Share Your Worst or Best Boss Story
We all have had good and bad bosses. Hopefully less bad than good. I have been very fortunate. Even so, I have some bad stories as well.
But I want to hear from you.
Tell us about one of the worst or one of the best experiences you have had with a boss. Don’t mention names or companies, even if they are no longer working for your company.
Comment by It's Me, Maven...
One day our boss called an emergency meeting for the admin staff to discuss issues, problems, etc.
She started the meeting off with, “I don’t want to talk about the attorneys” (the attorneys being a huge part of our problem). Naturally we all shut up when the source of most of our problems was not to be spoken.
In the next breath, the same boss said, “It’s really sad that my staff feels they can’t talk to me about what’s wrong.”
There’s a native American saying, “Man who speaks out of both sides of mouth–nothing come out the middle.”
Comment by The Blogging Boss
Nuggetmaven,
Nothing came out of the middle and this boss wasted everyone’s time.
My first reaction to her would have been. “You may not want to talk about the attorneys, but I do. And if you don’t want to hear what I have to say, will all due respect, please excuse me.”
I have no time for bosses that start asking for feedback and then shut down topics that they do not want to discuss.
Don’t ask if you don’t want to listen.
Hope you do not work for her anymore. Thanks for the great quote! -Eric
Comment by The Brunette
My worst boss would throw things, literally!! It was insane!! He’s retired now…shocking, I know
My best boss let me sit with my feet on my desk and read when we were slow, which was often 
My boss now is decent…not as smart as he thinks he is, but pretty easy going 
Comment by Homer Jay
At my last professional level position (from which I was finally fired) I attempted to address the excessively long hours with my boss. We had been working 60 to 70 hours a week for over 6 months. When I told him that these hours were taking a serious toll on my family he told me matter of factly “That’s why just about everyone in this business is divorced. You have to make a decision about what is more important to you.” Like I actually had to think about it. That’s when I decided that I didn’t care about the company anymore. I was fired about 6 months later.
Comment by The Blogging Boss
Homer,
I think I would have told the idiot who said you had to choose between the company and your family that I did not have to decide at all.
No decision. Bye!
No company is more important than your family or your life. Glad they finally fired you for not being the “company man.”
I bet you are a lot happier now.
Great example of corporate stupidity. Also makes me really angry when I hear stories like this one. This gets to the core of why I have started this blog.
Thanks for sharing! -Eric
Comment by Dave
I dont really have a story so much as a situation.
I have a sort of tolerate/hate relationship with my boss. When you do good, you hear nothing, when you do bad you hear way too much.
He is very condescending with lines like, “What can we do so that this never happens again.” In and of itself a valid question, it is just his approach. His tone of voice says, “I am superior in everyway to you microbial employee type” and “you’re a 4-year old idiot, and I know everything. Whatever you think is wrong, I am right… even if I’m not.”
In a recent review, he was monologuing on employees need for pats on the back, etc. Basically saying “the weenies!”
I commented that it is nice to hear “thank you” every once in awhile.
His response?
A VERY cold, “I say ‘thank you’ when I sign your paycheck.”
Comment by The Blogging Boss
Dave,
I am going to use that one for the quote of the week. Ah, the stupid things bosses say (out of complete ignorance). Your boss was elevated into management without a shred of evidence supporting such a move.
This is a great post and one that is the inspiration for my next post.
Thanks Dave!
Comment by Kinky Poe
I aspired to a tolerate/hate relationship, but it didnt work out too well for me. Even after being named employee of the month twice in 5 months, putting in 500 hours of overtime, and was on the road for 9 months straight all in the last year…my manager wrote me up (eventually leading to my firing) for being sarcastic & apparently I frightened other employees. I wasnt sarcastic to customers or to other employees, I was just sarcastic in general & therefore apparently not capable of fixing computers. Who in IT isnt sarcastic? I think he was just bitter because he never knew when I was making fun of him to his face.
Example:
After being on the road, working 70+ hours a week leading an international project he comes up to me & asks…’Hey, do you have a company issued laptop?’ While I was sending an email on it!! Right in front of his face. I was counting down till my firing after that.
Comment by The Blogging Boss
Kinky Poe,
You are better off. I have been in the IT field all of my career. When things are good they are good, when they turn bad, RUN!
Thanks for sharing!
Eric
Comment by Dave
Rewind, replay… same guy different employee, same old pile of crap.
This past week i worked almost exclusively with a co-worker on a huge mailer project. This mailer was for a huge client my co-worker landed. The piece had 6 different versions, 3 for the USA and 3 for Canada. Each individual mailer was to be customized to the recipient with multiple variable data items (I handled that part). This was an extremely complex project requiring an enormous amount of time and energy for all parties involved.
This past thursday evening, we were under the gun to finish up and get these pieces in the mail. Right at 5:00, we conferenced a call with the boss, and he requested that we both head over to the printing facility and get the jobs running. He would meet us there and we would go to town.
We ended up leaving after 9:00 pm neither my co-worker or myself had taken the lunch break although I did sneak a bite.
The printing went well, and at 9:00 we left it in the good hands of the night crew.
Finer and dandy. The boss was in a good mood, and joked with us, everything was cool. Or was it?
Ack hack barf….
The next day was supposed to be exclusively that job running on the machine. I went there to set up the next runs, and saw someone else using the machine with different jobs. I immediately pulled the person aside that was supposed to be working my job. He informed me that the bosses son had shoved a priority job through, delaying the last of the Canada print jobs.
Okay… fine and dandy.
THe last Canada mailers ran right after that and were completed.
When my co-worker arrived after I had all of the USA mailers prepped, I mentioned that others had been on the machine.
“I know, I just got yelled at for it.”
I was incensed. Here’s why:
1) My co-worker was yelled at because “he didn’t explain it to the night guy well enough for him to instruct the morning guy so he would understand.”
2) Who actually told the night guy? The boss. I stood there and watched him do it. He explained to the night guy that nobody else was to get on that machine in the morning, and the night guy was to leave the morning guy a note with that instruction. (Notice my co-worker was not included in that at all…)
3) My co-worker had no knowledge of the other parties getting their job in until he got the call from the boss. It was not his job to monitor that.
4) IT WAS THE BOSS’S SON THAT CAUSED ALL OF THIS! He forced a job through without properly authorizing it. Did he get yelled at? nope.
***
I was so ripped about this. My co-worker works his tail off, working long hours practically every day to ensure his projects are completed. He has landed some of our highest profile clients which have brought in huge projects and money.
With the boss it is practically a “what have you done for me in the last 5 seconds?” Any good thing you do is immediately eclipsed my the smallest of blunders. And THAT, my friend, is what gets brought up in reviews.
Fuming in Mesa