Worst Boss You Ever Had?
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kossoff
Striker
Indeed. Playing alpha make in a management role for a technical role that she didn't have a clue about. She ate shit from above and then took it out on staff rather than pushing back in in he first place.
Posh/ODvM
Central Defender
On a contract at one site and my manager asked me to work on a Saturday and was horrified when I told here I would be invoicing for it. She said to me 'I thought you would have been more flexible after we were so understanding when your father died'. I was meant to be grateful for 'being allowed' to take unpaid time off to be with my dad when he died and staying up north to arrange his funeral. I left the following month.
Unbalanced Views
Winger
I used to work in an Iron Foundry, my Boss wasn't bad, he was just dangerous, in a dangerous place "It'll be ok" whilst molten metal was spilling onto the floor - he got moved into the office before he killed someone.
LondonBlackCat
Winger
The worst boss I've had, and probably the only one who's been "bad", wasn't really a horrible person, just a complete and utter fantasist and compulsive liar.
He was forever telling us about things the company was going to do, things he'd done, people he'd been having meetings with, qualifications he had and so on ad infinitum. After a while I twigged that something wasn't right and did some digging; basically he had none of the formal qualifications he claimed to have, wasn't really very good at anything bar going for lunch meetings and claiming expenses. Having spoken to people he contracted for previously it turned out he'd done such an unbelievably shit job with the numbers on a project that they had to get someone else in to re-do them once he'd left.
He'd claimed to be a trained accountant but it turned out he'd dropped out after about a year and his linkedin is filled with qualifications from prestigious universities which are actually just MOOCs.
I'll give him his due, he's amazing at deceiving those who hire him; he's just completely useless at carrying out the job he ultimately gets. Pretty certain he was giving the taxman the runaround too.
He was forever telling us about things the company was going to do, things he'd done, people he'd been having meetings with, qualifications he had and so on ad infinitum. After a while I twigged that something wasn't right and did some digging; basically he had none of the formal qualifications he claimed to have, wasn't really very good at anything bar going for lunch meetings and claiming expenses. Having spoken to people he contracted for previously it turned out he'd done such an unbelievably shit job with the numbers on a project that they had to get someone else in to re-do them once he'd left.
He'd claimed to be a trained accountant but it turned out he'd dropped out after about a year and his linkedin is filled with qualifications from prestigious universities which are actually just MOOCs.
I'll give him his due, he's amazing at deceiving those who hire him; he's just completely useless at carrying out the job he ultimately gets. Pretty certain he was giving the taxman the runaround too.
SAFCGardian
Midfield
I don't think I have ever had a really bad boss. One of them was a bit of an arsehole as he would listen to our concerns, agree we were right and assure us he would fight our corner with the other departments, and then do absolutely fuck all about it. He liked to tell you what you wanted to hear and then not act. It was more of an annoyance than him being bad as his hands were probably tied too, but he seemed to want to always be liked by everyone and it made him seem a bit slimey. He selected me to be redundant from my old team as I gave him the most shit and had the most arguments with him, but then really did go out of his way to help me transition into a new and much better job. All of the other lads on the team have now left and the team was dissolved so I got out just at the right time.
D
Deleted member 30853
Guest
Most of my bosses have been okay as long as you knew where the boundaries lay. I've had two bad bosses, one due to poor management and using fraud trying to patch things up, the other due to abysmal people handling.
1) I had several disagreements with my previous direct boss in an oil and gas company, mainly over procedural approach to the job. The big one was I wanted to put in place a measure with the sales staff that would ensure production would receive the correct information and we didn't have to firefight to get the order right once all the equipment was made. He blocked this amongst other actions that would have made life a lot easier.
He got sacked a years later for fabricating inspection reports, alongside five inspectors. His firefighting included asking inspectors to fabricate these reports because there were no measures in place for sales to catch actual customer requirements. Now what was it I suggested to him on a number of occasions?
His boss who was an okay bloke resigned in protest at his dismissal, saying he couldn't work for the more senior manager who sacked him. If he knew the full story, I wonder if he still would have resigned. The next few months were chaos.
2) I worked in a local University about ten years ago for a Prof, with a dodgy temper and erratic disposition. He employed me then decided he didn't want me there after I'd signed the contract and before I'd properly started, which was clear at the project kick-off meeting.
The Prof. said to his side kick "He's very much a second choice, a stop gap measure. We'll just have to make do." as though I wasn't there. I was sitting in the room FFS!!!. He was thus stuck with me for the next year (I did try to get out, but couldn't find anything else). The work was really interesting (hip and knee replacement testing), but working for the Prof. and his side kick who just didn't want me there and I didn't trust was an uncomfortable experience.
I'm at a loss to this day what happened between the interview and me starting to cause such hostility, though do know a previous employee had sued the Prof. for harassment and constructive dismissal. He'd had previous form with respect to his lack of people handling skills.
The best bit was a full on stand up row between the Prof. and a workshop technician in front of the technician's colleagues, with the Prof. claiming (falsely) that he asked for a repair to be done on some equipment I wanted to work on. The technician was a time served lad who'd worked in the real world and wasn't taking any shit from him.
The Prof. had a go at me later saying you had to tell "these people" referring to the workshop staff. I responded I was one of "these people" (i.e. a local lad) and we had to get on with them to work with them and get tings done. I think that was the one time I got through his thick, arrogant, academic skull. He eventually calmed down and apologised.
1) I had several disagreements with my previous direct boss in an oil and gas company, mainly over procedural approach to the job. The big one was I wanted to put in place a measure with the sales staff that would ensure production would receive the correct information and we didn't have to firefight to get the order right once all the equipment was made. He blocked this amongst other actions that would have made life a lot easier.
He got sacked a years later for fabricating inspection reports, alongside five inspectors. His firefighting included asking inspectors to fabricate these reports because there were no measures in place for sales to catch actual customer requirements. Now what was it I suggested to him on a number of occasions?
His boss who was an okay bloke resigned in protest at his dismissal, saying he couldn't work for the more senior manager who sacked him. If he knew the full story, I wonder if he still would have resigned. The next few months were chaos.
2) I worked in a local University about ten years ago for a Prof, with a dodgy temper and erratic disposition. He employed me then decided he didn't want me there after I'd signed the contract and before I'd properly started, which was clear at the project kick-off meeting.
The Prof. said to his side kick "He's very much a second choice, a stop gap measure. We'll just have to make do." as though I wasn't there. I was sitting in the room FFS!!!. He was thus stuck with me for the next year (I did try to get out, but couldn't find anything else). The work was really interesting (hip and knee replacement testing), but working for the Prof. and his side kick who just didn't want me there and I didn't trust was an uncomfortable experience.
I'm at a loss to this day what happened between the interview and me starting to cause such hostility, though do know a previous employee had sued the Prof. for harassment and constructive dismissal. He'd had previous form with respect to his lack of people handling skills.
The best bit was a full on stand up row between the Prof. and a workshop technician in front of the technician's colleagues, with the Prof. claiming (falsely) that he asked for a repair to be done on some equipment I wanted to work on. The technician was a time served lad who'd worked in the real world and wasn't taking any shit from him.
The Prof. had a go at me later saying you had to tell "these people" referring to the workshop staff. I responded I was one of "these people" (i.e. a local lad) and we had to get on with them to work with them and get tings done. I think that was the one time I got through his thick, arrogant, academic skull. He eventually calmed down and apologised.
MackemBob
Striker
Feed the Monster
Striker
Guy called Colin Rutter. Power gave him the ability to bully and that’s what he excelled at.
D
Deleted member 30853
Guest
I'd loved to have been a fly on the wall watching that!!!
Hmm, I know of a place that got told by health and safety inspectors to stop using isocyanate paints on their goods. I don't believe there were any COSHH assessments done in that case either.
Were you working on the Team Valley?
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Hardyman's Yugo
Striker
This wasn't the Greater Manchester area perchance? Fat bloke, glasses, be about 50 now? Man united fan? Lived in the Sale area?
If not I've worked with someone who came out of the same mould as yours, he ended up a few years later doing jail for fraud
Son of Stan
Striker
An ex Borough Librarian where I worked in the 90s was a complete arse. He hassled young female staff - once asking my friend who once subbed for his secretary if she wore suspenders! She told him she did! He was a bit of a pig when eating too and once came and sat with my team in the café, demolishing a fresh cream cake - and he managed to get a dollop of cream on the end of his nose. He sat there for another 30 odd minutes and we were all frozen - no one dared tell him and we were all busting to laugh. Hideous bloke.
He was a bit of a pig when eating too and once came and sat with my team in the café, demolishing a fresh cream cake - and he managed to get a dollop of cream on the end of his nose. He sat there for another 30 odd minutes and we were all frozen - no one dared tell him and we were all busting to laugh. Hideous bloke.
CatRyan
Striker
An ex Borough Librarian where I worked in the 90s was a complete arse. He hassled young female staff - once asking my friend who once subbed for his secretary if she wore suspenders! She told him she did!
that is disgusting
LondonBlackCat
Winger
I'm afraid it's not the same person, my boss was much younger, although I wouldn't be surprised to see him end up in the same situation.
ShieldsGreggs4
Central Defender
Derek Acorah
DaveH
Striker
I worked for one bloke who didn't do much because he was the manager of the team. He generally walked around the office telling everyone how good he was and how he was the hardest working person in the team but we saw no evidence of it.
It was doing IT Forensics, so we had a case database. You could search on open and closed cases for every member of staff but him, he made user it was blocked in the interface. His name only showed up on the case completed database as the top person, way ahead of anyone else. Impressive. That was until you accessed the database directly, looked for his cases and how many exhibits there were, i.e. how many things to inspect, and it was zero. Some cases looked like bogus cases, some were put in as place holders for work that might be incoming but then be closed as 'no investigation required' etc. The work required for these was clicking the 'closed' button and nothing else. He claimed all of these and got a bit upset when I produced a similar graph of exhibits examined, which showed fuck all work.
He would waddle in around 10-10:30 then head straight off down the canteen, take a long lunch then sit about in the afternoon. A colleague got into trouble when someone senior came looking at 9:30 and said 'he is not usually in for another hour'. They stood up and said 'that is true, are you ordering me to lie?'. He would constantly be threatening to sack people and having a go at them leaving on an evening because he was still there. I used to start at 8, sometimes 3 hours before he showed up. Eventually we were given a written order that we must ask permission to leave and if he was not there to ask we had to wait.
One day there was a real crisis and two of us were there to 2am, after an 8am start. He stuck around until 7pm then sloped off. The next day we walked in at 10am (the top brass were around so he came in 'early'. We should not have been in until 4pm according to the 14 hours rest rules), to listen to his rant about how we were 'f***ing lazy and useless' for not having been there at 8am as usual. If he was going to a conference, he would take the day before off as paid leave to pack and iron shirts.
It was also clear that he was running his own business on the side for a software package he had produced. He had given the work number as a support line and got the arse when a few of us refused to be his free technical support line. I hated the role anyway but he made it 100 times worse. I decided to give it at least a year but then got out sharpish a bit after that.
It was doing IT Forensics, so we had a case database. You could search on open and closed cases for every member of staff but him, he made user it was blocked in the interface. His name only showed up on the case completed database as the top person, way ahead of anyone else. Impressive. That was until you accessed the database directly, looked for his cases and how many exhibits there were, i.e. how many things to inspect, and it was zero. Some cases looked like bogus cases, some were put in as place holders for work that might be incoming but then be closed as 'no investigation required' etc. The work required for these was clicking the 'closed' button and nothing else. He claimed all of these and got a bit upset when I produced a similar graph of exhibits examined, which showed fuck all work.
He would waddle in around 10-10:30 then head straight off down the canteen, take a long lunch then sit about in the afternoon. A colleague got into trouble when someone senior came looking at 9:30 and said 'he is not usually in for another hour'. They stood up and said 'that is true, are you ordering me to lie?'. He would constantly be threatening to sack people and having a go at them leaving on an evening because he was still there. I used to start at 8, sometimes 3 hours before he showed up. Eventually we were given a written order that we must ask permission to leave and if he was not there to ask we had to wait.
One day there was a real crisis and two of us were there to 2am, after an 8am start. He stuck around until 7pm then sloped off. The next day we walked in at 10am (the top brass were around so he came in 'early'. We should not have been in until 4pm according to the 14 hours rest rules), to listen to his rant about how we were 'f***ing lazy and useless' for not having been there at 8am as usual. If he was going to a conference, he would take the day before off as paid leave to pack and iron shirts.
It was also clear that he was running his own business on the side for a software package he had produced. He had given the work number as a support line and got the arse when a few of us refused to be his free technical support line. I hated the role anyway but he made it 100 times worse. I decided to give it at least a year but then got out sharpish a bit after that.
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