Dealing with difficult bosses. Success stories?

[Bobs69]

Wow!  Hahaha. 

[Cooter]

Worked for a guy one time that was paying himself $90K/year and was dumb as a box of rocks. If it weren't for myself and the other two guys, he woulda never got anything diagnosed correctly. His wifey pooh was a full time nurse(BIG MONEY) and came in 2 days/week to do the "books". Between the two of 'em, they were bringin' in over $150K/year when GOOD money for my area here is like $70K/year. Her daddy was rich, and set him up in business. Every time the business would get behind ($30K behind), on bills, "Daddy" would step in and help out. Boss was paying his Bitch ass wife More than I made/year and I was MAKING the company money FULL TIME. Worked there for over 4 years. In that time I saw him go through about $300K...I'm thinking Raise right? Wrong. Had a "freeze" on raises. Said he couldn't afford it right then...

Funny how he could afford a brand new Harley Davidson that wasn't good enough the way it was- - overpriced. No, he had to have the loud pipes, tuned Fuel Inj, leather seat, Talk to each other style helmets, and wheels. A new House which Wifey Pooh decided she didn't like the inside and gutted it and did over $90K worth of renovations on a $350K home. A brand new Toyota truck which he instantly installed one of those painted Cab thingies on the back (Another $2K)...
Rebuilt his 1991 Chevy Dually 1 ton that "Daddy" willed to him(over $10K invested), had it painted less than a month and let his stupid ass, Pea brained, $2K dog jump up on and scratch the hell out of the side. Bought a used Ducati Racing bike that had NO STARTER and had this roller thingy that you backed a vehicle up on the rollers to get the damn thing running. Bought a brand new 750 Suzuki Street bike so he could go racing on weekends. (Didn't do much racing, but damn sure did ALOT of falling off through the infield at about a buck twenty though at VIR). Spent our 401K which I was smart enough NOT to be involved in..
Would let our insurance lapse due to lack of payment (This happened about 8 times while I was there. I guess he really didn't think about the insurace company mailing ME a copy of my insurance coverage statement every month?). And finally, last but certainly not least, My Paycheck bounced a total of 21 times in the time I was there. I stayed and was having "Meetings" with him to try and see if we could work out some sorta deal once he got back on his feet again. I didn't know "Daddy's" money help was no longer an option at that point, so one day I come to work and there's a padlock on the door and a notice of public auction taped to the door. My toolbox is inside. Come to find out he owed back rent in the neighborhood of around $20K.

You know what I learned from this? Some people can be a boss and be just as cool as the day is long, even with bills and whatnot. Some people WANT to be a boss so badly, that when they get there, they will do anything and everything to make sure they stay "King sh*t on turd Mtn". And some want to be boss when they can't even balance a damn Checkbook, let alone run a business, but you better not EVER try and tell them anything.

I read in the local paper here about 2 months after quiting, that his house was up for sale with a Federal Tax ID number in the listing. I saw Jimmy about a month later and told him, "Ya know Jimmy, I might not ever own my own business, I might not have a rich father in law that will set me up in business, but I can tell you this, I learned what NOT to do by watching YOU!, now go to hell you Son-of-a-b*tch!"

[RallyeMike]

My first desk job was an eye opener. The boss was cheating on his wife with his #2, he had an ego a mile wide, he was a racist and a compulsive liar, and he ran his own side businesses on company time. I sat right next to him and he was too stupid to keep it covered, but he was a minority, and a vocal one, so management would not touch him.

He was also a hot head, so I decided to try and send him over the edge: I started sending him letters that looked important on the outside, but just had blank pages on the inside. I made them seem to come from important sources. The first few he just tossed thinking there was an error. Then he started getting more and more irritated with each letter. I sat right next to him and loved hearing his reaction.

When he finally got real hot, I stopped for two months and then sent him two in one day. That day he completely blew a gasket, swearing up and down and throwing stuff around the office. It was beautiful. I kept it up for a bit longer and then went back to a construction job. I was really hoping to witness a heart attack, but I left before my wish could come true. All the lies, cheating, bravado, and unbalanced behavior did catch up with him eventually: He ended up divorced, fired, and his side business went under. I like to think that I contributed to it, if only a little bit.

[Bobs69]

Seams like I'm the odd one out here.  Were I work is a factory that has well over 500 people in it.   When you split it up into AREAS and over 4 CREWS, you can have 30people(men and women) in 1 area/crew.  We are paid good.  Bosses come and go.  About 8 years ago we had one that was a bully and people started to threaten him by leaving messages, giving him a hard time, and sabotaging things to make him look bad.  He had loctite put into the keyhole of his office door and had been locked out of his own filling cabinets.  All this Bull Shit just kept him with us that much longer.  Upper management even tried to create a dream team for him by having a group of people transfered to different crews.   Fun to talk about now, but not the most efficient way to handle things.  Plus, do you really want to put that effort it?  So the silly prick went off on stress leave.  When we caught wind that he was on his way back one of the senior operators started a group grievance and had almost, if not everyone sign it.  Didn't even bother taking it to the Human Resources office, he sent it off site to the head office.  That got results.  Fast. We were all interviewed and the boss was moved to another area to be tested with a dream crew.   A crew that was suppose to be the most mature and all around  best.  They didn't like him either.  Anyhow he is long gone.

We are at that stage again.  Except this time it was a WOMAN!  YES WOMAN who got the grievance signed by the majority of the crew and took it to HR to give them a chance to solve it.  Apparently HR answeres to a different boss (someone off site) then upper management does, that way the plant manager can't sweep things under the rug.  If no satisfaction is reached this way, head office will hear about it.  

My mother and father both come from large families.  On both sides I have uncles who run, or have run their own businesses.  My mothers side is more white collar.  Xerox agent who also co-owned a bingo hall for some time.  Another had an Apple Orchard and also bought into a duct cleaning franchise.  On my dad's side they are carpenters, bricklayers.

I have admired them for being able to work for themselves.  Never considered them to be more manly.  Just different personalities.  Some of them have a certain charisma and get real evangelistic about their projects and do good.  Some are such assholes that they either can't stand working with anyone else or nobody else would have them.

It's not easy working in an environment where you have to be politically correct.

[Bobs69]

My first desk job was an eye opener. The boss was cheating on his wife with his #2, he had an ego a mile wide, he was a racist and a compulsive liar, and he ran his own side businesses on company time. I sat right next to him and he was too stupid to keep it covered, but he was a minority, and a vocal one, so management would not touch him.

He was also a hot head, so I decided to try and send him over the edge: I started sending him letters that looked important on the outside, but just had blank pages on the inside. I made them seem to come from important sources. The first few he just tossed thinking there was an error. Then he started getting more and more irritated with each letter. I sat right next to him and loved hearing his reaction.

When he finally got real hot, I stopped for two months and then sent him two in one day. That day he completely blew a gasket, swearing up and down and throwing stuff around the office. It was beautiful. I kept it up for a bit longer and then went back to a construction job. I was really hoping to witness a heart attack, but I left before my wish could come true. All the lies, cheating, bravado, and unbalanced behavior did catch up with him eventually: He ended up divorced, fired, and his side business went under. I like to think that I contributed to it, if only a little bit.

Now that is sweet.

[Bobs69]

Piece of garbage is still with us. 

[Rolling_Thunder]

Yep - worked for him - then I quit. His shop closed shortly there after.

[Bobs69]

Yep - worked for him - then I quit. His shop closed shortly there after.

That is a success story!


We got a new plant manager.  Our foreman was giving him an escorted tour and supervised introductions with our crew.  1 operator occupied the foreman while another operator, lets call him "the dirty bomb" told the new plant manager that he should talk to people alone.  His eyes got bigger.  Then the dirty bomb T-BONED the foreman so I could have some private time when it was my turn, I asked him "what could a crew do if they were having problems with their foreman?"  He said there was a couple things we could do, I said yeah we've done a couple of things, and by the way, the "dirty bomb" is occupying the foreman so I can talk to you.  I didn't say much more after that on the subject.  I just wanted to plant the seed in his head and pique (is that right) his interest.  He then stopped short and came back and asked me about my job.

Wonder if he'll remember me?

I was talking to my uncle, retired from the same company, different location, mentioned that when an American manager came to a site in Canada they were normally right on the ball.  That is to say they were pretty serious about getting things done.