When I saw the trailer for the upcoming film, “Horrible Bosses,” it brought back a lot of memories.
The premise of the movie is one most of us can relate to: Friends Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) can’t quit their jobs — but they hate hate hate their bosses (Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Aniston). So after a few too many drinks and some dubious advice from an ex-con (Jaime Foxx), they devise a convoluted plan to permanently fix the problem. If you know what I mean.
Oh, and I do.
I mean, who hasn’t had an awful boss?
And there are so many types: bullies, control freaks, power mongers, victims, blamers, micromanagers, emotional wreaks and those who are just plain incompetent.
Mostly, I’ve been lucky with bosses. Most have been smart, fair and trusted my ability in doing the job. But I’ve had some who were, well, less than pleasant.
One boss I’ve had actually thought I was someone else — a girl named Pat — and, thinking she was firing her, fired me instead. I came to work one day and my name was crossed off the schedule, so I went home. A few hours later, I got a call from my boss, asking me where I was. “I went home,” I told her. “My name was crossed off the schedule.” She realized she had made a mistake — after blaming me for the miscommunication, of course — and told me to come back to work. I took this as an opportunity to never have to deal with her again — and quit.
Got a horror story about a boss? Let’s hear ’em!
9 Comments
Not sure which is worse…the mean jerks that make your life miserable or the ones that play favorites and want bribes.Either way they both suk. Common thread of supervisors–> greed,and power trip. And then there is politicians,scum. Like Weiner. Thinking they above the law and can do whatever they like. And when the sh#t hits the fan…..go to rehab.
Had a new boss come in once that told me I needed to start wearing yellow power ties and learn how to bribe purchasing agents. I handed in my two weeks notice shortly after this illustrious meeting. As in as soon as I could get back to my PC and type it up.
the worst boss I’ve had was a “I’m always right” kind of guy. that would have been irritating if he knew what he was doing. instead, he was brought in to run our group without having one second of experience in our field. what made it worse was that, at our introduction, he played up his graduate degree…until he figured out that i had the same degree. we were tied as far as education, I had him on certifications (since he had none in our field) and experience, yet my word was always discounted while his was always right. from that day on, we were always bumping heads, with the line level workers and my colleagues realizing that I was usually right, but the senior management taking his side (because they were never presented with my side since it all went though him).
just to clarify, the horrible boss I’m talking about wasn’t my direct boss, but the managing director of my department. my direct boss was way cool and I still talk/email with her, years later.
I have worked with a number of people that fit this category …. the common denominator among all …. insecurity. There is nothing worse than working for an insecure person. And they are present across all levels of management…. micromanaging, putting others down are common outcomes, all in an attempt to make themselves feel better about themselves and more in control of their situation.
The interesting thing is that I never saw this coming when I was in school… professors never discussed this, nor of course was this topic broached by recruiters, or at industry speaker panel discussions, etc. It was a real eye opener for me. Chalk that up to being young and naive!
My current boss is just horrible! She’s a total control freak who has said on numerous occasions that she doesn’t need to change, but everyone who works for her needs to change because she owns the company. Needless to say, turnover is high and morale is low. She gets irritated with clients and have on occasion yelled at them and then gets offended when they request not to work with her on projects. The sad thing is that she thinks she’s a good person – she told me the other day she has good karma because of all the things she and her husband have…they just recently bought a new building we’re moving to next month…..we haven’t had raises since I started with this company three years ago and my coworkers who’ve worked here longer haven’t had raises.
I’m trying to find another job, but it’s not looking too great. But there could be worse situations at work, right? Right?
Hello Cat, I don’t have a horrible boss, it’s just the opposite, I have a GREAT boss. I just manage myself everyday and he completely put his trust in me to run the operation. There are days when I don’t even hear or see him at all. He takes me out for lunches and every quarter he treats all the employees lunch for doing a great job. He tells me that I’m the heart of our operation and it makes his job easy and we make him look good. I’m very lucky to have such a great boss and great co-workers too. It’s fun to go to work everyday.
As for the movie, I’ll see anything Jason Bateman is in. He is the single-most underrated comedic actor today! …and Sudeikis makes me LMAO every Saturday night.
As for bosses, well… ever since the age of 27, I’ve been either a full partner or sole-proprietor in my businesses, so I’ve not had to answer to anyone since then. But even before, I can’t think of a single boss going all the way back to college or even small kid days that I would consider a horrible boss. I’ve had some that weren’t so fun, and were all business; but all were very fair and made working for them either a pleasure, or at least tolerable.
BTW: loved the part of your story where you decided NOT to go back after you were mistakingly fired!