That’s the best short advice I’ve ever heard. Brilliant.
A couple of the reasons that managers can be the former is because they are chickenshit and/or bullies.
And usually dumb.
I’ve only had two bosses that I really despised, but they were something else. Over the top, actually.
Going backwards, one was our director for this functional IT group. He was off his rocker and I have never met anyone before or after that would contradict himself as often AND would speak in sentences that literally had no meaning.
He made 3 of us have a con call with him where he full on yelled at us over the speakerphone (dumb - he was home and we were in the office) because of something we did exactly as asked - but the outcome wasn’t as expected. He told us to pack up our stuff and go home and MAYBE we could come back tomorrow.
He told one of our managers “when so and so comes in on Friday I want you to fire her” The manger said “I will do nothing of the kind, we have no cause to fire her” The clear headed person (and HR) prevailed.
He told me to stop honoring contracts with customers in order to make the project go faster. I said I would not, and that we needed to talk with legal if we wanted to CHANGE the contract language going out currently to expedite his plan. He told me I was crazy and trying to derail the project - then legal told him I was correct. Of course.
There was more, but you get the idea.
Next guy was not crazy. But he was a major asshole. This was in the 90’s when I was in the grocery biz.
He told my group one time that he couldn’t cover for two of us when we wanted to go to a memorial with our co-worker whose wife just lost her baby very late term.
He told his second in command that the time he was taking off to be with his wife during chemo was a problem.
He told another co-worker that he would have to provide a death cert for his grandfather if he wanted to take two days off with bereavement pay - before you ask, that was 100 percent untrue, it was a box they could check in payroll and the company did not require anyone see anything before checking that box.
We became the first armed robbery in the area in like 30 years - one in which the bookkeeper was shot and injured. The girl working late that night saw the whole thing, called the cops and went home. She called the next day to ask if she could take the day off and the boss said no, she needed to come in and work her shift. FWIW, when I got there I called the union rep to get his ass down there pronto.
The night of the shooting, our boss came in after the place had been cleared by the cops and they were questioning people. He goes in, pours himself a cup of coffee and stands around chatting with the cops. Never checked on his employees, never said go sit down and have a cup. Nothing. Fucking dick.
There’s more, but you get the gist.
Edit. Forgot the best part. He was married to someone younger and WAY hot for his sorry ass.
I came into work one day and everyone was laughing like there was an inside joke and told me to come out back for a smoke break immediately. The bosses wife was caught fucking around with someone younger than HER and she was pregnant. Holy shit, I laughed for about 2 days straight. Then she divorced him and took a shit load of his money including half the house. OMG, that was the best thing ever. Way better in retrospect than the death that we all wished on him.
As a Canuck I had to google that! What amazes me is that 35-52 weeks is pretty standard parental leave up here, and the non-birthing partner is also entitled to take leave up to 35 weeks but most American women are lucky if they can get 12 weeks total… and yet when I talk to some women they say they could never take a year off even if they wanted to or were entitled to it because they would be afraid of not being competitive at their job. Thats crazy talk! My job doesn’t change year to year! I don’t think most jobs change that much from year to year. If it did how could I ever be good at it?
I was inclined to think this was a hoax because I’m so shocked that this kind of boss would fish for sympathy on the internet (too anonymous). But as a former cook, I see this kind of treatment of workers as the norm (I used to consider it reasonable, “Bury grandma on a Monday”. I’m glad I’m out of that business). I think that a lot of people are forgetting that “least senior,” doesn’t mean “been there the least amount of time.” Every kitchen I’ve been in has had solid workers (no sick days, vacations, emergency room visits during service), who’ve been on pantry, lunch, or the dish pit for 10 years while a rotating cast of characters moves on up past them. It’s usually the ones that don’t fit in, or the most vulnerable, that are the “least senior,” be they too old, too young, students, women, questionable legal status. In this woman’s case it’s because she’s a member of the wrong class. But anywhoo, cheers to this lady. She deserves better.
I have worked for a woman like this boss, and I have no doubt this is a true account. “Least seniority” is code for “if she got promoted, she wouldn’t have to work every shitty shift we hand her”. The boss assumed that since the employee was in foster homes, sometimes homeless, and possibly not white (my guess, based on treatment) that they would continue to put up with the bullshit. I am guessing this employee has been keeping track of every single time she’s been screwed over, and this was the capper. She’s graduating college, and hopefully has another job lined up. She could have given two weeks, but now she has 2 weeks off before she gets on with her life.
Yeah, did you see the bit where she hands her boss an itemized list of every time she stayed late, came in early, and covered other employees? Ordinarily I’d think that was petty, but in this context it’s glorious.
For Christmas my old boss gave everyone, from the company not him, a $200 gift card to Nordstroms so that we could “update our wardrobes”. The store is ridiculously over priced. I sold mine on the Internet for $150 – all out of spite.
Huh, we had a chain of vegan raw food restaurants that wound up closing due to employee lawsuits alleging that they were heavily pressured to buy into Landmark Forum (née “est)” seminars. More cultish than churchy, but I’m sure they’d love the tax exemption if they thought they could get away with it like Scientology.
(The food was a little pricey but surprisingly delicious. Who knew raw vegan food could be more than, like, kale salad?)
To be fair, she’s graduated so would probably be after a pay rise, so he’s saved the company some money, and isn’t that what it’s all about in the end amirite?
A friend got sucked into landmark rather deeply. It was weird. It was like they tore down her personality and built her a new one, but the new one didn’t quite fit properly. It wasn’t pleasant hanging out with her after that.
landmark is a cult in all but name. a rather great kid I knew got sucked into them. she ended up miscarrying due their you can do this on your own you don’t need a doctor advice. so yeah I got bad feelings about them.
What amazes me is that 35-52 weeks is pretty standard parental leave up here, and the non-birthing partner is also entitled to take leave up to 35 weeks but most American women are lucky if they can get 12 weeks total… and yet when I talk to some women they say they could never take a year off even if they wanted to or were entitled to it because they would be afraid of not being competitive at their job. Thats crazy talk! My job doesn’t change year to year! I don’t think most jobs change that much from year to year. If it did how could I ever be good at it?
