In this oldie but goodie, radio DJ, “Arnetta the Moodsetta” of WBLX-FM in Mobile, Alabama quit her job…live on the air.

Years ago I interviewed for a job where the HR Director told me point blank, “this job will be your life. I have family too, but this job comes first.” Thankfully, I didn’t get the job. Another colleague did, and less than a year later she was hospitalized for anxiety as a result of the stress associated with the position.

Fast forward 15 years, and not much has changed. When a class conflicted with a weekend office event and I chose the class (after giving management ample notice), my manager asked me if I was telling her that my life outside of work was more important than my job. Her question shocked me, and knowing that my answer was a resounding “YES”, fueled my determination to leave that environment as quickly as possible.

But it finally seems that some employers at least, are attempting to make room for life and work. In a recent NPR interview, Katie Sleep discussed why her company, List Innovative Solutions, lets employees telecommute and set their own hours. As a mom herself, accustomed to long commutes and managing the nightmare of transporting kids to and from school and daycare, Sleep was determined to offer better options for her own employees.  Not only does she have an unheard of 95% retention rate, she finds that employees still get their work done.

The problem with 9-5, is that it’s based on an outdated model of work. Back in the day, the workforce was largely male, and women stayed at home. In 2010, most households are dual income, and women are increasingly becoming the breadwinners. Sadly today, most companies, particularly those run by bad bosses, don’t trust their employees to work independently and out of sight. Allowing for flexibility and freedom in the workday is almost seen as a sign of weakness. As a result, both productivity, and employee moral suffer.

Not every type of job is conducive to flex time and telecommuting, but many are, and unless companies begin doing a better job of helping their employees balance work and life, we’ll continue to see a U.S. workforce at odds with itself.  You can listen to the entire NPR story here.

What are your thoughts on employers’ resistance to helping employees maintain a work-life balance? How does your employee handle the issue? Share your thoughts in the comment section or on our Facebook fan page.

Eric "friendly groping" Massa

Whether it’s politicians lying about their love children, teachers having affairs with students and each other, or bosses lying to protect the bottom line, we’ve been experiencing a crisis of bad boss behavior lately, and there’s no telling when it’s going to stop.

Politicians are notorious for their bad behavior, but with the recent onslaught of Argentinian mistresses, love children, “friendly groping”, and corruption scandals that’s been in the news over the past couple of years, it’s no wonder people have had it with all things political.

The worst display of bad boss behavior in the political realm? The health care debate. We don’t know about you, but we don’t like the idea of a bunch of guaranteed retirement policy and health insurance for themselves and family having politicians determining who deserves health care in this country. It’s like a carrot deciding whether it’s pork or beef for dinner – the carrot’s got nothing to lose. He wins no matter what choice is made, and that’s the system we’re currently stuck with.

But there’s always hope in the upstanding and underappreciated field of education, right? Not so fast. Apparently teachers now think it’s ok to sleep with their students. They also seem to think its ok to duke it out in the halls at school when they realize they’re both sleeping with the same teacher. But it’s not all sexual. A former researcher at the University at Buffalo hired actors to testify in a case on his behalf. That same researcher was later found dead in his home.

Bail outs, recalls, foreclosures…need I continue? Running a close second to the bad boss behavior of politicians is the greed that’s rife in corporate America. From awarding million dollar bonus packages to CEO’s who ran their companies into the ground, to monopolies like AT&T with what many consider THE worst customer service in the world, we’re at the end of our proverbial straws.

So how do we attack this national, and global, crisis of mismanagement head on? It certainly won’t be easy. Greed, arrogance and selfishness are the driving forces behind much of this global bad boss behavior, and we’re not expecting those traits to go away anytime soon. So, is it too late? Can anything be done to save our leadership?

Share your thoughts in the comment section, on Twitter, or on our Facebook fan page.

What the blogosphere’s saying about bosses this week…

• Listen up bosses – Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein interviewed Daniel H. Pink about his new book, “Drive” in which he discusses why the traditional carrot-and-stick approach to leading, does little for job performance and satisfaction.

• Forehead Tittaes – I don’t create it, I just report it. Click here to read, and see, what this is all about, and what it could possibly have to do with bad bosses.

• The great divide – 30 years ago top executives at S&P 500 companies made an average of 30 times what their workers did — now they make 300 times what their workers make. And they don’t understand why we can’t stand them. The Business Insider takes on ‘Undercover Boss’ and how out of touch bosses really are.

• The secret to having happy employees? Fire all the unhappy ones. Wait. What? Trust me, it’s not as bad as it sounds.

• This just in – courtesy and manners can help improve job satisfaction. In Back to Basics: The art of saying Thank You, Laurie Griffith asks bosses to check themselves.

But it could have been worse. He’d initially tried to snort it off her butt…

From the “We couldn’t make this stuff up if we tried files” the New York Post is reporting that cocktail waitress Nicole Slama is suing her former boss and Manhattan nightclub owner Gary Malhotra for sexual harassment after he essentially forced her to use her body as a drug table.

In her $3.5 million suit, 24 year old Slama claims that in 2007 Malhotra forced her into a storage closet and said “I want to sniff [coke] off your [butt]. You have a great [butt].” Slama’d recently left a job at Applebees hoping to make money as a cocktail waitress at Quo nightclub. But in addition to the $500 she got during her first shift at Quo, she got an earful about management’s alleged practice of snorting cocaine in the back office and having sex with employees.

Slama alleges Malhotra offered her cocaine on several occasions but on December 6, he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Although she managed to rebuff the butt request, Malhotra sprinkled coke onto her shoulder, snorted it and then licked Slama’s shoulder and neck. She later snuck out of the club and went to the police. In December, Malhotra was convicted of sex abuse, harassment and forcible touching. Of course Malhotra is using the “disgruntled, fired employee” excuse as a defense.

While most people probably think it’s impossible for sexual harassment to occur in sexually charged environments like clubs and bars, the fact is, sexual harassment is defined as unwanted sexual attention, and regardless of what may or may not be going on with other employees, if a boss forces an employee to do anything sexual, then he’s guilty.

Read the entire sordid story here.

Image: Nicole Slama/Inset Gary Malhotra – source: NY Post

Over at The Commercial Mediation and Arbitration Center website, there’s a post up titled Seven Secrets for Keeping your Company out of Court. The post was written in 2008, but, as evident by the number of sexual harassment claims in the news every week, it’s a lesson many companies still haven’t learned.

Even though I’m not on the side of helping company’s avoid going to court to answer for their own management failures, I do want them to make their workplaces, safe, harassment free environments for their employees. So here are a couple of the article’s suggestions along with a sprinkling of my own good old fashion common sense.

• Have a written sexual harassment policy and communicate it to all employees. That would be ALL employees. Executives and HR don’t get a pass because of their position in the organization. There should be one policy for all employees. Period.

• Implement and enforce your policy. This would seem like a no brainer, but you’d be surprised how many companies write policies, have every employee sign an acknowledgment and then proceed to ignore it. I’ve been in a conference room with a VP, a sales team and a HR Manager where the order of the day seemed to be to see who could be the most offensive. HR said and did nothing, decreasing the already shockingly low amount of respect we already had for her.

• Take complaints seriously and investigate every one. Brushing complaints off as mere misunderstandings, or ignoring them entirely, is a lawsuit waiting to happen. The worst thing companies can do is take harassment accusations lightly. Not only does that send the wrong message to staff, but it can end up costing you dearly in the long run.

You can read the entire list of suggestions for avoiding court here.

Bosses who go around conducting clandestine trash can searches, pantyhose inspections and  national sales meetings loaded, are pretty bad. But at least they don’t endanger lives. Not so with the boss of a West Virginia coal mine. According to fireboss, John Renner, his supervisor told him that regardless of ventilation issues, Renner was to evacuate the mine only if a federal inspector was watching.

As fire boss of Patriot Coal Corp’s Federal No. 2 Mine, Renner’s job was to monitor methane and oxygen and determine whether the methane had reached dangerous levels. Federal law requires that either the area be ventilated or the mine evacuated if levels exceed a certain reading. The government has required this type of monitoring since a 2006 methane explosion in a mine killed 12 men.

But Renner says that the first time he evacuated the mines after getting an above normal reading, foreman supervisor, Randy Coffindaffer, berated him for the evacuation, asking him “Do you know how much money you’re costing this company right now, evacuating it?”  Renner says he was “cussed” and “screamed’ at and told by Coffindaffer that he was “never, ever, under any circumstances” to evacuate unless a federal inspector was present. Fearful of losing his job, Renner relented. As a result, he’s been charged with falsifying inspection reports and is expected to plead guilty Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Clarksburg.

Renner is cooperating with authorities, and in recordings made during meetings with state officials can be heard speaking about having panic attacks, consulting with a psychiatrist and taking medication to deal with job related stress. Associated Press attempts to speak to Coffindaffer were unsuccessful and there’s no word on whether he’s still working for Patriot Coal.

Renner was obviously wrong for falsifying reports and putting miners’ lives at risks. But Coffindaffer and the management team that allowed him to bully Renner into doing it, must also be held accountable. Despite CBS’ “Undercover Boss”, I refuse to believe that most bosses are unaware when their management team is cutting corners, cheating and endangering lives. I’m just not buying it. I hope Renner’s testimony helps put Coffindaffer behind bars for a long time. Harsh? Not harsh enough if you ask me.

The Washington Examiner has the full story here.