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This came up at dinner the other night. I heard some great stories and wanted to see what else was out there. Here is mine.
When I was in law school I worked as a recruiter in a staffing firm. I had been temping and was hired on by the owner after a month or so. I thought it would be a great opportunity as the pay wasn't bad-- the hours were long but my school was located close by.
My boss was a 50ish woman who owned the business-- it was a small staffing firm with only a handful of employees. I had no clue what I was in for. I came to find out this was the third business she had owned-- her dad had been a Cabinet member under Nixon and staked her in all three which she promptly ran into the ground. On my first day of work she flew into the office in tears yelling "Oh my God! I hope we don't go out of business! We have no money!"
Over the ensuing weeks the quirks of the office became clear-- no one was allowed to go out to lunch as we were all expected to have lunch with the owner every day while she expounded on politics. No one was permitted to have a password protected email as she read (and printed, circling typos with a red pen) all of our correspondence. Our desks were not allowed to have more than ten sheets of paper on the desktop at any given time (she counted). The owner had regular hot flashes and the AC blew in 20 degree February weather.
One day she received a call from her husband-- this was news to me as she was living with another man. Apparently her husband was in Ireland, having been denied a visa because he was a felon. The call quickly devolved into a screaming fit and she locked herself in one of the interview rooms while a candidate was waiting to be screened. She was hysterical, screaming obscenities on the phone and threatening to kill herself and her husband. Eventually we had to call the maintenance crew from the building to get the door opened and let the poor candidate out. The next day the owner was as perky as can be and acted like nothing had happened.
wow! my craziest boss was actually my sweetest boss. upper class (grossing 450k per year with her husband) and very, very quirky. she was also a hot flasher, and she would start off talking about paperwork due to a certain agency within two hours and three minutes later we're talking about windmills and unicorns. she had a horse and when he died from a foot injury gone wrong (as horses usually do), she shut down the office for two days. she was VERY distraught over that horse to the point where we all were in tears in conference room a. one day during a conversation she said, "i wonder what it feels like to be poor. i wish i would've had that experience growing up. poor people are so resourceful, while wealthy people really depend on their wealth to get them through." it was a fly by night thought for her, which she just happened to verbalize during lunch convo. every other friday she would order everyone lunch and whenever she got nervous she would literally bite the nail polish AND the acrylic off her fingernails. yes, most days she was chewing polish and she would even launch the pieces across the room in a tonguelip missle launcher. she would bonk herself in the head with her hand if she ever forgot anything and had the habit of straightening out everyone's shirts as she spoke to them (picking off imaginary lint, adjusting broaches, straightening collars). she did the white glove check once per month and one day ordered everyone to close all of the blinds in the building because i was suffering from migraine. she would complain about money but whenever something needed to be done she would say, "pay for it if you have to, money is no object." lol. she made me cry during my interview and actually she cried with me after she asked me a question that evoked some pretty raw emotion (obviously for us both). she paid very well and had MUCH respect for working mothers, allowing us to take off days for school trips, sick babies and emergencies with the children. you can't beat a job like that with a baseball bat.
i lasted 2.5 years there, and was laid off when she decided to take the organization in a new direction. she had her husband set up my unemployment insurance to give me the maximum benefit so i would be able to maintain my bills. she once told me, "trust me honey my husband has lunch regularly with some of the most important people in nj...the economy is going to flop but you'll be fine. you'll get this unemployment for at least 2.5 years because of extentions and emergency benefits." she was right. about two months after my layoff the economy took a huge nosedive. EB started about a year later and i got benefits for exactly 2.5 years.
i still think about her regularly and pray she is doing well in her endeavors. she has to be the quirkiest, sweetest woman in this area. i even contemplate going to see her sometime soon.
I was a new hire working the night shift in a psychiatric hospital. We all wore street clothes. The supervisor nurse came by and introduced herself; seemed nice enough, looked average enough. After she left, my coworkers said, "Wait 'til you see her off her meds---she's bipolar." I thought they were kidding.
A few months later, I smell the strong smell of perfume in the hallway. Gallons of it, it seemed. Suddenly she came around the corner. She was dressed head-to-toe in bright lemon yellow: skyscraper heels, purse, matching jewelry, and a hat with feathers about a foot long that made her look 6 1/2 feet tall---all in yellow. This was at 3 am in a hospital. She acted completely nonchalant, so that's how I acted, and didn't mention her outfit at all. But she stood in front of me and talked in circles for an hour. I kept shaking my head yes, and that was enough.
The next time I saw her, she was dressed plainly again. This was at a V.A. hospital. They never fire anybody, and she had tenure. A few months later, she showed up all in ruby red, all matching! Fascinating, really.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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I once worked at a crab shack during summers while in school. The owner (a big, middle-aged man) would just lose it when we got busy and start throwing crab pots and lids at us. Dangerous.
I also had a boss that wouldn't answer questions. Ever. If you emailed him, he just never responded. If you asked him verbally, he would "get back to you" and then never did. It was crazy. He also did this thing where he would threaten to threaten you. We had a system of one verbal warning, then one written warning, and then you were fired. He would say things like, "if you don't do better, I'm going to give you a verbal". Soooooo....wasn't that a verbal? Other than that, he was a nice guy.
I also had a boss that wouldn't answer questions. Ever. If you emailed him, he just never responded.
I have a boss like that now. If you ask him questions by e-mail, he hardly ever responds. What I do is go into his office a couple of hours later and verbally ask him the same question.
I say "I e-mailed you about xyz and I was just wondering *restate what I sent in e-mail*" and he answers me without a fuss.
He doesn't just do it to me either. Other people in the office have said the same thing. I think he's just paranoid about doing anything in writing, that it is a CYA thing for him.
I worked in a night club where the owner was a crazy drunk and drug addict who used to bring in underaged girls to drink with him. He'd sit at the bar and drink rum from opening until closing and then go into the office and "cash out" the drawers. About 30 minutes later he'd usually come out screaming bloody murder about how we were all stealing from him because the drawers were short. He would rant and rave and throw things and would not entertain the possibility that he miscounted due to being drunk as a skunk and probably high, too. One night, after about 2 months of this, the screaming took on a particularly threatening tone and I just walked out and never went back. Club closed shortly after.
I once worked at a crab shack during summers while in school. The owner (a big, middle-aged man) would just lose it when we got busy and start throwing crab pots and lids at us. Dangerous.
I had a boss who yelled at me at a patient's home because she couldn't reach me by my then pager. The patient had just had a mastectomy and we were dressing the incision line. A great time to go on a yelling rampage. And, then she asked me if I thought OJ did it. Whew. I definitely was talking to myself going home that day.
Location: Stuck on the East Coast, hoping to head West
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Quote:
Originally Posted by YAZ
I guess you could say he was crabby.
Ha! Yes!
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