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In what we consider a classic really bad boss move, a manager at Dean Health in Madison, Wisconsin called a nurse out of surgery…to lay her off.  A spokesperson for Dean Health said the manager violated medical protocol.  You think?   Dean Health says the surgery was minor and the patient wasn’t affected.  I’ll ask the question for all of us.  If the surgery was minor, couldn’t the layoff wait until after the surgery was done?  Dean Health announced on Wednesday that they were planning on “immediately” laying off 90 employees.  I guess this manager took the announcement literally. I’ve seen it in my own experiences, managers who lack the common sense to think through a management directive and act appropriately, or who blindly, and unquestionably do whatever upper management tells them to do.  To these individuals, we’d like to suggest a novel approach to management.  It involves Thinking. It really works. No, really. You should try it.  Source

 So people are talking about reallybadboss.com and you’re laughing along with them and participating in the water cooler conversations when it dawns on you that you’re a boss yourself.  You start to wonder if your employees could be talking about you.  Not sure if you’re a really bad boss?  Here are five surefire ways to tell: You might be a really bad boss if…

1. You inspire the creation of the website www.reallybadboss.com – If your actions and behavior are so mind numbingly ridiculous that they inspire the creation of a cottage industry based primarily on the asinine things you’ve said and done, you can rest assured…you’re a really bad boss.  
2. Your turnover rate is 100%  – Ok, so maybe not 100%, but if people would rather make minimum wage dressed like  sandwiches/crustacean/ the statue of liberty and dance in the street in front of the local sandwich/seafood/tax preparation shop – in Arizona, in July – than work for you, you might be a really bad boss.
3. The term “Bossnapping” is coined to describe what your employees have just done to you – Some French workers have taken their disgust at their really bad bosses too far. A rash of boss kidnappings – Bossnappings – have plagued France recently.  Worse, 45% of French people surveyed think that it’s ok.  Let’s hope Bossnapping doesn’t cross the ocean.  Felonies don’t look good on resumes.
4. There has been at least one assassination (or coup) attempt on your life, and you work in, for example…the paper goods industry – Assassination attempts and coups are pretty common in some of the more volatile areas of the world where dissatisfaction with leadership is the norm and not the exception. But, Michael Scott notwithstanding, if you make paper or thumbtacks, or some very uncontroversial product and people are trying to depose you or have you forcibly removed from your position, you might be a really bad boss. 
5. Someone quits live on the air – Arnetta the Moodsetta says it best. Click here for the audio.

Got something to add to the You might be a really bad boss list? Add it in the comment section after the jump.

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Photo: Barcroft Media

  Something to make you smile on Monday

Remember when I told you about the really bad boss I had with the massive ponytail hair extension.  I fantasized about snatching it off her head and dunking it into her 64oz Big Gulp.  Well someone had the idea to style actual horses hair and photograph it.  See some of the pics and the full story here.  If only my boss’ extensions had looked this good. 

P.S.  I know there’s a horses ass joke in there somewhere…but I just can’t find it right now.

Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

The idea for Really bad boss came to me after a particularly frustrating day at work.  I came home angry and annoyed, asking myself the same questions I’d been asking for the past few years and over the past two or three bosses – “Why am I working for this idiot?”, “How? How is he in charge of anything at all, much less a company?!”  And, I wondered, how on earth he’d gotten the position he’d gotten, with all its accompanying power and influence.  How was he able to sneak in under the radar?   

The worst part was my experience with this company wasn’t an isolated one.  I thought about the VP of a former company, who within six months of being hired was drunk off his skull, dirty dancing on a table at the Christmas party.  He “resigned”, bonus intact, about a week later.   Or the CEO who, during an annual sales meeting, opted to complete a crossword puzzle, as the owner and board members discussed the uncertain future of the company.   And of course, I’ve already mentioned in a previous post, the VP who fondly referred to the Jim Jones’ cult and its members’ mass suicide as the ultimate in company loyalty.  You mean to tell me, that the same stringent screening process that had me in a three part interview that stretched over a four week period, and that can disqualify an hourly worker for having bad credit, can’t detect a pension for crossword puzzles, an affinity for cults or an alcoholic?  Ok, maybe that’s asking a bit much, but who are the gatekeepers letting these people in? Has anyone checked them out?  Why does it seem that those with the most responsibility and the most power, have the least ability to use them effectively and why are the rest of us beholden to them?  – think AIG, Congress, the SEC…

Webster has several definitions for the word boss including; a young cow, a person who exercises control or authority and a protuberant part or body.  While I’ve had bosses who fit into all three categories, I like the definition of a boss as being anyone who exercises control or authority.  By that definition, bosses aren’t limited to the workplace.   From politics – think  Rod Blagojevich and Elliot Spitzer, to Business – think AIG, Bank of America,  to Government – the SEC , entertainment, sports, I could go on and on.  In fact, in our own lives, we’re bosses over our own choices and decisions… Read the rest of this entry »