My boss has always treated me alright, a shame I saw him come out of the toilet with our administrator a month ago. Things are a bit strained at the moment due to his antics, whatever they were.
Silly of him to get caught out like this - he must have known what your cleaning schedule was? unless you haven’t been writing the times on the back of the door.
Not actually my boss, although I did cross swords with her.
The Civil Service Agency I worked for had a female CEO who, unsurprisingly, decided that we needed more female bosses to give a proportion of them in line with the workforce as a whole. This was despite many of the women working part-time and having no interest in managing, so those who pushed themselves forward were in with a chance, regardless of their competence or that of men who might also be interested.
One of these women was a poor soul from HR (an HR-soul), who was magnificently useless. One day, one of her team in my office was visiting another office where she also managed a team and heard her being referred to as "Fi". He asked why they called her Fi when her name was Karen. He was told, "the second letter stands for idiot..."
My boss when I worked over Bow for a paper recycling firm. I
worked nights, shunting lorries, driving clamp trucks, weighing lorries in and
out on weighbridge etc. On a Friday, the depot manager would go round the pub
at about five and would still be there when we come in to start our shift. His friend
would get dropped off and drive them back to where they lived to continue their
drink, so we'd be constantly looking over at the offices to see if his car was
still there, as he was always likely to come over into the warehouse, pissed,
and start laying into people in front of his friend (never really done it to
me, not sure why). Anyway, this one Friday his car was there for far later than
ever before. It got to about midnight and one of the side doors to the
warehouse slowly opened, we're all expecting pissed up boss to swagger in, but
it was a copper. Me being the unofficially elected foreman, went over to see
what the problem was. She said she'd had a report of a serious assault take
place in our yard. I explained that everyone was fine, and there must've been
some mistake to which she just asked if it was okay to have a look round. I
went back to what I was doing and about half hour later went outside to find two
police cars and an ambulance over by the office, surrounding pissed up boss's
car. I went over to find all the lights on, coppers sniffing round all the
offices and paramedics treating pissed up boss in the front seat of his motor, blood,
and blood covered handtowels absolutely everywhere in the offices with a
massive puddle of blood in the toilets. I went back outside and, by now, pissed
up boss's two sons had turned up wanting to fight everyone. It turned out,
pissed up boss had got a bit mouthy round the pub and someone had stabbed him.
He'd stumbled back to the yard to try and clean himself up, called his wife
and, maybe in a vain attempt to cover the fact he'd been at the pub since five,
he'd told her that he was working late and one of the blokes had done him in the
yard . Not sure if I was his son’s number 1 suspect, but it was a bit touch and
go with me and them until a copper explained to the three of us that pissed up
boss had lied and he was assaulted outside the pub (this was the first that I
knew he’d spun his Mrs a story and it was in fact her who called the police,
rather than send his sons down as he’d asked). He asked if I would tidy the
office up and have an early shoot, all in all a good night in the end. Anyway,
he was a bit of a knob…..
My boss when I worked over Bow for a paper recycling firm. I
worked nights, shunting lorries, driving clamp trucks, weighing lorries in and
out on weighbridge etc. On a Friday, the depot manager would go round the pub
at about five and would still be there when we come in to start our shift. His friend
would get dropped off and drive them back to where they lived to continue their
drink, so we'd be constantly looking over at the offices to see if his car was
still there, as he was always likely to come over into the warehouse, pissed,
and start laying into people in front of his friend (never really done it to
me, not sure why). Anyway, this one Friday his car was there for far later than
ever before. It got to about midnight and one of the side doors to the
warehouse slowly opened, we're all expecting pissed up boss to swagger in, but
it was a copper. Me being the unofficially elected foreman, went over to see
what the problem was. She said she'd had a report of a serious assault take
place in our yard. I explained that everyone was fine, and there must've been
some mistake to which she just asked if it was okay to have a look round. I
went back to what I was doing and about half hour later went outside to find two
police cars and an ambulance over by the office, surrounding pissed up boss's
car. I went over to find all the lights on, coppers sniffing round all the
offices and paramedics treating pissed up boss in the front seat of his motor, blood,
and blood covered handtowels absolutely everywhere in the offices with a
massive puddle of blood in the toilets. I went back outside and, by now, pissed
up boss's two sons had turned up wanting to fight everyone. It turned out,
pissed up boss had got a bit mouthy round the pub and someone had stabbed him.
He'd stumbled back to the yard to try and clean himself up, called his wife
and, maybe in a vain attempt to cover the fact he'd been at the pub since five,
he'd told her that he was working late and one of the blokes had done him in the
yard . Not sure if I was his son’s number 1 suspect, but it was a bit touch and
go with me and them until a copper explained to the three of us that pissed up
boss had lied and he was assaulted outside the pub (this was the first that I
knew he’d spun his Mrs a story and it was in fact her who called the police,
rather than send his sons down as he’d asked). He asked if I would tidy the
office up and have an early shoot, all in all a good night in the end. Anyway,
he was a bit of a knob…..
I’m not legally allowed to say what I thought of the worst boss I ever had. That’s how much of a grade-A prick that man is. The only human being I have met who has a genuinely dark soul. A black heart. He’s a nasty, evil, twisted sociopath and as bad as it sounds, I want to outlive him so that I can smile when I hear about his demise.
I had a manager who got the job in the first place by being under threat of redundancy. So he went into the redeployment pool and was actually the only candidate interviewed for it. It went downhill from there, first to leave was my friend who had worked there for 18 years, my old manager who had been re-employed as a consultant was next within a few weeks. Replacements came and went over the next few years, some left on their own accord others were encouraged. Jobs were permanently advertised and I lost count of people working with me let alone their names. I couldn’t leave due to needing the job, I had a large mortgage and family to look after so I was stuck with micro management style, also his daily nonsense. He was typical of someone who had read a manual, absorbed it but could not translate it into the real world. He knew everything about everything and was an expert on all things from sewage pipes to nuclear power, the later we did some work on but we were never fully involved with the clever bits. I applied for a job at a similar institution, I had the experience, the qualifications and had actually been offered a job by them a few years previously. So I was a little surprised I didn’t even get an interview. He took great pleasure in telling me, in a roundabout way, he had a friend on the interview board.
The next time I applied for a job I was more fortunate, I got the job. On the Monday morning the prat manager was his normal self important self telling me the problem he had with the latest potential engineers. Both were fitting the various job specifics but who could he choose? I gave him the solution, employer both I’m off. He was seething but not directly at me, behind my back to my colleagues and anyone else he could back into a corner and bore. I wouldn’t give a reason for resigning only saying, “its time for a change”. He actually phoned my new manager and told him how dare he employ me behind his back. He then got in touch with hr telling them I should leave immediately, of course he was told this isn’t how things are done.
While serving my notice, week 1, I had completed job and needed another. To my surprise we had no more work in the department, end of conversation. So I thought there was no point me being there, packed my stuff and went. I kept in touch with people who worked there and he retired last month after milking 2 extra years, (a year and a bit paid from the government that’s thanks to covid). Apart from the people he actually worked with, 5 of them, no one from the rest of the department turned up to his leaving do. Lots of people emailed to apologise saying they couldn’t get out of appointments or washing their hair. The lady who arranged the party said it was a very strange and awkward experience but at least the wine and beer didn’t run out and there was plenty of food.
Hopefully he’ll have a long retirement sitting in an armchair not bothering the rest of the human race anymore.
I’m not legally allowed to say what I thought of the worst boss I ever had. That’s how much of a grade-A prick that man is. The only human being I have met who has a genuinely dark soul. A black heart. He’s a nasty, evil, twisted sociopath and as bad as it sounds, I want to outlive him so that I can smile when I hear about his demise.
OK. I'm not inviting you to the team reunion party then.
I’m not legally allowed to say what I thought of the worst boss I ever had. That’s how much of a grade-A prick that man is. The only human being I have met who has a genuinely dark soul. A black heart. He’s a nasty, evil, twisted sociopath and as bad as it sounds, I want to outlive him so that I can smile when I hear about his demise.
OK. I'm not inviting you to the team reunion party then.
He wasn’t allowed to attend work parties. Something to do with drunken misogynistic abuse the last time he did.
Worked for a genuinely nasty piece of work at a major high street bank many years ago, would dig you out in front of his seniors and one to one, only really cared about his contract. Same time, had a bloke that was ex TA, really didn't get that people that people had other hobbies than him - would call me sad whenever I would leave early to go to football.
Oh, I also worked for a Commercial Director at a then Premier league football club circa 2001. Calling me Buddy on day one sowed the seed...
My boss has always treated me alright, a shame I saw him come out of the toilet with our administrator a month ago. Things are a bit strained at the moment due to his antics, whatever they were.
Silly of him to get caught out like this - he must have known what your cleaning schedule was? unless you haven’t been writing the times on the back of the door.
I only clean the men's shitter.
Good grief each to their own of course but a little too much information
Did a summer placement at Tottenham Court Road crossrail site and for nearly the whole placement my boss was a great guy.
I didn't have much to do throughout the summer so as I got to the end of the placement he was just getting me to do things that would keep me out of the office and on site.
The first was to take an open house tour round the site - I was terrible at it and ended up losing half of the group down at platform level. A bit embarrassing but not too bad once we'd found them.
The killer though was when he asked me to carry a ~50kg electrical busbar from Custom House DLR (where their other crossrail site was) back to Tottenham Court Road. This thing wasn't packaged or anything and all I had to carry it was my bare hands which was almost impossible. It looked a bit like this, over 1m long. I've never done any lifting in my life so it was proper, proper heavy.
To make it worse I had to change at Bank with the damn thing. I remember putting it down for a rest in-between the flights of stairs at Bank and almost leaving it there and going home. Once I got to Tottenham Court Road I put it on the floor and got someone else to help me with it back who couldn't believe I'd got it that far.
I had cuts and bruises all up both my arms afterwards and he obviously felt bad (or was scared it'd be reported to HR) because when I got to the station he phoned to say sorry. He was a nice guy really but it was a ridiculous thing to get someone to do.
Did a summer placement at Tottenham Court Road crossrail site and for nearly the whole placement my boss was a great guy.
I didn't have much to do throughout the summer so as I got to the end of the placement he was just getting me to do things that would keep me out of the office and on site.
The first was to take an open house tour round the site - I was terrible at it and ended up losing half of the group down at platform level. A bit embarrassing but not too bad once we'd found them.
The killer though was when he asked me to carry a ~50kg electrical busbar from Custom House DLR (where their other crossrail site was) back to Tottenham Court Road. This thing wasn't packaged or anything and all I had to carry it was my bare hands which was almost impossible. It looked a bit like this, over 1m long. I've never done any lifting in my life so it was proper, proper heavy.
To make it worse I had to change at Bank with the damn thing. I remember putting it down for a rest in-between the flights of stairs at Bank and almost leaving it there and going home. Once I got to Tottenham Court Road I put it on the floor and got someone else to help me with it back who couldn't believe I'd got it that far.
I had cuts and bruises all up both my arms afterwards and he obviously felt bad (or was scared it'd be reported to HR) because when I got to the station he phoned to say sorry. He was a nice guy really but it was a ridiculous thing to get someone to do.
Did a summer placement at Tottenham Court Road crossrail site and for nearly the whole placement my boss was a great guy.
I didn't have much to do throughout the summer so as I got to the end of the placement he was just getting me to do things that would keep me out of the office and on site.
The first was to take an open house tour round the site - I was terrible at it and ended up losing half of the group down at platform level. A bit embarrassing but not too bad once we'd found them.
The killer though was when he asked me to carry a ~50kg electrical busbar from Custom House DLR (where their other crossrail site was) back to Tottenham Court Road. This thing wasn't packaged or anything and all I had to carry it was my bare hands which was almost impossible. It looked a bit like this, over 1m long. I've never done any lifting in my life so it was proper, proper heavy.
To make it worse I had to change at Bank with the damn thing. I remember putting it down for a rest in-between the flights of stairs at Bank and almost leaving it there and going home. Once I got to Tottenham Court Road I put it on the floor and got someone else to help me with it back who couldn't believe I'd got it that far.
I had cuts and bruises all up both my arms afterwards and he obviously felt bad (or was scared it'd be reported to HR) because when I got to the station he phoned to say sorry. He was a nice guy really but it was a ridiculous thing to get someone to do.
Many years ago I had a boss who was a Millwall fan. He loved it when people called him 'Docker' (I never did) despite the fact he was a home counties boy who'd worked all his life in an office. Thought he was dead hard, which was a pretence that others went along with because he had power over them. I remember him having a go about my shoes one day, a lovely pair of DM George Cox Creepers, "If you want wear shoes like that get a farkin job down The Lyceum". I like to think he got his comeuppance, but it didn't happen whilst I was there. I didn't stay long.
I worked a fair few years back at this web start up. Was doing okay and had a few clients but was not quite profitable.
I was taken on for some computer networking role there. First day the md of the company completely blanked me when introduced to me. Then physically grabbed the guy who hired me and dragged him into an office and spent about ten minutes ranting about why the fuck I had been hired.
After that he came out introduced himself and told me that he didn’t see the point in me being there so good luck and then stormed off back to his office.
A few months later the guy who hired me left, well disappeared really. The IT team got told he was called by the MD about 7am and told he was fired and don’t bother coming in anymore. Cue promotion for me.
He decided to save money by bringing payroll back in house and doing it himself, sadly he regularly forgot meaning people were paid late. Until a few of us decided if it happened again we wouldn’t come in to work until everyone had been sent their money by same day transfer.
I stayed there two years. About 18 months in we started making a profit, the company had a profit sharing scheme that meant we were all in for a well earned bonus. That was until we were called into a meeting and he told us he had decided we would all be happier if he donated everyone’s bonus to charity. Without asking us and ignoring everyone’s employment contract.
I left eventually 6 months later after he did the profit charity thing for a second time. I asked for a pay rise as I was now managing a team of 8 and doing way more than they employed me for. He said ‘I don’t do pay rises, as we have a profit share’. At which point I made it clear I don’t do working there any more.
He was eventually got rid of a few months later after the main investor realised he was causing everyone to leave and virtually dragged the company out from under him.
At one point I nearly persuaded him that we should randomly delete half of any cv’s submitted for jobs as ‘We don’t want to be employing people who are unlucky’.
Another company I worked for had a boss who refused to employ attractive women because ‘They distract the men’. He would, however have no problem in interviewing them and would ensure he sat in on any interview with someone he found attractive.
Never had a bad boss.....on the contrary most have been really good & enjoyed working with / for them.
2 notables stand out.
First my Sales Manager at The Prudential. He knew everyone in the area & everyone liked him. First sales call we went on together the client was a little old lady. We got to the house to find it in semi-darkness as the lights had blown. We spent the first 10 mins of the meeting checking all the fuses & lightbulbs to see which had gone. I'll never forget the sight of him standing on a chair in her hallway replacing the bulb, suited & booted - and always with a red handkerchief in his top pocket.
Second was my Sales Manager at the BMA. She was fun & vibrant and made team meetings enjoyable. We played indoor cricket with a foam tennis ball & had races around the office on space-hoppers. Top adviser for the quarter had to wear a yellow t-shirt with the words "top banana" in the pub afterwards.
Not my story but my old man's. He was working at a shipping company in the 80's that got taken over by Belgians (no connection). The bloke they put in charge of his team rubbed everyone up the wrong way.
My dad says this guy used to explain really simple things and then ask in a really condescending voice, "... Make sense?"
"And then doing 10+5... That equals 15....... Make sense?"
One day he decided he was unhappy with my Dad's general performance, so he said, "John, if you don't sort your ideas out, you're going to be sitting here with a giant question mark over your head."
So the old man took one of the shipping boxes home and cut out a giant question mark from cardboard, came in early and hung it over his desk.
One of the directors came and saw this question mark and asked what was going on. My Dad told him everything, and the annoying manager was called into the director's office when he arrived. Some time later he was packing his desk and was transferred to another department where he worked less with people!
I used to work for a real creep in a mainly male environment when I was young. There were two of us females and he used to put his hand on my knee under the table (at a time when it was considered 'OK') and make the other girl cry by criticising her work and then put his arm round her.
The whole team were invited to his house and me and the other girl went together and made sure we arrived late. To my horror his garden was penis shaped - two small, round flower beds surounded by a path with a long, straight, thin path going between them and ending in a rotary washing line. Stuff of nightmares!
When i left school i went and became an apprentice mechanic and a Ford main dealer in Thamesmead. At the time their were about 8/9 apprentices between the ages of 16-20 and a couple of "improvers" who had finish their time but were still at college doing last exams.
The first manager we had was a sweetheart of a guy, a real gent with lots of time for his staff and especially his "lads", However he retired to run a pub in Hildenborough and we ended up with a "plastic" hardman from Plumstead. He also employed his lay-about son to report back anybody who slagged him off.
He also hated football, and as a 17 year old football and CAFC were big parts in my life, so this really did trigger him against me, and if we had a night kick off he would send out on breakdowns at 5pm or later if he could so i would miss the games or not be able to go to training for my Sunday league side.
A mates girlfriend got pregnant and unfortunately lost the baby a 6 months, my mate was gutted and distraught in equal measure, the manager response to his upset was to say, "probably for the best, it might have been a M@*g"
But to top it off one of the lads liked fishing and use to store his kit etc at work, he came to collect on Saturday to go off fishing only to find it was gone. He confronted the manager on Monday morning to be told he (the manager) had slung it out as he didn't have his permission and authority to store it. A bit later on when his son was washing his car, someone spotted the fishing gear in the back of his car.
The lad who had had the gear nicked off of was hopping mad in a "woolwich" kind of way, and went to the managers house that Saturday and put his car and front windows in. He remains my hero to this day, and when ever i hear the expression "don't get mad get even" I think back to the arsehole and my mates revenge
When I was doing my A Levels I worked at Lillywhites in Bromley, the glades.
The conditions were probably what you’d describe at 1st world slavery, minimum wage, 33 degrees in the shop all year round, staying behind to tidy up without getting paid or you lose all your hours, getting spoke to like a dog, wearing a diardora polo that you had to pay for yourself and having your boss time your lunches on a stopwatch.
One time one of the floor managers banned “speaking about your future”. Said he heard too much talk on the shop floor by part time students, which made up the bulk of staff, about their plans on further education and potential careers etc. I actually found this hilarious but you can imagine the outrage by some particularly nowadays.
Comfortably the worst job I ever had but it genuinely was a bit character building.
Banning future talk is hilarious. But entirely believable. I remember working in retail when I was at sixth form and a certain manager hated anyone who was also in education who funnily enough didn’t want to work in Woolworths for the rest of their life. Can’t imagine why.
I've worked for some true shithouses, possibly as many as 50% of all the bosses I've had. The worst are bullies, wannabe tough people who know they have such a slim chance of getting the shit kicked out of them at work they push all their own inadequacies onto staff. I’ve seen and taken part in dealing with them and I think I've posted about that before years ago. You have to stand up to them and sometimes that involves a bit of very short term discomfort for you but it is crucial you stick up for yourself against bullies
The second worse are the talkers, the ones who talk about themselves, about what they like and what they do, about what is going to happen at work, about everything, have opinions on everything but very little knowledge or wisdom. These ones you generally just have to tolerate until someone senior works out their inadequacies and gets rid
Having worked for some genuine arseholes I very much appreciate good managers, generally they are the ones that listen at least as much as they talk, that let me get on with my job and back me up when necessary and deal with dickheads and disruption. Last 2 bosses I've had have been great people and purely for letting me get on with my job I've loved them and nothing then is a problem. For the wankers who need favours at 4pm on a Friday I wield that power with the force that power deserves, they end up losing out. For the good guys I will always go the extra mile for them
When I was doing my A Levels I worked at Lillywhites in Bromley, the glades.
The conditions were probably what you’d describe at 1st world slavery, minimum wage, 33 degrees in the shop all year round, staying behind to tidy up without getting paid or you lose all your hours, getting spoke to like a dog, wearing a diardora polo that you had to pay for yourself and having your boss time your lunches on a stopwatch.
One time one of the floor managers banned “speaking about your future”. Said he heard too much talk on the shop floor by part time students, which made up the bulk of staff, about their plans on further education and potential careers etc. I actually found this hilarious but you can imagine the outrage by some particularly nowadays.
Comfortably the worst job I ever had but it genuinely was a bit character building.
Banning future talk is hilarious. But entirely believable. I remember working in retail when I was at sixth form and a certain manager hated anyone who was also in education who funnily enough didn’t want to work in Woolworths for the rest of their life. Can’t imagine why.
My scenario was exactly same as yours mate, the guy hated that he was full time and that the minion 6th formers were eventually going to move on.
I’m not legally allowed to say what I thought of the worst boss I ever had. That’s how much of a grade-A prick that man is. The only human being I have met who has a genuinely dark soul. A black heart. He’s a nasty, evil, twisted sociopath and as bad as it sounds, I want to outlive him so that I can smile when I hear about his demise.
I’m not legally allowed to say what I thought of the worst boss I ever had. That’s how much of a grade-A prick that man is. The only human being I have met who has a genuinely dark soul. A black heart. He’s a nasty, evil, twisted sociopath and as bad as it sounds, I want to outlive him so that I can smile when I hear about his demise.
OK. I'm not inviting you to the team reunion party then.
He wasn’t allowed to attend work parties. Something to do with drunken misogynistic abuse the last time he did.
Comments
The Civil Service Agency I worked for had a female CEO who, unsurprisingly, decided that we needed more female bosses to give a proportion of them in line with the workforce as a whole. This was despite many of the women working part-time and having no interest in managing, so those who pushed themselves forward were in with a chance, regardless of their competence or that of men who might also be interested.
One of these women was a poor soul from HR (an HR-soul), who was magnificently useless. One day, one of her team in my office was visiting another office where she also managed a team and heard her being referred to as "Fi". He asked why they called her Fi when her name was Karen. He was told, "the second letter stands for idiot..."
Just saying.
I applied for a job at a similar institution, I had the experience, the qualifications and had actually been offered a job by them a few years previously. So I was a little surprised I didn’t even get an interview. He took great pleasure in telling me, in a roundabout way, he had a friend on the interview board.
The next time I applied for a job I was more fortunate, I got the job. On the Monday morning the prat manager was his normal self important self telling me the problem he had with the latest potential engineers. Both were fitting the various job specifics but who could he choose? I gave him the solution, employer both I’m off. He was seething but not directly at me, behind my back to my colleagues and anyone else he could back into a corner and bore. I wouldn’t give a reason for resigning only saying, “its time for a change”. He actually phoned my new manager and told him how dare he employ me behind his back. He then got in touch with hr telling them I should leave immediately, of course he was told this isn’t how things are done.
While serving my notice, week 1, I had completed job and needed another. To my surprise we had no more work in the department, end of conversation. So I thought there was no point me being there, packed my stuff and went.
I kept in touch with people who worked there and he retired last month after milking 2 extra years, (a year and a bit paid from the government that’s thanks to covid). Apart from the people he actually worked with, 5 of them, no one from the rest of the department turned up to his leaving do. Lots of people emailed to apologise saying they couldn’t get out of appointments or washing their hair. The lady who arranged the party said it was a very strange and awkward experience but at least the wine and beer didn’t run out and there was plenty of food.
Hopefully he’ll have a long retirement sitting in an armchair not bothering the rest of the human race anymore.
Oh, I also worked for a Commercial Director at a then Premier league football club circa 2001. Calling me Buddy on day one sowed the seed...
I didn't have much to do throughout the summer so as I got to the end of the placement he was just getting me to do things that would keep me out of the office and on site.
The first was to take an open house tour round the site - I was terrible at it and ended up losing half of the group down at platform level. A bit embarrassing but not too bad once we'd found them.
The killer though was when he asked me to carry a ~50kg electrical busbar from Custom House DLR (where their other crossrail site was) back to Tottenham Court Road. This thing wasn't packaged or anything and all I had to carry it was my bare hands which was almost impossible. It looked a bit like this, over 1m long. I've never done any lifting in my life so it was proper, proper heavy.
To make it worse I had to change at Bank with the damn thing. I remember putting it down for a rest in-between the flights of stairs at Bank and almost leaving it there and going home. Once I got to Tottenham Court Road I put it on the floor and got someone else to help me with it back who couldn't believe I'd got it that far.
I had cuts and bruises all up both my arms afterwards and he obviously felt bad (or was scared it'd be reported to HR) because when I got to the station he phoned to say sorry. He was a nice guy really but it was a ridiculous thing to get someone to do.
I was taken on for some computer networking role there. First day the md of the company completely blanked me when introduced to me. Then physically grabbed the guy who hired me and dragged him into an office and spent about ten minutes ranting about why the fuck I had been hired.
A few months later the guy who hired me left, well disappeared really. The IT team got told he was called by the MD about 7am and told he was fired and don’t bother coming in anymore. Cue promotion for me.
I stayed there two years. About 18 months in we started making a profit, the company had a profit sharing scheme that meant we were all in for a well earned bonus. That was until we were called into a meeting and he told us he had decided we would all be happier if he donated everyone’s bonus to charity. Without asking us and ignoring everyone’s employment contract.
I left eventually 6 months later after he did the profit charity thing for a second time. I asked for a pay rise as I was now managing a team of 8 and doing way more than they employed me for. He said ‘I don’t do pay rises, as we have a profit share’. At which point I made it clear I don’t do working there any more.
At one point I nearly persuaded him that we should randomly delete half of any cv’s submitted for jobs as ‘We don’t want to be employing people who are unlucky’.
Another company I worked for had a boss who refused to employ attractive women because ‘They distract the men’. He would, however have no problem in interviewing them and would ensure he sat in on any interview with someone he found attractive.
2 notables stand out.
First my Sales Manager at The Prudential. He knew everyone in the area & everyone liked him. First sales call we went on together the client was a little old lady. We got to the house to find it in semi-darkness as the lights had blown. We spent the first 10 mins of the meeting checking all the fuses & lightbulbs to see which had gone. I'll never forget the sight of him standing on a chair in her hallway replacing the bulb, suited & booted - and always with a red handkerchief in his top pocket.
Second was my Sales Manager at the BMA. She was fun & vibrant and made team meetings enjoyable. We played indoor cricket with a foam tennis ball & had races around the office on space-hoppers. Top adviser for the quarter had to wear a yellow t-shirt with the words "top banana" in the pub afterwards.
My dad says this guy used to explain really simple things and then ask in a really condescending voice, "... Make sense?"
"And then doing 10+5... That equals 15....... Make sense?"
One day he decided he was unhappy with my Dad's general performance, so he said, "John, if you don't sort your ideas out, you're going to be sitting here with a giant question mark over your head."
So the old man took one of the shipping boxes home and cut out a giant question mark from cardboard, came in early and hung it over his desk.
One of the directors came and saw this question mark and asked what was going on. My Dad told him everything, and the annoying manager was called into the director's office when he arrived. Some time later he was packing his desk and was transferred to another department where he worked less with people!
At the time their were about 8/9 apprentices between the ages of 16-20 and a couple of "improvers" who had finish their time but were still at college doing last exams.
The first manager we had was a sweetheart of a guy, a real gent with lots of time for his staff and especially his "lads", However he retired to run a pub in Hildenborough and we ended up with a "plastic" hardman from Plumstead. He also employed his lay-about son to report back anybody who slagged him off.
He also hated football, and as a 17 year old football and CAFC were big parts in my life, so this really did trigger him against me, and if we had a night kick off he would send out on breakdowns at 5pm or later if he could so i would miss the games or not be able to go to training for my Sunday league side.
A mates girlfriend got pregnant and unfortunately lost the baby a 6 months, my mate was gutted and distraught in equal measure, the manager response to his upset was to say, "probably for the best, it might have been a M@*g"
But to top it off one of the lads liked fishing and use to store his kit etc at work, he came to collect on Saturday to go off fishing only to find it was gone. He confronted the manager on Monday morning to be told he (the manager) had slung it out as he didn't have his permission and authority to store it.
A bit later on when his son was washing his car, someone spotted the fishing gear in the back of his car.
The lad who had had the gear nicked off of was hopping mad in a "woolwich" kind of way, and went to
the managers house that Saturday and put his car and front windows in.
He remains my hero to this day, and when ever i hear the expression "don't get mad get even" I think back to the arsehole and my mates revenge
The second worse are the talkers, the ones who talk about themselves, about what they like and what they do, about what is going to happen at work, about everything, have opinions on everything but very little knowledge or wisdom. These ones you generally just have to tolerate until someone senior works out their inadequacies and gets rid
Having worked for some genuine arseholes I very much appreciate good managers, generally they are the ones that listen at least as much as they talk, that let me get on with my job and back me up when necessary and deal with dickheads and disruption. Last 2 bosses I've had have been great people and purely for letting me get on with my job I've loved them and nothing then is a problem. For the wankers who need favours at 4pm on a Friday I wield that power with the force that power deserves, they end up losing out. For the good guys I will always go the extra mile for them