bosses who spend their time seeking and destroying (1 Viewer)

[La La]

for fucks sake.
i had to go to some press thing earlier, and one of the big (literally) editors was there. she shot me a look of filth and asked what I (as if i was a little amoeba) was doing there. then she looked down, and saw i was wearing flip flops (which I always do, cos i hate heels and its bleedin hot and muggy here)

she left in a huff, maybe she didnt like sharing the same space as someone who's lower down the ladder than her.

in anycase, the features desk has just been sent a memo stipulating that despite 100% humidity and rising temperatures, no way are we allowed to wear flip flops, even in the office. it's a direct hit at me, i know it. what can i do?
for gods sake, shes so fucking spineless, and EVERYONE in here hates her.

i suck it up and wear heels for interviews and stuff, but jesus, the other press here are hardly worried about what they wear.

anyone have any other bad boss stories? i feel like marching in there and shitting absolutely everywhere.

 

[oh shit]

why not execute her?

 

[broken arm]

imagine your a duck. or something.

i always find it funny when I have meetings with policy and business big-wigs because the sense of surprise, suspicion and sometimes resentment is palpable because I am probably the same age as some of their kids.

 

[oh shit]

have you tried devouring her heart?

 

[inspector horse]

me and nofriendo had a boss who on one occasion maced himself in the eyes while testing his new security purchase, a beautiful day for employees everywhere

 

[RSJ]

Hey lala, remember that time my boss seen an email i'd got from you (with Hong Kong in bold) and two days later banned all incoming and outgoing email for technical staff? Good times.

 

[La La]

Hey lala, remember that time my boss seen an email i'd got from you (with Hong Kong in bold) and two days later banned all incoming and outgoing email for technical staff? Good times.

aye, sorry bout that.

but honestly, this woman sits like a beached whale in her office doing NOTHING.

 

[oh shit]

that's why she's the boss!

 

[roxy]

I remember leaving a part-time job. I hated the boss and I'd been there three years and the thoughts of another summer in that place was too much. I gave enough notice, but maybe she sensed that I was chuffed to be leaving, coz she really turned on me. Made life hard. Then, the day after I left, apparently she referred to me using all sorts of horrible names including stupid bitch and other nasty shit. She was an awful thick bint and the worst manager in managerial history. I should've just ignored it but couldn't. No longer an employee, I took great glee in marching in a few days later, asking if I could speak to her privately (she immediately got the fear in her eyes), going into the stockroom, and explaining very firmly that if she felt the need to call me a stupid bitch and other names that she could at least do it to my face. And that I couldn't believe she was being such a child. The face on her was gas. I smiled and left.

 

[jane]

Sounds like she's got a case of La La envy. See, you're young, you're smart, you're savvy, and you're clearly likeable, and you get your work done. I'm not trying to blow sunshine up your ass, but sounds like she's just trying to exercise power in any way she can, basically because it's clear you're indepdendent-minded, and that perhaps you are a threat to her in some way (likeable and savvy people in junior positions are often seen as a threat to more senior staff), so she's just fault-finding.

I can't imagine any workplace could actually enforce heel-wearing on its employees. It's one thing to have a dress code, but to make someone wear something that is actually bad for them (because, let's face it, even those of us who like heels know they're not good to wear all the time), but I could be wrong there.

The worst thing is when someone expects you to play their little power game, and they're the one with the power.

I say go barefoot and say you're just abiding by the memo.

 

[La La]

INo longer an employee, I took great glee in marching in a few days later, asking if I could speak to her privately (she immediately got the fear in her eyes), going into the stockroom, and explaining very firmly that if she felt the need to call me a stupid bitch and other names that she could at least do it to my face. And that I couldn't believe she was being such a child. The face on her was gas. I smiled and left.

that's the type of thing i would have LOVED to have done to my boss in Showco. i put up with her for three years, and she was by far one of the worst people ive ever worked for. we all hated her, reason we stuck it out for so long cos as staff we all got on really well.

 

[jane]

I remember leaving a part-time job. I hated the boss and I'd been there three years and the thoughts of another summer in that place was too much. I gave enough notice, but maybe she sensed that I was chuffed to be leaving, coz she really turned on me. Made life hard. Then, the day after I left, apparently she referred to me using all sorts of horrible names including stupid bitch and other nasty shit. She was an awful thick bint and the worst manager in managerial history. I should've just ignored it but couldn't. No longer an employee, I took great glee in marching in a few days later, asking if I could speak to her privately (she immediately got the fear in her eyes), going into the stockroom, and explaining very firmly that if she felt the need to call me a stupid bitch and other names that she could at least do it to my face. And that I couldn't believe she was being such a child. The face on her was gas. I smiled and left.

Ha ha, awesome. I had a shit manager once, who HATED me because the clients used to sometimes ask to speak to me, and then would tell me privately that they just couldn't stand her patronising tone and bullshit. I got a better job, and when I went in to give my notice, she fired me, and I got two weeks' severance pay without having to show up. The best day ever, though? Was when she was diagnosed with a spastic colon. The thought of her digestive discomfort was enough to give me the satisfaction I needed.

I've had some decent bosses, and some awesome ones, but I've had some shit ones. Once, my director on a site (not in Ireland, where I've had spectacularly GOOD luck) took great pleasure in humiliating me as much as possible. They'd made my whole work situation really difficult by putting me as an assistant supervisor to an unmedicated schizophrenic who was so socially phobic he could not speak out loud half the time, and they told me they'd put me with him because they decided I'd be sympathetic to his needs, and I was good at dealing with 'difficult people'. He was also incompetent, but that was beside the point, and he kept telling the people in my trench to do the opposite of whatever I was doing, and it made it so we got very little work done, despite the fact that EVERYONE admitted that I knew what I was doing. They just didn't want to let me do it in peace. In the end, some of the others had to go to him and tell him to stop picking on me, and on the last day, I made him sit down with me and admit that he'd been unfair, which he only half did. One of the other directors wanted me to come back the following summer, but I was like, "Not a chance."

I learned the next summer that the place where I was digging was directly above a 6m deep cistern, and if I'd gone at the pace I wanted to, I'd have fallen to my death. The moral of the story is that if you win, you fall into a big concrete hole.

 

[La La]

Sounds like she's got a case of La La envy. See, you're young, you're smart, you're savvy, and you're clearly likeable, and you get your work done. I'm not trying to blow sunshine up your ass, but sounds like she's just trying to exercise power in any way she can, basically because it's clear you're indepdendent-minded, and that perhaps you are a threat to her in some way (likeable and savvy people in junior positions are often seen as a threat to more senior staff), so she's just fault-finding.

I can't imagine any workplace could actually enforce heel-wearing on its employees. It's one thing to have a dress code, but to make someone wear something that is actually bad for them (because, let's face it, even those of us who like heels know they're not good to wear all the time), but I could be wrong there.

The worst thing is when someone expects you to play their little power game, and they're the one with the power.

I say go barefoot and say you're just abiding by the memo.

ha, do you wanna write my cv for me next time im job hunting?

i think it's pretty clear its like what you said; shes trying to exert her power and remind me who she is. i really feel like throwing a brick through her window.
thing is, this outbust im having has bene a long time coming. she fuckin fired one of our most talented colleagues and replaced him with a friend. few months later another person left and was replaced with another friend. should i sew some prawns into her curtains?

 

[nofunchee]

I say go barefoot and say you're just abiding by the memo.

that's a workplace tsunami.

tell her all your mates from thumped think shes a fucking bitch. if that doesn't work then a series of pranks, each more craxy and laugh-out-loud funny than the last. failing that a good public roasting could win you a place in her heart.

 

[ICUH8N]

I am a ray of sunshine to work for.

 

[jane]

ha, do you wanna write my cv for me next time im job hunting?

i think it's pretty clear its like what you said; shes trying to exert her power and remind me who she is. i really feel like throwing a brick through her window.
thing is, this outbust im having has bene a long time coming. she fuckin fired one of our most talented colleagues and replaced him with a friend. few months later another person left and was replaced with another friend. should i sew some prawns into her curtains?

Show her this thread.

Seriously, though, is there a more senior person you can go to in confidence? I mean, it may mean ending up with the Hong Kongese equivalent of a P45, but if she's being like this to you, chances are, you're not the only one. And if she's putting her needs before those of the publication, whoever publishes it is NOT going to like that very much.

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

I am a ray of sunshine to work for.

Yeah, melanoma style.

 

[ICUH8N]

Yeah, melanoma style.

Come and speak to me in my office immediately.

 

[La La]

Show her this thread.

Seriously, though, is there a more senior person you can go to in confidence? I mean, it may mean ending up with the Hong Kongese equivalent of a P45, but if she's being like this to you, chances are, you're not the only one. And if she's putting her needs before those of the publication, whoever publishes it is NOT going to like that very much.

that's the thing, the paper has been going through a bot of a 'restructuring' should i say, and the one person i trusted the most is having her contract 'renegotiated.'

smoke and mirrors, anyone?

she's in charge of a big chunk of the paper and i foiled her little plan to go and have some wanky lunch, thinking no other Posties would be there. she has such a great team working for her and she doesnt deserve them one little bit. we all despise her, but there's absolutely nothing we can do. the attitude amongst management is becoming increasingly ruthless; we kinda have our hands tied.

 

[jane]

ha, do you wanna write my cv for me next time im job hunting?

i think it's pretty clear its like what you said; shes trying to exert her power and remind me who she is. i really feel like throwing a brick through her window.
thing is, this outbust im having has bene a long time coming. she fuckin fired one of our most talented colleagues and replaced him with a friend. few months later another person left and was replaced with another friend. should i sew some prawns into her curtains?

I'm not great at dealing with situations like this because I'm really not good at kowtowing to someone else's power-hungry antics, and I tend to get bogged down in my anxieties when I'm actually in the thick of it all. Maybe there's a way for you to 'acknowledge' her power in a way that will satisfy her, while still standing your ground.

Remember that people who behave like this do so because they feel their power is under threat, and when they do this, they don't usually acknowledge that their authority extends only as far as the job will allow it. That means that with everything outside of her immediate job description, and perhaps some of her buddy-buddy colleagues, is an area in which she does not have power over you.

It might actually feel really satisfying to behave so over-the-top professionally (as in more than usual) that it'll drive her nuts. Or it may stop her. I once put a stop to some really serious bullying by not freaking out in public as the dude wanted me to, and then, when he freaked out at a load of people, they saw just how mental he was, and he was really embarrassed, and knew it would get back to me. He later approached me and said, out of nowhere, that he wanted to continue to work on this project we were working on, and I acted like I had no idea what he was talking about, and, oh, of course, and yes, it will all be wonderful. Not only did he stop being a bully, he started being insanely nice to me, and we eventually became quite friendly (though cautiously on my part).

The shitty thing, though, is that 'don't let it get to you' is all well and good, but when it gets in the way of getting your shit done, and it is getting to you, there's no point in pretending it doesn't.