Ick. I don't envy some of you. I had some "winners" to, all of them from my last job. I know I've posted about my old boss before. But here it is again.....
My boss was a bit of an "ice queen". So awful that she deserves her own list:
- She never tried to make any warm, personal connections with anyone except for her two favourite employees. One was a girl she went to school with and the other was a guy she used to work with at another branch.
- She made me and my co-worker, the office juniors, do the work of the senior workers because they were behind on a very important project. She was desperate to get the tasks done and we worked hard at finishing up for them *on top* of our regular work. After all, we wanted to be team players.
We had to go to a mandatory all-department meeting one day; but we only had three days left before the project deadline. All we do at the meeting is announce birthdays, listen to each department give a little monthy summary and employee kudos, listen to a short speech and then eat cake or cookies. My co-worker and I felt that we could get a LOT of work done in that one hour and I asked if we could be excused. After all, it would make her look good if the project finished on time. At first she said it would be ok, but only this once. THEN, she immediately changed her mind and angrily snapped at me saying that we had to go. Her reason? That the monthly meeting is the company's time to recognize our fellow employees and it would be rude of us not to be there to acknowledge the hard work of others. Ok, so Geanie and I worked double time to complete the work. Meanwhile, I went to the meeting and figured out what her deal was - it was her favourite employee's birthday and she wanted us all to be there to clap for him.
Neither at that meeting, nor the following month's meeting did my boss recognize Geanie and I for being team players and doing many hours of extra work in order to cover for our colleagues and help her behind out. But hey, Geanie and I were there. After all, " it's rude of us not to be there to acknowledge the hard work of others"
- She had a knack for ignoring one of the nicest guys in the office, always skipping over him when greeting everyone at a meeting.
- She and her favourite girl employee came up with this grand idea that we shouldn't have an office holiday party because *they* felt that Christmas is a season of giving. I don't actually have a problem with this, I'm all for helping others. My discomfort with this stems from the fact that "they" decided that, instead of an office potluck/party, we were all going to go down to a local soup kitchen on company time and dish out food for the down and out.
Doing community service on company time is cool. However, though we were told it was voluntary, they made us feel very much obligated to go by saying things like, "If you don't go, you'll have to stay here all by yourself. That means you'll have to take all of the student phone calls and no one will be here to help you" and "We should be thinking of others and not ourselves" and "Don't you want to help the unfortunate?" Grr! Way to force YOUR values on others!
The last straw for me was when I found out that one of the ladies I worked with was upset about the prospect of going. Her son had become a drug addict and ran off from home. The idea of going to the shelter upset her very much as it reminded her of the pain of her son's illness. Our boss did not excuse her.
The whole afternoon, my colleague looked distressed and uncomfortable.
- Though our department wasn't having a holiday party, our Southern California region was having a company do. It was going to be held at 6:30pm, one hour away. We work until 6pm. The boss next door let *his* workers go home at lunch, sympathetic that a one hour drive would turn into two hours in rush hour traffic and that the ladies especially would need time to get ready for the formal event. My boss? Nope. Keep working until the clock hits 6! People kept begging her to let everyone off even a little early. No go. She actually circled around the office to make sure no one had skipped out! I saw her come by at 3:30 to check on us. Fifteen minutes later, I went to her office because I had a question about something. Her office was dark! I asked the lady in the cubicle outside her door where the boss went. "Oh, she left ten minutes ago. I think she went home to get ready for the party."
Scared that she might return any minute, everyone stayed...but eventually bailed at 5:30pm.
Oh, by the way, even though Geanie and I were full-time employees, we weren't invited.
Oh yes.....several months after I quit, I got an e-mail from Geanie saying that she transferred to another location because she just couldn't stand the boss anymore.
.....Kelly
