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

A couple had a “distracting” experience at the 9:40 pm showing of Shutter Island at the St. Croix Falls Cinema 8 in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin. Later that night, Mrs. Kohl-Leaf, shot off an email to the cinema owners complaining about, among other things, the theater not taking debit or credit cards, the ATM being out of cash and the 20 minutes theater staff spent wandering through the theater in search of underage patrons.

The next morning, Kohl-Leaf awoke to this email from the company’s vice president.

Sarah,
Drive to White Bear Lake and also go f*** yourself. If you dont have money for entertainment, get a better job, and don’t pay for everything on your credit or check card. You can also shove your time and gas up your f*****g ass. Also, find better things to do with your time. This email is an absolute joke. We don’t care to have you as a customer. Let me know if you need directions to white bear lake.
Steven
Steven J. Payne – Vice President
Evergreen Entertainment
929 Old Highway 8 NW
Suite 200
New Brighton, MN 55112
Phone – (651) 636-1417
Fax – (651) 636-1418

Geez! Can you imagine what this jackass must be like to work for? If there are any employees of Evergreen Entertainment who want to (anonymously of course) tell me what this gem of a VP is like to work for, please email me at denised@reallybadboss.com or leave a comment below.  By the way, as is often the case of businesses behaving badly, there’s now a boycott against them on Facebook. Check it out here.

Who among us hasn’t, just once, wished our boss could walk a mile in our shoes. Last night on the premier episode of “Undercover Boss” we watched Larry O’Donnell, President and COO of Waste Management , the largest trash and recycling company in North America, walk a few miles in the shoes of several of his employees.

The show’s premise is simple – bosses from major companies across the country go “undercover” in various entry level positions in their respective companies. CBS’s tag line for the show is “They will discover the truth.” And to some extent they do.

O’Donnell sorted trash at one of his waste management facilities, collected trash from the side of the highway and cleaned toilets at a carnival. Along the way he meets with several dedicated and hardworking employees (no doubt handpicked by management for their great attitudes) and learns as much about their personal struggles as he does about the shortcomings of his own company policies. For instance, workers are expected to clean 15 port-o-potties in an hour. On an assembly line, employees have to remove cardboard from a conveyer belt going at extremely high speeds or risk jamming expensive machinery. And female garbage collectors are forced to use a can as a toilet during their routes.

O’Donnell comes across as a conscientious boss who genuinely seems concerned about the well being of his employees. By show’s end, he vows to review some of the corporate policies he and his management team have instituted and he promises to become a better manager. Only time will tell if O’Donnell and Waste Management really make changes.  The cynic in me thinks that when management is really concerned about how their policies impact employees and productivity, they don’t need a television show and cameras to learn the truth, they just  need to listen to their employees.  But, if “Undercover Boss” causes even a few companies to take a closer look at the way they do business, then it’s a start.

To catch clips from last night’s premier, click here.

A reader sent the following story in as a comment on our “Worst Bosses of all time” post. She sent it on New Years after being told she had to go into the office. Any of us who’ve had a really bad boss can relate to her feeling sick and crying on the weekend in anticipation of the drama that will most certainly take place on Monday morning. Here’s her story in her own words…

I was out of work for over a year so when I was offered a job to work at a non-profit agency an hour away from home, I said, Thank you, and took the job. Little did I know that the female version of Adolph Hitler is alive and well and running the non-profit agency where I had just agreed to work. While this woman was unpleasant at the interview, I just assumed that she was having a bad day or perhaps was stressed. I was mistaken; that is the norm.

On my first day in the office, instead of receiving any kind of welcome or introduction from her, she approached me as I was still holding my coat, purse and bag containing personal items like Kleenex and reference books, and said, Meeting in five minutes – I need you to take notes. The receptionist showed me where my office was and I hurriedly sat my things down and grabbed a pad and pen. There were about a dozen people in the meeting and she never introduced them to me, so I drew a diagram of the seating and numbered them so I could keep the comments straight of who said what. Finally, when there was a lull in the discussion, I spoke up and asked if, since I was asked to take minutes, I could please have everyone’s names. The boss later told me that I was never to interrupt one of her meetings again. Afterwards, she gave me several documents to make revisions on, however, I was not allowed to have access to any documents of my predecessor, so I had to completely re-type all the documents.

When I went to my new boss to ask a question, I discovered that she had left the office and had locked her door shut – she does not share her schedule with anyone and no one knew if and when she would return for the day. Another admin assistant introduced herself and showed me around the office and sort of explained what my position would be like. I was also told that I was the fourth secretary my boss had had so far this year. When my boss returned, I told her that I had tried to go to her to ask a question but found out that she was gone but the other admin had been very helpful and answered some questions for me. The boss was livid – “WHY WERE YOU TALKING TO HER??? SHE DOESN’T KNOW ANYTHING – SHE’S JUST A TEMP! SHE IS NOT YOUR BOSS – I AM YOUR BOSS! (repeating) ..SHE IS NOT YOUR BOSS — I AM YOUR BOSS!!!” I reminded her that it was my first day; that she was gone and I didn’t know if she would be back and the other admin had actually answered my questions. I was reminded that I was never to go to the other admin again for any reason without express direction.

…On Day #2, I handed a document to my boss that I had just completed; she looked it over while I stood and waited for further direction from her. She turned to me and said, “You’re a perfectionist, aren’t you?”, I replied that I guess I am. With a sinister tone, my new boss told me, “I’m a perfectionist, too. We’re going to butt heads and I’m going to win.” I told her, “You can win! You’re my boss and I’m just here to help you. Why would we butt heads?” She said, We’ll see. I have now been here two months and it is some of the longest two months of my life. I cry on my way to work, I cry on Sundays knowing that I have to go back to that horrible woman on Monday. Although she does not usually raise her voice, her tone is always cynical, sarcastic,

Read the rest of this entry »

When Tyra Banks announced that she’d be ending her talk show this year to pursue movie production, people (those who cared anyway) immediately began wondering about the real reason for the end of the show. After all, with two Emmy’s under her belt and with Oprah as her mentor, many thought she would become the next talk show queen. Well if you believe some of her employees, Ms. Banks doesn’t have the management chops to run her million dollar empire, much less a talk show.

According to insiders, the Tyra Banks show has been plagued with high turnover for years. “She and the higher-ups on the production staff could be extremely brutal,” says the source. “She really is a diva.” Sources say it was her way or the highway. In our experience, that’s pretty typical bad boss behavior. But if reports that Banks and upper management frequently demeaned lower level staff and that some employees only learned that the show would be ending after the announcement had been made to the press are true, then Banks and her management team are treading into really bad boss territory.

Now some of the reports coming out might very well be sour grapes, but it wouldn’t be at all surprising to us if at least some of stories are true. After all, what management training does Banks have? Plus we all know that training alone isn’t enough to make someone a good boss.  We’re sure something close to the truth will shake out over the next few months, but we’re not holding our breath.

Source: Examiner

In this week’s installment of Managing the Meanies, Buck introduces us to the bosses who only appreciate one opinion, their own.  Allowed to rein free in organizations, these really bad bosses are insecure, and dangerous for both the organization and the people who report to them…

Great communicators make great leaders, and the opposite is true as well

I have had bosses where the ebb and flow of dynamic conversation was absolutely prohibited. Having such a dialog would have empowered me, given me too much confidence and in turn would have diminished their control over me and the situation. One guy that I worked for had a desperate dislike for opinions – my professional advice and contributions, that is – and whenever I shared my thoughts on a matter he would quickly rebuke me. He was the one asking the questions, and my opinions, should he have entertained them, would simply diminish his control over the situation and me. Great communicators do indeed make great leaders and the opposite is true as well. Most bully-bosses are poor communicators, they tell you only what you barely need to know and not a fragment more. Keeping you in the dark and always guessing is their way of maintaining absolute control. It’s also their way of never making a poor decision, or any decision at all for that matter, bad decisions that someday might indict them for incompetence.

The corporate bully-boss that I just described above was a classic case-study in the realm of poor communication. Working for him was like being a laboratory rat in a complex labyrinth; you never really knew which corridor to go down. Should you just happen to work your way down the right path you’d be rewarded with no feed-back whatsoever, advance down the wrong path and you’d be jolted with a shock. It took me several years to figure out that the complete lack of direction from him was his way of never stumbling into a bad decision, and along with his dual-faced profile that he showed – lord and master to those below him, obsequious subject to those above – was the manner in which he skillfully survived in a senior management position for some twenty years of so!

Insecure managers are extremely dangerous people.

The tragedy here, and it can be described as no less so, is that those running the company don’t see these corporate de-motivators for who and what they really are; morale-busters just as pernicious to the health of the business as any other threat. One such de-motivator told me during my yearly performance review that I wasn’t a team player, a ridiculous condemnation that went into my file. I confidently shared my opinion with him that most people in the company, my colleagues as well as higher ups, would disagree with him. It was only because I offered contrary opinions to his from time to time, resisted his bullying threats and de-motivating intimidations that he branded me as such. It was me who was a threat to him. He perceived me to be more competent than he and when around I exposed him as the fraud that his own insecurities thought him to be. Insecure managers are extremely dangerous people.

Buck Hamilton is a sales and marketing executive who’s spent over thirty years working in the paper distribution business. He’s a prolific writer who’s presently working on a book which narrates the stories of sixteen Vietnam War veterans. You can read his weekly series  “Managing the Meanies: A Survival Guide” every Tuesday here on Really Bad Boss.

In this week’s installment of Managing the Meanies, Buck reminds us of a lesson his father taught him, “the one asking the questions is the one in charge.”  Bad bosses who refuse to acknowledge our questions understand that providing us with answers empower and validate us, and that’s the last thing most of them ever want to do…

A very costly mistake

Another manager that I had worked with as a colleague some years ago, Mark the plant engineer,  learned this lesson too, but unlike my experience, with bitter results. Mark was a real hard case, a tough guy and walked around the paper mill like he had a broom handle for a spine. He was in tight with the general manager and Mark was quick to note infractions on the clip board that he carried, always reporting to the higher ups whatever he had discovered. Feared by everybody as being the ferret that he was, Mark was an internal affairs type that snitched and tattled for the sole gain of advancing himself and his career. Sure, he had control over our workers, the fear and intimidation type of control, but he had no positive influence with them and in general everyone was unresponsive to Mark. It wouldn’t be too strong an assertion for me to say that all of the papermakers positively hated him.

Well, the time came when Mark made a dreadful miscalculation, a very costly mistake that had huge exposure. He couldn’t hide the fact that he had messed up royally, everyone knew it and his failure was revealed for all to see. He sought me out in the mill, came to me for sympathy I suppose, and I tried to console him as best that I could. He was so distraught that tears ran down his face, his eyes bloodshot and watery, mucus ran from his nose. Gosh, it was awful and I was in conflict with the compassion that I felt for him and the urge to walk away after saying to him “Well, if you hadn’t been such an SOB you wouldn’t be feeling this humiliation, would you? Have you ever thought about what being such a hard case really every got you?” Mark had been disgraced and shortly after was gone from the company. More than a few of us were relieved to know that the company recognized what a morale-buster this plant engineer was and the negative effects he had on the performance of the business.

Acknowledging your question empowers you

My parents understood the maxim that the one asking the questions is the one in charge and surely bully-bosses know this too. “Listen mister, I’m the one asking the questions around here” would have been my father’s reply when I was a kid and for some mis-managers it’s the central tenant of their management style. As for myself, years of successful selling has taught me well that questions are the key as to how fluidly a customer interview will go; the one asking the questions controls the direction and the outcome of the meeting. If you have ever had a boss who simply wouldn’t give you any answers, a very frustrating situation, then contemplate just exactly what’s going on here. Understand that acknowledging your question with a satisfactory answer empowers you, at least in the minds of the bully-bosses; it validates you, lends you respect and establishes you perhaps in some ways as an equal. It renders them answerable to you.

Some years ago I worked for a guy who was afflicted with the worst case of royalty syndrome, and asking him a question — at least if the inquiring person was one that he perceived to be beneath him in the corporate hierarchy — would elicit the most agonizingly uneventful response. Ask this guy a question and he would look away, rub his face, scratch his head, sigh and grunt, all the time fidgeting…and then, absolutely nothing. You could leave his office and go run around the block a few times only to still find him there when you returned, paralyzed by his reluctance to relinquish even a shred of power. You see, he knew that an answer would then validate the inquirer and it was for me to learn after working for this guy for several months that a commoner like me was not allowed to ask the king a question.

Next Tuesday: A desperate dislike for opinions: The poor communicator

Buck Hamilton is a sales and marketing executive who’s spent over thirty years working in the paper distribution business. He’s a prolific writer who’s presently working on a book which narrates the stories of sixteen Vietnam War veterans. You can read his weekly series  “Managing the Meanies: A Survival Guide” every Tuesday here on Really Bad Boss.