Bad Bosses

[Rastus]

I worked for a boss that played favorites. He would overload me with more work than I could do without overtime, but he wouldn't allow me to work any. But his favorite people would ignore their primary functions and work on projects that were fun and high profile. They would also rack up a lot of overtime. Then when their projects got to be a drag, they would get reassigned to me, and I would get in trouble if it wasn't done right or on time.

I quit that job eventually. I just heard that he got fired recently because one of his favorites got called for a random drug test and he covered for him by sending him home for a couple days and a weekend to get clean, in violation of company policy.

I guess there is a just god.

What are some of your experiences?

 

[grr8scott]

I used to work for a guy who said "Expect your employees to steal from you" and then would find that he took computers, and other goodies home with him.

 

[woowoo]

I worked for a guy that wanted to fight me over a job.
Yep, fistfight

He was laid off later, I am still here.

 

[venk]

The End Boss in the Chatedral level of Ninja Gaiden took me forever to beat.

 

[SVT Cobra]

I had a boss that stole directly from the company and tried to blame her employees after she got caught...

 

[ToastedMilk]

The first one made the worst hiring decisions known to man. The first guy he hired (who still works for my old company) sat in his cube and did nothing but surf the 'net all day. The next guy was a devout Mormon who was later fired for browsing pron at work. He wouldn't fire anyone including the contractor who slept on the job or the one who would take off midday and come back around 4 and then act like he'd been there the whole time.

The second one received our IT budget funds and went out and bought himself a shiny new IPaq with all the bells and whistles, and a bunch of useless little gadgets for himself. Then something happened and we had to return most of the rest of our funds. We didn't have money for even a spindle of new cd-r's, but he sure as heck had taken care of himself. After I'd left that job he continued to send me emails about how to do pretty basic technician work.

The job I'm at now has its days but in no way compares to those two experiences.

 

[waggy]

yeah a few years ago i was head of IT. Well the president of IT was got a promotion.

So i ended doing his job for 6 months while they chose a replacement, well it came down to me and one other applicant.

Well the other applicant got the job. Turns out it was his secretary (who he was nailing on the side) who had ZERO IT experience.

They called me after the meeting and said i was getting a big raise and if i could look after her and train her for the job. At first i was for it. until she started making stupid decisions and fighting me on them.

1) canceling all backups BUT monthly. She figured why do daily and weekly backups? why waste the money on them when we only needed it once in the last year? i fought her on this and even had the operators do the backups anyway. Until she found out and fired the guys (who were re-hired a day later).

2) storing the backups on site. she canceled the off site holding. Soo we had ONE copy of all backups which were stored in the room.

3) fired the weekend operators and had the others pick up slack (lasted 2 weeks)

4) just didn't know what the FVCK she was doing.

5) she was incredably rude ot everyone.

I finally quit. while the lady was great to look at she didn't know her job.

about 8 months after i quit i got a call back from the place asking me to come in and take over her job. I guess there was a small fire and they lost everything. Since all they had was a monthly backup they lost almost a months Worth of data! ugh

 

[kranky]

I once worked for a guy who, I am convinced, was insane. I only worked there two years but I could fill a book with the stories.

Just one...
My company (let's call it NutHouseInc) was located on a long, dead-end road in one of those industrial parks. It was the next-to-last building on the road. The owner of my company owned the land on both sides of the road. One day he got a brainstorm and decided that he was going to charge the company located at the end of the road (let's call them NormalPeople) a toll for driving past his building. So he wrote them a letter saying that beginning next month, they would have to pay him for the use of the road.

The folks at NormalPeople no doubt had a good laugh and threw the letter away. He wrote them again a week later reiterating his demand for money in exchange for them using the road in front of his building. Not surprisingly, again there was no response.

Well, the first of the month came and he ordered one of his workers to pull a bulldozer across the road so no one could get to NormalPeople's building. The first person arriving for work at NormalPeople asked to have the bulldozer moved. Our leader told him that he was not moving the bulldozer because NormalPeople failed to pay the toll.

The guy from NormalPeople called the cops. The cops asked our leader to explain the bulldozer. He told the cops that since he owned the land on both sides of the road, then obviously the road belonged to him as well, and NormalPeople was notified of the need to pay for using the road. And since they didn't pay, he wasn't going to let them use it any more.

I think the cops wondered if it was some Candid Camera type show because it was such a bizarre situation. They didn't get into the legal aspects of his "theory" but they told him to move the bulldozer at once, keep it off the road, and if they had to come back he was going to jail.

He moved it but still felt that NormalPeople was getting away with something for not having to pay.

You might wonder why he never pondered why none of the companies on the road AHEAD of him ever charged HIM a toll, and the answer is that, in his mind, they weren't as smart as he was.

 

[JoeKing]

I'm my own worse boss. I have favorites, give myself gruff, am always grouchy, and always short change my employee's hours.


I'm such a bastard! :|

I swear one day I'll quit!!!

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

I had a boss once that was concerned that his managemetn staff were going to go work for a competing miniature golf place that was being built near one of his Putt-Putts. Yeah...its mini-golf...not too many trade secrets there...

Anyways, he required all managers to sign a non-discolure and a non-compete agreement, for not just the immediate county, but also all surrounding counties. Sadly, every manager signed but me. I was planning on quitting anyways, so I wasn't going to.

The man was evil and when he found out I wasn't going to sign, they started building a case of all these little things and giving me a hard time over it.

 

[DAGTA]

I worked for a guy that would routinely expect me to work 50 to 70 hours a week, often travelling 1,000 miles for 8 or 9 days, while only paying me 40 hours a week. Then, one day he nearly fired me when he found out I checked my personal email at work.

I lasted four months and literally walked off the job while 900 miles away from home. Only time in my life I've ever walked off of a job. No regrets. Left and started my own business and am doing much better financially than when I worked for him.

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: waggy
about 8 months after i quit i got a call back from the place asking me to come in and take over her job. I guess there was a small fire and they lost everything. Since all they had was a monthly backup they lost almost a months Worth of data! ugh

Wonder where waggy was when the fire started

 

[JoeKing]

Originally posted by: kranky
I once worked for a guy who, I am convinced, was insane. I only worked there two years but I could fill a book with the stories.

Just one...
My company (let's call it NutHouseInc) was located on a long, dead-end road in one of those industrial parks. It was the next-to-last building on the road. The owner of my company owned the land on both sides of the road. One day he got a brainstorm and decided that he was going to charge the company located at the end of the road (let's call them NormalPeople) a toll for driving past his building. So he wrote them a letter saying that beginning next month, they would have to pay him for the use of the road.

The folks at NormalPeople no doubt had a good laugh and threw the letter away. He wrote them again a week later reiterating his demand for money in exchange for them using the road in front of his building. Not surprisingly, again there was no response.

Well, the first of the month came and he ordered one of his workers to pull a bulldozer across the road so no one could get to NormalPeople's building. The first person arriving for work at NormalPeople asked to have the bulldozer moved. Our leader told him that he was not moving the bulldozer because NormalPeople failed to pay the toll.

The guy from NormalPeople called the cops. The cops asked our leader to explain the bulldozer. He told the cops that since he owned the land on both sides of the road, then obviously the road belonged to him as well, and NormalPeople was notified of the need to pay for using the road. And since they didn't pay, he wasn't going to let them use it any more.

I think the cops wondered if it was some Candid Camera type show because it was such a bizarre situation. They didn't get into the legal aspects of his "theory" but they told him to move the bulldozer at once, keep it off the road, and if they had to come back he was going to jail.

He moved it but still felt that NormalPeople was getting away with something for not having to pay.

You might wonder why he never pondered why none of the companies on the road AHEAD of him ever charged HIM a toll, and the answer is that, in his mind, they weren't as smart as he was.

OMG seriously?! :laugh:

more please.

 

[Fritzo]

My current boss has obsessive/compulsive disorder. I'm serious- he needs medication or something! He'll walk down the hall, and if he sees a bookshelf out of order he has to stop to organize it. Papers have to be smallest to largest in a stack, he separates paperclips, he calls it "pepper and salt" instead of "salt and pepper" because P comes before S....wow. Talk about someone that's difficult to work for. You have to cross every T and dot ever i before turning something over to him or he'll get furious. This is why I'll never accept a promotion to become a manager. At least I have a manager I go through as a buffer

 

[Saulbadguy]

The final boss on "Wizards and Warriors". He was a bitch.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Meh, too many to take the time to list. However, one of the funnier ones was when a boss told me to delete USB Hub instead of the proper registry edit to fix a botched USB cable modem install. He had to take the call himself and walk the customer through fixing it, owning up to his dumbass advice.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: kranky
I once worked for a guy who, I am convinced, was insane. I only worked there two years but I could fill a book with the stories.

Just one...
My company (let's call it NutHouseInc) was located on a long, dead-end road in one of those industrial parks. It was the next-to-last building on the road. The owner of my company owned the land on both sides of the road. One day he got a brainstorm and decided that he was going to charge the company located at the end of the road (let's call them NormalPeople) a toll for driving past his building. So he wrote them a letter saying that beginning next month, they would have to pay him for the use of the road.

The folks at NormalPeople no doubt had a good laugh and threw the letter away. He wrote them again a week later reiterating his demand for money in exchange for them using the road in front of his building. Not surprisingly, again there was no response.

Well, the first of the month came and he ordered one of his workers to pull a bulldozer across the road so no one could get to NormalPeople's building. The first person arriving for work at NormalPeople asked to have the bulldozer moved. Our leader told him that he was not moving the bulldozer because NormalPeople failed to pay the toll.

The guy from NormalPeople called the cops. The cops asked our leader to explain the bulldozer. He told the cops that since he owned the land on both sides of the road, then obviously the road belonged to him as well, and NormalPeople was notified of the need to pay for using the road. And since they didn't pay, he wasn't going to let them use it any more.

I think the cops wondered if it was some Candid Camera type show because it was such a bizarre situation. They didn't get into the legal aspects of his "theory" but they told him to move the bulldozer at once, keep it off the road, and if they had to come back he was going to jail.

He moved it but still felt that NormalPeople was getting away with something for not having to pay.

You might wonder why he never pondered why none of the companies on the road AHEAD of him ever charged HIM a toll, and the answer is that, in his mind, they weren't as smart as he was.

LOL that's fantastic!

 

[Ausm]

My Boss for the most part is a sockcucker...


Ausm

 

[FlakPanzer]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
My current boss has obsessive/compulsive disorder. I'm serious- he needs medication or something! He'll walk down the hall, and if he sees a bookshelf out of order he has to stop to organize it. Papers have to be smallest to largest in a stack, he separates paperclips, he calls it "pepper and salt" instead of "salt and pepper" because P comes before S....wow. Talk about someone that's difficult to work for. You have to cross every T and dot ever i before turning something over to him or he'll get furious. This is why I'll never accept a promotion to become a manager. At least I have a manager I go through as a buffer

I can relate to that dude, I have to right click my screen 7 times before I hit the Reply to Topic button.

 

[Hammer]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: kranky
I once worked for a guy who, I am convinced, was insane. I only worked there two years but I could fill a book with the stories.

Just one...
My company (let's call it NutHouseInc) was located on a long, dead-end road in one of those industrial parks. It was the next-to-last building on the road. The owner of my company owned the land on both sides of the road. One day he got a brainstorm and decided that he was going to charge the company located at the end of the road (let's call them NormalPeople) a toll for driving past his building. So he wrote them a letter saying that beginning next month, they would have to pay him for the use of the road.

The folks at NormalPeople no doubt had a good laugh and threw the letter away. He wrote them again a week later reiterating his demand for money in exchange for them using the road in front of his building. Not surprisingly, again there was no response.

Well, the first of the month came and he ordered one of his workers to pull a bulldozer across the road so no one could get to NormalPeople's building. The first person arriving for work at NormalPeople asked to have the bulldozer moved. Our leader told him that he was not moving the bulldozer because NormalPeople failed to pay the toll.

The guy from NormalPeople called the cops. The cops asked our leader to explain the bulldozer. He told the cops that since he owned the land on both sides of the road, then obviously the road belonged to him as well, and NormalPeople was notified of the need to pay for using the road. And since they didn't pay, he wasn't going to let them use it any more.

I think the cops wondered if it was some Candid Camera type show because it was such a bizarre situation. They didn't get into the legal aspects of his "theory" but they told him to move the bulldozer at once, keep it off the road, and if they had to come back he was going to jail.

He moved it but still felt that NormalPeople was getting away with something for not having to pay.

You might wonder why he never pondered why none of the companies on the road AHEAD of him ever charged HIM a toll, and the answer is that, in his mind, they weren't as smart as he was.

LOL that's fantastic!

hahaha, that rocks. i have no cool stories. i've had good or average bosses, but not any bad/crazy ones.

 

[RegularK]

Some recent things that have really made me dislike my job to the point of possibly quitting...

-My boss approved one of my coworker friend's days off and scheduled her to work anyway. Upon her bringing this to his attention, he said that she "had better find someone else to work or she would have to work anyway" and then also told her not to call him while he wasn't at work because he's "not on commission."

-He would leave supervisor notes singling out a certain technician/pharmacists in public for all of the techs to see, instead of talking to them one on one.

-He refuses to hire more people and all of the part time people who are only supposed to work 15-20 hours are working 35-40 hours. He usually makes up some lame excuse, and he won't hire someone else for about 3 months down the road (and by that time, someone quits anyway and the cycle begins again)

-He faxed an upcoming schedule to the pharmacy and the bottom of the fax had a little note that he had written, stating something to the effect of "If you're thinking about complaining about this schedule, think about how many hours I have to work. I am working about 75 hours this week so to everyone else, SUCK IT UP!" And apparently, he thought this was really funny.

Just thinking about this is making me really angry. I've really contemplated quitting. If this was happening to you, would you quit if you didn't need the money "that bad?"

 

[Nightfall]

I had a few crappy bosses at the company I currently work at. I work in IT.

One boss did nothing but play solitare and browse the web all day. Even better, he had a window that pointed directly into the HR office. The HR personel could see him in there browsing the web and playing all day. Since I was doing all the work anyway, I started making logs of all of his web access and my project list. I submitted that to the president of the company, and he was gone 2 weeks later. I think HR said something too.

The next boss who took over lasted a little longer than 3 years. However, he didn't know his butt from a hole in the ground when it came to IT. Once again, I was doing all the work, but this manager covered himself well by hiring a lot of contractors and doing a lot of small projects. These projects really didn't have an effect on the company other than drain it of money. Currently, we use NONE of these projects he completed.

Anyway, after about 2 years of wasting company money, I gave the president of the company a list of wasted projects and estimated costs. The boss found out about that list when he went through the documents in the president's desk and immediately started to try to get me fired. He would tell people that I could get a new computer and install it same day when I didn't have one at the time. He would severely underestimate work orders to make me look like I couldn't make deadlines. Finally, he would try to make me look bad in big meetings with the rest of the executives of the company by doing various things.

His final acheivement was bringing a friend of his in to show him the network and mainframe that he built. I actually put it all together, but that isn't the point. Anyway, he brought him in to show him how much "power" he had. He then ran a program on the mainframe bringing the CPU utilization up to 100% and locking all the production level people out of the system. I logged a lot of proof it was him and took that to the president. He was fired a couple weeks later. I would like to think it was for wasting company resourses and time, but it was probably for that dumb stunt.

I have been the "boss" at this company so far. I pretty much just took the reigns when my last incompetitent boss was canned. Been happy ever since.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: Nik
Meh, too many to take the time to list. However, one of the funnier ones was when a boss told me to delete USB Hub instead of the proper registry edit to fix a botched USB cable modem install. He had to take the call himself and walk the customer through fixing it, owning up to his dumbass advice.

OMGLMAO OMG WHAT A HUGE DUMBASS ASSHOLE.

 

[OutHouse]

Originally posted by: kranky
I once worked for a guy who, I am convinced, was insane. I only worked there two years but I could fill a book with the stories.

Just one...
My company (let's call it NutHouseInc) was located on a long, dead-end road in one of those industrial parks. It was the next-to-last building on the road. The owner of my company owned the land on both sides of the road. One day he got a brainstorm and decided that he was going to charge the company located at the end of the road (let's call them NormalPeople) a toll for driving past his building. So he wrote them a letter saying that beginning next month, they would have to pay him for the use of the road.

The folks at NormalPeople no doubt had a good laugh and threw the letter away. He wrote them again a week later reiterating his demand for money in exchange for them using the road in front of his building. Not surprisingly, again there was no response.

Well, the first of the month came and he ordered one of his workers to pull a bulldozer across the road so no one could get to NormalPeople's building. The first person arriving for work at NormalPeople asked to have the bulldozer moved. Our leader told him that he was not moving the bulldozer because NormalPeople failed to pay the toll.

The guy from NormalPeople called the cops. The cops asked our leader to explain the bulldozer. He told the cops that since he owned the land on both sides of the road, then obviously the road belonged to him as well, and NormalPeople was notified of the need to pay for using the road. And since they didn't pay, he wasn't going to let them use it any more.

I think the cops wondered if it was some Candid Camera type show because it was such a bizarre situation. They didn't get into the legal aspects of his "theory" but they told him to move the bulldozer at once, keep it off the road, and if they had to come back he was going to jail.

He moved it but still felt that NormalPeople was getting away with something for not having to pay.

You might wonder why he never pondered why none of the companies on the road AHEAD of him ever charged HIM a toll, and the answer is that, in his mind, they weren't as smart as he was.

Damn that is an awesome story.

 

[kranky]

One frigid Friday night in December I was working late in the office trying to get all the paperwork caught up before the weekend. It was snowing like mad, with more snow in the forecast and I just wanted to get done and get home. About 7 PM my phone rang and it was the boss, asking me to come to his office.

Now I had been working there about a year, and in all that time I had NEVER been invited to his office. I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, which was typically the reason for such an invite, so I was kind of puzzled.

When I walked in, he was reclining on the leather couch.

"Well, kranky, how are things going?"
"Um, fine."
"Working late?"
"Finishing up the orders."
"I'm going to an used equipment auction this weekend in New York City. Thought you might like to come along."

I cannot fathom why in the world he would ask me to hang with him for the weekend. And I'm thinking that spending 48 hours with this guy would be a fate worse than death, and I ain't gonna do it.

"Oh, I can't. I have some plans for tonight and tomorrow."
"You could learn a lot about the business. Good opportunity."
"Gee, sorry, but I have other plans and it's too late to change them now."
"I'd let you drive my Cadillac. And I will pay for your expenses."

And then I understood. He didn't want to drive in that weather, but was bound and determined to get to that auction so he could buy a bunch of junk cheap. So... why not see who is still at work at 7 PM on a Friday, and find a lackey to chauffeur you 800 miles to NY and back in a blizzard? Oh, and saying he'd pay my expenses was a backhanded way of saying I wouldn't be on the clock, too. But I truly believe he thought that just dangling the carrot of getting to drive a Cadillac would make me swoon and jump at the offer.