I'm doing studying management and leadership, which teaches us all the right way things should be done. Good bosses should be learned from and emulated. I know because I've had my share of them.
But I've also had my share of bad bosses. Mine have undermined their employees, taken credit for other people's work, lied, bullied, been aloof, unaware of what's going on, etc.
As a counterpoint to all the good bosses I've been studying, I'd like to hear your stories of bad bosses. I think I can learn from them in order not to emulate them.
No names, please. Just the stories, and be as specific as you feel comfortable. Thanks!
Anonymous2017-10-24T16:07:59Z
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There is a saying out in the business world "People don't quit companies, they quit management" and I've found it to be true. I have ended up with a personally nice, but incredibly forgetful micromanaging boss. She is the top manager where I work and does this to everyone. She is forgetful BECAUSE she is a micromanager and routinely sends out hostile, accusing emails to everyone about things that have been discussed & emailed about 4 or 5 times. She simple has forgotten! Micromanagers are the worst-they have their heads so full of every tiny detail that they can't possibly remember why nothing is getting done!! A good manager needs to hire competent, honest workers and then let them do their jobs!
I have twice had bosses who didn't really know what my job was or how to do it. They never bothered to find out, and so were unable to do my annual performance reviews: I had to write my own. It meant I had a lot of freedom to do what I thought I should in the way I thought I should do it, but it also meant I had no support with upper management, or with resources, and that my department pretty much operated in a vacuum, which wasn't good for either company. There was lots of lost strategic opportunity.
The only boss I ever quit without notice was unappreciative and didn't know the basics of his job.
He asked me to make a financial model to value assets at, "forty cents on the dollar." He used my model to buy assets at auction and consistently lost. He was shocked to learn that the model discounted the assets by sixty percent. He insisted, incorrectly, that "forty cents on the dollar," meant forty percent off the price. It means forty percent OF the price. He blamed me for his not understanding financial jargon.
He also never said thank you or showed any appreciation. It was a start-up and it wasn't uncommon for me to start work at four in the morning so I could leave promptly at four in the afternoon to get my kid from school. He thought twelve hour days were business as usual and once asked me to run a FedEx errand for him after work. I reminded him about my getting my kid and refused. He got upset and I left a resignation letter and my key to office on his desk the next morning.
Well my boss is the most perfect ever found, so I have very few "bad" stories to tell.
My boss has on many occasions has gone into my lunch and eaten the desserts out before touching the other food. He also has been known to not flush the toilet after taking a dump, and even pizzing on the floor a bit.
He comes to work late EVERY DAY, and chides me if I am one minute late. He belches and farts whenever he feels like it. None of my work is ever good enough (you could have done a bit better he'll always say) and I have proof he has been sleeping with my wife!
All in all, he's the best boss I've ever had. I've been self employed for 35 years.