Posted by denised in This week most Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving in the traditional way, with turkey, football and family, reflecting on the things they’re most grateful for. Here at Reallybadboss.com we’ve got a lot to be thankful for too. Specifically we’re thankful that the jerks in the stories we’ll be sharing this week aren’t our bosses. These stories remind the rest of us that as bad as we have it, it could be worse. I thought I’d ring in the season with a few of my own bad boss stories, starting with my very first really bad boss.
For years I wasted entire Sundays absolutely dreading Monday mornings. The uneasy feeling would start to creep in on Saturday night, and by Sunday evening, I was a basket case. For many of us Monday spells the end of the weekend, the start of the work week and a return to a real tool of a boss. For two years I endured a verbally abusive boss (I fondly refer to him now as the Reprobate) who ran around cursing at the top of his lungs and leering at the women in the office.
The company made beauty aids, including a “bikini bump” soother. Once he asked one of the young women in the office to be the “bikini bump” product model. Of course she knew this meant wearing a bikini to the photo shoot. She didn’t realize it entailed wearing one to the office and having The Reprobate and his spawn ogle her while she “gave them an idea” of what the shoot would look like. She did it. We all were there and none of us protested. We didn’t talk to HR – because there was none. And we certainly didn’t contact the EEOC. We put up with it and we stayed. I stayed because it was my first job out of college and, fresh out of school, I wasn’t aware of my rights. The other women in the office probably felt the same way – afraid of losing their jobs.
So I put up with it. And while putting up with it, I learned some really valuable lessons. I learned I was stronger and smarter than I had given myself credit for. The Reprobate sent me from city to city to check on products without a plan or clearly defined purpose. He would bark out a command that I go visit a drug chain in some remote city out west, and I’d be gone on literally, a wing and a prayer. In those pre-GPS days, I would get off the plane, rent a car, get a map and sometimes 10 hours later end up back at my hotel room, tired and angry, but done. I told myself every day, “this is the worst job I’ll ever have”, and I meant it. I’ve never again put up with that type of abuse and I’ve turned every bad boss situation I’ve had since then into a learning experience.
Wednesday: Another real-life, really bad boss tale
