Is Your Boss B-B-B-BAD to the Bone?

by Mike Hall, Jul 15, 2008

They are power-hungry, heartless, vicious, cheap, evil—and those aren’t the worst words workers have used to describe their bad bosses in Working America’s third annual My Bad Boss Contest. The more than 150 men and women who have sent in their horror stories in the past few days aren’t alone.

A survey conducted for Working America estimates that some 15 million workers have bad bosses. In the Lake Research Partners survey, 10 percent of the respondents say they have bad bosses, the equivalent of 15 million workers in the nation’s workforce. In addition, 36 percent say they feel pressure to stay with a bad boss because of today’s worsening economy.

If you work, or worked, for a jerk, dictator or weasel, enter the Bad Boss Contest, and you might win some rest and relaxation. The contest runs through Aug. 19.

• First prize: A week’s free stay at a condo in one of more than 50 countries. You’ll also get $1,000 toward airfare and other travel/trip expenses.

• Second prize: A week’s free stay at a condo in one of more than 50 countries and $500 toward airfare or other travel/trip expenses.

One of the biggest complaints, reported by more than one-third of those surveyed, is getting time off for illnesses, deaths in the family and other issues. Stomach Bug from Kentucky tells the Bad Boss contest:

One day when I had a bad stomach bug so bad that I couldn’t stay out of the bathroom, my boss told me that I couldn’t call in (because he was supposed to leave early that day to play golf). I was told if I didn’t come in, I would not have a job to come back to. I had to sit at my desk for almost two hours, with a trash can next to me (for when I needed to get sick) and still answer the phones.

A2mom from Michigan writes that she had received approval from her boss to use a vacation day to take her daughter to a soccer tournament. The boss reneged, but A2mon went anyway.

She called me into her office to tell me my children’s sports activities interfered too much with my work schedule and that it was time for them to quit. She wanted me to be available into the evenings when she needed me and the weekends. She said going to soccer related tournaments and games was a waste of time. It was then I knew it was time to quit.

Another complaint from the surveyed workers includes a boss’s laziness. From Florida, Tower Flower reports he and his co-workers—but not the boss—had been putting in six-day workweeks and mandatory overtime for more than a year. One day when the boss strolled into the break room, he looked out the window and said:

“What a beautiful day! I think I’ll take off early and go boating.” Several workers leave the room in a hurry, but one just can’t let that pass.…This employee says to the Chief, “How can you come in here and say that to us when none of us can get any time off? Have you no sensitivity to your people or awareness of our situation?” He, of course, received a written reprimand for insubordination. And the boss went boating.

Sometimes, workers say their bosses are just downright cruel and clueless. Scheduler from Connecticut tells the My Bad Boss Contest that after a nasty divorce, personal health problems and worries about aging parents, she was diagnosed with clinical depression. She continued to go to work, meeting her job goals, but was not able to work the extra hours her boss had come to expect. Her boss called her in to his office one day to complain.

After explaining that I was clinically depressed, the situational details, and how I was managing that condition, he looked at me and said, “Get over yourself—it’s all in your head. Depression isn’t a real illness. So your mom’s gonna die—everyone dies.” He then threatened to fire me.

Click here to enter the My Bad Boss Contest, here to read more stories and here for the bad boss survey and report.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)