The Boss From Hell

You’re sitting at your desk, working on your project and you hear your boss’s voice. Do you twitch? Does your heart rate rise? Do you feel agitated? You may have the boss from hell. These bosses are in a class of their own. They can be vindictive, nasty, obsessed, sarcastic and overbearing. This is about one of those such bosses.

 

This person, we’ll call her Debbie, owned and operated a flower shop. Every arrangement that went out she took credit for even if she didn’t create it. When her head designer asked her why she did this, her reply was that the customers expected all the arrangements to be made by her. What they didn’t know, didn’t hurt them was her motto. This was a very unrealistic approach by her especially when the other designers would take the orders.

 

Debbie became obsessed with the idea of “money being thrown away in the trash”. After the employees would leave at night, she would go through the trash. When the designers came in the next morning, there would be plant liners on the work bench. In the liners would be pieces of discarded flowers that she had dug out of the trash and insist they be used in the day’s arrangements. This did two things, one it undermined the decision of the designer that it wasn’t good enough to put in the arrangement in the first place. Two, it basically was using garbage in the arrangements. In retaliation, the designers began emptying their trash bags and making sure the slimiest flower waste was on top. They figured if she wanted to dig through garbage, they would oblige her. This was not conducive towards good working relationships between boss and employees.

 

Debbie’s moods would fluctuate. Something one day that was acceptable wouldn’t be the next. If she didn’t like an arrangement that was being made, she would come over and start ripping it apart. Constructive criticism would have been a lot better method than humiliation. When she was upset she would throw things, yell or be extremely sarcastic. She then couldn’t understand why she couldn’t keep employees and why they would walk out.

 

One head designer, we’ll call her Lisa, Debbie pushed and pushed until Lisa finally had enough. After a long morning of biting sarcasm and vicious remarks, Lisa whipped a knife across the room, pounded on the work bench with her fist and yelled “THAT is enough!” This, of course, made Debbie burst into tears and start crying that no one understood her. She then later admitted to Lisa that she wanted to see how far she could be pushed. Why you may ask? That was just how she operated.

 

So how do you deal with bosses like this? Some people find other jobs, some sue for harassment, and some people put up with it because they have to. What did Lisa do in this case after 7 years? She remarried, and moved to another town. How did Debbie take this “desertion”? Her last words to Lisa were “I give the marriage a year and then you’ll be crawling back asking for your job". Lisa will be married, happily, ten years next month. Debbie’s business has steadily gone downhill and is in financial jeopardy. She can’t get employees because the word is out. The floral business is a small world. Which one was the winner in this situation?

 

Disclaimer: Although all the situations in the above article are true, the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

 

By Linda Lee Ruzicka

 

 

Linda Lee Ruzicka lives in the mountains of Western PA , happily married and with her 8 cats and three dogs. She has been published in Twilight Times, Dark Krypt, Fables, Writing Village, June Cotner anthology, The Grit, Reminisce , the book, Haunted Encounters: Friends and Family. She also does freelances work for Beyond and for Salesheads. More of her blogs can be found at Salesheads blog.