Protesting workers at the Scapa factory in France. Photograph: Laurent Cipriana/AP

People are starting to take their boss revenge fantasies way too seriously. 

I read a story yesterday about a poll taken in France where 45% of people polled felt it was ok for workers facing layoffs to take their bosses hostage.  Aside from the obvious downside of having to spend even more time with the boss than normal, the whole illegality of the act, you would think, might be a major deterrent as well.  Not so much for some French workers it seems.  Apparently there’s been a recent rash of what’s now been termed “bossnapping,” in France.  One incident even involved a French billionaire trapped in a taxi for about an hour before riot police came to his rescue.

I’ve never entertained fantasies about kidnapping any of my bosses.  Besides the fact that I am very afraid of prison and try to avoid activities that will land me in one, kidnapping involves a degree of sinister planning and detail for which I have neither the time nor patience.  While I’ve never fantasized about kidnapping, I have had several fantasies that involved me interrupting any one of my bad bosses during one of their ridiculous tirades.  There were times during meetings that I’d get that dazed look in my eyes as any one of a number of asinine ideas erupted from my boss’ mouth. Looking around, I knew that everyone was thinking the same thing that I was, “Please… Shut up and sit-down.”  But of course, none of us ever said it.  Instead I daydreamed about slamming my hands down on the conference table, standing up Norma Rae style, and letting it rip.  My daydream smack-down would start off by me telling him, that we all, without exception, thought that he was the biggest ass going.  Read the rest of this entry »