfect TnA so she pretty much told me what to do without complaints. I was pretty much her lap dog at this Alaskan restaurant and did so many jobs outside of my job title. I was exhausted almost every shift.

A positive though is that she would let me order prime rib with Alaskan king crab legs for 20 bucks anytime.

[slickdtc]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

Bad bosses? Tons. Way more common to me then good ones/ones that actually cared. Mainly in the restaurant business.

To be fair, working in a restaurant pretty much sucks from top to bottom. Servers are cut throat competing for tips, so a job that requires teamwork and help ends up with the worst model for it. Cooks often just suck at their job, messing up orders or literally not being able to do their job ("cook") correctly. Management is overworked and subsequently underpaid, and only reason they take those jobs is because they were probably promoted from the floor so the company knows they can pay them **** because they probably don't have a college degree and feel like they're trapped in that role even if it pays enough to make ends meet. Since these people have really only worked their way up the ladder instead of actually being really qualified for the position, they often don't actually give a crap about the restaurant or their employees, only that they don't get too many customer complaints (really can't control that) or that costs are down. They're not real managers, just in title. Typically lazy ****s too, will run the staff ragged and get on their case but won't get their hands dirty themselves despite having been in that position before.

My favorite/best bosses weren't afraid to jump in when the ship was sinking. They did it in different ways: silently but leading by example or delegating responsibilities while also jumping in where they needed to to keep the operation running smoothly. I always tried my hardest and respected the hell out of those guys. In turn, they went to bat for me to get me a raise or promote me to a larger role. When I'm in a position of power in the future, those are the managers I want to emulate.

I worked at a chain diner style restaurant for a couple of months. The work was easy and laid back, but the management there was nonexistent. As in, a customer had a legitimate question or issue they wanted to talk to the manager about. When I'd go back to tell them, they would cower and send me back to deliver the message despite the customer specifically asking for the manager. I ended up walking out when they tried to get me to serve salad from our broken disgusting salad bar machine/holder that was already browned. That and we slaved through a week with no AC in the summer when people's dessert would literally have melted before it got to their table. Place was disgusting and should have been shut down. Management has all gone a few months after I left according to people I still talked to that worked there.

I left my last job for a new direction kind of abruptly, or seemingly. But in the months and weeks leading up to that, I knew there was an issue with a new hire & our GM. I was semi-management so I was privy to some work gossip. Basically I saw the writing on the wall and got out. A month or two later, GM resigned before he was to be terminated for sexual harassment after months of taking time off at the last second. He knew what was going down and stopped caring. I wasn't gonna be around for that ship to sink.

[55]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

I once had a boss about 15 years ago who was generally a really friendly guy, but had a really bad habit of not closing the door when he used the bathroom. Even for number twos. He would also continue conversations whilst using said bathroom. If that's not weird, I don't know what is.

[Phobia]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

Worst boss, I've only worked for one. He was a real winner.

It was a small family run Oil Field company, so most of the employees were in the family some how. You had grandpa and grandma who opened the place. Their son (the boss) who ran the place with his wife and daughter. Then daughters husband and his buddy. Lastly me who was family to none of them.

I did purchasing for this company mind you. Well one day they asked if I could make a run to Venice, for guys not from Louisiana. Venice is literally the end of the earth in terms of remoteness. A tiny speck out on the tip of Louisiana, in the Gulf of Mexico.

So I did the run, got back like 9pm. Couple days go by, I get asked to make a run to Texas. Got back at like 2am, then got back up for 6am for work the next day. I was a tad pissed but bit my tongue. Well over the next 3 to 6 months, it slowly twisted from a purchasing role to a full fledged driver. Nothing wrong with that job, but that is not where my strengths are and why I've been in this industry this long just to be a damn driver.

So that is not what makes this guy a bad boss, even though that was a crap management move. He was a big burly guy who treated his family like ****. He would curse them up and down and tell them how worthless they were. Well one day I pull up to the shop and he starts to holler at me, so I told him "You can talk to your family how you want, but you will not holler at me or we will have a problem". It caught him off guard but he quickly apologized, so I was ok with everything but starting to look for a new job just because of the current role reversal.

Well it was not but a couple days and he blows up on me again cursing me out. So I told my wife, I was going to quit if it happened again. It was maybe a week and he asked me to go make a pick up at another company. So I walk in the place tell them I have a pick up and walk out, when I get back in the truck I see the company phone has a voice mail. So I check it, its him going ape ****, so I'm thinking here we go, today is the day. I call him back and the moment he picked up it was "Where the **** you at! You are one lazy piece of ****, I have the right mind to can your *** right now, get your *** over here NOW!". I didn't even get a chance to respond before he hung up on me. So I called my wife, told her today was the day, come pick me up (I had a company truck).

So here is where the **** hit the fan. I walk in his office and he is beet red. I hand him the truck keys and company credit card. He looked dumbfounded, so I responded with "I do my job damn well, I work late hours and get little sleep for you. This is the last straw, I quit".

This dude went absolutely ballistic. One of those big wooden desks, he grabbed it near his lap and flipped it. Computer screen went flying, all his stuff went everywhere, and I just stood there shaking my head. "I rest my case.........". I then walked out and my wife pulled up soon after. It is the only job I have ever quit and looking back on it I'm surprised I took what I did. He got the stamp of approval HORRIBLE BOSS with severe anger issues!!!!!!

[youvalss]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

My original thought was this would become a hilarious thread more than a sad one. I didn't mean to make anyone here re-live bad experiences, so my apology.

I sure hope everyone found/finds a better job/boss afterwards.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

I don't know, I laughed at the desk flip. I want to see a desk flip some day.

[Herky]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

I've had some bad bosses but none can hold a candle to Rick Berg. I use his real name because I still have hatred for this man and you'll soon see why. This all happened between 2005 and 2006. This is long and sounds unbeliveable but it's real.

Rick owned a check collection company that he inherited from his Dad. They basically were a debt collector for bad checks. He was about 15 years older than me and the company actually did fairly well. It was a small business that employed 14 people. I was hired to be a sales rep for his company. Casey's General Stores were his main client that made all the money and he obtained their business because his Dad knew a guy on the Casey's board. Rick wanted to expand to other convince stores and grocery stores so I was brought on to do that. We started sort of small and hit up locally owned places first. I was being paid a salary of $22,000 plus commission. Commission was agreed upon as monetary amount (I can't remember the exact number) of each check collected. The more checks that were collected, the more money I got as well as the company.

Rick's CEO was his brother in law and his CFO was a friend. He was nice at first but you could always tell he liked showing off his house, car, and money. I didn't care about that though. After a few months there I closed a deal with all the Kwik Trips and Loaf N Jugs (great name) in the US. It was a total of 245 stores and meant a lot of money was coming in. Both for me and for the company. My first month's commission check was $3,500. The CFO was really shocked at that and wasn't happy because she had been with the company since it started, and I was going to be making more than her. This woman didn't have a college degree and was hired because she was a friend of the family. She lost it and talked to Rick about my pay. I know this because I heard her say something to him when she thought I had gone home. So Rick calls me into his office the next day and tells me they are going to have re-do my commission rate because this business wasn't expected so quickly. I was shocked and said we had agreed on X amount. Rick said it never was in writing since they were a small company. He wanted to cut it in half because so many checks were coming in. I refused. He told me if I didn't agree and sign the new structure I'd be fired. I still said no and he fired me and said he'd contest any unemployment. I then lost it and went at him with my fist clenched and he told me his lawyer (she worked for him on claims) was in the other room and he'd sue if I touched him. Before I left I told him if I ever saw him in public that he'd be wise to walk the other way. I had no case against him because it was a small business with no handbook. I later learned the CFO's husband lost his job as an insurance salesman and she wanted him to come work for Rick. Part of the plan was to get me out and let her husband have some of the commission I earned for the business I brought in. I totally got screwed over and went from thinking I was making good money, to being unemployed. Thankfully I landed a much better job 3 weeks later.

I do have some closure here however. I found out Rick lost his business 2 years ago, and his wife divorced him. He no longer lives in that nice house and moved to Illinois. Still hate the guy though.

[Feared]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

Man some cringeworthy stories in here.

I had a real winner of a boss at one of my retail jobs from a few years ago. He was a married guy, in his Forties but yet he made real obvious advances on all the Younger females in their Twenties at the job. It was frustrating because he made them really uncomfortable, but they couldn't really do anything because of how high he outranked them. I heard they made numerous complaints to the Regional Office to have him removed but nothing ever came of it.

In addition to that he just got on every bodies nerves, went back on his word, made a lot of promises that he would make improvements but never did anything. If somebody made an honest mistake he would be the first one to call them out and embarrass them instead of correcting the issue constructively. He once made a new associate first day on the job clean up a messy bathroom because he didn't know any better. The burden of cleaning the bathrooms falls on the contracted cleaning company. (they were not in yet, and the next in line to clean the bathroom falls on the management yet he bamboozled this young kid) The other managers were all decent people that worked along side of the employees when they weren't doing Office work but this guy would just go back in his office and be on his Blackberry, checking Email, facebook, personal stuff, sipping his Starbucks when he wasn't making employees lives miserable.

Was a real grade A piece of work, glad I don't have to deal with him anymore.

[acts238shaun]

Re: Horrible (& weird) Bosses

Worked for Hostess until they shut down. Wife was pregnant with my son, I was a little worried. I found a job with St. Vincent's hospital in Birmingham as a mechanic.

As someone who has seen almost all of that hospital, do not have a surgery there unless you are having a kid or are going to Dr. James Andrew's clinic - those are different wings. Ok, moving on...

Three weeks after my son was born my wife had a series of seizures we found out she had Multiple Sclerosis. Long story short, I got the best insurance possible (hospital owns the policy, btw) when I started and the hospital was paying out the nose on my wife's treatments. My manager, who wasn't the one who hired me, trumped up an excuse to get me fired.

It worked out, as my wife can't take care of our two young children and I needed to be home with her anyway. Her hearing for disability is next week. God has watched over us and she hasn't missed one treatment since I was fired.

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