What the blogosphere’s saying about bosses this week…

• The worst bosses of 2011? Our friends at eBosswatch list 100 of the worst bosses of 2011 and include the sexual harassment hijinks of Mike Cordova of Applebees, Mr. 999 himself, Herman Cain, and former Penn State Assistant Coach and man-who-thinks-it’s-ok-to-shower-with-young-boys, Jerry Sandusky. I’m going to have so much fun going through this list and sharing all of the really bad boss dirt with you.

• Over on Forbes.com, Stephanie Taylor Christensen shares five ways to spot a bad boss in an interview.

• Who Moved  My Cheese, Good to Great, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Little Engine That Could. The Little Engine That Could? Yes, a retail company vice president gave the employees in his department a copy of The Little Engine That Could as a holiday gift. Meredith Levinson explains why that might not have been such a good idea.

• Unfortunately, you already know this – a bad boss can follow you home. Not literally, although I’m sure that’s actually happened to someone. No, the stress and anxiety caused by a really bad boss filters into your home life. Neil Wagner explains in the Atlantic.

Have a story, news idea or blog you’d like featured in The Really Bad Boss Blog Roundup? Email it to denised (@) reallybadboss (dot) com.

I’ve had to share a hotel room with a colleague before. Besides the fact that she snored like an ox, the idea of sharing personal spaces as intimate as bedrooms and bathrooms with a work colleague is just …disturbing.  But, the budget was tight and I got along pretty well with my colleague.  But what if you had to share a hotel room with your boss? Who walked around in her thong underwear. And carried on conversations with you. While she was on the toilet.  That’s what happened to this woman as reported on the USA Travel website. Some excerpts of what Beth the boss inflicted on her employee:

First of all, Beth requires the woman to share a hotel room with her.

In hotel rooms, the employee writes, Beth “will leave the bathroom door open while using the toilet and yelling comments to me (not even my husband does this).”

Beth also walks around the room in her thong and tries to discuss her dating and sex life with the woman while the woman attempts to hide under her covers and fall asleep.

Beth is such a control freak over travel expenses that when she orders room service breakfast, she orders a single entree and pot of coffee and expects the employee to share the food.

The advice columnist who received this letter about Beth suggests that the employee find another job. Ya think? Would you ever share a hotel room with your boss?

More sad, hilarious, frustrating and true reader submitted bad boss stories…

I worked for a Jazz Club in Cocoa Beach, Florida.  My boss was a 70 year old Astria woman who looked like yoda.  She wore the same clothes into work each night yet yelled about having a military press in each employee’s shirt.  By 1 am, she was so drunk, coworkers and I have had to give her a ride home.  There are countless stories concering Yoda with a mullet.  So she can’t sue, I’ll name her Ughla.  I think I shall write a book about this past year.  Its been disgustingly ridiculous. And belittling…

My boss, LH, is a short Hitler like Bully. He hangs with his Beemer Boys and takes credit for all good ideas and is…

Hey, what about a psychologist who is a flaming Borderline!  She promised us the world in this private practice, then turned on us in a public meeting and tried to disembowel us all because we “embarrassed” her in front of a couple of nurses.  We didn’t even know what was going on.  We both have over 20 years experience apiece as therapists, but this greenhorn decided to tell us both that we didn’t have any skills.  Okay.  We were ready to resign and she laid us off.  Good for her reputation, but we are both stil reeling over the viciousness of her attack.  Go figure.

The firm I work for behaves in the same way as Glassmajic described.  Despite being a law firm where they should know better (due to the legal ramifications) they insist on making us come in on snow days.  Of course, they always say “use your best judgment and don’t do anything dangerous”, but they also dock you your vacation time if you don’t come in, giving you no choice but to take the risk.

Send your true really bad boss stories to denised (@) really bad boss (dot) com (remove spaces and parenthesis to email).

In honor of Bosses Day…

If this is real, it’s epic.  Joey hired a marching band to help him quit. A couple of people commented that Joey was an ass to quit a job (even a bad job) in this economy. Once the band started, I for one, couldn’t stop smiling. And I love how the band drowns out his boss yelling “Get out!” Unless you’ve had a really bad boss, you won’t understand how great this really is.

Despite working 22 days straight, Adam wouldn’t give his employee a day off. So…

The smiley face is a nice touch.  Source: HappyPlace

Bad Barista.

The contest, sponsored by Working America, asked workers to submit their bad boss stories for a chance to win the use of a vacation condo for a week and $1,000.

After reading Bad Barista’s story, we think she deserved the grand prize win (selected by website votes.) The California coffee shop worker who’d recently had heart surgery was back at work when she started having chest pains.  Given her history of heart surgery, it seems natural that she would call an ambulance and have it checked out. Natural to everyone but her boss who called her ailing employee repeatedly WHILE SHE WAS IN THE AMBULANCE ON THE WAY TO THE HOSPITAL. The boss felt that the ambulance ride was the best time to tell her employee that her health problems were causing scheduling problems for the business. How inconvenient.

Download Me, chosen by Working America staff, captured the grand prize for a boss who, after sales staff did not double revenues in a single month, took away staff chairs, making them stand at their desks.

Download Me and Bad Barista won, if you can call being saddled with bosses like that winning, but some of the runner-ups were pretty awful too.

There was the city manager who lowered an employee’s pay by $5,000 in one year. The employee found out about the pay cut while listening to the radio.

Then there was the doctor who had a habit of leaving her underwear. Around the office. On purpose? Either way…gross.

*Sighs* I guess no matter how bad you have it, someone out there always has it a little worse.?!

Read more about Working America’s contest here.

After its Fourth of July barbecue an Indiana manager of a Dillard’s department store instructed employees to store the unused hot dogs in the company freezer and save them for the Labor Day bash.

Nolan Koewler either didn’t hear the instructions or really wanted some hot dogs because he ate two of them. And because of that he was fired. Inc.com reports:

The Little Rock-based chain fired Nolan Koewler of Evansville, Indiana, last July for stealing two hot dogs left over from his store’s holiday cookout.  Mike Marz, the Dillard’s dock manager who’d bought the food on a company credit card, ordered that the leftovers be stored in the break room freezer until Labor Day. But Koewler claimed he never heard those instructions—or, in legalese, “rescission of this offer of celebratory food”—and the day after the party, took and ate two hot dogs. Marz reviewed security camera footage, which caught Koewler, and so Marz took the issue to the store manager.  With surveillance video proof of Koewler’s so-called theft, the manager summoned the police.

He summoned the police??? Over TWO HOT DOGS? Harsh – like maybe we’ve got a manager with a god complex who loves reminding everyone who’s boss…over the hot dogs – harsh. In foolishness fairness, the manager did offer Koewler two options – either sign a statement admitting he stole the hot dogs or spend the night in jail. Koewler refused to sign and apparently that’s when the cops were called.

It gets even more interesting. And stupid.

Koewler applied for unemployment benefits (which I didn’t think you could do if you’d been fired) and Dillard’s denied his claim.

Koewler appealed and an Indiana unemployment claims deputy sided with him, determining he had not been discharged for just cause.

Dillard’s appealed and the decision was reversed.

Koewler appealed that decision and the frank-burglar case went all the way to Indiana’s Court of Appeals which found no evidence that Koewler ever heard the “hands off the hot dogs” instructions and that Dillard’s was unjustified in firing him.

Koewler can now receive unemployment benefits. He will never eat another hot dog as long as he lives.

Side note: How embarrassed would you be to admit you’d been fired for eating hot dogs?

Read the full story here.