Do You Have Boss From Hell?

A bad manager can take a good staff and destroy it, causing the best employees to flee and the remainder to lose all motivation.

Unknown

I recently had boss from hell! The good news is that it was a contract of short duration and it’s now over (I say with a big smile and a sigh of relief!). It’s my sincere hope that this stint in purgatory has wiped out any bad Karma that I’ve carried forward from any of my past lives and that I’m now free and clear.

Ironically this was a contract that I was really excited about. I thought it was a great opportunity to work on a very prestigious and high profile project. And the icing on the cake was that my previous contract in another department of this same company was the happiest corporate experience of my career, so I had great expectations. What I’ve come to realize is that it’s not the company you work for, but your manager that makes all the difference. So when companies puff and posture about how they’re among the Top 50 Best Employers in the country, don’t buy into the hype. You can have the best experience of your career and the worst experience of your career in the same company as I did. It’s all about the manager. And this manager created the most dysfunctional corporate culture imaginable. In fact it’s unimaginable!

My boss from hell was an incompetent, rude, condescending bully who subscribes to the “rule by fear, divide and conquer” mentality. As a result there is no cohesion in the department – it’s every rat for himself. In the three months I was there I never saw anyone have coffee together, go to lunch together or go for a walk together. They stay at their desks pretending to be busy. Yes, I said pretending to be busy. This incompetent manager has no clue that half her team has nothing to do and have made looking busy an art form. In fact as rumour would have it, several of them either have businesses on the side or work for others on the side, during company time (for which they are highly paid).

I found out all too soon that boss from hell treats contractors like crap in a company that prides itself on inclusion – BIG JOKE. Contractors are:

• Expected to be invisible

• Not permitted to attend any meetings

• Expected to take the minutes of certain meetings yet are not permitted to attend (you call in remotely from your desk and listen over the phone. From this you’re supposed to take minutes)  

• Not invited to birthday lunches or drinks after work

• Not invited to free lunch and learns

In the three months I was there I did not have a single meeting with my boss from hell, not even an onboarding meeting to discuss the scope of my work, expectations, etc. When I questioned her about something she told me that she couldn’t explain things to me because I was “not in the know”. I was never assigned ANY work. In fact the only thing my boss from hell ever assigned to me was on one occasion she asked me to make photocopies and on another occasion she asked me to scan three documents and email them to someone for her. In case you’ve guessed I’m not an admin person; I’m a published author, business communicator, project manager and consultant. The only reason I did any work at all was because I asked others on the team if they had anything to offload to me. 

During my last few days of work I made sure to let people know that I was leaving and say good-bye. As soon as I said I was leaving, almost everyone told me that they were looking for work elsewhere, all due to boss from hell – no big surprise. And of course since boss from hell never once said good-morning to me or spoke to me in three months, on my last day, being true to form she didn’t say good-bye in person or by email or have the common decency to wish me well.

I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what boss from hell does and I still don't have a clue, nor has anyone else been able to enlighten me. She arrives around 10am and then constantly scurries about like a cockroach but aside from wearing out the carpeting I’m not aware that she serves any function at all. But she does make a HUGE salary. What a world!

Bosses shape how people spend their days and whether they experience joy or despair, perform well or badly, or are healthy or sick. Unfortunately, there are hoards of mediocre and downright rotten bosses out there, and big gaps between the best and the worst.
Robert I. Sutton

Make someone smile today.

Geri