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…

• 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.

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.

Rod Blagojevich (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

What happened is that something finally, triumphantly, penetrated that Teflon hair and attitude of yours Blago. After deliberating for 9 days, a jury found the former Illinois Governor guilty on 17 corruption-related charges. The charges include trying to sell President Obama’s former Senate seat. NBC reports:

Blagojevich had faced 20 charges, including the Senate seat allegation and that he schemed to shake down executives for campaign donations. He was convicted on all charges regarding the Senate seat. According to Chicago Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair, Blagojevich turned to his wife Patti and whispered “I love you” after the verdict was read. Patti kept shaking her head and remained seated as the jury exited the trial room. Blagojevich is reportedly “stunned.”

Blagojevich, who’s spent the past two years proclaiming his innocence to anyone who would listen and trying his hand at reality TV, says he’s “stunned” by the verdict.

Immediately after it was read, Blagojevich turned to his attorney and asked “What happened?” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald knows what happened. He had this to say after the verdict, “The jury sent a loud and clear message that Governor Blagojevich committed very serious crimes shaking down a children’s hospital, trying to sell a Senate seat and demanding cash campaign contributions in advance before signing a bill.”

Read the full recount of the verdict and Blagojevich’s reaction here. Catch up on our love-hate relationship with the former governor and other RBB politicians here.

Remember infamous sex-ter and former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick? Kilpatrick is a favorite here at RBB because he makes it so easy. Here’s a little rundown of the reason Kilpatrick is in the RBB Hall of Fame:

Embarrassing text  messages between Kwame Kilpatric and former mayoral chief of staff  Christine Beatty (not his wife) were made public yesterday. First he cheated, then he lied about cheating, then he lied about lying. Then he got busted through the release of a series of explicit text messages sent to the very chief of staff he’d sworn he wasn’t having an affair with. After weeks of vehemently denying the affair, perjuring himself in court  and refusing to resign even though EVERYONE KNEW HE WAS LYING, prosecutors revealed the existence of  the text messages that would ultimately seal his fate.

But about a year after receiving a sentence of up to five years, Kilpatrick was released from prison on parole last Friday. He now faces a federal corruption trial that could potentially have him headed to prison for years. Check out this video that provides a timeline of the case against Kilpatrick and his trail of lies…

If the average length of stay for a chief of staff in the U.S. House is close to 7 years and you’ve gone through 11 in 11 years, it might be that you’re the meanest member of the House.

That’s what folks have been saying about Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) for years. She regularly appears in Washingtonian Magazine’s list of the “Best of Worst of Congress” and boy do her aides have the stories to back that ranking up.

One aide shared a story about her parents coming to the congressional office for a visit only to witness Jackson Lee “screaming” at their daughter and calling her a “stupid idiot” for a scheduling snafu. The Huffington Post also shares this story…

Yet another staffer remembers requesting a meeting early on in her tenure to ask how best to serve the congresswoman. Jackson Lee’s response: “What? What did you say to me? Who are you, the Congresswoman? You haven’t been elected. You don’t set up meetings with me! I tell you! You know what? You are the most unprofessional person I have ever met in my life.” With that, Jackson Lee hung up the phone. According to the same staffer, Jackson Lee “would always say, ‘What am I a prostitute? Am I your prostitute? You can’t prostitute me.’”

Jackson Lee is also apparently fond of referring to select members of her staff as “stupid motherf****ers. Classy.

Since I’ve never met a horribly bad boss who was willing to admit how lousy he/she really was, it comes as no surprise that Jackson Lee issued a statement that says her staff works hard and has fun. So do sadists. But I wonder if she’d consider, just for a moment, that she just might be a horrible boss. Maybe? Possibly? What are the odds that all 11 of your aides were “stupid mother****ers”? I mean that annoying dude, maybe. And the young woman who could never quite get it right, possibly. But all 11? All of them??

I’ve always maintained that it is possible to be a stern, all-about-business boss without being rude and condescending. Snarky, controlling, verbally abusive bosses are often incompetent people with few discernible management skills and even fewer social ones.  Too bad they’re always the last to know – or care. Read more about the meanest member of the House here, and check out her “stupid m-effer” rants here.