Post your Worst Boss 2

[Neubaten]

For scientific interest.

I'll start with my worst boss so far:


-Insecure personally and profesionally.
Is an engineer, but with R&D background, not industrial.

-Obssesed over control and information (uses to patologically hide it, even when unnecessary)

-Obstruct every posible professional development of underlings. Specially if there's a possibility of outshining.

-Puts down people behind their backs and diminish every positive aspect of everyone.

-Nice with superiors, rude with underlings.

-Uses fear to consequences as an everyday tool.


I've had some other bad bosses, but it's difficult to imagine a more undermining, more soul-depriving, worse kind.

 

[swertel]

Which makes me wonder, how did he keep HIS job?

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[jmw]

How do any of them? But they do. It seems there are special survival laws that protect them.

They have an ability to pursuade bosses that they are the bee's knees.

This trait is most evident in brownnosers.

I guess just as leeches inject an anti-coagulant and an anaesthetic (is it leeches that have the anaesthetic? some such critter anyway) so the host doesn't know he is being bitten nor that his life's blood is being sucked out of him, brown-nosers can lull the susceptible manager into thinking the brown-nosers really appreciates them and thus the brown-noser can do no wrong.
Really bad bosses can survive by employing brown-nose tactics with their own bosses; but the main reason is the owners are often no smarter than any other management idiots and often less in touch.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[Neubaten]

I think these people could only survive by the action of the SNAFU mechanism.

Upper management receive information about the status via the medium-level boss report, who paints it to their most suitable colors.

It is the only way I can imagine a situation like patprimmer's told us could happen without consequences.

 

[swertel]

My favorite boss, the one my wife reminds me of each time I come home a little worked up from my current employer...

I started a new design project. I was new to the industry, but was well versed in all the skills needed to perform well because I was using those skills regularly in my prior job. Also, the company actually did a really good job of maintaining lessons learned from prior projects so I had a really strong basis to start this project.

I finished the project within a few weeks. Handed it over to my boss for review. (Which, by the way, everything goes across his desk. It was the biggest bottleneck in the company.) He said that was too quick and I couldn't possibly have finished it yet. Go back and review it some more.

I put it on my desk then surfed the internet and read trade journals. After a suitable amount of time had passed, I turned it back in for his review. Upon his review, he recommended a few changes because everything has to be done his way. I debated the changes with him, and decided my best option was to concede and accurately document the cause for the design changes.

I had the prototype built and tested; it failed. My boss looked at the design and said these things are wrong, fix them by doing this. The things that were wrong were the changes he "forced" upon me. His fix was just a reversion back to my original design.

By the time the project was over, we were about a month late on delivery to the customer. We should have delivered a month early.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[swertel]

Same boss.

I was hired because they were expanding their product line offerings in the catalog and needed another engineer in order to speed the process. The new products happened to be scaled up versions of existing products - larger and stronger.

The company has a policy to design the manufacturing steps and therefore their engineering prints reflect this: page 1 = end item depiction, page 2 = second milling op, page 3 = turning op, page 4 = first milling op.

Because of this standard, we couldn't show any extra detail on subsequent sheets. Everything had to fit on one sheet. Well, that means that the scaling would be very small for these larger products. I requested that we be allowed to create drawings on something other than A-Size sheets of paper. Even a B-Size would be better and the cost of that printer would be inexpensive compared to a plotter. The pages could be folded in half to fit into the machine shop travelers.

He told me that we couldn't use larger sheets of paper because he was "emotionally attached" to A-size sheets and their convenient size. After hearing "emotionally attached" I didn't even bother to tell him printers have a scaling function so he could still print to A-size and see everything on a single sheet, just a lot smaller.

On day 366 I quit that job because I would have had to pay back the moving stipend if I left within a year.

--Scott

http://wertel.eng.pro

 

[Comcokid]

I've had bosses who've displayed highly non-linear behaviors as exampled in this thread.

What surprises me is that similar tantrum and threatening behavior in a domestic situation would quickly result intervention by police and the offender hauled away in handcuffs to jail and charged with domestic violence.

But in the work environment, such a managment-level person can not only get away with it, but higher management won't address such individuals even after years of repeat offenses. But, if a lower level employee displayed a hot-temper and lack of control, they would be fired immediately.

 

[cranky108]

They can get away with it until there is a race or gender complaint. But this is less likely from a professional like us. However there are people that would make such a complaint.

Maybe camara phones will change that.

 

[jmw]

Now there's a thought, whenever you see him/her headed your way, just start your webcam and use your PC like security CCTV.
Better have a sign printed an posted on your desk:
"For training purposes, any conversations may be recorded."




JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[FSS]

I remember a case of a new employee criticized for coming in early on his first day. Something about having to pay a few extra minutes of time, since employee was hourly. He say in parking lot from that point on waiting exactly for starting time each day.

No good deed went unpunished with this person.

 

[ivymike]

I had a really bad boss once, who fortunately couldn't fire me because I was on loan from another department. When they sent me back to where I'd come from, the bad boss displayed a bit of his bad behavior (which I'd not mentioned, but which was becoming quite apparent in his discussion of what things I'd done so wrong as to be the subject of the meeting) in front of the department head of my department, and got so thoroughly dressed-down for it, right in front of his own boss (and me), that I thought he'd literally slide out of his chair and crawl under the table to hide. It wasn't just that he was called out for inappropriate behavior - he was the bullying sort - he also happened to be a 95lb guy who abruptly had the 6'4", 300lb department head leaning over a conference room table to get closer while yelling - it was along the lines of "why don't you try picking on me instead, you little prick," but coming from someone who probably could have had the guy's whole department, boss and all, fired. It was brilliant to watch. Nonetheless, I had been through quite enough at that company and only lasted a little longer. Bad boss was reassigned before I left to a non-supervisory role, and was fired within the year (or so I heard from people who stayed on).

 

[jmw]

Ivymike, do I hear the twilight Zone Music playing?
These guys usually are bullet proof.
That one got reamed out and then shuffled out is most unusual.
Sideways promotions aren't that uncommon but the final out of the door is.
Usually they take the hint and parley their current position into a good CV and go make some other company a mess.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[SomptingGuy]

The term we use is "fire-proof".

- Steve

 

[tickle]

The Peter Principle

"The theory that an employee within an organization will advance to his or her level of incompetence and remain there."

 

[SLTA]

At one job, I printed my timesheet and picked it up from the printer, only to accidentally also pick up some porn that a drafter had printed and left laying there from the day before (and yes, it had his name on it). I went to the drafter and asked him to very sweetly pick up his crap from the printer so that I don't have to see it.

End of story, I thought, until the HR lady called and yelled at me for invading the drafter's privacy. The president of the company brought it up later, too, when the other women and I in the office signed a letter asking for a company policy against sexual harassment.

Lovely. But that was by far not the worst boss I had. He was certifiably crazy.

 

[SiW979]

The group Manu'f director at our place was well know for his rage when someone had made a mistake, they used to call it getting the hair dryer treatment. Anyway, he gets a monthly report detailing how much scrap metal was collected from each of the profiling bays only to see that one of the bays had nearly double the amount of scap than anyone else.

So he flips his lid, demands the operator comes to his office instantly launching into a full on hair dryer in this guys face as soon as he walks through the door. Once he had stopped, the guy turns round, walks out and goes home.

Upon further investigation, this guy had been fishing waste material from other peoples scrap metal bins where he saw there was enough room to get a few more profiled plates out of which basically means that he was getting dozens more parts for free and instead of returning the scrap to the original bin he put it in his to save time and effort.

The Manu'f Director had to eat a massive slice of humble pie and was made to go round the Opo's house to appologise in person and ask him to please come back to work. He got told where to go!

It a story the same Direrctor (who is considerable more chilled nowadays and also the group CEO) will happily recite to highlight the error of his ways from the days when he was a young go getting upstart!

Best regards

Simon NX4.0.4.2 MP10 - TCEng 9.1.3.6.c - (NX6.0.3.6 MP2 native)

http://www.jcb.com

Life shouldn't be measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of times when it's taken away...

 

[Kriegen]

My worst boss:
We shall call him MR. Anyway, he was a supposed machinist before he went back to school and became an engineer. He had never passed the FE or EIT exam, however he always felt his intellect was far superior than anyone else's. Plenty of times I or a co-worker would submit design ideas which he would throw down and tell us how crappy they were. Then months later the design would show up with his initials on it giving him all the credit. Many times he would give us directions then give us completely different directions the next day and ask us who in the hell told us to do the first idea. He once yelled at me for something completely stupid. Five minutes later, he came back and asked me if there was something wrong, like if I was getting enough from my wife or not.
Thankfully I was able to get him fired.


Foofire
CSWP

 

[jmw]

Foofire,
you can't leave it there, we are all agog to know how you managed it. If it is something we can all do then we deserve to know.
You have managed to have the a***hile fired and are not telling us?
That's not sporting.
That's red flag stuff!


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[KENAT]

jmw, I once shared how my wife got her a$$hole boss fired (or forced to take early retirement as they phrased it). For my trouble several posters made derogatory remarks about her etc. So Foofire, unless the how was whiter than white I'd keep it to your self. For some of the 'moral majority' here on eng-tips, it's wrong to be a little sneaky in sticking up for yourself against those in power out to get you, but ok to insult someones spouse.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[SomptingGuy]

Err, enough what?

- Steve

 

[plasgears]

I worked in a crazy organization where two owners [brothers] were at each other's throats. Finally, the major partner gave control to the idiot brother, and he hired a 'spoiler' who saw to it that all major talents left the company. Beneath the surface the idiot brother was forming a competing firm a few miles away. In the wild west there would have been guns blazing and terrible carnage.