primitives discuss single worst bosses

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002649862

Oh my.

Amerigo Vespucci (29,076 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

The SINGLE WORST BOSS of my ENTIRE CAREER died of pancreatic cancer on November 8, 2011.

There's a "worst job you ever had" thread in the Lounge.

I was PREPARING to respond with something about "ANY job is a PIECE OF CAKE unless your boss is a PAIN IN THE ASS."

So I Googled the name of the WORST boss I ever had, and found out that she had died last year.

I go to great lengths to avoid being a hypocrite. And like every other human being on this planet, sometimes I succeed with that...sometimes I fail. But I'm not going to sing my boss's praises simply because she died. Rather, I'm going to tell you her story.

I don't have to spend a lot of time selecting the worst boss I ever had.

And she was the worst BECAUSE she was a GOOD PERSON. She regularly had us over to her home for company meetings. She could be funny, she could be warm, and she was smart as a whip.

My company changed presidents.

She assumed that she was going to be promoted from Director to Vice President.

She WASN'T. Instead, her new boss became the guy who was in charge of FACILITIES, and she ****ing went off the DEEP END. She HATED this guy. Her ego was like the USS Cole after Al Qaeda drove a boatload of explosives through its center. She died in 2011, but the good in her died THAT DAY.

I was working my way through college an inch at a time...at night, working a full-time job in the day, as her administrative assistant.

In the blink of an eye, when she didn;t get that VP promotion, she went from one of the sweetest women you'd ever want to know to one of the most vindictive, sour, bitter, toxic people on the planet.

It wasn't just me. She alienated people she'd known for DECADES.

In the end, I could have taken her to court.

She gave me a "verbal warning."

That's supposed to be followed by a "written warning."

And one day, her boss...the guy from Facilities...wanted to talk to her, and I went into her office, which I wasn't supposed to do. You see, she said "Don't speak to me during the first hour I come in."

But you see, she ****ed up. BIG. And I broke her rule to cover her ass. And her response was "I want you OUT of here."

And by this point, I'd had enough. I said "WHEN?"

She said "30 days."

And that's where she broke the law, because she couldn;t say that to me without a written warning.

So she went to H.R. and broke the law AGAIN, and tried to BACK-DATE a written warning. It doesn't get more illegal than that, folks.

I'd had it with her, I wanted out of there, I found a better gig and a better boss and was gone before 20 days were up.

But she broke my heart, because underneath it all, she was a good person, MUCH better than her current behavior would indicate, and I now just wanted to wash my hands of her.

On November 8, 2011, her 14 month battle with pancreatic cancer came to an end.

I didn't know that until today. He rlife ended with me believing she was the worst boss I'd had in my entire career, adn she was. Cancer didn't change that.

She had MANY accomplishments, but along the way, she lost track of the fact that the lowest person on the rung of her ladder is just as important as the ececutive sitting at the top of her organization of the moment.

I'm heartbroken by this.

Did she ever havea monent of clarity in which she understood the damage she'd done, how many people she'd hurt?

Maybe not.

Tonight, she's wherever you believe we go when we die.

She was the best, and she was the worst.

R.I.P. Rhoda.

southernyankeebelle (5,536 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

3. Sad story. I tell you I had a boss that no one in our office like. Mean and nasty.

We would beg the Sergeant Major to take him golfing everyday. He would come in late. Before he came in we would all be happy and at ease. As soon as we could see him coming everyone tensed up and it was quiet you could hear a pin drop. He drank pepsi like it was coffee. When it was on sale he ask me to go to the commissary and buy him 5 cases. I did and bring it back to the office. He didn't even help me carry it in. He was a real prick.

Before he got transferred I finally told him what I thought of him. I told him that when he goes on a helicopter and jumps out I hope his chute didn't open. He laughed because his own mother told him the same thing. He was such a jerk. He made people feel small. I remember him treating an E5 terrible and the E5 asked him if he could speak frankly and he told him that there was nothing to pleasing him. The day he left was a happy day. A few months later he called from Korea and I said damn you didn't jump out of that plane yet. He laughed. I was serious. It was funny.

I have had many bosses from hell. I lived all over the world bad boss are the same everywhere.

Sarah Ibarruri (18,268 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

4. How sad that the American workplace lends itself so perfectly to this bullshit

Kath1 (356 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

11. I couldn't agree with you more!

I hate the job I have right now. Hate it! Insurance company. You are so right to call bullshit as bullshit. It is what it is is. That the American workplace lends itself so perfectly to this means that major change is needed.

I love that you used that word - bullshit. That is what this is!

Sarah Ibarruri (18,268 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

16. I'm a former teacher who became a corporate paralegal, then moved to a smaller town...

As a result, I couldn't find a job as a corporate paralegal. That was the best thing that happened to me. I now fight insurance companies tooth and nail. (Sorry lol - though I have a suspicion you're probably glad that I do). I'm very nice to adjusters, because they don't run the business, but I'll do whatever I have to do to give insurance companies a run for their money.

The American workplace is (in my opinion) the worst of all the advanced nations. It's monstrously evil to employees, it's thievery at its best, and it's tailor-made to make the already-unfairly-rich even richer at the expense of the rest.

Kath1 (356 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

18. I love your reply!

I am not at all offended that you go up against insurance companies. I commend you on that. Actually, I love you for that!  At 53, my options are kind of limited career-wise, although I would love to put what I know to work against these greed-heads and their management goons who, at every turn, try to screw everyone they owe as well as their own employees.

Your description of the "American workplace" is about as right on as it could possibly be. Unfair and brutal.

Sarah Ibarruri (18,268 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

19. Thanks, Kath! And that's another thing. 53 is o young, in my view.

The American workplace has little or nothing to offer the worker.

hlthe2b (40,281 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

6. "She was the best, and she was the worst"... she was human.

Somewhere I hope there are more like you, who can remember her in her good times as well as the bad. Few among us are singularly "good" and manage to live their lives without making major mistakes and alienating some people. One can hope she made some amends, even if not with you, prior to her death. But, she had some good in her that you were able to attest. That makes her flawed, but imminently human.

I'm glad that you took time to remember her, both good and bad. That speaks well of you.

tularetom (15,911 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

7. Worst boss I ever had was completely neutered by fear of HIS bosses

He could not make a decision because he was afraid of alienating one of his five board members.

The worst part of this is that you were always on your own when it came to taking any responsibility for decisions. The more risk averse among us adopted the same philosophy as the boss but a few of us actually tried to get him to earn the inflated salary he was getting paid by standing for something.

Didn't work of course. He was a survivor and he was quick to see us as threats and make sure we were marginalized. I outlasted the rest of the "subversives" but in the end I was forced out by sheer boredom, having been more or less exiled to Siberia and put in charge of stringing paper clips together.

I took a pay cut to leave but landed on my feet and worked in my new position until I retired in 2001. My old boss? His paranoia eventually got the better of him and he was caught altering records to cover up a poor decision that he was unable to blame on one of his underlings. Wish I could say he ended up living in a van down by the river, but his wife was a highly paid school administrator and she has supported him since his forced retirement.

Leftist Agitator This message was hidden by Jury decision.

cali (70,610 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

20. wtf? YOU didn't know her. The OP did. and your comment that she got exactly what she deserved is just so repulsive. I'm rarely shocked by what people write here, but that's so nasty that it shocked me.

[BlueStateSaint]

Sarah Ibarruri (18,268 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

19. Thanks, Kath! And that's another thing. 53 is o young, in my view.

The American workplace has little or nothing to offer the worker.

Then get the **** out!

[franksolich]

Then get the **** out!

Crazy Sarah's in red to remind people she's still around.

Back in 2004, Crazy Sarah swore that she was leaving the United States if George Bush were re-elected.

Well, George Bush was re-elected, and Crazy Sarah disappeared for a while; I actually thought she went through with it.

But alas, about a year later, Crazy Sarah showed up again, having lied to us.

[MrsSmith]

Sarah Ibarruri (18,268 posts) Profile Journal Send DU Mail Ignore

19. Thanks, Kath! And that's another thing. 53 is o young, in my view.

The American workplace has little or nothing to offer the worker.

Pay check
Health insurance
Dental insurance
vision insurance
Non-government retirement
etc
etc

Seems like the American workplace offers a lot.  Of course, you have to stay off the  , show up for work on time, and actually work...  guess that's more than a lot of DUmmies can manage. 

[Kyle Ricky]

How can those communists be talking about the single worst boss, when they do not know what work is? I wouldn't be surprised if 9/10 of them never had a job, and are still living in their parents basement smoking crack. Of course they would be stealing money from their parents to pay for said crack. The drug addict communists.

[BEG]

I googled Rhoda: LINK

What her family will find, before her obit when they google her, is the POS's post at DU.

[BEG]

By the way, here are the results of Nadining Rhoda. LINK

Look who has top honors.

[Kyle Ricky]

I googled Rhoda: LINK

What her family will find, before her obit when they google her, is the POS's post at DU.

By the way, here are the results of Nadining Rhoda. LINK

Look who has top honors.

Can you say lawsuit, as soon as they find out who it is on that circus board. Which won't be very hard. I know I would sue. Just for the simple fact that I love to see a communist squirm.

[thundley4]

By the way, here are the results of Nadining Rhoda. LINK

Look who has top honors.

Wow!

The SINGLE WORST BOSS of my ENTIRE CAREER died of pancreatic ...
www.democraticunderground.com/1002649862
1 day ago
On November 8, 2011, her 14 month battle with pancreatic cancer came to an end. ... She was the best, and she was the worst. R.I.P. Rhoda.