When the boss is a jerk

L A Daily News ^ | ELLEN SIMON

[sbMKE]

I always felt that office jerks were most often motivated by fear. Find out what's eating them and work to set up situations that reinforce and validate that fear. Cracks 'em up every time.

[reagan_fanatic]

I work with a woman who handles walk-in business at our company. More often than not, she is rude and downright hostile to our customers. She routinely refuses to help them find what they need if she happens to deem them a bother.

We have an account that recently had asked us to phone in for a p.o. when an employee would pick up product from us - a reasonable request which would only take one to two extra minutes to do. Not only did she refuse to do that when he came in, but she then proceeded to berate the customer, then called the company and berated them!

Unfortunately, the boss lacks the spine to fire the old hag, even when told of her behavior. These has been more than one time I've had to bit my tongue until bloody to avoid running out the and just punching her in the mouth.

[taildragger]

Ah sometimes cosmic energy kicks in with situations like this.

I didn't have the smarts at the time on an exit interview to HR to tell them how dysfunctional the dept I was in for 2 months was and what a maniacal tyrant the boss was.

The guy who left the company right behind me from that dept. was much smarter. VP level meeting, and as he told me, not with those lackies in HR.

Funny thing, 2 months after this gents Exit interview with the response from the VP of: "Oh I had no idea how messed up things were," The Tyrant decided to retire early without a package at 52 years of age.....

Even funnier, a year or two later a head hunter calls me to fill my old position as a contractor, he hee....

[Sam's Army]

There was a guy I knew about a few years back that had the unlucky situation of working under a brand new manager (20 some-odd years old, female, too much make-up, fresh off a divorce) who was an absolute control freak.

He had finally had enough of the micro-management and gave notice of about a month so as to give time to train a replacement, transition out effectively, etc.

So one day he comes back from lunch perhaps about 15 minutes "late" ( I put this in quotes because this was a salaried envioronment where folks routinely put in 9-10 hours even in non crucial times.) She was screaming at him right in his face demanding to know where he was.

He leaned right into her almost forehead to forehead and said "Get the &%@* out of my face!!", which caused her to go even more ballistic yelling for security to come get him. He got his stuff and just walked calmly out the door before anyone had to escort him.

I hear she's not a manager anymore. Evidently got a promotion to secretary.

[freepertoo]

Has anyone seen Rocky Balboa? Rocky's son's boss is just about every boss I've ever had (except for recently. I finally landed a great one). Typical megalomaniac with something to prove.

[taildragger]

They had one incredibly good product, the VAX,

Ah yes the 785, running CAD terminals, I remember it well....

Good Machine, darn near bulletproof, shame it was a good company, I'd like to know were the poster before you was, what plant.

[LIConFem]

I can top that. When I worked for a major Govvies broker back in the early 90s, one boss threatened to fire one of my fellow IT-geeks for taking a day off to be with his wife while she gave birth to their first child. He called that AM to say he wouldn't be in, and the "boss" said something like, "Get your a$$ in here or don't come in tomorrow." The manager never followed through with the threat.

[Just another Joe]

Even funnier, a year or two later a head hunter calls me to fill my old position as a contractor, he hee....

Six months after I left my old manager got hold of one of my friends that still worked there and wanted to know if he thought I would be willing to come back.
My friend laughed in his face and told him, "Not as long as you're still working here."

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

"..years ago when I had this problem with a boss who liked to help himself to my secret Twinkie stash, and he would never admit to it,I simply "injected" a few marked single packaged bombs with Tabasco hot sauce. He couldn't say anything about it...and he stopped"

Before my fiancee went back to school her boss and the company owner would eat all her and the other engineers food. One day for example they brought in donuts and her boss stole the whole box and brought it into the conference room for a meeting! pretty lame. buy your own donuts.

She bought a bag of sugar free chocolates and left them in a dish in the kitchen. Her boss and the owner ate them all inside a couple hours. Sugar free chocolates have a little warning on them because of the maltitol content... the boss and owner spend the rest of the day fighting for the mens room. ;)

[ladyjane]

So were you at DEC?

[Titan Magroyne]

Bingo! Even if that was not my problem, I'd be sure to do the same. How's he to know I'm making it up to make him scream Uncle!

I don't suppose you ever had to reinforce the lesson? Y'know, pop your head in his office, give a big ole conspiratorial wink and a thumbs-up, and say The clots are getting smaller or something like that... ;o)

[taildragger]

I wasn't as gracious, I wouldn't do this today, but I laughed andmentioned to the head-hunter something about a forhead and not putting out a fire in regards to the tyrant....

Oh, come to think of it, this was after the bright guy had left and he was scrambling for good talent and before he was given some options for the future.....

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

"One woman whose boss was always stealing her food reshaped Ex-Lax to look like candy, then her boss stole it."

This is known as "food tampering" and is a felony. One ought not to commit felonies to get back at a bad boss, or anyone else, for that matter. Yes, even if the food was stolen, it is still a felony if it was done with the intent to cause harm to another. In the case of slipping someone Ex-lax, it is about impossible to prove your motives were otherwise.

[vin-one]

I have had several real bad bully bosses, all of them women. One at a AT&T was sent to behavioral modification classes prior to them firing the Witch, or with a B. I worked for that nut job for 3 years. Almost gave me ulcers facing her everyday. I now work for my wife, enough said.

[PAR35]

No one else can do what I do...When it's time to go home I leave. If someone else is in a pickle, I'm sorry but it's not my responsibility.

Sounds like you are one of the folks that the other folks here are talking about.

I'm glad I don't work with you.

[capitalist229]

indifference is an underrated virtue

Political correctness, multiculturalism and moral relativity are the culprits.

BUMP

[Redleg Duke]

You might want to check your source. You are on the way to a law suit.

[Ranger57]

The jerks are among us dailey. As the most experienced worker in my department (27 years), my jerky supervisor told me that I was the most arrogant SOB he had ever met. My responce was this, "Well, that means that I do more than you about my job." His red face told me that I was correct.

[B4Ranch]

Now THAT is funny!

[pabianice]

I worked at another service company for a while. The boss gave his buddy my job. I was thrown-out the door clutching a cardboard box with my stuff. The next day in the industry annual survey I was named the best service manager in my industry. One year later, under the boss' buddy, the company had dropped-off the bottom of the survey because of the new service manager. The company is now 1/4 its earlier size and is now a division of another corporation.