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Topic: The Boss from Hell
| Author | Message |
| MrWeb | Posted – 6/13/2007 2:43:57 PM | show profile I like the mgazine I work at and most of my coworkers are okay, too, but my immediate boss is a totally two-faced nightmare, and I'm TRAPPED as his slave with no safe way out except quitting. Before I get off the masthead though, I wanted to know about your story. Misery loves company, they say. Anyone want to share their boss-from-hell story? |
| Aleongro | Posted – 6/13/2007 8:58:35 PM | show profile I think I can top any story I had the worst bosses two jobs in a row, luckily I now have one of the best. While I was at my last job, I saw a co-worker being fired for being late 3 times in a year, twice ONE minute late another four minutes late, and it was an ad agency, where we usually worked till the wee hours of the night. My boss docked 15 minutes on one of my paychecks for spending 15 extra minutes at a Drs. appointment, even though I worked overtime (with no pay since I'm salaried) that same day. My boss expected all the managers, who were quite underpaid, to take out our subordinates at least once a month out to lunch on our own dime. He called me names, cursed at me, asked me to wear more makeup, etc, etc, etc. I can write a whole book about the worst nightmare ever. I am convinced I had PTSD after I left that company. No wonder it had a 90% turnover rate! |
| TGirl | Posted – 6/13/2007 9:14:37 PM | show profile I've had some nightmare bosses--really HELLISH--in my day, and some really great ones whom I loved. You just really need to ask yourself how badly you need the experience on your resume. I put up with unimaginable circumstances at my first job because I knew I was lucky as hell to have it--tons of people would have killed to be in my place. I knew I needed to stay at least a year for it to be able to get me to the next step, so I bit the bullet and endured. I stayed a year and a half--swallowed ALL my gripes and NEVER let on to anyone that I was dissatisfied--and it paid off. I got a great job after that. Always look at the bottom line and the long-term picture. Do a cost-benefit analysis. Without knowing the details of your career situation, there's no way to know whether it would be worth it for you to stay. An example of what I wouldn't put up with: I was working as a "permanent freelancer" at a top fashion mag when I got on the wrong side of one of the top editor's a-hole/diva/devil side. This person screamed at and berated me for something that was not at all my responsibility (after NEVER even having spoken with me and never having asked what had happened), and I thought, "This job is NOT essential to my resume, so screw this." I called a contact at a competing mag and was working there within 2 weeks. |
| TGirl | Posted – 6/13/2007 9:14:40 PM | show profile I've had some nightmare bosses--really HELLISH--in my day, and some really great ones whom I loved. You just really need to ask yourself how badly you need the experience on your resume. I put up with unimaginable circumstances at my first job because I knew I was lucky as hell to have it--tons of people would have killed to be in my place. I knew I needed to stay at least a year for it to be able to get me to the next step, so I bit the bullet and endured. I stayed a year and a half--swallowed ALL my gripes and NEVER let on to anyone that I was dissatisfied--and it paid off. I got a great job after that. Always look at the bottom line and the long-term picture. Do a cost-benefit analysis. Without knowing the details of your career situation, there's no way to know whether it would be worth it for you to stay. An example of what I wouldn't put up with: I was working as a "permanent freelancer" at a top fashion mag when I got on the wrong side of one of the top editor's a-hole/diva/devil side. This person screamed at and berated me for something that was not at all my responsibility (after NEVER even having spoken with me and never having asked what had happened), and I thought, "This job is NOT essential to my resume, so screw this." I called a contact at a competing mag and was working there within 2 weeks. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 6/13/2007 9:55:29 PM | show profile I worked for a woman who literally pimped me out to the movie critic. That's right--she sent me out to see a movie with the critic who'd been threatening to quit, who'd been complaining about his lack of a sex life. She told me she thought I could help him "liven his reviews up a bit." The guy literally stalked me for two months after that and my boss ever so subtley suggested if he quit I'd have to as well. She did other nightmareish things, but that took the cake. One of her favorite things to do in the office was to pick a favorite and watch everyone else in the office grow to hate that person, then she'd dump on that person and pick a new favorite. It was all a big game to her--but I hear this actually goes on at a lot of magazines. Some kind of strategy they pick up in J-school or from their "mentors" or some such craziness. |
| Foreigner | Posted – 6/13/2007 11:18:48 PM | show profile One of my former bosses established a blog, didn't set any ground rules and told us to post multiple entries every day, actively encouraging off-the-cuff posts. Then within months he began writing comments to our posts, belitting our on-the-fly contributions and even casting aspersions on our characters based on our posts - on a blog that was by now generating nearly 20,000 hits a month. He reduced one hardworking young employee to tears and subsequently fired her after sarcastically deconstructing her grammar to thousands of blog readers. Internally, he floated a couple of inherently racist ideas for posts, but was dissuaded by subordinates from writing them. |
| . | Posted – 6/14/2007 8:30:50 AM | show profile I had a boss who ordered me to leave my office door open even though everyone else in the office was allowed to keep their doors closed. Also, she yelled at me when I spoke to my mother on the phone for three minutes each day and told me that I was not allowed to talk to anyone on the phone (and, once again, everyone else was allowed personal calls). But here's the clincher: I had found out that I had skin cancer (melanoma) and I was traumatized...then when I missed one small thing in my editing, I was fired. I told my boss that I was finding it hard to concentrate after having been diagnosed with a deadly disease and I was fired anyway. (update: this was two years ago and I caught it early so I am fine now, knock on wood.) |
| . | Posted – 6/14/2007 8:32:20 AM | show profile To clarify, when I say that I missed one thing in my editing, what happened was that I was proofreading someone else's newsletter and I missed that a line in the center of two columns was a half an inch longer than it was supposed to be. No kidding! And I was fired. |
| observer | Posted – 6/14/2007 1:30:38 PM | show profile | email poster hey MimiJ MimiJ, congrats on the good news on your melanoma diagnosis. i lost a very close friend to melanoma last year; it's a horrible disease. |
| mad fingers | Posted – 6/14/2007 1:34:25 PM | show profile Yes, glad you are well. Things such as that do tend to put things in perspective... even bosses from hell. |
| . | Posted – 6/14/2007 1:52:07 PM | show profile Observer, thank you. I'm very sorry to hear about your friend. |
| . | Posted – 6/14/2007 1:52:52 PM | show profile Thank you too, Mad Fingers. |
| Neo | Posted – 6/14/2007 2:45:39 PM | show profile Every place I've worked has provided me with both boss-from-hell stories and great references. Ya wanna know how? Send me a check first, they're worth gold! (As are all the stories on this board. People, you should be pitching these, not giving them away for free! In fact, I'm sending mine in right now. . . .) |
| midwestwriter | Posted – 6/14/2007 4:08:21 PM | show profile Oh yeah... One of the bosses I had... Would not turn let us turn on the office lights after our profits dipped one quarter Made me watch North Korean propaganda videos and when I noted how it was sad most of the North Koreans were starving he screamed at me When I told him it was unethical to send gifts to the AP, his assistant took me aside and told me that he thought I was getting a little "mouthy" When the AP returned the gifts because they were unethical, he yelled at me and tried to cut my salary He distributed a picture taken by the AP without their consent, when I warned him this was also unethical, I was sent home for the day and yelled at Oh there was his cousin who lied about me, hid stories that I was supposed to edit and then told people I was carelss, stole my mail and read it... What else...oh yeah, he also made us randomly break boards as a "team building" exercise and when I didn't yell "hiyah" correctly, he put his hands in my mouth to demonstrate... For meetings he would buy us big macs (yuck) and then pour the french fries on the conference table and tell us to be like good communist Finally, he was being monitored by the FBI for his ties to the DPRK gov't |
