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.

Hollywood is banking on the fact that zillions of Americans hate their bad bosses enough to fork over the $10+ price of admission to see Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day plot the ultimate demise of their respective bosses played by Kevin Spacey – a white color schmuck -, Jennifer Aniston  – a sexual predator – and Colin Farrell – a drug addicted, fiercely-combed-over pig. The movie opens July 8th and I have a feeling that these bosses are so horribly over the top that even the real-life bad bosses will despise them. Can’t wait to review it…

The movie opens July 8th, but take a look at the official trailer now…

your employees must sign pledges promising not to commit suicide. After a rash of suicides last summer, Taiwanese company Foxconn, component producer for Apple products, added the clause requiring employees to forego suicide as an option.

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 head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, dubbed “the great seducer” for his reputation with women, was taken into custody over the weekend and in court today, charged with attempted rape and criminal sexual contact. The charges stem from Strauss-Kahn’s alleged attack of a maid who entered  his penthouse suite at a New York hotel.

The 32-year-old maid who filed the report claims that when she entered Strauss-Kahn’s suite early Saturday afternoon, Strauss-Kahn emerged naked from the bathroom, chased her, then pulled her into a bedroom where he sexually assaulted her. The woman eventually broke free, alerting hotel staff to the attack. Strauss-Kahn was gone by the time detectives arrived.

Less than 4 hours after the alleged assault the 62-year-old married father of four was removed from a Paris-bound flight at J.F.K. International Airport.

Today, a lawyer for a woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn nine years ago said she now wants to file a legal complaint against him.

Read more about the arrest of the great seducer here.

In an ironic twist to the straight-politician-covering-up-the-fact-that-he’s-gay trend, San Francisco fifth district councilman Ted Sand was arrested earlier this month and charged with drunk driving. Sadly, a drunk politician driving himself home no longer classifies as news.

What does? When the drunk and openly gay politician is arrested along with his exotic female dancer passenger and both are accused of engaging in a “dangerous high-speed sex act.” Sands claims he had no improper relations with the 31 year old and was just “giving her a ride. Home.”  I added that extra period for emphasis.

The plot thickened when Gloria Allred (the Al Sharpton of women’s rights, i.e. shows up at the opening of an envelope) issued a statement claiming she represents a “very biological” woman who also claims to be in a sexual relationship with Sand.

A gay politician hiding heterosexual tendencies? A straight politician pretending to be gay? Who knows and who would have thunk it…

Read more on Ted Sands and the arrest here.

You don’t say…

Career Builder’s newest survey tells us what we’ve known all along – most bosses say they’d never gotten management training before becoming managers. The survey also spoke to 4,000 workers and in 25% of them accused their supervisor of playing favorites and a whopping 40% said their company’s leadership team didn’t listen to employees or try to raise morale.

The survey also found  that 26% of managers were skeptical about their ability to manage when first hired. They were particularly concerned about being able to deal with issues between co-workers.

Read more about the survey here.

No matter how bad your boss is do not, I repeat, DO NOT poison her tea.

Unfortunately my advice is too late for two North Carolina cafeteria workers who were charged with poisoning their bosses tea last month. The workers, 64 year old Eileen Hallamore and 38 year old Angela Johnson, attempted to poison their boss, the cafeteria manager, by putting a foreign substance in her tea.

This isn’t the first case of angry employees opting to go the “poison” route. In London a 33 year old nanny is serving a year in prison after poisoning her boss, and in India, a scientist who had a longstanding beef with a senior scientist is accused of mixing mercuric chloride in glass of water.