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
So, you’ve already been working your employees overtime and you’d like them to come in on the weekend but know that asking them to, after they’ve just worked a 70 hour week, would be outrageous. This is an actual email forwarded by a reader whose boss displays a more passive aggressive method for getting workers in on the weekend – tell them they’ll be cool. Names have been changed to protect the passive aggressive…
“For those of you looking for a place to keep cool from this hot
weather this weekend, I wanted to remind everyone that I have the air
conditioner on in the office on Saturday’s from 9 to 5 and Sunday’s
from 12 to 5. John, Mark, and I have had a wonderful time hanging out
the past couple of weekends. If you get the urge to come by and
hangout this weekend, you will most likely find me here on Sunday
morning. John likes to get in earlier, so you will typically find him
here starting around noon (that is early for John on the weekends).
Either way, Have a great weekend!”
Have a great weekend thinking about us working here with our modern cooling system. Where it’s all cool and air conditioned. And we have a wonderful time hanging out. And it’s cool.
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.
While many highly competent job seekers, out of work through no fault of their own, hit the pavement each day looking for jobs that will pay them even a fraction of what they used to earn, the individuals below made colossal errors in judgment and mismanaged companies into the red, yet they bounced back, landing jobs or severance packages that paid them far more than what their previous performance suggested they were worth.
Here’s a look at some of the execs who managed to land on their feet, and our heads…
Apparently it pays to fail BIG.
Click here to check out the Yahoo! Finance list of 11 corporate titans who profited after failure.
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.
While turmoil brews over what’s being called the nations largest cheating scandal, former Atlanta Public School (APS) Superintendent is on vacation. In Hawaii. (Image: Hall in Hawaii being asked for an interview by local Atlanta Anchorwoman Monica Pearson)
The investigation into Atlanta Public Schools revealed that 178 educators in 44 schools cheated on standardized tests used to meet federal benchmarks. The investigation found that the cheating dated as far back as 2001. Educators told state investigators they were pressured to improve test scores – not surprising in a system where rewards and bonuses are based on test scores.
In 2009 Hall reportedly earned more than $400,000 in salary, bonuses and other benefits, including a car. In fact, her bonus for 2009 was $78,115. (Source). But the problems may not have started with Hall. Maureen Downey of AJC’s Get Schooled blog points out that as far back as 10 years ago APS scores seemed “too good to be true.”
The educators named in the most recent scandal were either involved with erasing wrong answers or should have known that the corrections were taking place. As former APS superintendent, Beverly Hall, at the least, falls in the “should have known” category. CNN reports:
The state’s report indicated there was a climate of cheating and performance-at-all-costs during the tenure of former Superintendent Beverly Hall. It’s a charge Hall has denied. “We reaffirm Dr. Hall’s position that she most definitely did not know of any widespread cheating on the CRCT (Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests) in 2009 or any other year,” she said in a statement released through her attorney. (CNN)
In an ironic twist, Hall was named the 2009 Superintendent of The Year by the American Association of School Administrators. It would seem fitting that even if Hall continues to tow the unbelievable “I wasn’t aware” line that at a minimum she should shoulder some responsibility for being at the helm of what is now a historical miscarriage of justice perpetrated against Atlanta school children and their parents. Instead, she’s in Hawaii.
To read more about the APS scandal, click here.
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