Former really bad boss Elliot Spitzer edging his way back into the public arena

Elliot Spitzer - a sigh of relief?

 This morning, New York’s former governor, Elliot Spitzer, did a segment on one of the morning shows.  He sounded quite remorseful, referring to the behavior that got him ousted from office as “egregious.”  We talked about Spitzer and other renowned really bad bosses in a previous post, The Really bad boss roundup.  At the time, we asked several pointed questions.  We wondered whether these individuals should ever again be trusted in positions of public leadership.  And we asked whether their actions should be seen as character flaws or mere indiscretions that would not necessarily impact their ability to do their jobs. 

Prior to becoming governor, Spitzer was New York’s attorney general.  He was nicknamed the “sheriff of wall street” for his no-nonsense investigations into some of the very banks we’re currently bailing out.  Now he has a lot to say about what should have been happening to properly regulate the banking industry, and some believe he has the skills and know how to help remedy the current situation.  All of this reinforces the fact that when individuals in public positions of power commit these types of glaring infractions – both the immoral and illegal ones – their actions have long term consequences that go well beyond the immediate impact on their families.

In many cases, you’ve got talented individuals who are in positions of power that allow them to shape the future of the towns, cities and communities they govern.  Shortsightedly, by choosing to involve themselves in questionable behavior, they rob their constituencies and society at large of the very talents and skills that got them to positions of leadership in the first place.  It’s hard to say if anything would have been different had Spitzer remained New York’s governor over the past year, but we’ll never know.  As long as people in positions of public leadership continue to choose self, over family and community, we’ll always wonder what could have been.

…called me on the first day of my vacation to lay me off.  This way she said “you can enjoy the rest of your vacation.”  Then there was the boss who, when I handed him my letter of resignation, snatched the letter out of my hand and screamed “get out now!”  Through my shock and (I’m embarrassed to admit now) tears, I mumbled something about the company car, to which he replied “leave it and take a cab home!”   I did take a cab home, and I have the receipt to prove it. 

We all have at least one really bad boss story.  Share yours after the jump.

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Racketeering, conspiracy, wire fraud. Just another day in the life of impeached former Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich.  Here at Really bad boss, we love Blago almost as much as we love Kwame Kilpatrick.  If not for men like this, we wouldn’t have anything to blog about in our political category. Charged with caring for the concerns of his Illinois constituency, the disgraced former Governor instead was, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office, the mastermind behind a “scheme to deprive the people of Illinois of honest government.”  Shady government officials are no longer uncommon, or for that matter, shocking. But what makes Blago such fodder for Really bad boss is his complete arrogance.  Like Kilpatrick, he insists, even in the face of pretty strong evidence to the contrary, that he has done nothing wrong.  Prosecutors, the U.S. Attorney’s office and everyone else in America who saw the transcripts of the wiretaps where Blago referred to Obama as a “mother***er”, and where he referred to the senate seat as a “ f***ing” valuable thing,” are all out to get him. We also hurt his feelings when we questioned his hasty appointment of Ronald Burris to the then vacant senate seat.

 In the meantime, he’s so torn up, he’s hosted a Chicago radio show, signed a reported six figure book deal and was at Disney World with his family when the indictments came down yesterday.  There really are different rules for the rest of us.

Really bad bosses who blame others for their mistakes

Yesterday I talked about bosses who’ll never admit when they’ve made a mistake.  Today I’m going to talk about bosses who’ll acknowledge a mistake has been made, but always manage to find someone else to blame. Really bad bosses have a lot of bad attributes, but I have to say that cowardice – the driving force behind blaming someone else for your mistake – is probably one of the worst.   Whether you define it as cowardice or call it by another name, few things cause employees to doubt management more than a boss who constantly points fingers and refuses to take responsibility for his or her own mistakes.  It’s even worse if it happens in an environment where open communication and the sharing of ideas are discouraged.  In that type of  “do as you’re told” environment, where questioning a boss’ decision may lead to reprisal or even firing, employees will keep quiet, even in the face of the most mindless of management decisions.

Speaking of mindless management decisions, remember when the big three auto makers hitched a ride on private jets to meet with congress to beg for money and talk about the viability of their industry? Well I’m willing to bet that there was at least one low level employee at any one of those companies who thought “you know, it’s probably not a good idea for the head of our automobile company to take a private jet to attend a meeting to explain how broke we are.”  Read the rest of this entry »

Fred Goodwin laughing all the way to the bank

We don’t know much about this guy here in the USA but his behavior sure sounds familiar.  Fred Goodwin, former Chief Executive of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), has received widespread criticism since it was revealed that he’d be receiving a £16m pension. That’s about $23.3 million stateside.  Much like the disgraced bank execs in the U.S., Goodwin was forced to step down in October 2008 when RBS became nationalized after taking on bad debt and realizing a £24bn loss.  Of course, Goodwin argues that he’s earned his pension and that according to his contract, he’s doing nothing wrong by accepting it. To add insult to injury a recent whistleblower account of corporate waste at RBS revealed, among other things, that Goodwin’s office received a makeover using £1,000 a roll wallpaper and that company execs ran up chauffeur bills in excess of £100,000 a month.

Do the super wealthy really see things that differently than the rest of us?  Corporate greed is certainly not an American phenomenon. We all know that it is in fact, very, unfortunately universal.  But aren’t moderation and self restraint also universal? How about common sense?  Or is it too much to ask when money and power are involved? I always read these stories with that “one eyebrow cocked” look on my face because for the life of me I don’t get how they don’t get why most of the world finds this kind of behavior unforgivable.  The more I read stories like these, the angrier and more disgusted I become. 

What do you get when you mix two prostitutes and a former Republican party chair?

 A beat-down. A politician can usually talk himself out of anything…except that is, a beat-down from his wife who’s  just caught him with two prostitutes.  Former Cook county Republican Party chair Gary Skoien denies he was with two prostitutes at around 1:00am last Sunday.  His wife begs to differ and police reports state she allegedly beat him (embellishment mine) after finding him at home in their children’s playroom with two women.  Skoien claims the police report is wrong and that he’s working on correcting it.  By correcting it he means denying it ever happened.

We can still see you Kwame

Embarrassing text  messages between Kwame Kilpatric and former mayoral chief of staff  Christine Beatty (not his wife) were made public yesterday.  We are really big fans of Kwame Kilpatric.  Why?  Besides the fact that he gives us so much to work with,  the only thing worse than a really bad boss is a really bad boss who doesn’t know when to sit down and shut up.  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.  Now that the messages have been made public, they reveal quite a few salty exchanges between the two. Nice mayoral conduct Kwame and yet another example of bosses behaving badly.  To read the nastiness in detail, click here.