The reason I had few posts yesterday was that I found out late in the morning that my boss had been let go and would not be stepping into the office ever again. It was completely unexpected and disconcerting. All his direct reports gathered at a local watering hole to ponder what had happened.
I worked for him for about 8 years and had a tremendous amount of respect for him. We saw eye to eye on most subjects. He’s a good man and always had the organization’s best interests at heart. I always considered my main job to be making my boss look good by providing him with accurate, timely, useful information that would allow him to make good decisions or recommend the right course of action to his boss.
His predecessor was an absolute shrew. I worked for her for one year and despised her. If she hadn’t resigned, I would have.
I would rate my boss as the 2nd best I’ve had over my 30 year working career. My boss at IKEA for 13 years was the best. I only despised the shrew. I disliked working for one other boss, but I only worked for him for one year. Overall, I’ve had good/tolerable bosses for 25 out of 30 years as a professional.
I’m coming down the home stretch and praying I don’t get another asshole for the last seven or so years.
Who was your best and/or worst boss and why?
Worst boss I ever had made me work as much as seven days a week for weeks on end and usually over 12 hours a day in all kinds of weather and harsh conditions with no time off for vacations or even sick days and paid me rather poorly with no overtime pay or bonuses ever.
FWIW, I’m self employed.
Worst boss was easily the one I had when I was still doing my internship. In his defense, he probably thought it was his job to micro-manage me and to nitpick every minute detail of each note I wrote, chart that I notated in, pt I cared for, even the words I spoke and shoes I wore. However there was never the encouraging word and little follow-up instruction on the “right way” after being beat down with critique. Thinking about that prick still makes me seethe.
The best? I had a department head who treated us like family. Always split performance bonuses with her team ( didn’t have to) went out to lunch for anniversaries, birthdays etc, ordered food for those tiring Medicare meetings and tried to be flexible to allow us for some time on the holidays to be with family….we went above and beyond for that boss.
I had a boss that was having a blatant affair with his closer (they were both married), used company funds to buy furniture that was shipped to his home, punched a female coworker in the arm (she was on meds due to the torment). He once used his body to barricade me in his office with the door closed, thinking he could intimidate me like he did everyone else. He found out that shit didn’t work on me, job or no job. He did no work, literally. Walked in at 10 or 11, took an hour or two for lunch, left at 3. The closer did not work either, you could see her computer screen in the reflection on the glass window and all she did was shop. Every week $300 purses arrived at work. I reported him as the company told me I was supposed to. I even heard the investigators say “Everything the caller said was true”. All he got was a talking to. He routinely used to mention he’d so anything for money, even have sex with a man. I thought that was a telling comment. The closer had one kid, I think it was the bosses because the kid and him both had an odd slant to the eyes, I saw her husband and he didn’t.
Never had a terrible boss .Some really good ,some ok.All white and male maybe that’s the reason we got along.
Admin , there you go again. 4th turn coming and you plan on retiring ??You just going to sit it out somewhere on the front porch in rocking chair ? Is this your plan ??
Go fuck yourself bb. You don’t need to worry about what I’m going to do. Worry about yourself asshole.
Admin – watch your back, man. I wouldn’t put anything past these fuckers, including forcing some management changes to kick you in the wallet.
Why did your guy get thrown under-the-bus ? As you describe him he should have been teflon.
I’ve had Good and Bad in front of me like anyone else over life. Hate to say, you’ve been lucky and are due for another shithead troublemaker.
I hope not, though.
He never made a connection with his boss and disagreed with the direction of one of our major units. I don’t think they considered him a team player because he voiced dissent.
That will do it.
Admin perhaps they are looking your way to take the helm and steer the ship. Could you be a candidate?
No interest. I’m not politically correct enough.
My best bosses (after working 40+ years in three different careers) just let me do my job to the best of my ability. The worst ones, micro-managed….which really is a form of bullying. For those, I just quit as a response.
I used to be paid piecework as a bush pilot. (base pay and mileage). I worked for a very small company up north that paid at least double everyone else in the industry. One day, one of the owners looked at my big pay cheque and said, “ahh, that’s what I like to see. When you’re making money we’re making money”. I would have done anything for those guys. When I wasn’t busy flying I rebuilt docks, crew quarters, whatever. They provided me with a free place to live, and perks beyond belief including fly-in hunting and fishing trips. It worked both ways.
When I was a carpenter apprentice one of my first bosses bought me a really nice Estwing hammer. Plus, one for my buddy. When I thanked him he said, “don’t worry about it. I’ll be paid back 10X in hard work by you guys”. And he was!
My absolute worst boss was in the school system. One day, I called in a sub and walked out saying, “See you later”. I went into personnel and said, “Get me out of there or I’ll burn every sick day I have”. They did. She was let go the next year. My last boss before I retired was terrific. I thanked him for letting me do my job. His response? “You have a job here whenever you want it”. It was a nice note to retire on.
Had both of course.
Couple possible great bosses: one was straight up honest, OathKeeper type, unfortunately divorced (and she gave him pain frequently), pillar of knowledge, ethics, never felt I had to hide / polish / varnish the truth from him, solid in every way that mattered.
His boss two levels up was a pain. Command and control type in a trust and team organization, 1950s mindset in a 1990’s organization back in 1990s. He actually hired me in (undoubtedly as an unknown quantity new hire); one day he came in my office and told me “You’re either for me or against me”, and demanded loyalty. I left six months later; he left shortly after that, probably after the company CEO reviewed my exit interview, did a little looking and figured out that this asshole was undercutting his strategic leadership and participation management on the sly. It’s hard to effect team-building when one player is in it all for himself.
Engineers tend not to put up with unlimited bullshit, other jobs and even other careers await; but I have had my share of good bosses, bad bosses and in-betweens. Current boss is several states away, only Emails when he needs something or has an assignment for me, and I usually have to call him for updates on upcoming work. A bit more communication would be welcome, but other than that he’s a jewel.
Just an honest observation that I find interesting considering your libertarian anarchist views. I must have pushed a button.
Am I missing something ?
WTF does being a libertarian have to do with working at a job? You are still mentally challenged after all these years. Now that Dougie Becker is gone, I guess you retain the crown of TBP Village Idiot. Wear it well.
My current boss is a total dick. Unfortunately, I go home with him every night. I even have to wear his underwear. Revolting!
Best boss I ever had was my last one – well actually it was a partnership of three. They gave me about 1000 miles of rope and let me run with it. We built a successful and well known business (in our industry) together as a team. They were creative, hard working people with vision who gave me what I consider to be my real world MBA. Unfortunately for all of us, after 9 years of working for/with them I ended up moving on to my current boss. A complete jerk if I ever knew one.
Hey, FM. I’ll beat his ass for you if you want me to. ahaha
Ed,
Thanks buddy. You’re all heart.
Admin- If your next boss is a woman, would you work as hard to make her “look good” as you did for the guy who just got the boot? She could turn into a shrew after the introductions are over.
In the 6 to 8 months before Oreo became dear leader blacks were put into management positions en masse. It took only months for corporate America to have blacks in management of every type of retail, banking etc. If we begin to see women quickly moved into every management position in Merica we will know that the brain dead old bat Hill will be the chosen one in our elite-selected charade of the presidency. I fear the “Day of the Woman” is upon us.
I’ll work hard for anyone I respect. Gender or race doesn’t matter.
I’ve had more bad bosses than good ones due to the nature of the disfunctional organization I worked for. It valued sucking up over results, and anyone who achieved real results was viewed as a threat.
The common traits of these bosses were:
-the inability to define substandard, average and outstanding performance.
-the inability to provide guidance with concrete guidelines regarding what was desired. IE deadline, scope of the project, manpower or budget.
-the failure to bother to learn what you were doing or why it was being done yet being ready to micromanage every event without any regard for the consequences.
-frequent and useless meetings aimed at asserting their position rather than informing or conveying information to the employees.
-witholding information necessary to the functioning of the department.
-blaming others while taking credit for accomplishments they had nothing to do with.
-hiring employees without consulting those impacted while refusing to fire those who were guilty of gross incompetence or malfeasance.
My best boss was one I learned from, asked for my input regarding manpower, budget and time constraints. His methods were get the job done within the parameters agreed upon and do not bother me unless you encounter an obstacle you cannot deal with and require my input or assistance. If also trusted us to do what we said we would but would deal mercilessly with those who BSed him, lied, or created problems.
Unfortunately this organization is renowed for its inability to adapt due to its recruitment policies and commitment to Washington dictates.
I’ve had quite a variety of jobs and bosses over 45 years. Most have been very decent, the best were 2 (one female, one male) when I worked at a major telecom for 20 years who had enough confidence in me to put me into management roles. Early on at age 18, I was made an assistant manager in a department store and learned a lot from my manager who was always fair and supportive, but I earned everything I got in all those instances and discovered if you work hard and are trustworthy, you will be rewarded.
The worst boss by far was when I was at Freddie Mac for 2 years as an IT Director. My senior director, who hired me, was a psychology major and he played mind games on his direct reports. Nothing was good enough for him, but he’d string you along just enough to keep you from quitting. I think he hired me just so he could fire me later on. But his firing came first, after the person who brought him and was the CIO that was 2 levels up got canned. So my manager was then immediately released since HIS boss (the VP) had no one to resist it. That job was the most challenging of my entire IT career and he made it worse.
Once he was gone, it was amazing to hear so many people step forward to admit they despised the guy.
I have had nothing but the best bosses over 33 years of my career.
Having said that, a lot of them were greeted by “security guards” at the front door at the beginning of the shift, to remove personal belongings.
I asked many co-workers what was going on, and they replied “The company always eats their young”
These “bosses” were terminated not because of how they treated the workers, but rather, they voiced dissent against a change in corporate direction. A fatal error!!
I believe a huge change in direction is happening at IKEA admin. We saw that up here in Vancouver B.C. during a very long and protracted labour dispute with it’s employees.
Be careful out there…….
My current boss is in love with my wife and has been for near 30 years.
But it’s OK, cuz I’m self-employed.
Hands down worst boss I ever had was my platoon sergeant when I was in the 82nd. He had an IQ of a slightly precocious retard, maybe half of his teeth and never missed an opportunity to fuck over his subordinates, usually allowing them to freeze or starve when the opportunity arose. I was in my unit for less than a year when I earned the Expert Infantryman Badge, something he’d failed to do for 13 years running. After that he took particular delight in giving me every shit detail he could come up with. When I finally got transferred up to Battalion HQ it came to an end, but I can’t imagine how a less qualified, inhumane dickwad could have ever been allowed to remain in his position if it weren’t a government job.
Best boss was a guy in Fayetteville, NC that ran a Kirby vacuum cleaner operation. I had 60 days of leave saved up and they made me take it in a block so instead of hanging around the barracks I answered an ad in the paper for a salesman. The guy showed me how to just walk up to a random house carrying a vacuum cleaner and sell it for something like $800 bucks- in the early 80’s, in an Army town. He’d give you all kinds of prizes for most sold in a day, highest number of sales in cash, that kind of thing. I picked up on it really quick, could field strip and put it together and show people how dirty their house was and how this particular vacuum would change their lives and get total strangers who’d just met me to buy those high end vacuums like it was a bag of peanuts at the circus. He taught me a lot about people, about how to sell yourself, and he always kept his word and compensated me very well for my efforts. I made more money in that couple of months than I did in a year as an NCO and right before I went back to duty he offered me a job the day I got out if I wanted it. I told him I didn’t think I’d ever do that again so he said ‘let me buy you a nice suit and tie so you look good on your first job interview’ and he did. He really made me believe that I could do anything, and that was the biggest payday anyone ever gave me. He didn’t have the most enviable career in the world, but he sure knew how to make it seem that way. I’ve never forgotten that.
Like you, I’ve been fortunate when it came to bosses. It would takes all day to describe the good ones. I’ve had just a couple of bad ones. The bad ones were just incompetent for the most part and were trying to fake it until they made it. The worst kind of boss you can have is the kind that has no idea what you (or the company) does but tries to pass himself off as an expert. They will do everything they can to make everyone else look bad to make themselves look good. I won’t hesitate to quit a job working for someone like that.
My current boss is probably in the top two good bosses I’ve had. Sometimes I don’t even see him for weeks at a time. That actually sucks because there are currently only three people in the world doing what we do and he is hands down the best in the industry and quite often I need his guidance. It’s a lot like having Jimi Hendrix of Jon Bonamassa teach you to play guitar. I’ve come to realize that he is more like the master from Kung Fu. I think he hangs me out to dry from time to time to force me to figure it out. Whenever I ask him when I’ll finally figure this out and he replies that as soon as he figures it out he’ll be able to answer my question.
I only work for quality individuals, If not, I simply move on. I have a low tolerance for BS.
Encouraging to see that love & respect between Admin & bb remains as strong as ever.
I’ve always had good bosses. One time I was going TDY and old Earnie took me aside to give me some fatherly advice. He said, I don’t worry about you because you have a personality that gets along everywhere you go.
I had a communist boss for a while, the Italian Stallion, but he still was a forgiving soul that taught me to side with the minority in a fight.
IS @ 3:35 – Speaking of virtuoso guitar players, I just watched a documentary on Netflix on Jaco Pastorius, who is billed by some as the greatest bass player to ever live. It was pretty interesting.
ANYWAY – back on topic – and back in the 1990s – I was hired by an investment firm that purchased general tool rental stores in order to figure out ways to increase bizness. It was a great job because they gave me a 3/4 ton pick-up as my office, I got to wear blue jeans everyday, rented, sold and delivered aerial lifts, skid-loaders, etc. and such.
But the best part was the boss situation. My boss at headquarters thought my regional boss was watching me and the regional boss thought I answered only to the big-wigs at headquarters. It was a lucky case of miscommunication, because by the time they figured it out, I had it figured it out. Their revenues tripled over 3 years. I cashed in my percentage of the pie and eventually found a boss I liked even better. Me.
I’ll have to check that out. As far as bass players go I’ve always liked Stanley Clark, John Entwistle, Joey DeMaio Steve Harris and Phil Lynott.
I discovered that my career “post-USAF” followed a certain pattern.
First, my new employers at the top were delighted with how quickly I learned the “system”, with how I could write clear and concise analysis for bullet briefs and summarize large bodies of data to enable them to look smarter than they are in whatever venue they needed to present information to clients.
Second, people I worked with were delighted because I tend to take on more than my fair share and I am a great team player as long as everyone does their part.
Third, people who work for me really like me because I give clear instructions and start all project efforts with a definitely “goal” and not just “when we finish.”
But, in the end, EVERY SINGLE TIME, my immedate bosses grew suspicious of me and made life miserable for me and all of the co-workers who associated with me.
If I were arrogant, I would say it is because they realized that I was smarter than they, but I’m not arrogant.
I forgot to mention I made GREAT snacks for staff meetings.
I really don’t know what went wrong… well, the lawsuit I filed with NLRB probably didn’t help, but…
LOL! Yeah bosses can be surprisingly touchy about that kind of shit. You should have just hinted at “sexual misconduct” of some kind. That’ll tighten their sphincters up while you remain on the payroll!
My current boss is the same one as I’ve worked for the last 28 years. The duration of my employment and his being such a good guy are directly related. To explain what it’s like to work for him I’ve told people, “Imagine that you work for George Bailey from It’s a Wonderful Life”.
I had a sort of bad boss my first job out of college. The guy’s nickname in the office was “Pope John” because he was never wrong, at least in his view. In my second job my immediate boss was nice enough personally but he was always asking me to cut corners. I ended up quitting and purely by luck had the good fortune to end up where I am.
All three of these jobs have been at small companies. I would be very hesitant to work for a large corporation.
Easy to answer for me.
My worst Boss was named Rob as well. He was my supervisor at SGS at Westray. Blue green algae has more backbone then this dolt of a human being. He threw me under bus in aftermath, had me fired for doing the right thing then colluded with management to come up with a story that could be sold to uninformed.
Best that is easy. His name was Terry, he is ex military, A Major. He always stuck up for us and we always followed him. He helped restore my faith in Engineers.
My current boss is a woman trapped in a man’s body (his words). In the months leading up to his coming out on FB the other guys and I were joking about it. My words were: is it just me or is XYZ looking more like a bitch everyday? He was wearing tighty jeans and the boobs were becoming more pronounced. When the FB post came out it was not really a surprise. Needless to say he was a crappy engineer and now a crappier manager. No spine and has nearly no clue about what my job is, but is quick to say we don’t do anything. Diversity and minority hiring is more valued than getting the job done. I think this company is going to crackup before too long.
Admin – good luck with whoever comes next. Keep your eyes open for signs they might purge those close to the last guy – it is very common. I have seen it many, many times. Performance has nothing to do with it.
My experience is that there are few good bosses/managers. The Peter Principle is alive and well. People tend to rise to their level of incompetence. Hence why there are so many lousy CEOs out there.
The thought has crossed my mind. When my boss at IKEA left, I was hung out to dry. It was just a matter of time until I was purged, along with all his other direct reports. Time will tell. I know ALL of the dirty laundry.
Worst boss? An ass-kissing Air Force colonel I worked for in Germany. I and many other officers complained to his boss, a major general, about this miserable fuckstick. The general listened and had the colonel reassigned to a “people person” job where you had to deal with and fix PERSONAL PROBLEMS of young airmen. The colonel failed miserably, got fired, and was forced to retire. Otherwise, in 40 years of service in the Air Force and CIA, I’ve had well above average bosses. Mainly because ………
My best boss is me. My bosses learned early not to fuck with me. Just tell me what you expect and get out of my way. Example. My last assignment in the Air Force was in charge of a bunch of officers and enlisted men. One day in 1985, this happened in front of MANY witnesses.
Very distraught enlisted man (he was a clerk typist): “Colonel SSS, my ex-wife just called and said she just put our 2 children on an airplane, and they will land in Tucson in 2 1/2 hours. She has custody of the children and told me she can’t deal with them any more.”
Me: “You will leave immediately and get to the airport to meet your children. You will take them to your house to get settled. And then you will do everything you can to insure they are properly cared for and enrolled in school. If this takes 2 days, 3 days, or more, I don’t care. You will not come back until this is done. Call this office if you need further assistance.”
Everyone in the office heard this exchange. It not only worked for the airman, it spread like wildfire among a 2,000 member wing. I was golden. And the airman was never charged for “compassionate leave” which didn’t exist then. I saw to that, and I simply did the right thing to do.
Despite your stance on golf in a desert, you’re a good man SSS. I actually discerned that before I ever started posting here. Although just an enlisted man, my father did the same kinds of things for his troops.