On a funnier note, I once was supposed to meet my boss and coworker (driving together) in Bethlehem PA for an off-site meeting with a vendor.
That morning they sent me regular updates about their progress and ETA. Right around the time they were supposed to arrive, I got a panicked message that they would be at least an hour late and to please work things out with the vendor.
Somehow they had accidentally put Bethel PA in the GPS and blindly followed it.
Bethel and Bethlehem are 50+ miles apart.
How two grown adults could drive 50 miles in the wrong direction without noticing is beyond me.
One of my old managers left our Springfield MO office once and ended up on Oklahoma before realizing she was going the wrong way. Our office was in St Louis. I loved her though, so not really relevant to the thread topic!
Post by basilosaurus on Mar 4, 2024 23:14:11 GMT -5
This will go in silly. I found out later that my boss called me Karen, long before it was a meme. It's because of my last name, and he was not American, and he confused them. So when I used him as a reference, he said Karen was a great worker.
There were literally only 4 of us. It was a research lab, so we worked quite literally side by side. I found out later about the mix up, probably after many job reference failures.
My boss, who I love(d), sent me an email with the subject line “PP4M” and a PDF attachment.
After much head scratching I finally interrupted his meeting to ask what he needed. PP4M apparently meant “please print for me.” He thought this was a common acronym.
It turned into me and DH sending each other increasingly nonsensical strings of letters for each other to decipher. I’m pretty sure I posted about it here at the time and people got a kick out of it.
I was doing a rebrand for my company at the time and the CEO was a psychopath. He accused me several times of changing the shade of blue on the new logo. I hadn’t, and told him so over and over again. He later admitted to my boss that he was colorblind and couldn’t tell, but felt like my team was just a “bunch of girls” who didn’t like him, so he wanted to fuck with us. That is one of many, many stories about that guy. He’s the one who keeps trying to add himself to a list of notable Americans on Wikipedia. I keep deleting him. LOL.
I also had a boss who gathered us all together one winter morning to let us know that when it was snowing out (as it was that morning), she expected us all to get up early and give ourselves extra time to get in so we could arrive on time. A few people were maybe 10 minutes late? And not to mention we all had kids that needed to get to school at set times - we couldn’t just drop them off earlier. Later that week we had a client presentation first thing in the morning and she was nowhere to be found. She came breezing into the meeting 29 minutes late with Starbucks. The weather was fine, but the line at Starbucks was long, so that’s why she was late - not just to work in general, but an important presentation. It was literally the same week. She was an asshole.
I worked for a school district elsewhere. I was an Asst Teacher in the Head Start program that ran through the school. So my boss was the Head Start program director, not the principal of the school. She did not know how to work with preschoolers. Not a bit. Also, when a staff member was out and we couldn't get a substitute for that position she was supposed to cover breaks for us (15 minute & lunch). That didn't happen unless we called her office to remind her so by the time she got to us our entire schedule was off (we maximized time kids aren't in building for our breaks). So she did a terrible job remembering to cover our breaks and then was awful at interacting with the kids when she was doing so.
Fast forward a year, I'm in the same position and pregnant. All the admin in the school know I was pregnant by 8-10 weeks because I was high risk. I was upfront from the beginning that I probably wouldn't make it to 39/40 weeks. My AM lead teacher in the class took a new job in the building when I was 30 weeks pregnant and I had different subs every day to do my job while I did hers. I was take out of work at 36 weeks and they floundered to get my position covered. Those kids had such a chaotic end to their year.
Not a boss, but we found out a division chief was recording conversations and meetings w/o knowledge. That's how I learned Virginia is single consent and only the recorder has to consent.
I now have some meetings where I have to state at the beginning "no recording and I do not consent to recording" just in case something is recorded.
I don't know where this person ended up. She left because she was about to be suspended and last we heard she was basically working by herself and had all duties stripped from her with no supervisory.
Post by klassygoosey on Mar 5, 2024 11:10:20 GMT -5
I had a horrible boss(es) and spent many years in therapy for it.
1. Wrote me up for not returning to work fast enough after an abdominal surgery. (I came back early against medical orders but that wasn't enough for them) 2. Changed the locks on a supply cabinet so I couldn't get what I needed. 3. Sent a survey around asking if I really did any work 4. Insisted I teach students in a room with no working lights and huge pieces of glass hanging from the ceiling (all other teachers but me got moved during the construction project) 5. Told the custodians to not empty my trash or the dehumidifier. 6. Told people I was crazy when I reported mold in my classroom. 7. Would lock the door as I was unloading supplies and then would dock me to being late when I couldn't get in. 8. Refused to let me use the handicapped parking space when I had a tag from the DMV due to an injury at work. 9. Insisted I complete all job duties with said injury, forcing me to see more doctors, which meant more time off of work, for which I was also reprimanded. 10. Turned his back and encouraged others not to speak to me. 11. Asked me to violate state and federal law when it came to students. 12. Screamed at me drunk at a work party. 13. Gave my budget funds to other teachers right in front of me.
I have to stop here before more of it comes flowing back.
In HS, I worked retail. Sundays mornings were really slow, and the junior junior assistant store manager on duty would disappear for hours (usually to the back to talk to the college student he wanted to go out with--she was with someone else). If a customer came up and needed something, he told me to say something like "Joe, please come to customer service" over the in-store loudspeakers. So, that's what I did for months. One day I said that and he YELLED at me very loudly where customers could hear to ask "Mr. Smith" from now on because HE was the manager. I looked at him and said flatly "Well, I'm Mr. Sadle's daughter." That shut him up, and he pretty much continued to leave me alone as before (Dad Sadle was a regional executive with said company, and his name could bring fear to managers--that's not a joke.) Mrs. Jones, one of my favorite customers, actually came up to the office to ask me if everything was ok in full hearing range of Mr. Smith. She's heard his tirade. Sadlebred 2, Joe 0.
I did start asking for Mr. Smith since the other managers preferred Mr. So-and-So over the paging system....and yes, it was all men as managers. (We did have at least 3 female dept. managers.)
At the same retail company, two of the "big" store managers would take 2-3 hours lunches at least 2 days/week. This went on for at least 6 months. These coincided with the local strip club offering a free lunch buffet and dancing. Yep, you can guess where they were. Eventually word got back to corporate, and they were told that lunch was 1 hour and that they needed to stay within 10 minutes of the store in case something happened. I have NO idea how they would be notified. They didn't carry pagers, and cell phones were non existent. Too bad the strip club was about 18 minutes away.
Another one. My boss left for some reason and Jerk, who had been her boss, took over her direct reports. I was out for surgery (company approved, old manager approved it). She left right after I was out for surgery. I was only going to be out for two weeks. After one week Jerk called me at home and said that if I didn't come back in the next day, I'd be fired. I came in. About 2 hours later I passed out, hit my head on a desk, and one of the software developers found me passed out on the floor. He marched Jerk over to me to see what happened. I stood up (somehow without falling over), and told him I was going home for another week and would not be back in til then, following my doctor's orders. On my performance review, I got dinged for having "too many instances of being sick" during the year. Back then you could be out twice without getting written up. Each week was "1" absence. I'd been out 3 (other time was the flu or something). He didn't write me up when I threatened to tell Executive VP what happened. I had a good relationship with EVP. He never mentioned it again.
I have so many of these 😂 In high school I worked in a card/ gift shop in a mall. The manager was one of the best I’ve ever had in terms of managing a store and how well she treated employees. She worked there a long time and was a 30-something single mom of two elementary age kids and was seriously dating a nice mall security guard. Everyone else who worked there was near retirement age or in high school, and worked either an early shift or a late shift. The owners only came in 1x/week. It wasn’t uncommon for one of us to put something on hold and buy it with a discount when we got paid. We also had a lot of theft, like kids stealing hello kitty stuff, so inventory was always off, and a lot of clearance markdowns of Knick knacks and seasonal stuff. Often our manager would leave with a bag of stuff and say one of the daytime ladies rang her up earlier. She seemed like the most trustworthy person. After I went to college she and her security guard (fiancé or husband by that point) were both fired for theft and fraud. She was stealing tons of stuff or marking it down to a fraction of the price to buy it at a discount, and he knew and helped her. The owners didn’t not press charges though and I think she paid back some of the money.
The last school that I worked at, the head of the school wanted to know the name of each student I worked with because "We're a family here and as the head of the family, I need to know how my students are doing." I refused as it would breach confidentiality. Between her micromanagement and trying to get me fired (kept moving goalposts), my H and I decided that it'd be fine for me to quit and go back to school so I could be hired elsewhere. Best decision ever. I'm now in a great work environment.
In High School I worked in a small business coffee shop, it was not a chain, but very liked in our small town. We would constantly run out of cups…. Like, if someone wanted a large I could only sell them a medium 😆 I told the owner to have a bigger inventory (they had the space) and she said she thought it would encourage “waste” if there was an over supply?!?? Like, am I going to play games with cups instead of using them for coffee or something?! What could anyone possibly waste cups on??? Laughable that a high school student was trying to help out the business owner
mae0111, I know having someone gone a lot can be frustrating for the folks who have to cover, but 99% of the reservists/guardsmen I know bust their butts in their civilian roles, even more so than their military work.
I had a supervisor who didn't like that I was in the National Guard, even though I ignored my own rights (like having a day off after drill because I had to travel out of state to get there and home). She regularly said they shouldn't hire anyone in the military because it was such a burden to her when I would have to leave early on a Friday before drill, which is protected by federal law due to the travel distance. Said I should have to use vacation days, which is a violation of federal law (I can do that, but I cannot be required to do that). Finally when I was brand new pregnant, like 7 weeks or so, my morning sickness was awful. I ended up telling my job a lot earlier than I'd planned because of it. She said, "Oh, I knew you were because you've been looking like you've gained a bunch of weight". I had not gained an ounce, in fact I'd lost weight because of the morning sickness. This time she said it in front of someone else, who complained to HR, and she was fired. My friend got promoted to her role, which wasn't great for other reasons, and I ended up leaving for full time military work because the environment was just never going to be good.
Stan, it was absolutely infuriating. Right Hand and I had worked together for about 6 years, and in that time, he had two year-long deployments. One was for training, and the other was an active duty deployment - not sure how you say that, but he was involved in combat. Sure, it was tough for us, but not nearly as tough as it was for him. As long as he worked for me, there were no issues with any of his leave.
When he came back from one deployment, he told me that he had nominated me for an award, and that I'd won. It was recognition from the Secretary of Defense for being a Patriotic Employer in support of Guard and Reserve members. His CO wanted to have a whole ceremony to present it, with the press there. Neither of us wanted the company to get any sort of positive press around his deployment, because we both knew that the company didn't support anything - it was me and my Good Boss that protected his job and his rights. So he quietly left the certificate in my office one day.
I remember calling DH to tell him about it. He asked what it meant. I said, "I got a prize for not being an a-hole."
Stan, it meant a lot to me, personally - still does, in fact. I still have the certificate - just no real office to display it.
My attitude was more around not giving credit to a crappy company, and the fact that an award like this even has to exist is maddening. You all aren't on vacation when you're deployed!
At my first job out of college, my immediate boss was having an affair with her grandboss (they were both married and his wife had cancer at the time). They both disappeared from the office all the time, saying they had meetings off site. One day she asked me to type up the minutes for a meeting I had not attended, and screamed at me when I asked for her notes. There were no notes, she probably hadn't even bothered to go, but thought I was going to be able to pull MINUTES out of my ass?!?
Wow a lot of us have curly hair-related stories! The COO at my first job pulled me aside to tell me that, "no one will ever take you seriously if you don't straighten your hair." She wore her hair in a very stiff-looking helmet ala Condoleezza Rice that I did not envy, so I ignored her comment and have literally never straightened mine. Her comment still irks me to this day though, and I always wear my hair down and big for interviews as a passive aggressive F.U. to her.
Post by sparkythelawyer on Mar 6, 2024 14:02:57 GMT -5
A friend of mine worked at a Christian bookstore in HS. The manager was known for being a bit odd. One day she had a headache and my friend sent her to the foodcourt to get some advil and a coke when she started loudly screaming "SATAN GET OUT OF MY HEAD."
Post by wanderlustmom on Mar 6, 2024 14:41:59 GMT -5
My worst boss was in my second career job out of undergrad. Her name was Jill and she was only ten years older than me. I was maybe 25? The two owners of the agency were wonderful, gave great bonuses, had happy hours on Fridays, gave all of us interesting work and were really positive and kind.
It took me a few months to realize Jill was awful. She would take credit for others work, be directly critical to her reports, talk about everybody behind their backs. The stress was so bad I would get nose bleeds at work. At that time, I was in the middle of a career switch and was going back to school so I tried to lay low. I was so happy when I left. Come to find out only months later, Jill left to work with one of our clients (she violated a non compete) AND had a sexual relationship with one of the clients. I never got all the "tea" because I didn't stay friends with anyone from the office. But she was absolutely awful and very scary
Post by litskispeciality on Mar 6, 2024 14:52:22 GMT -5
I've worked for a number of women who still feel hair down, regardless if it's straight or curly etc. is "professional". It's not, and makes no sense. I keep my hair long so that I can pull it back almost every day.
I've worked for a number of women who still feel hair down, regardless if it's straight or curly etc. is "professional". It's not, and makes no sense. I keep my hair long so that I can pull it back almost every day.
Is this a typo or do you really mean that wearing your hair down is unprofessional?
I've worked for a number of women who still feel hair down, regardless if it's straight or curly etc. is "professional". It's not, and makes no sense. I keep my hair long so that I can pull it back almost every day.
Is this a typo or do you really mean that wearing your hair down is unprofessional?
I wasn't clear. The women bosses thought and were verbally clear with other female presenting employees, that you're only professional (presenting) if you wear your hair down. I don't think this is true and often wear my hair up. I'd say this is an antiquated, outdated thought, but it never should have been up for debate. Do what you want with your hair. I have to wonder what they thought of females who have short hair, by choice or for health reasons etc.?
Is this a typo or do you really mean that wearing your hair down is unprofessional?
I wasn't clear. The women bosses thought and were verbally clear with other female presenting employees, that you're only professional (presenting) if you wear your hair down. I don't think this is true and often wear my hair up. I'd say this is an antiquated, outdated thought, but it never should have been up for debate. Do what you want with your hair. I have to wonder what they thought of females who have short hair, by choice or for health reasons etc.?
I hate that. From late September until May I can wear my hair down and it looks fantastic. But nothing will stop it from being embarrassingly frizzy in summer (and I’ve tried everything). I have to tie it back because when it frizzes I feel like I look like a hot mess. Then I do a nice bun or low ponytail, and use a lot of goop to keep it neat.
Two bosses ago would dismiss all my ideas. Then a week, month, year later when someone else suggested the same thing it was the greatest idea ever. Still bitter. She then let two kids (20 and 17) completly run over her and essentialy start running her business and aliented most of her staff by harrassing everyone who didn't meet their standards for how fast they worked. Myself included.
Last boss I swear didn't listen to a damn word I said. I told her for months the workload was too high for just me, and I was not willing to increase my hours. When she texted me about when I'd be into work 5 days a week like it was a done deal I put in my two weeks and cut all contact. I was working 4 days making 90% of the product she was selling, and I needed that day off for shopping and apointments since covid was still raging and I couldn't/wouldn't take the kids anywhere, she was also paying me $15 an hour and I'd never had a raise so fuck that.
I once had a boss (I’m a teacher) who pulled me into his office when o had a student behavior problem — 2 big kids were picking on a small kid and I referred them — handed me a belt and told me to give it to small kid and leave the room 😳
Needless to say, I didn’t do that, and I left that school quickly.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”