Posted by denised in This was a comment I received in response to one of last week’s posts:
My boss is in his early 30′s and born with a silver spoon in his mouth .. He inherited the company I work for. He has no
respect for his employees and is forever thinking he is being taken advantage of. Out of a one of his many fits he throws he decided to take away paid holidays. Said it was not worth giving us money and not getting something for it. I over heard him tell his brother just have her do it she’s my new slave now. Had I not needed this minimum wage no insurance no benefits job I would of told him where to stick it. To say the least I am scouring the ads daily.
I’ve had the misfortune (surprise, surprise) of working for two very different family-owned companies. In the first case – a much smaller operation – two sons, who were Vice President of Research and Development and Vice President of Sales respectively, hated each other, their father, their mother and every single employee who worked for the company. There were days when I expected doors to start slamming shut and bodies to be hurling through the air in response to the evil permeating the offices. The sons respected no one, least of all the employees, and were both dumber than dirt. Despite that fact, they both walked around with an air of intellectual superiority, simply because they had been born into money and power. The curse of the silver spoon.
In the second family-owned company, the offspring that I worked with was respectful, humble and genuinely tried to make a difference. She was however, given way too much responsibility for her level of experience, something that would never had happened had she not been the daughter of the owner.
Do silver spoon kids always make bad bosses? Of course not. The Chik-fil-A family and their strong set of core values and mission are an example of family-run operations done right. Unfortunately it’s the bad apples and the Paris Hilton’s of the world that make the most mess and draw the most attention.
Have you ever worked for silver-spoon kids? Share your silver-spoon bad boss stories in the comment section, or email me at denised(@)reallybadboss.com (remove parenthesis from @ symbol to send.)
