Thanks for giving your employees a break Cost Plus – A nice alternative to the current landscape of profits before people.

Here’s a look at some  of  the execs who managed to land on their feet, and our heads…

• As head of global markets and investment for Merrill Lynch, Dow Kim oversaw the increase in the amount of collateral debt obligations that eventually led to the company being the number 1 Wall Street issuer of the instrument most closely linked to the catastrophic mortgage crisis we’re all still dealing with. The derivatives led to billions of losses that weakened the firm.  Kim left Lynch in 2007, before anyone had a handle on just how bad things would become, and maybe that’s why he was able to walk away with more than $35 million.

• Remember the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf? Trust me its residents still do. Tony Hayward, BPs CEO at the time, received a year’s salary when he left, about $1.7 million and stocks valued at much more.

• Speaking of disasters…The March 2010 explosion at Massey Energy’s Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia left 29 miners dead and resulted in Massey posting a $167 million loss in 2010. However former Massey CEO Don Blankenship received a $14.4 million severance package, a $7 million pension and $32.1 million in deferred compensation.

Apparently it pays to fail BIG.

Click here to check out the Yahoo! Finance list of 11 corporate titans who profited after failure.

An option to what? Well while Foxconn execs claim ignorance as to the cause of the suicides, employees report a list of grievances, including:

• earning closer to CNY 950 ($146) per month as opposed to the CNY 1600 (about $246) promised
• forced and under/unpaid overtime
• living with up to six other people in a cramped dorm room
• hostile and military like work environments
• unhealthy and hazardous conditions

A 22-year-old woman who was interviewed about the conditions at Foxconn responded, “”Some of my roommates weep in the dormitory. I want to cry as well but my tears have not come out.”

Following the suicides, Apple went to Foxconn to monitor conditions. They found that appropriate measures had been taken to ensure worker safety.  But a report by the Center for Research on Multinational Corporations and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) found that conditions at one of Foxconn’s manufacturing facilities don’t meet Apple’s own Supplier Code of Conduct standards.

Read SACOM’s full report here, and learn more about the conditions under which Foxconn employees are forced to work here.

So, what’s your iPod worth to you, and should we, as Apple consumers, be more concerned with where our gadgets come from?

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.

I will miss not having to show up to work half-deaf and blind with a sinus infection because my suspicious boss doesn’t really think I’m sick. I’ll miss never feeling secure enough to take my weeks and weeks of accumulated vacation because I just might be replaced while I’m gone. And I’ll miss the complete and utter sense of freedom I’ve felt over the last couple of years. But alas, freedom is not free. Bills need to be paid, and my history of incredibly bad bosses aside, the 9-5 beckons. Sort of. Here’s what’s different this time around. I’ve finally, finally learned a few hard earned lessons about being gainfully employed. Wanna hear it? Here it go…

My bosses don’t owe me anything except the paycheck I get in return for my work. They are not required to be nice, respectful, honest, fair or just. It would be awesome if they were, but unless I work at a Sunday School, I’m not expecting to see any Christ-like tendencies among my bosses. Unlike 15 years ago when I first entered the workforce with visions of receiving nurturing and growth from a company from which I’d retire 20 years later – 401K and pension intact – I now realize that helping prepare me for my future is not a company’s responsibility, it’s my own.

Companies are in business to make money for themselves, not for Denise. And no matter how brilliant, hard-working or loyal I am, for them I am simply a means to an end. I am not their friend, trusted companion or loyal supporter, and they aren’t mine. And by I and mine, I mean you and yours. Are many bosses incompetent, ridiculous and infuriating? Absolutely. And, as long as they continue to be, I’ll be writing about them here (and then I’ll pass the mantle on to my grandchildren, who’ll pass it on to their grandchildren…you get the point.) But, there’s a difference between wanting them to change their behavior and needing them to. I want my bosses to be competent, generous, intelligent people, but I no longer need them to be. Why? I’ll tell you on Wednesday.

Do you need your boss to be competent, intelligent, nice…?  Share your thoughts on what we should and shouldn’t expect from our bosses and our jobs in the comment section.

According to the EEOC, Phoenix-based Republic terminated and denied job transfer opportunities to about 21 employees over the age of 40 at its facilities in southern Nevada between 2003 and 2005 because of their age. The list of terminated employees includes garbage collectors, drivers, and supervisors, some of whom were employed by the company for more than 25 years. The EEOC contends that those jobs were then offered to younger employees who were subsequently held to lower performance standards. The EEOC further charged that Republic engaged in a form of hazing called “break him off,” in which some employees were worked to the point of exhaustion, often making it difficult for them to do their jobs.

“No one should be harassed at work or forced out of a job for discriminatory reasons,” said EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien. “The law clearly prohibits mistreatment or dismissal of older workers on account of their age, and no workplace should lose productive and valuable employees because of illegal age stereotyping.”

“Our hope is that other employers implement practices to ensure that age stereotyping does not occur in any facet of employment,” said P. David Lopez, General Counsel of the EEOC. “As illustrated by this settlement, the EEOC will insist on substantial and meaningful relief for victims of illegal age discrimination.”

According to the agreement, Republic Services must also provide annual anti-discrimination training to its employees, designate a corporate equal employment opportunity compliance officer and conduct an audit of its employment policies.

Read the whole story here.

Fernando Flores, who Spears hired in February of this year, claims that the singer exposed herself, insulted him and threatened to fire him over a slurpee incident (wth?), leaving him emotionally scarred. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages was filed in LA Superior Court on Wednesday and claims that Spears made repeated unwanted sexual advances toward Flores and summoned him to her room “for no other purpose or reason than to expose her naked body or near-naked body.” Flores also states that Spears engaged in sexual acts in front of him and her children.

Spears’ lawyers say that the suit is just an attempt at taking advantage of the Spears family. Even Spears’ estranged husband has weighed in on the suit saying it’s motivated by money. Britney Spears has been guilty of many things, but this, this seems to be outside of even her realm of crazy. Which still leaves me asking “seriously dude?”  Thoughts?

Read the rest of the story here.

The ruling came in the case of The City of Ontario v. Quon. Sergeant Jeff Quon sued the city, the police chief and the police department in 2004 claiming his supervisor’s search of his text messages violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Quon had been using his government issued pager to send sexually explicit messages. When Quon went over his allotted 25,000 character limit per month, his supervisor reviewed his pager use to determine whether the limit was enough for official purposes. That’s when Quon’s sexually explicit messages to his wife at the time, and his mistress were discovered.

Quon sued claiming that the city didn’t have a text-message policy in place when the pagers were issued. The city did have official policies about computer, Internet and email use that limited the use to official purposes.

While I typically come down on the side of the employee in many matters, I can’t side with Quon on this one. If Quon had been using his personal pager/cell phone to send messages, that would be a different story, but I think any adult who’s spent any time in the workforce should know that employers typically monitor the use of any equipment they’ve issued, whether that’s a laptop, cell phone or pager. And, while I might get a lot of heat for this, I think that it’s within their right to do so – particularly if there are limits on the amount and type of usage they allow. As an individual, if you want to send sexy text messages until the cows come home, by all means do so, but do it on your own phone, on your own service plan where your expectation of privacy is legitimate. Read the full story on Quon and the court ruling here.

Do you agree with the court ruling? How do you feel about privacy issues in the workplace? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

The list of clothing Lorenzana couldn’t wear included turtlenecks, pencil skirts, fitted suits and three inch heels. So now Lorenzana is, you guessed it, suing Citibank for wrongful termination. And to bolster her case (?), Lorenzana’s attorney got her to do a photo shoot seen here (Lorenzana shown left.) But the thing is, in my opinion, the photos are intended to look sensual. They don’t look like the photos of a woman fighting to get her job back or to make a stand against women being discriminated against in the workplace. They look like the pictures of a woman auditioning to be the star of the next big and stupid reality show. Am I wrong?

Offices have dress codes, and whether you’re tall and curvy or short and fat, a too tight skirt is a too tight skirt. Citibank’s stupidity comes in singling out Ms. Lorenzana and basically blaming her because her male colleagues can’t keep their mind on work. We once had a woman come into the office on casual Friday in biker shorts and a tank top. Men and women alike were distracted – not because she was this tall, voluptuous model type, but because you just don’t wear biker shorts and a tank top to work unless you’re working at the Tour de France.

It’ll be interesting to see how this case pans out. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to find Ms. Lorenzana showing up on a reality show sometime in the very near future. Image Credits: Carrie Schechter

Source: NY Daily News

Flood maintained her innocence, claiming that board members knew about every decision she was making. Prosecutors however, convinced jurors that Flood persuaded ClearOne’s distributors to accept products they didn’t order by promising them that they didn’t have to pay for merchandise until it was sold. ClearOne then reported those shipments as sales, artificially inflating revenue.

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

This week the employment tribunal reviewing Tansey’s case accepted her version of events, but ruled that she should have spoken up sooner. Tansey didn’t complain until August 2007 – the time limit for reporting sexual harassment claims is three months after each incident. The tribunal stated, “Although the tribunal understood that it is difficult for a woman who has been subjected to sexual harassment to make a complaint, it was satisfied in this case that Mrs Tansey’s reasons for delaying so long before taking action were not such that it was just and equitable to extend time.”

Damian McCarthy, representing HBOS, told the tribunal: “This is not a claimant who is a cowering wallflower.” He added, “It’s a claimant who did not actually believe these were acts of sexual harassment at the time.” Tansey is considering appealing the ruling.

Read the full story here.

• A leader is a champion for his or her employees. The boss tends to see his or her employees as a means to an end.
• A leader shows congeniality and respect to everyone regardless of his or her rank. The boss may seek to be pleasant and charming to executives but is indifferent or even demeaning toward direct reports. The saying “smiles up the organization and frowns down the organization” captures the point well.
• A leader will prohibit his managers from being demeaning, disrespectful or verbally abusive to others. A boss often turns his back on such behavior and may exhibit it himself.

Eich rightly argues that any person in a decision-making capacity, formal or informal, who advances the strategic goals of the business, who contributes mightily to institutional performance and who treats people fairly, honestly and compassionately is a leader. Everyone else, by definition, is just a boss. And therein lies the problem. At a time when leadership is needed the most, our companies, schools and politics are rife with bosses and too few leaders. The long term effects of that will be reflected in our ability to do business and affect true change on a global scale.

To read Eich’s complete list of what differentiates a leader from a boss, click here.

As kids we called it “ganging up”, gathering together as much muscle as needed in order to demonstrate your influence. It’s a management style used by corporate bully-bosses and surely a behavior that these de-motivators learned as kids. Such corporate bullies have issues upstairs, so to speak, self-confidence vacuums that cause them to enlist the support of other bullies in order to force their influence and demonstrate their irresistible control over others. In short, they can’t influence or persuade you by themselves. They don’t have enough self-confidence for that, so they must gang up and do it as a team. If you don’t think that this is so, think again. It’s behavior that bully-bosses learned as kids and they’re using the same techniques today. The trouble is it’s a technique that’s overwhelmingly de-motivating to those on the receiving end.

I was in the lobby of the Hampton Inn at the Buffalo airport stamping the snow off of my shoes at 7:30 in the morning when my Napoleonic bully of a boss called me on my cell phone. I had just cleared eight inches of freshly fallen snow off of my rental car. It was still snowing hard and the sky was so gray and the cloud ceiling so low that it almost seemed artificial. I heard his voice and my demeanor stiffened as I braced for what was coming; I always dreaded talking with him. He was about to brow-beat me into convincing a customer to take several shipments of bad product and he had enlisted yet another bully to participate in the intimidation. This other guy was a yes-man sycophant and the two of them together surely could do some damage. My boss was in a particularly bad mood since previous attempts to strong arm me had failed; I had not acquiesced to his unethical demands – demands which could have been harmful to the customer – and obviously this pounding had been rehearsed beforehand by the two of them. They left me little wiggle room other than to do just what they insisted or no doubt face unemployment. The encounter left me red-faced and furious. It was a classic case of a pre-arranged ganging up, a desperate bully-boss technique when the guy needed to demonstrate his prowess. His confidence in his own persuasiveness was so low that he was compelled to recruit another to help with his dirty work.

This bully-boss would never confront a major issue alone and it nearly goes without saying that he surrounded himself with a few favored managers, trusted confidants that carried out his every wish. The trouble was that these guys were nearly all lesser figures, unremarkable characters who allowed this incompetent to shine. It was absolutely demoralizing to the rest of us; one of the favored had the IQ of a dolt, but he called the boss “sir” and was flatteringly responsive to his every need. These corporate courtesans were skillful at telling the boss what he wanted to hear, never gave him bad news or shared an opinion contrary to his. None of them would ever eclipse him with their mediocrity. And so the business was mismanaged into near extinction under this boss’s reign and no one in senior management ever ventured to peel back the layers and look inside.

Next Tuesday: Cronyism and its destructive effects

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 over 22 years of studying job satisfaction, the current job dissatisfaction rate was the lowest level ever recorded by the Conference Board research group.  The recession is partly to blame for the drop, but other reasons include:

• Fewer workers consider their jobs to be interesting.
• Incomes have not kept up with inflation.
• Health insurance costs eating into workers’ take-home pay.

The findings are disturbing for several reasons. Besides the fact that unhappy workers are less productive, the long term implications could include a negative impact on the way the U.S. workforce competes with the rest of the world.  Lynn Franco, an author of the report and director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center says, "What’s really disturbing about growing job dissatisfaction is the way it can play into the competitive nature of the U.S. work force down the road and on the growth of the U.S. economy — all in a negative way."

Workers have been complaining about bad bosses and unsatisfying jobs for decades, but maybe understanding the impact that bad management and bad work environments can have on business and the competitive marketplace will motivate some to make much needed changes. Read the whole story at Yahoo Finance.

Another memorable bad boss in my past was a moody man with a disturbingly de-motivating style. Self-conscious of his short stature, he exerted absolute control over his realm. This guy was so caustic, so abusive and snotty that the dozen or so sales reps and group managers who reported to him would telephone each other in advance and pass along the storm warnings. Like an alcoholic or a manic depressive, this guy was always miserable and unhappy and as such would make certain that we were too. He insisted that we phone him and report the goings on in our respective markets and he would then take the opportunity to dismantle and crush our enthusiasm with an abusive line of questioning.

Absolutely uncertain

One of the hallmarks of his dreadful management style was that he’d never believe what we told him, he’d question the veracity of the intelligence that we reported and let us know that he had little confidence in our feedback. He’d intimidate and demoralize us. We all recognized of course what was going on here; this guy was asserting his power and control over us. If he allowed us to be enthusiastic, if he put credence and confidence in what we reported to him, then he’d be giving us credibility and hence power. He’d be validating us. His moody abuse, like an insecure tyrant, was his way of keeping us absolutely uncertain, never knowing what to expect and always thinking the worst. Dealing with him was an exhausting struggle that over time would have anyone worn down to an insignificant nub. It was some years later that we learned that there was indeed some truth to the otherwise unfounded rumors that he went through the trash in our offices at night after everyone had left to see what dirt he could find on his people. We positively dreaded having to deal with this loser, and he was the company’s vice president of sales and marketing!

Self-inflicted deficiencies

One thing is clear; I know men and I know how they think. I’m a man and have been one for nearly sixty years. As such I passed through childhood and into adolescence with boys, went to school and played sports with them, matured into adulthood with men and have worked with them for over thirty years. What they were as boys and how they learned to interact with other as kids in many ways is what they are today; how they treat others, how they project themselves and, more importantly, what self-inflicted deficiencies they have burdened themselves with since the experiences of their adolescence.

Next Tuesday: Ganging up as a corporate management style

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.

The truth is, bad bosses come in all shapes, sizes, races and are both male and female. My bad male bosses were arrogant, ignorant, bullying, inefficient and power hungry. My bad female bosses were arrogant, ignorant, bullying, inefficient and power hungry and occasionally wore skirts. To assume that one gender corners the market on badness is a dangerous thing. It predisposes us to expect more or less from certain bosses than from others.

I think what some of this boils down to is that some people are still not accustomed to seeing women in high powered positions, saying, doing and behaving in ways that have been traditionally considered masculine. A direct, to the point male boss is considered succinct, while his female counterpart is labeled a bitch. An emotional outburst from a male boss is often blamed on the situation at hand, while an outburst from a woman is blamed on hormones. I wonder what studies like this hope to accomplish? It’s one thing to analyze boss behavior in the hopes of determining what characteristics and behaviors make the best bosses, but what does analyzing their sex accomplish? I’m curious to read someone else’s take on this.

Check out Marie Claire UK’s take on the study here, and more information about the study here.  What are your thoughts? Do men or women make better bosses? Is it industry specific, or does it matter at all? And, what’s the real purpose of a study like this? Share your thoughts in our comment section.

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.

On her blog A Meaningful Existence, Karen shares The top 5 reasons to leave your job – no surprise here, a bad boss is number one. And while this economy might have you staying put for a while, it’s important to note her suggestions, particularly about doing something everyday to move towards finding a better job, and a better boss.

Our friends over at Tame your TOT (Terrible Office Tyrant) share a few of the thousand office tyrant stories collected during research for their book. One unbelievable tantrum throwing VP “threw a fit because a new employee took the last cookie in the break room.”  We cannot make this stuff up.

Jack and Suzy Welch offer insight into surviving a bad boss including, trying to figure out your own end game.

“This is NOT in my job description!” I added the exclamation mark for emphasis because I’ve yelled that (in my head) so many times throughout my career I’ve lost count. On his site Work Awesome, (love the name!) Joseph Lewis breaks it down for idealistic newcomers to the workforce – “Life isn’t fair. Nor is it reasonable, rational, sensible, logical, nice, or fluffy. Life is strange, ridiculous, cruel …and just a little bit dirty.” And in this dirty life, one day your boss is going to ask you to do something you don’t want to do. Lewis offers advice on how to handle it when it happens, because trust me, it will happen.

Tansey claims that for years she endured an overtly sexist culture at HBOS, one that eventually led to her losing the job she loved. HBOS is a banking and insurance group in the UK, a subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group. At a hearing before a tribunal this week, the 39 year old Business Manager described the naked coworker incident that took place in 1998 as her worst experience while working for the company.

It was during an overnight hotel stay on a business trip that she spurned the advances of her male colleague. Undaunted, he repeatedly called her hotel room. In the middle of the night she awakened to find him sitting in a chair in the room. She later learned that a hotel employee let him in when he lied and told him he was her boyfriend. Tansey also alleges that her rapid rise through the company’s ranks garnered criticism from male colleagues and managers, leading to years of harassment. Tansey described another incident where she was booked without her knowledge into a lap dancing club. Tansey said she didn’t complain sooner for fear of not being believed and the impact it would have on her career.

I think it’s easy for those who haven’t been through sexual harassment and unbelievable work conditions to question why people, women mostly, don’t come forward sooner, or at all. The answer is both simple and complicated. In my case I needed my job. Not having a steady income was out of the question, and doing anything to jeopardize that job, including doing the right thing, just wasn’t an option. Ironically, not doing anything to stop the harassment and bullying was both the easiest and hardest thing to do. The problem with sexual harassment on the job is the same as with any other on the job issue, employees fear losing their jobs and their colleagues respect. It’s the classic damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario.

Have you been a victim of harassment or on the job bullying? Did you report it? Why or why not? Share your thoughts in our comment section.

Image and story source: Halifax Courier – Haley Tansey

A common trait with many of the de-motivators that I have worked for is that they suffered from royalty syndrome, a terrible bad-boss affliction and one that always promotes poor morale amongst those unfortunate subjects who have to work under such a regime. One such manager I reported to was the king, at least in his mind, while the rest of us – those either at his level or below – were the little people. The guy embraced the policy that if he showed us any respect, he’d be empowering us, and to him that would have been a chink in his armor, a vulnerability. He was the kind of guy who wouldn’t rise to shake your hand. His management style was to diminish his subordinates by putting them in the proverbial frying pan during presentations, dancing for his amusement until he finally found fault. He’d work them over with interrogative skill to the point of exhaustion. Then the whole abusive process would start all over again. The worst part – during presentations, he’d be busy doing some other unrelated task; scrolling through reports on his computer, writing email or listening to his voice mail messages.

“Okay, who’s the first one that wants to step out and take a beating?”

Do you recognize the message here? “I’m the king and you’re an insignificant minion.” It was exhausting to any of us who experienced it but I can assure you that the higher ups, the guys managing at the top, never saw this side of him and the absolutely destructive management style that he practiced. This guy was an outright cancer on the company, perhaps one of the single reasons why the company failed, but no one of influence recognized this fact. To anyone that he perceived to be above him however, he presented an entirely different picture.

This same abusive tyrant was the company’s vice president of sales, and being in such a high profile capacity, really the single guy most responsible for the health of the business and its progress foreword. He scheduled bi-monthly sales conference calls and all of us were expected to contribute input. The trouble was that when asked to contribute no one would venture to speak for fear of being tongue-lashed and ridiculed. I’m serious when I say that this guy would entice the first victim into contributing some remarks and then would proceed to rip him or her to shreds. As such we would witness agonizingly long silent periods during the call, very awkward episodes where not one of us would speak for fear of having our heads bitten off. It was almost as if he had us all lined up and with a bat in his hand said “Okay, who’s the first one that wants to step out and take a beating?” As with other bad leaders that I have encountered in the past, I often wondered about just where and from whom this horrible manager learned to develop his demolishing, de-motivating style.

Next Tuesday: The Formative Years

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.