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Post your Worst Boss
2

Post your Worst Boss

Post your Worst Boss

(OP)

For scientific interest.

I'll start with my worst boss so far:


-Insecure personally and profesionally.
Is an engineer, but with R&D background, not industrial.

-Obssesed over control and information (uses to patologically hide it, even when unnecessary)

-Obstruct every posible professional development of underlings. Specially if there's a possibility of outshining.

-Puts down people behind their backs and diminish every positive aspect of everyone.

-Nice with superiors, rude with underlings.

-Uses fear to consequences as an everyday tool.


I've had some other bad bosses, but it's difficult to imagine a more undermining, more soul-depriving, worse kind.

 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Do we work in the same office?

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Once upon a time, I worked for a company by a fellow with an emotional age of about four.  He threw tantrums, tyrannically directed the work of subordinates that didn't report to him, and fired people because he was mad at them that particular minute.  He fired a colleague a few days after his only child had died, because the fellow had "missed too much work" (i.e. caring for a terminally ill child)!  

He was not my direct supervisor, but he set the tone for the whole place.  You can imagine what kind of toxic work environment resulted, if your imagination is perverse enough.

When colleagues b*tch about our present boss, I always trot out that story.  Puts things in perspective right quick.   

RE: Post your Worst Boss

That last reminds me of a boss I had.

He would spend four days writing a three page memo about how to fill in expense reports.
He would scream and yell, break telephones, and kick holes in the wall.
He would get extremely angry if we didn't do exactly as he said; then the next day, he'd get angry because we did exactly as he said.
He once sent me to a meeting that involved leaving on a Thursday for a meeting that started the next Monday, in order to save on airfare, and then, on Friday morning, threw a fit and broke things after demanding to know where I was, and being told by a co worker that I was at the meeting he sent me to.
The ultimate was when he fired a long-term (ie, 30 year) employee for not starting his journeyman classes in his trade.  The employee happily went home with a smile on his face.  The next day, said boss discovered that the long-term employee had a first-name relationship with the family owners of the conglomerate we were part of, and said boss had to apologize to the employee.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I once had a boss that wanted reports on every internal study I completed. These were studies done on a computer than took less than 2 seconds. I used these studies as part of other calculations, so normally no on else was interested, or needed them.
From the reports, for which I don't believe he understood, he would correct the spelling and grammer, and send them back to be corrected.
The bigest problem was he was located in a different state, so the mailing time extended the life of the studies from a minuite, to several weeks.

And his comment of me was I spent to much time in the office, and not enough in the field.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

(OP)

Wow, you just had provided two awesome examples. I thought mine was bad!!!

Oh my god, firing a guy after his son died...  

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I had a boss would screen-print e-mails and hand to me, I was like wow, he didn't want me to converse with the clients.  He was like a tyrant, I was missing out on alot of opportunities to grow in my industry.  He wasn't very receptive to suggestions, a co-worker mentioned that he was trying to turn me into a CAD-operator.  After getting layed off I went to a firm that allowed me to have quite a bit of responsibities for my projects, from design to post construction.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I received a cheap $5.00 flashlight as a Christmas gift one year for saving the company $35,000 in time on a large DoD machining contract.  Yeah, he had all the anger and control issues, as well.  Any scrapped part would receive a cursory visual inspection, followed by facial reddening, the wind up, and the pitch.  The offending part would then proceed to crash, a'la baseball style, into the opposite shop wall.  Boss would then jump in his truck and storm off, only to return a half hour later to apologize.  Next scrap part, situation repeats, ad nauseum.

I stayed almost a year and half at that company.  It was either leave or spend the next 20 years in prison for 1st deg homicide.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I was working for a very small consulting firm, the owner/boss was a micromanaging maniac and always cut down our quotes and then blamed me for losing money on the project.
On a start up I had worked about 72 hours in a week without additional compensation. Two weeks later I missed 2 days of work because I was sick, legitimately, and I used sick days. As soon as I was back, without asking if I was feeling better he says "When are you going to make up this time?"
At the start, they allowed me to make my own hours. I would regularly start at 9 and work until 5:30 or 6, the owner would work from 6:30 until usually around 5. At one point they decided to change the policy to everyone has to start at 7:30, take lunch from 11:30 to 12:30 and then finish at 4:30. After this he regularly walked down to my office at 4:20 to start large technical discussions.
The straw that broke the camel's back was that we would regularly do projects where we had no expertice on the client's specified hardware. The company would send someone, usually me, on an integrators course for the project. MOst of the time, this was only for the specific project and we would never use that hardware again. This would ALWAYS be in the project budget for us. 2.5 years after I started with the company they tried to institute a retroactive policy where if you left the company for any reason within 3 ytears of attending a course, including getting laid off or fired, you had to pay back the entire cost of the training, flights, hotels, fees and wages.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Damn!  I'm surprised any of these people you are describing lived long enough to become bosses.  They should have died from apoplexy years prior.

I have to ask, particularly moltenmetal and TenPenny: why did you stay and work for these people?

RE: Post your Worst Boss

My favorite, worst boss was this.

He was the majority partner in a Consulting Firm and on large projects would have idle Cad drafters who where out of work at the time charge time to the large project.

I remember a meeting where the drafters told him they had little or nothing to do as of yet.  This was because the Engineers were still designing, (we were working on PID's and working on the budget and schedule).  He directed them all (3-4 people) to put all their hours on the project.

2 weeks later the client got our invoice and freaked out and called the boss to complain.  The Boss then came and chewed the asses of the Engineers because we hadn't made enough progress based on the amount of hours billed.

After another month of this and other issues I finally quit mid project, basically the whole thing got worse from there.  I swear the Boss had Alzheimer disease or something.  

this message has been approved for citizen to elect kepharda 2008

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Why stay and work for these people?
Because they are not unique.
Bad managers are the rule, not the exception. Often it is better the devil you know.... and you hope they'll foul up one day an move out of your life.
Not an unreasonable hope.
Bad managers often get promoted sideways or up. They ought to go out the door but life isn't like that.

If his was a thread about good managers I could name only two.

I've had the tantrum throwers, liars, cheats, idiots, vendetta merchants, pretty well a good cross-section of bad managers. I doubt I have seen the extremes cited here, but close.
A boss that has a wobbly and throws things but later apologises? I'd says that is close to unique, they usually don't bother to apologise.
Most usually I see managers as people promoted well beyond their capabilities.
When it comes to stupid, bad bosses can be amazingly dumb and usually they find someone to blame for their mistakes.
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I have to ask, particularly moltenmetal and TenPenny: why did you stay and work for these people?

I stayed (for about 18 months) because my wife said to me, "Any time you come home and tell me you quit, I won't be surprised, and it won't bother me one tiny bit."

Knowing that you have such support at home helps a lot.  Then one day, I got a phone call from a competitor who offered me a job.  I was the 12th person, out of a staff of maybe 36, to leave within 12 months.  We enjoyed our monthly 'farewell' dinners, and would take bets on who would leave next.  The best part was, when I gave my notice, he was away, so I walked into HR, and told the woman I was going to ruin her day.  She laughed, and said, 'Well, I know you're not going to quit, so what's up?'  The old boss never spoke to me again while I was there.  Not one word.  And in fact, insisted that I stay and work out my notice period, working on bids that I would be competing against two weeks later.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Why did I stay?  I was green and optimistic and didn't know any better.  1st real job out of school.  Bad economic times.  And as I said before, there was fortunately a layer of management (somewhat) isolating me from the child who was actually running the show.  

I'd actually worked there as a student, but during that time, there was another member of senior management who kept the 4 yr old tyrant in check.  Unfortunately (for me), the other guy left...

I should have known better- I was given a warning during the hiring process-

I got a job offer from them and rejected it as too low to live on (it was well below going rate, but good experience and interesting work).  They sweetened the offer by 4 percent, and I figured "at least they're trying"...so I said yes- to start in two months' time.  

Three days later, honourable young dolt that I was, I turned down an offer 13 percent higher from another firm because "a deal's a deal".

Went off to Europe with my girlfriend, spent my money, moved to the new city, paid 1st and last month's rent on an apartment, and then went in to see my boss- a poor guy who reported directly to the 4 yr old.

He said, "Hi, and welcome to xxx- oh, and your pay's been cut by 5%"!  When I replied with "WTF!", he said, "Well, I've taken 10%, so you can take 5!".  

I had $32 in the bank, and was now making 1% less than an offer I'd REJECTED, and 18% less than an offer from another firm I'd turned down because I was a man of my word- and, as it turns out, a complete idiot.  I was of course "free" to tell them to insert their dishonest revised offer in the most suitable orifice, but by this point of course the other position had long ago been filled.

Obviously, an offer of employment is NOT a contract- no "compensation" has changed hands for one thing.  They could have simply revoked their offer without penalty!  I chose to look at the positive, rather than (more accurately as it turns out) seeing this as a sign of things to come...

I worked there for two years.  Looking back on it, it was GREAT experience in so many ways- not an experience I'd want to repeat, mind you!  There was more than one class A @sshole working there, as you'd expect with such a "leader", but there were also at least five people who are permanent friends of mine so many years later- top-notch engineers and scientists (and people!).  That place taught me so much, both technically AND on the business and management side- the latter mostly by flagrant examples of what NOT to do!  

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I worked in a place long ago where the company sent a guy away from his family - including a newborn - to the field in the Aleutians (Alaska) in the dismal dead of winter to manage a sewer installation project.  Immediately upon his return following a stint that was almost a year long there, they shipped him off to a small town in the middle of the Prairies, again in the dead of winter, to be a construction manager for an irrigation canal.

While writing up a daily report in the field office at his second posting, he received an envelope from his employer.  Sitting across the desk from him, I watched it as he opened it.  Inside was an unsolicited letter of commendation from the City / Town Council of the Alaskan town where he had worked, addressed and written to the president of the company who employed him (us).  The letter said that he had been the best project manager that they had ever experienced working with.  Attached to that letter was a yellow "Post-It Note" from the company president, which thanked him for his efforts and stated, "...this is what separates the truly great project managers from the rest of the pack...".

Paper-clipped to the letter and the "Post-It Note" was his pink slip, indicating that he had been laid off.

Class.

Regards,

SNORGY.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Nice twist on the old "it's not you, it's me" theme, eh?!!!

RE: Post your Worst Boss

SNORGY- holy sh*t, that's a new low!  

Your story solidly proves one of my favorite amongst the Dilbert guy's axioms: that any personal sacrifice that you make for work will be accepted.  Not necessarily acknowledged, or rewarded, but surely accepted!

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I have had some terrible bosses, from the one who greeted me every morning calling me 'Spanish fascist bastard' (he found it amusing), to the one that kicked and broke the side panel of a colleage's desk during an argument, to the one that had me working 8 months on a very dangerous site in with people regularly got hurt without any insurance (I only found out later).

The best story though is when I worked for a boss completely underqualified for his work and dangerous to the job. Initially I did my work and most of his. Then he felt threatened and told me to stop interfering with whis work. I stopped and then he shouted at me for not doing his work. The situation deteriorated to a point in which he called me to his office and told me that 'he was not satisfied with my performance'. I told him that that was OK by me because I was not satisfied with his performance either. I left the company shortly afterwards.   

RE: Post your Worst Boss

1994
Small family owned engineering company.
Boss was British, owner Irish, secretary Scottish; all strong accents. I'm half German, born in So Cal.
During working there, he would complain that I should not be in the restroom no longer than 1.5 minutes!
I finally had enough after several months and quit.
When leaving he asked what nationality my last name is, I said German.
He said if he knew that he would not have hired me!
I replied that if I knew he was British I would not have taken the job!

Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP4.1
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

RE: Post your Worst Boss

The worst boss I ever had was quite a few years ago now, but the damage still haunts me.

With a staff of 150 he turned over 200 employees in one year.

After 5 years the staff was down to about 50 and I think now runs at 12.

His style was to fire anyone who disagreed with him, no matter how respectfully or how accurate, necessary and relevant their statement was to continuing viability of the business.

He regularly instructed us to break laws, take actions that would alienate major long term loyal customers or were in direct contradiction of head office directives.

I was fortunate to be in a position where my boss in Arnhem regularly called his boss who then called him and told him to pull his head in. He hated me, which is a fact that I am still proud of.

He fired the Business Unit Manager and the NSW sales manager of his biggest BU then went to that units biggest customer and to quote him "to play hard ball". He managed to get escorted out of his biggest customers office by their security guards with a never come back instruction.

The guys he fired went to another major chemical company, set up in opposition to us and took the business. He was surprised and offended and said very abusive things about their lack of loyalty, I mean like he fired them and still expected their loyalty.

The viability of the entire business never recovered hence the numbers above.

The other large business we had was a joint venture to manufacture product x gasses. Being the only local manufacturer, we had the market by the proverbial short and curlies. That involved an extensive distribution network and something like 80% market share and 100% market knowledge. With product x becoming illegal for environmental reasons, he was unable to broker a deal to distribute new generation replacement products by once again firing key personnel who maintained the business at good profits for years and playing hard ball during negotiations. The net result was no deals and the plant was shut down and all staff retrenched. Several of the key people he fired went to opposition and set up agencies.

Now gone was a joint venture business that was 40% of the company total revenue and a business unit that was another 40% of the company revenue. A real bad case of testosterone in overdrive and brain in neutral.

Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &
http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm
for site rules
 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

How do any of them? But they do. It seems there are special survival laws that protect them.

They have an ability to pursuade bosses that they are the bee's knees.

This trait is most evident in brownnosers.

I guess just as leeches inject an anti-coagulant and an anaesthetic (is it leeches that have the anaesthetic? some such critter anyway) so the host doesn't know he is being bitten nor that his life's blood is being sucked out of him, brown-nosers can lull the susceptible manager into thinking the brown-nosers really appreciates them and thus the brown-noser can do no wrong.
Really bad bosses can survive by employing brown-nose tactics with their own bosses; but the main reason is the owners are often no smarter than any other management idiots and often less in touch.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

(OP)



I think these people could only survive by the action of the SNAFU mechanism.

Upper management receive information about the status via the medium-level boss report, who paints it to their most suitable colors.

It is the only way I can imagine a situation like patprimmer's told us could happen without consequences.

 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

My favorite boss, the one my wife reminds me of each time I come home a little worked up from my current employer...

I started a new design project.  I was new to the industry, but was well versed in all the skills needed to perform well because I was using those skills regularly in my prior job.  Also, the company actually did a really good job of maintaining lessons learned from prior projects so I had a really strong basis to start this project.

I finished the project within a few weeks.  Handed it over to my boss for review.  (Which, by the way, everything goes across his desk.  It was the biggest bottleneck in the company.)  He said that was too quick and I couldn't possibly have finished it yet.  Go back and review it some more.

I put it on my desk then surfed the internet and read trade journals.  After a suitable amount of time had passed, I turned it back in for his review.  Upon his review, he recommended a few changes because everything has to be done his way.  I debated the changes with him, and decided my best option was to concede and accurately document the cause for the design changes.

I had the prototype built and tested; it failed.  My boss looked at the design and said these things are wrong, fix them by doing this.  The things that were wrong were the changes he "forced" upon me.  His fix was just a reversion back to my original design.

By the time the project was over, we were about a month late on delivery to the customer.  We should have delivered a month early.

--Scott
http://wertel.eng.pro

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Same boss.

I was hired because they were expanding their product line offerings in the catalog and needed another engineer in order to speed the process.  The new products happened to be scaled up versions of existing products - larger and stronger.

The company has a policy to design the manufacturing steps and therefore their engineering prints reflect this: page 1 = end item depiction, page 2 = second milling op, page 3 = turning op, page 4 = first milling op.

Because of this standard, we couldn't show any extra detail on subsequent sheets.  Everything had to fit on one sheet.  Well, that means that the scaling would be very small for these larger products.  I requested that we be allowed to create drawings on something other than A-Size sheets of paper.  Even a B-Size would be better and the cost of that printer would be inexpensive compared to a plotter.  The pages could be folded in half to fit into the machine shop travelers.

He told me that we couldn't use larger sheets of paper because he was "emotionally attached" to A-size sheets and their convenient size.  After hearing "emotionally attached" I didn't even bother to tell him printers have a scaling function so he could still print to A-size and see everything on a single sheet, just a lot smaller.

On day 366 I quit that job because I would have had to pay back the moving stipend if I left within a year.

--Scott
http://wertel.eng.pro

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I've had bosses who've displayed highly non-linear behaviors as exampled in this thread.

What surprises me is that similar tantrum and threatening behavior in a domestic situation would quickly result intervention by police and the offender hauled away in handcuffs to jail and charged with domestic violence.

But in the work environment, such a managment-level person can not only get away with it, but higher management won't address such individuals even after years of repeat offenses. But, if a lower level employee displayed a hot-temper and lack of control, they would be fired immediately.
 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

They can get away with it until there is a race or gender complaint. But this is less likely from a professional like us. However there are people that would make such a complaint.

Maybe camara phones will change that.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Now there's a thought, whenever you see him/her headed your way, just start your webcam and use your PC like security CCTV.
Better have a sign printed an posted on your desk:
"For training purposes, any conversations may be recorded."


 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I remember a case of a new employee criticized for coming in early on his first day.  Something about having to pay a few extra minutes of time, since employee was hourly.  He say in parking lot from that point on waiting exactly for starting time each day.  

No good deed went unpunished with this person.   

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I had a really bad boss once, who fortunately couldn't fire me because I was on loan from another department.  When they sent me back to where I'd come from, the bad boss displayed a bit of his bad behavior (which I'd not mentioned, but which was becoming quite apparent in his discussion of what things I'd done so wrong as to be the subject of the meeting) in front of the department head of my department, and got so thoroughly dressed-down for it, right in front of his own boss (and me), that I thought he'd literally slide out of his chair and crawl under the table to hide.  It wasn't just that he was called out for inappropriate behavior - he was the bullying sort - he also happened to be a 95lb guy who abruptly had the 6'4", 300lb department head leaning over a conference room table to get closer while yelling - it was along the lines of "why don't you try picking on me instead, you little prick," but coming from someone who probably could have had the guy's whole department, boss and all, fired.  It was brilliant to watch.  Nonetheless, I had been through quite enough at that company and only lasted a little longer.  Bad boss was reassigned before I left to a non-supervisory role, and was fired within the year (or so I heard from people who stayed on).
 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Ivymike, do I hear the twilight Zone Music playing?
These guys usually are bullet proof.
That one got reamed out and then shuffled out is most unusual.
Sideways promotions aren't that uncommon but the final out of the door is.
Usually they take the hint and parley their current position into a good CV and go make some other company a mess.
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

The term we use is "fire-proof".

- Steve

RE: Post your Worst Boss

The Peter Principle

"The theory that an employee within an organization will advance to his or her level of incompetence and remain there."
 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

At one job, I printed my timesheet and picked it up from the printer, only to accidentally also pick up some porn that a drafter had printed and left laying there from the day before (and yes, it had his name on it).  I went to the drafter and asked him to very sweetly pick up his crap from the printer so that I don't have to see it.

End of story, I thought, until the HR lady called and yelled at me for invading the drafter's privacy.  The president of the company brought it up later, too, when the other women and I in the office signed a letter asking for a company policy against sexual harassment.

Lovely.  But that was by far not the worst boss I had.  He was certifiably crazy.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

The group Manu'f director at our place was well know for his rage when someone had made a mistake, they used to call it getting the hair dryer treatment. Anyway, he gets a monthly report detailing how much scrap metal was collected from each of the profiling bays only to see that one of the bays had nearly double the amount of scap than anyone else.

So he flips his lid, demands the operator comes to his office instantly launching into a full on hair dryer in this guys face as soon as he walks through the door. Once he had stopped, the guy turns round, walks out and goes home.

Upon further investigation, this guy had been fishing waste material from other peoples scrap metal bins where he saw there was enough room to get a few more profiled plates out of which basically means that he was getting dozens more parts for free and instead of returning the scrap to the original bin he put it in his to save time and effort.

The Manu'f Director had to eat a massive slice of humble pie and was made to go round the Opo's house to appologise in person and ask him to please come back to work. He got told where to go!

It a story the same Direrctor (who is considerable more chilled nowadays and also the group CEO) will happily recite to highlight the error of his ways from the days when he was a young go getting upstart!

Best regards

Simon NX4.0.4.2 MP10 - TCEng 9.1.3.6.c - (NX6.0.3.6 MP2 native)

www.jcb.com

Life shouldn't be measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of times when it's taken away...

RE: Post your Worst Boss

My worst boss:
    We shall call him MR.  Anyway, he was a supposed machinist before he went back to school and became an engineer.  He had never passed the FE or EIT exam, however he always felt his intellect was far superior than anyone else's.  Plenty of times I or a co-worker would submit design ideas which he would throw down and tell us how crappy they were.  Then months later the design would show up with his initials on it giving him all the credit.  Many times he would give us directions then give us completely different directions the next day and ask us who in the hell told us to do the first idea.  He once yelled at me for something completely stupid.  Five minutes later, he came back and asked me if there was something wrong, like if I was getting enough from my wife or not.  
Thankfully I was able to get him fired.
 

Foofire
CSWP

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Foofire,
you can't leave it there, we are all agog to know how you managed it. If it is something we can all do then we deserve to know.
You have managed to have the a***hile fired and are not telling us?
That's not sporting.
That's red flag stuff!mad
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

jmw, I once shared how my wife got her a$$hole boss fired (or forced to take early retirement as they phrased it).  For my trouble several posters made derogatory remarks about her etc.  So Foofire, unless the how was whiter than white I'd keep it to your self.  For some of the 'moral majority' here on eng-tips, it's wrong to be a little sneaky in sticking up for yourself against those in power out to get you, but ok to insult someones spouse.

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Err, enough what?

- Steve

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I worked in a crazy organization where two owners [brothers] were at each other's throats. Finally, the major partner gave control to the idiot brother, and he hired a 'spoiler' who saw to it that all major talents left the company. Beneath the surface the idiot brother was forming a competing firm a few miles away. In the wild west there would have been guns blazing and terrible carnage.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Kenat I remember that post and I admired your wife for her savvy. The office is Machiavellan at times and she learned how to help herself and others by getting rid of that guy.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I have worked for several bosses that would go into tirades, act childish, scream, and threaten. etc.

But my worst boss, I never talk about, except to fellow ex-coworkers from that company.

The guy, I believe, was a true sociopath. Never totally lost his temper, rarely raised his voice much, likeable at first glance, very intelligent, but deadly.

Think "Hannabil Lecter", but he didn't physically eat people. Nevertheless, after several years, people left and felt like a piece of themselves was gone.

The guy started as an engineer at a small company. Became a part owner (very small part owner) of the company that was majority-owned by a private corporation. Forced another small-part owner out acquiring his portion at less-than-value. Help leverage the sale of the company to another corporation with big poison-pill contract while making money for his share. So badly performed that the poison pill was executed and he walked away with more money. Used his away-time from the company to turn-it-in for the taxes that were not paid (while he was running it) that caused the new owners to pay. Then turned-around with another partner and re-bought the company at a loss to the new owners a few years later (now that the tax history was cleared-up). Eventually forced the new partner out and fully owns the small company.

I will not go into incidents while working for him - they're just hard to communicate to an audience that has never experienced such a person. We were always surprised how like a cat "he could always land on his feet". But under him was always a stack of bodies.

I can't watch "Silence of the Lams" without thinking of this old boss. The actor Anthony Hopkins captures the personality type so well. There are simple things in the movie that unless you've met and known this kind of person, you just might not pick up on.
 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Comco,

I know what you mean.  Met that type, got away with my skin intact...barely.  The scars don't show.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

(OP)


Well, Comco, my boss (see first post) shows malice, ruthlessness and a pathological personality as well. Perhaps not a true and rooted sociopathy, Lecter style, but seems not to be bothered by things such as empathy or compassion, he just acts his way, coldly planned.

Still, I know exactly what you meant about losing a piece of yourself when dealing with this people. It is really hard to describe indeed. A frustrating, undermining, powerless feeling when leaving back home.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

They usually rely on a rationalisation or justification that if it was up to them... blah blah, but they have a duty to the investors/shareholders....
Of course, the shareholders have no idea of what is done in their names.
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Different type of worst boss, but years ago my old boss (Mechanical P.E.)said in a meeting on site that we shouldn't test the reverse power relay because the turbine would begin rotating the opposite direction.  You could hear crickets during the subsequent silence.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Not my bosses, but my co-workers bosses:

Boss 1, suggested to save weight, we put "Lighten Holes" in the tanks.

Boss 2, when introduced to him would insist you call him "cupcake" as it rhymed with his name.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

GTstartup, that is funny.  Did anyone say anything to him after?

RE: Post your Worst Boss

(OP)


"Boss 1, suggested to save weight, we put "Lighten Holes" in the tanks."


This could belong to a joke. And even then, it would seem too far away!!

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Neubaten,
True story, Boss 1 was not an engineer, and was manager over a group of structural engineers.  Boss 1 would hear about the placement of "lighten holes" in other structural members.   

RE: Post your Worst Boss

(OP)

Waw, monkeydog, I guess Einstein was so right when he said you should have faith in the infinite stupidity of the human being.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Shamsdebout,

We continuied on like it was never said.  After the meeting we explained it to him.

Too late,  the damage was done, the meeting was attended by the client's engineers and managers and must have thought "what the hell did we get ourselves into'? We spent the next 3 months during startup trying to get the customer's trust back.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

My second worst boss wanted me to get jump certified so I could do work in regions that don't have airfields. My worst boss skipped the country before the working staff could give him wall-to-wall counseling or a going away blanket party. Don't think I can post what he was caught doing, but the country we were in would legally allow him to be terminated.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Would that be with extreem prejudice?

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services
www.infotechpr.net

RE: Post your Worst Boss

That would be "hung by the heels from a tree and bled like a pig", as suggested by the local police.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

second worst boss wanted me to get jump certified

as in "out of a plane?"  Was this a military job?
 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I was a civilian that signed a mobility agreement. I really enjoyed seeing places I would never have been able to go to otherwise, but I didn't want to see them while dropping from a few thousand feet. That and the shots could lay you up for a few days. If I cut myself gamma globulin would pour out.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I agree Maurice the GG was a bitch, I have never had a shot that made you a temporary cripple.

Really though hadn't these guys ever heard of Helicopters?

I mean I was in the Army, static line and free fall jumper, but those chopper pilots can usually land anywhere.

this message has been approved for citizen to elect kepharda 2008

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Had one boss that was notorious for looking at inappropriate stuff on the internet during work hours and then sharing it with his direct reports.  Sent pictures of his naked wife around to everybody.  This stuff didn't bug me as much, to each his own as I just hit delete on all his emails.

What did bug me was the fact that he was constantly advertising for open positions available on local job boards and such.  If you were a woman he would call you in for an interview (behind closed doors of course).  I always felt bad for those women who thought they were showing up for a real chance at a job.

He liked me so he didn't bug me to much, but once a couple of guys told him off, he would do anything to make them look bad.  

I remember one day he chewed this guy out for not committing to a deadline that he sent everybody in the dept a email about.  Took him in front of HR, the owner, and chewed him a new one.  The guy just sat there and took with a smile.  When he was done, my buddy asked him to print the email.  Turns out he "left" him off the chain.

When I turned in my resignation, under the reason for leaving I just put his name.  Hilarity followed.

Man I go on and on about this guy.

Zuccus


 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

We had lots of copters, they're the most fun going from open water to mountains. After hitting dead air over the Appenines and watching the two WO's puke into their masks, I never got in a chopper again. Certainly don't think I'd want to take a chopper across the Med and halfway across Africa.

The GG wasn't the bad part, just a little sore after the 12 ga needle. Some of the other shots, especially going to the Mideast, would send you dozing and drooling. Last place I was at (as a civilian) they tried to get me to take the anthrax, WEE, EEE, etc., about 18 months of shots. I've known and worked with enough people who didn't have a choice in the matter, and they definitely looked very ill (they offered to give me a day off for each shot). I stuck to tyvek and PAPR's.

My best boss was an army colonel sandwiched between my two worst bosses (two LTC's). My main customer was the AMF; I was getting too old to play with the airborne rangers, so it was time to say "AMF".  

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I had a boss at a very small company that lived at work, literally. He had a cot setup in the backroom, through the "office". There was a shower on the otherside of the building. Well, one day I arrived at work 15 minutes early or so. My boss was quite shocked to find me at my desk as he came through wearing only a towel. As is the case when somebody in a towel is shocked, they jump and the towel falls.

He would also be late with paychecks, in one case I received two months worth of pay at the same time. He always paid eventually, and if you really needed the money, you could ask and he would get it. However, having to nag the boss for YOUR paycheck isn't fun.

And many of the other behaviors you might expect from somebody as unprofessional as this... sexist, racist, generally inappropriate comments. Trying to start debates/arguments on politics, etc, etc...

That job didn't last too long, but longer than I should have stayed.

--MechEng2005

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Hi guys,

new in the forum, and here goes my first post. Sorry for my english but is not my mother tongue.

1st: Setting the scene

16 years ago I started my professional engineering career at the local manufacturing subsidiary of a german industrial giant (I'm originally from a so called 3rd world country).

Almost all levels were staffed by locals, except top management. In my division, all staff was local, except the division "Director", coming from the "Headquarters".

My wife was a secretary in the same area and spoke fluent german and we all, except the director, shared a huge open office (150+ people, no cubicles but desks one beside the other).

2nd: the experiences

a)  This guy used to stand up out of his office and stare at us for several minutes. After a while, he will walk toward the "lucky of the day" and shout at him for some silly reason: clutter in the desk, laughing too much, tie loose, not moving too much, moving too much, too much silence, too much noise, drawing while sitting, drawing while standing, coffee mug dirty, laughing too hard. After the shouting (in very broken local language, what was difficult to hear without laughing at him, even if you were the lucky of the day) he will return to his office while mumbling in german very derogatory (it's the right term?) expresions about us, our working habits, that we needed tight discipline to work, thet we were useless, thet we were lucky to have that job provided by the corporation in such exotic place,, etc.

b) How did we knew about his mumbling? Because my wife was one of the secretaries and constantly overheard him talking hell about us. This leads me to my next personal experience: we had to keep our dating, engagement and marriage secret, because this guy will fire me on the spot if he would find out, as he did in previous ocassions with other people.

c) He used to go to the toilet, do his thing, and then get out without washing his hands. And then, force handshakes with everybody at sight. Those who were brave enough to escape the handshake, were dismissed on the spot, due to "bad manners". Of course, mid management and Human Resources would "hide" the people "dimissed" in another job until the rage weared off (this was a 8000+ people facility so there were enough places to "hide")

d) He called his technical assistant (a young engineer crunching special projects for him) and send him to the shop floor to find some mistake/problem to report to him. Then, he will summon the supervisor/manager of the area and give him hell (but not even trying to discuss the problem). This was done once a week (usually Fridays). In consequence, the shop/warehouse supervisors/managers had a system arranged with the technical assistant to take turns and a list of silly problems to report.

He used to say that it was necessary to "give strengh to our working discipline,as we were from a 3rd world country and not used to work hard....."

and 1000 more similar stories.

No wonders nobody wanted to show up at his farewell party after his 5 years outplacement contract ended.....I said wanted because we had to go under the threat of dismissal...from his replacement.

Sorry for the length of the post. I hope you enjoy it.

Jorge
  

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Wow, Jorge...I don't know that I can say I enjoyed your story, but I definitely am fascinated with it. I will say that I am very glad to read your story instead of being the one who had to live it, as you did.  It sounds like he had a personal quota of people to fire every month, and the reason didn't matter so he would make one up.  I hope your current work situation is much better.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Debodine,

Yes, my current work situation is much better. A couple of years later I changed jobs and fields and, 8 years ago, I moved to Europe.

Jorge

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I once had a boss that had a small cattle farm on the side.  He tried to talk me into getting certified to artifically inseminate cows, which involves, among other things, placing both arms shoulder deep into various bovine orifices on a regular basis.  Although I like learning new things, I respectfully declined.

He was actually a very good boss, an old guy who had been there and done that and was very willing to spend time passing knowledge on to a greenhorn.  He taught me a lot.  But not bovine artifical insemination.  :)

Mike

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Mike,

You didn't think that'd look good on a resume'?

RE: Post your Worst Boss

I think it's much better to be offered to learn aritificial bovine insemination than to not have "artificial" considered.

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Yeah, I was kind of afriad of the career paths that skill might open up for me.  The next step might have been learning to collect the product needed for the procedure.

Now that I think about it, though, the pay scale for performing bovine AI was very similar to my pay as an engineer.  At least cows don't play office politics...

RE: Post your Worst Boss

(OP)



After having one of those days with my boss, I can happily turn to artificial insemination.


Waist deep.   

RE: Post your Worst Boss

In Wales ovine insemination is a recreational pastime. Alledgedly. surprise
 
  

----------------------------------
  
If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!
 

RE: Post your Worst Boss

Sheep?
Watching "Amrican Hotrod" the other day, Bluebear was picking on the new Montana guy working there and insinuating  Montanans show an overly familiar and possibly unhealthy affection for sheep.
A double whammy? isn't this one of those states where they used to hang sheep herders, rustlers and hoss thieves?
(UK: Shepherds)
So any charge of fondness for sheep would appear to impune the guy's status as both a cattleman and a straight up guy.
It certainly touched a nerve.
"That's it, Bluebear!" yells the Montana guy struggling to get close enough to thump Bluebear, "let's take it outside."
"Baaaaa!" said Bluebear.
 

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

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