This is an account of a rude, condescending, commanding manager, with the social skills of a child, and the leadership skills of someone raised in the wild. I don’t want to say I’m a better person than her, but being a bit older and being college educated while she is not definitely did not help my attitude towards her when she started casting out commands.

I began working a second job at a family owned t-shirt store in the city. With-in my first month the owners decided to open another smaller kiosk inside of the public market. I agreed to transfer over to the new shop and begin working under the newly promoted manager, who was being transferred from the shipping department at the warehouse.

Tensions were high amongst the owners, managers and employees the first couple days working in the kiosk. The stress of the deadline to open, arranging the product and deciding where things should go, how things should be presented, etc., had tempers boiling over. I met my new manager and after a friendly first hour of her telling me what her expectations and hopes for the store would be, she slowly began turning into a monster. She began to pick at the way I stood, the order in which I laid out product, the direction tags of shirts should be. Although I found this to be a bit picky, I didn’t see much harm in it, she just had a certain way she wanted things, and most of her abruptness I chalked up to being under stress from the owners to get things underway and start making sales and having a tidy professional-looking workplace. I knew this was her first time ever being in charge or being in any position of power so I let most things slide off my back when she would snip about something small.

After things had settled down with the store and we had gotten into the swing of things, she did not follow suit. In fact she got progressively worse.

Here are a list of dialogues and run-ins we had over the first six weeks:

• I show up my first day on my own. Knowing she had been stressed, I parked at a meter just outside the building to make sure I was there early enough to help her set up. After an hour of arranging, I tell her that I now needed to go park my car in the lot, which was about 1/2 mile away.  She responds “You can’t do this when you start here by yourself you know. You’re lucky I’m here.”  To which I respond: “Yes I’m aware of that, I just wanted to help you because I know you’ve been stressing about this whole thing.”

Her reply: “Just so we’re clear, I was helping YOU…Do you understand?”

• “Is that how I told you I wanted those arranged?” “You need to smile more even when there aren’t customers present. If you smile and talk to them more, they’ll give you more money, and that’s really all we care about.” “You need to face this direction, don’t ever turn your back, even if you need to get something behind you.” “Those glasses aren’t arranged right, make them look happier.” “What would you do if I wasn’t here to save you? (Because I asked how to open the new receipt machine)” “I thought I talked to you about this, I don’t want more than 50 singles in the drawer.

 

• Her: “Do you have any questions before I leave?”  Me: “I don’t think so…..OH wait, yes, when we get the new shipment where should I display them?” Her: “Okay, when I ask you if you have any questions, that’s what I meant. You need to ask me right away. (Because I had to think about it)

 

• Her: (barely audible noise facing away from me which I didn’t really hear and assumed she wasn’t talking to me) Her again: “HEY. I’M TALKING TO YOU. YOU NEED TO ANSWER ME AND NOT IGNORE ME WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU. LOOK AT ME. ARE YOU JUST GOING TO IGNORE ME? IS THAT HOW IT’S GOING TO BE?”

 

• “Say yes if you understand me.”

After 4 months she FINALLY got demoted from manager, in what was called “a huge mistake in judgement putting her in charge.” She then had the nerve to come in to work and tell everyone that she had actually “stepped down”, even though we were all aware of what actually happened.

Got your own personal megalomaniac boss? Share your story in the comment section, or email denised (@) reallybadboss (dot) com.

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.

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?

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).

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.

The smiley face is a nice touch.  Source: HappyPlace

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.

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.

Despite dire news warnings about hazardous driving conditions, I wonder how many non-essential (anyone who isn’t a doctor, nurse, cop, fire etc.) employees felt obligated to get to work today, not because the world would end if they didn’t show up, but because of an overly demanding boss or the fear of job loss.

I’ve been there more times than I’d like to count. One particularly challenging winter in the northeast with a blizzard threatening, employees congregated around water coolers wondering who would be bold enough to make the first move. Driving home in blizzard conditions is frightening and all of us wanted to beat the storm home. The bosses, who presumably would have to drive home in the same conditions, never budged, and at 5:00pm we ventured out into madness. Thank God all of us made it home alive but not everyone is always that fortunate.

A friend shared a story of a colleague who, fearful of driving to work in hazardous conditions, called her boss to tell her she wouldn’t be able to make it in.  Her boss gave her an ultimatum – report to work or you’re fired. My friends colleague took the warning seriously and unfortunately lost her life driving to work that morning.Another friend shared a story about a woman who had been ill for some time and had requested extended leave. When it was time for her to return to work she still was not well and requested an extension. Her boss claimed not to have received the approval from HR and insisted the employee report to work. The employee died in the office that day.

I’m not a litigious person, but if there was ever a case for legal action, I think the stories above make that case. In neither story was the employee a medical professional or someone on whose life others depended. They were “forced” to report to work because of policy and because their bosses knew they had the power to make them come in. Let’s hope that stories like this are few and far between and that no employee ever feels obligated to put he life at risk to punch the clock.

Do you have a similar story of reporting to work despite illness or hazardous weather for fear of losing your job? Share your story in the comment section or email it to denised(@ ) reallybadboss.com (remove parenthesis.)

The Casting Firm is asking the question, “Would your real life office antics be entertaining to watch?”

CASTING FOR A NEW DOCU-SERIES: A Major Cable Network is seeking midsize offices full of big personalities that can carry a show. Would your office antics be entertaining to watch?

Is there anything coming up in your workplace that would be exciting to watch unfold? Moving offices, restructuring, new owners, new human resource policies, etc?

Are your coworkers the best….or the worst? Do you all get along or are office politics out of control? Is your boss amazing? Incompetent? The real life Michael Scott? We are looking for every kind of story, whether you have the dream job or work in a disaster zone! Tell us about the cast of characters in your workplace, and why you would all make great Television!

Casting for the first season is taking place in Southern California ONLY. So if your office has 10 employees or more and all are legal residents of the U.S., The Casting Firm wants to hear from you.  If you’re interested send your name, contact details, the name of your company, along with photos of you and your coworkers to casting.docuseries@gmail.com. Make sure you include a contact number so someone from their staff can contact you. For more information visit The Casting Firm’s Office Intervention link here.

Good luck!

Disclaimer: Really Bad Boss is not affiliated with The Casting Firm.

But then I remember a couple of things. One, she works for the government. Until I did my stint with agencies in both the federal and state government, I thought people gave the government and government employees an unfair shake. Now after logging over five years inside government bureaucracies I understand what all the hostility is about. But I’ve also got the unique advantage of understanding it from both sides.

You know that miserable DMV worker who barks out instructions at you from behind her cage? Or the customer service rep who keeps giving you the run-around when you call for answers? Well in some cases they’ve been beaten up so much by management that they no longer care. Granted, some of them are just mean-spirited, incompetent people (like the one years ago who smiled when she told me I had exhausted my unemployment benefits.)  But many were like me, well educated, smart, laid off from corporate America, looking for work and, despite embarrassingly low salaries, determined to make a go of it.

When I took my first job with the government I signed on for, and was prepared for lower pay, longer hours and a higher level of bureaucracy than in the private sector. I was not prepared for nor had I signed on for micromanagement, pantyhose inspections, or military type treatment. My “superiors,” who had less business experience and less formal education than I had, were petty and arrogant. They had attained their status simply by outlasting everyone else. Tenure is king in the public sector. And if your goal is power and a fat pension upon retirement, then your best bet is to make life hell for anyone you perceive as a threat. If you’re also insecure in your abilities (because you’re keenly aware you have none) constantly reminding people that you’re the boss serves as a boon to the ego.

So when I hear that my former bad boss has been promoted it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and it’s not because I want what she has. It’s because I know that she got where she is by stepping on the backs and dreams of people probably much more competent and qualified than she’ll ever be.

And so, another bad boss empire expands…

Got any bad boss success stores that chap your hide? Share your stories in the comment section.

She gives me assignments that require the use of certain programs that are installed on only a few computers in the company, and then does not allow me to work on those computers. She also gives me busy work, and work that involves materials that she knows I am allergic to. She advised me that my job title is dead and told me to start looking for a job elsewhere.

A bright spot in all of this the fact that I won a company people’s choice award for an outstanding job. Normally anonymous nominations are not allowed, but the officials in the contest knew enough about the tensions that they saw our service area would have had no award if they did not allow employees to speak anonymously. The award was signed by the manager two steps above my boss, but I was not present to receive it, because I thought I was not welcome at the banquet.

I am writing this to try to make another bright spot. I know I have untapped creativity and talent that is going to waste 40 hours a week. I have tried taking classes in the evening but I am too distracted by anger from work to concentrate. I am looking for collaborators to learn more about computer programming, web development, making PowerPoint presentations, or comedy writing. We could start out our sessions commiserating about our bad boss and then be able to focus on the project we have chosen. If we make money, we can split it, but my main goal is to improve skills and restore sanity.

If you’re interested in sharing your thoughts, ideas and skills with Andee, please email him at andeeharris44(@)hotmail.com (remove parenthesis.)*

Please note, my inclusion of Andee’s contact information is not an endorsement. Andee is independent of Reallybadboss.com and operates as such. Any affiliation or association developed via this post is independent of Reallybadboss.com.

My boss required me to go to compliance training. The compliance training stated that I was required to report violations or else I would be committing a violation myself. The violations I reported were committed by my boss (and she escaped punishment by lying), and now I am on her hit list.

She is currently in the process of isolating me. She is telling everyone that I report every mistake that they make and some refuse to speak to me because of it. (Of course, mistakes and violations of the law are two entirely different things, but this is lost on my boss.) She has had another employee ask me “as a favor” to do something that is violation of privacy policies and I have refused. She assigned me to a task (through the employee who normally performs this function) that would have required I stretch the truth to satisfy the customer (who was a different employee in my department). I did not stretch the truth, then my boss redid the assignment with the truth stretched. This employee was very upset with me and had special favor with my boss for a few days, but, now that she is over her anger, she is no longer my boss’s favorite.

My boss has promoted the office gossip because she knows of sneaky ways to irritate people, including tampering with my phone and computer. I have two people I can confide in at work, one my boss knows about and one she is trying to flush out. The one my boss knows about has told me that the last person who confided in her about my boss got fired, and she does not want that to happen to me, so she is backing away.

Not only is this guy faced with an a** of a boss but one who’s bullying him into breaking the law. Any thoughts on the best way to handle this situation? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

Wednesday: Part Two – Finding a bright spot

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

Four and a half months ago I left an ugly and unproductive work environment and even accepted a pay cut in my new position just to get away from an egotistical boss with small man syndrome. Talk about out of the frying pan into the fire! After months of bipolar style ups and downs in our working relationship, my boss fired me last night since I refused to quit. He asked me to finish out the week so I could appropriately hand off all my pending work. This morning when I came in he asked if he could buy me a cup of coffee and proceeded to tell me that he’s willing to overlook the conversation (WHEN HE FIRED ME) yesterday and move on from here.

A bit of background… I am a seasoned professional that actually knows a lot more than my boss about the products he sells. I was previously an account manager but took this assistant position with the understanding that I would eventually be an associate. I also accepted the position based on having health insurance after three months.

Shortly after my employment, the temper tantrums from my 62 year old boss began. He likes to tell me frequently that I should not do things “my way” and that I need to consult him on everything because these are not my clients, they are his. Yet, if I consult him too much he gets grumpy and tells me he hired me for my expertise so he shouldn’t have to answer all my questions. One hissy fit was so bad that I actually teared up a bit. I’m not talking racking sobs, I’m talking eyes welling only. He sent me to the bathroom to calm myself down and waited til the next day to berate me for my “unprofessional demeanor” and for making him look like a meanie to the rest of the office. So far I have managed to successfully avoid so much as the slightest sign of human feelings, even through the lecture about my “weight problem” and how I’m a “beautiful girl” so I shouldn’t let it bring my self esteem down if my “husband doesn’t mind” me the way I am.

I am frequently blamed for things outside my control. On one occasion, he chastised me for losing a letter from a client that he gave to me. He could not tell me when he gave it to me, but insisted that I lost it and that was simply unacceptable. Fast forward two hours of storming around and yelling at me and he discovered the letter was written TWO YEARS before I came to work for him and HE had it in his briefcase ALL ALONG.

So now I sit here debating my sparse options, unable to quit because the economy is rotten and I have a family depending on my paycheck. At least if he’d stuck with his impetuous firing yesterday I would have received unemployment benefits to tide me over until I find a new position. Instead I am being forced to swallow my pride and integrity yet again and accept his offer to “move on”. What I wouldn’t give to be able to tell him off or at the very least, get some of my dignity back by being able to walk away.

If you’ve got any words of wisdom or encouragement for our reader, or if you’ve been in a similar position yourself, share your story in the comment section, or email me at denised(@)reallybadboss.com. (Leave out the parenthesis)

When last we met, I was poised to re-enter the workforce. Armed with positive vibes, great credentials and a clearance COACH bag full of enthusiasm, I began sending off inspired cover letters and resumes tweaked to within an inch of their lives. As of this writing, I’ve been contacted by a former employer who I’m certain was the inspiration for the expression, “A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.”

I’ve been negotiating with him for over a week now to agree on my rates and the amount of hours his project would require each month. Talking to this man is like talking to a bag of flour – useful if you’re making biscuits but not so much if you want intelligent conversation. We’ll call him Bob.

Bob was supposed to call me on Monday night to finalize my project hours for the week. This was after having a circular conversation with him on Monday which consisted of him asking “So, you can’t come in today?” and me responding “No, Bob, I can’t come in today.” I proceeded to explain in detail that I was working on several other projects and that Bob couldn’t expect me to drop everything at a moment’s notice. At the end of my five minute explanation, Bob says, “So, you can’t come in today?” *Sigh* We ended the conversation with Bob promising to call me Monday when he’d pinned down my schedule and agreed to my rates.

The next time I heard from Bob was at 7:08 this morning (Wednesday). He called and left a message on my cell phone marked “urgent.” Bob was “calling to confirm that you’ll be in the office at 9:00am this morning.”  *Sighs*

God help me.

I’ve decided to communicate with Bob in writing. That way there’s less chance of misunderstandings, right? Right? *Long sigh*

Editor’s Note: A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a woman who decided to handle a particularly harrowing bad boss experience in a unique way. There are dozens of self help books on the market from individuals who’ve gotten out of their bad boss situations and share advice with fellow sufferers. Debora Resnick took a different path. She wrote a novel called The Language Professor. Here’s some of what Debora shared in her email…

Years ago, the president of the college where I worked kicked me out of my job a few days before I was scheduled to come back from a one year leave of absence. Because it was a unionized position, he could not fire me outright. This man never explained or tried to justify his behavior, but I knew that what was driving him was the desire for revenge: I had had the nerve before I went on leave to balk at admitting the son of a friend of his whose grades were much weaker than that of the other admitted students. Balk, mind you, not refuse outright, because eventually I admitted the student. Thanks to my union contract, I eventually got my job back, but just before I did, this man had the nerve to tell me that he had the happiness of his employees at heart. Imagine!

What happened next was a micro political saga. The president’s term of office was up for renewal and I was elected by my employee group to be their representative on the board of the college. Composed of twenty people, the board ended up being evenly divided between supporters and opponents of the president. Bitterly contested, the president fought back, resorting, along with his supporters, to blatant doublespeak to defend his position. The deadlock persisted, until, at the very end, by an incredible twist, the president was able to pull his job out of the fire.

It took me years to get over the injustice that I had been the victim of and the feeling of helplessness it embedded in my soul.

As only writers can do, Debora tapped into her talents and found a way to tell her story in a fictionalized way.  The editorial review of The Language Professor says it “is the gripping account of one woman’s encounter with the world of double-speak.” The Language Professor is available here on Amazon.com. Kudos to Debora for turning a bad boss situation into something great!

My really bad boss story spans 9 months of hell (at a Big 10 university by the way), when I experienced nothing but excruciating pain while sitting at my desk all day. Mind you, a few months prior I had sat at another desk area (as a temporary employee) and was fine, but the ergonomics of this new area had been adjusted to the former shorter person who had worked there.  At any rate, due to the pain that I could no longer tolerate after having endured it for months and trying to adjust things to help, I contacted our internal HR person to bring it up to her. I got no response from her, so after 2 weeks I inquired with her again as to what I could do.  She brought this up to our “really bad boss” and he proceeded from there to be the c*ck blocker from hell.

I spoke with him in person and his point blank answer was for me to have my doctor write a note requesting that an ergonomic chair be ordered for me. He made a point to point out that management and support people have different height chairs.  (This is where I wanted to point out that he is a douche, and I am a tall woman with a size 40 I cup breasts to hold up and that a chair that hits me mid-back below the shoulder blades does not cut it!)  I proceeded to see my primary physician, she wrote the note, I supplied the note to him and nothing happened from there.  About a month went by and I asked if anything was going to proceed due to my conversation w/ him and my note from my doctor. His idea was to completely ignore me from that point forward until I finally contacted the ergonomics group where I work to help me.

Once they got involved, he had to comply with their recommendations. Slowly I got help in raising up my desk items and a few minor adjustments, but in the meantime I was in searing physical pain that forced me into physical therapy for which I had to pay- not my employer (whose fault this sh*tty workstation was).  I did physical therapy for 2 months waiting for more answers and assistance.  Finally at the 7 month mark the ergonomic dept. gave a formal recommendation for a chair, for which my douchebag boss already had the note (that he asked for!) 7 months prior.  An entire month went by with no conversation from him, no response that he had ordered the chair- nothing.

I finally went to external HR (outside of our dept) to force them to get him to give me an answer.  He gave me an answer. His answer was first: that I should never go to outside HR to ask for help since he is my HR person for our dept. (what the f*ck???!) and that he only received the request from ergonomics 1 month ago and that had not allowed him time to respond. (what??!!!).  This was his douchey, sh*tty answer to my now 7-8 months of pain, physical therapy and fighting to get a damn correct chair.  I had finally had it. I wanted to go postal on this mofo, but instead I brought in my own high-backed chair and informed him that this was a temporary situation.  It still took him 2 weeks later to move his ass and even order the item (in the meantime he blamed everyone but himself for the 8 f-ing months of delays).  I finally got this chair 9 months after my doctor wrote the note that he requested himself! This %^$** should have been fired for the way he handled this as an “HR” person.  He is a financial person who wears an HR hat that he should not have because he is absolutely horrible in dealing with human beings.

Since then, he has been a complete a-hole to deal with, c*ck blocking everything in all directions because he demands complete and total control over everyone and everything under him. I only took this stupid, underling, low-paying job because I had no choice- it was a job and the economy is horrible.  Prior to this I had been in management for 10 years and sat in a high-backed chair- no physical problems.  I feel sorry for him that he feels so small as to need to control so heavily. He’s a really bad boss that needs to retire.

Sincerely,

Chairwhipped

Do you have a really bad boss story? Send it to denised@reallybadboss.com and we’ll feature it in a future post.

Dear Denise,

I report to the Bus. Dev. Manager – a lady with 23 years of experience in her field of expertise and good at her job when she focuses on it.
Why is she the boss from Hell ?
a. She gets angry when she has to do actual WORK because it interrupts her extra-curricular activities – CHURCH & CHARITY. Screaming, shouting are the highlights of the day.
b. All her staff are bullied into supporting her Church Charity Organisation – coerced into buying books, donating money  etc. If we dont, we are ungrateful, stingy, godless creatures.
c. She lies to HR about her activities in the field – urgent meeting with client actually means church meeting to disscuss fund-raising) etc…. you catch my drift.  All employees are required to lie blatanly saying that she has a meeting with important clients.
d. Her entertainment claim for company’s clients is utilised for taking pastor and his family, church board directors for big lunches and dinners, wooing potential contributors for her charitable organisation.
e. Her petrol card provided by the company is used for ferrying various church members to and fro. Collection of donation in kind from existing company’s clients all in the name of charity.
f.  Personal remarks she has made to me – I’m not blessed by God that’s why I dont own a car, cant carry a designer brand handbag, have no husband. Your personal life must be an open book to her.
g. Personal remarks she has made to me – I’m a negative personality that’s why I don’t go to Church. She (Boss) is very blessed and that’s why God has given her a Mercedes.
h. Personal remarks to me and others – If God has blessed you, you have no money problems, you will not be sick etc. Only Christian people are honest and do good work.
i.  Personal remarks to me and others – She is a happy person because God has blessed her for her passion in doing charity work. Because we dont support her charity, we will not be blessed hence no bonus and no increment.
j.  I was never told that handling the paperwork for her Christian Charity org. was in my job scope during the interview. Her pet charity home was launched in 2009. During my recent appraisal, I asked her for an incentive as this was extra work.  Her response was that I was ungrateful, did I not realize this was GOD’s work?, she also threatened me saying that she would fire me, make sure that I would be disciplined by HR for insubordination.
k. Her tirade went on for an hour whereby she stated that she has tried to counsel and instill CHRISTIAN VALUES in her staff but I’m ungrateful, extremely cold person and resistant to change and need to be taught a lesson.
l.  Her statement “anyone who goes against me will end up badly.” By the way HR Manager is deadly afraid of her because my boss is on very good terms with the CEO of the company. All complaints, protests by me and other employees to HR have been squashed. Instead, HR liberally issues disciplinary action letters upon request by my boss for our department.

Suffice to say this is the last straw for me – after 3 years of enduring her personal remarks and abuse; I am actively seeking a position elsewhere. In my department when my boss joined in 2007, there were 7 of us. Now only my boss and I remain in this department. I tolerated and swallowed this abuse for years. Nobody deserves this sort of treament.

A Victim

Sounds like ‘A Victim’ works for a real lunatic. I hope her job search goes well and she’s able to get away from this woman as soon as possible. I wonder if the lunatics pastor knows she’s stealing time and resources from her company to care for the church? Something tells me he/she’s got to have some idea about what’s going on. And if so, they’re just as bad as she is.

Send your bad boss story to denised@reallybadboss.com.