3/11/2006
(Yet) Another Bad Boss Story
Several weeks ago, I asked for story submissions for Self-Helpless. Since everyone has a horror story, I asked my readers to share. This was one of the responses I had:
Dear Pied Piper,
My friend, IP Freely, asked me to forward these notes to you. Mind you, these are from IP's experience, not mine.
IP Freely Wrote: "My boss is a negative guy... but when I say Negative, I really mean Negative AND Malignant. For instance, one day he calls the I.R.-FREAKING-S. (yes, those guys who steal all that money from your paycheck). A woman answers the phone with what is clearly an African-American dialect. He asks for a specific department. The woman asks for his identifying information before transferring him, to log the call. He replies out of the blue, "Ma'am, I don't need your black attitude" and hangs up.
Separate incident: Boss announces to me a week before Thanksgiving that I'm leaving for Taiwan to babysit HIS customer (Note: I don't make any commission of this project, but he'll make a $40,000 profit from it next year), on December 3. I'm in Taiwan from the 3rd to the 7th.
While I'm on this trip, he bitches at me that I need to make travel plans for the following week to "start seeing some customers". He also tells me that I'm going to Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania at the end of February.
Now, courtesy to someone who is currently babysitting your customer might be to split the commission in some fashion, or to at least wait until he returns to the U.S. before pushing him into another exhausting week of international travel. Not from Skippy the Wonder Heeb.
So, to recap: Week of 11/28 - 12/2, I'm in Michigan and Ohio for 3 days. Get back Thursday night, spend Friday in the office. Fly out on Saturday, babysit his customer for a week and fly back the following Saturday. Get to the office for Monday and Tuesday, fly to Chicago for a trip Wednesday through Friday. Then, I STILL get the, "You-need-to-be-on-the-road-more-meeting-customers-otherwise-you'll-never-make-any-money" routine.
Cynical Employee IP Freely says: "Hmmm... don't you think if I wasn't wasting a week babysitting your customer and NOT making any money on that, might bear an opportunity cost that keeps me from meeting new customers and growing my business?" Oh, and I get treated like a cheap whore of a secretary at the same time.
While he's sitting on the phone chatting with his buddies about town politics, an email will come in from his 2nd biggest customer. "IP Freely, forward that email to this guy, this guy, this guy and this guy. Then enter it in the quote log." (Incidentally, he doesn't know how to use the quotelog, so I generally skip that step.)
So when IP Freely finds a new job (he has), his boss will consider it the ultimate betrayal (which may or may not be the case, I don't know - Pied Piper).
Anyway, that's IP's thoughts. Talk to you later, good luck sticking it to the Man.
-Anonymous
Copyright 2006 Pied Piper Consulting
Dear Pied Piper,
My friend, IP Freely, asked me to forward these notes to you. Mind you, these are from IP's experience, not mine.
IP Freely Wrote: "My boss is a negative guy... but when I say Negative, I really mean Negative AND Malignant. For instance, one day he calls the I.R.-FREAKING-S. (yes, those guys who steal all that money from your paycheck). A woman answers the phone with what is clearly an African-American dialect. He asks for a specific department. The woman asks for his identifying information before transferring him, to log the call. He replies out of the blue, "Ma'am, I don't need your black attitude" and hangs up.
Separate incident: Boss announces to me a week before Thanksgiving that I'm leaving for Taiwan to babysit HIS customer (Note: I don't make any commission of this project, but he'll make a $40,000 profit from it next year), on December 3. I'm in Taiwan from the 3rd to the 7th.
While I'm on this trip, he bitches at me that I need to make travel plans for the following week to "start seeing some customers". He also tells me that I'm going to Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania at the end of February.
Now, courtesy to someone who is currently babysitting your customer might be to split the commission in some fashion, or to at least wait until he returns to the U.S. before pushing him into another exhausting week of international travel. Not from Skippy the Wonder Heeb.
So, to recap: Week of 11/28 - 12/2, I'm in Michigan and Ohio for 3 days. Get back Thursday night, spend Friday in the office. Fly out on Saturday, babysit his customer for a week and fly back the following Saturday. Get to the office for Monday and Tuesday, fly to Chicago for a trip Wednesday through Friday. Then, I STILL get the, "You-need-to-be-on-the-road-more-meeting-customers-otherwise-you'll-never-make-any-money" routine.
Cynical Employee IP Freely says: "Hmmm... don't you think if I wasn't wasting a week babysitting your customer and NOT making any money on that, might bear an opportunity cost that keeps me from meeting new customers and growing my business?" Oh, and I get treated like a cheap whore of a secretary at the same time.
While he's sitting on the phone chatting with his buddies about town politics, an email will come in from his 2nd biggest customer. "IP Freely, forward that email to this guy, this guy, this guy and this guy. Then enter it in the quote log." (Incidentally, he doesn't know how to use the quotelog, so I generally skip that step.)
So when IP Freely finds a new job (he has), his boss will consider it the ultimate betrayal (which may or may not be the case, I don't know - Pied Piper).
Anyway, that's IP's thoughts. Talk to you later, good luck sticking it to the Man.
-Anonymous
Copyright 2006 Pied Piper Consulting
Comments:
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Nothing makes me happier then knowing I could connect I.P. and Pied Piper so the stories of the damned can be spread for your viewing and disgust of "management". As appropriately expressed by I.P. when he told his own crazy manager he was tendering resignation, and I quote (if I may), "I am Pied Piper's hero!"
# posted by 
: 7:17 PM
: 7:17 PM
IP Is PROUD to be Pied Piper's hero. I'm getting T-Shirts and Bumper Stickers made.
Oh, and I just got an email from Skippy the Wonder Heeb from Shanghai: "How do I access the quote log?"
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Oh, and I just got an email from Skippy the Wonder Heeb from Shanghai: "How do I access the quote log?"
# posted by : 8:02 AM
: 8:02 AM < Home>
