What is the worst boss that you've had?
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My last boss, he was totally devious. We had a bizzare set up by any standards, the customer-facing website team (where I worked) was part of the function of one department, and another in the IT department for "Intranet". (Think Customer facing in accounts and Intranet in IT and you'll get the idea). Due to the nature of our business it isn't always clear cut which is which, so a turf war ensued. When I arrived we spent a ridiculous amount of time satisfying the needs of a company that is trying to set itself up as the arbiter of what constitutes a useful website in our line of business. This was then punted at the CEO as a huge achievement as is our Google rank which is excellent. In English. We're bilingual, and most of our customers don't speak English, the "other" version of our website (i.e. the one they'd look for) is on page 7 of Google. Not only that, our site is poorly implemented, so that sorting this out is a large chore: from day 1 our site has been bilingual, but the only way to make our language switching worse would be to have two sites. The other thing my old boss used to do is inflate the quantity of work "he" (actually his team) could get done. None of it was done properly or even well, so he has laid a nice time-bomb as our technical debt is massive. He did all this to show how much he could achieve compared to the IT department, but it was very much a case of never mind the quality, feel the width. None of this makes him my all-time worst boss. His recent activities have been stupendous and earned him the crown. First he decided to "penetration test" (i.e. hack) the website. Without telling anyone. Did he choose his own systems? No, he didn't wanted to find problems to hurt the other development team. I could have given him a 4-page A4 list of the security holes in our site because we can see the source code. Not surprising as we develop on live. So he got hold of an "expert hacker" (read script kiddie) to hack into our system whilst preparing a report to show how the other team isn't doing a good job. He got caught. IMO he should have been put on suspension until it was all sorted out (and sacked if malice could be proven) but, no, he is still here. About the same time, I was trying to get our development team working with some degree of professionalism. When I tried to get my team to do something, he would give them "more urgent work", such as a virtual tour of our institution like google streetview (We have maps and images so its not like this is totally missing functionality). Our
Ah! Company politics! Aren't they just wonderful?
Real men don't use instructions. They are only the manufacturers opinion on how to put the thing together. Manfred R. Bihy: "Looks as if OP is learning resistant."
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A far better question would be: who is the best boss that you've had and why? I bet almost no answers to that one since they're all pretty bad: most people become managers for the wrong reasons and then fail becuase they receive either the wrong training or none at all and are socially incapabale of managing other people. Just becuae, for instance, someone is a great developer does not mean that they will be a great manager.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
I had a good boss once Allan. He knew his stuff could talk quite happily about programming and was an all round decent bloke. True the bosses above him were the usual umm not very kid sister friendly word who when he was on holiday tried to blame me for the late delivery of a project that I was only on because I was drafted in to help out when it was realised they wouldn't reach the deadlines. Of course my going balistic on the main bosses about trying to lay the blame at my door didn't help. Allan told me that if they'd done that to him he'd leave. I took his advice.
pseudonym67 My Articles[^] Personal Music Player[^]
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I have been "blessed" with the fact that I can say that I've only had 2 bad bosses. First one was actually only annoying, but the second one was the whole enchilada. He was bipolar, treated people like slaves (he is french, we are from a third world country so he thought less of us), liar, cheater, hypocrite, never lived to his promises, micro manager, annoying and the list goes on and on. What else can you ask for? What about you?
The Wife. :rolleyes:
If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
[My articles] -
A far better question would be: who is the best boss that you've had and why? I bet almost no answers to that one since they're all pretty bad: most people become managers for the wrong reasons and then fail becuase they receive either the wrong training or none at all and are socially incapabale of managing other people. Just becuae, for instance, someone is a great developer does not mean that they will be a great manager.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
Really good question - I have actually had two really good bosses. OK -nobody is perfect... The characteristics of both of these bosses have been to leave me to get on with my work. The both saw their roles more as what could they do to help me rather than the other way round. They did their best to be a firewall between the client and myself when I needed the space. When we screwed up they were understanding and took the position of "what can we do to fix things now and to ensure it does not happen again?" rather than "you really screwed up there!". No question was ever too stupid or wrong - basically they are really decent people. So there are good bosses out there - I have made it a point to try and work for the good bosses, which can involve earning slightly less while at the same time being generally happy. Better than working for the narcissists who make your life hell... Also working for good bosses has meant that I put in the extra time - work at weekends and am willing to go the extra mile for them :)
Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.(Winston Churchill)
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The Wife. :rolleyes:
If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
[My articles]LOL. Haven't thought of that. :laugh:
Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.Barry LePatner
...it's our division that makes us sane(r), and their unity that makes them crazy.Ian Shlasko
Arguing with your boss is like wrestling with a pig in the mud. After a while, you realize you are getting dirty but pig is enjoying it.amitkarnik2211
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I have been "blessed" with the fact that I can say that I've only had 2 bad bosses. First one was actually only annoying, but the second one was the whole enchilada. He was bipolar, treated people like slaves (he is french, we are from a third world country so he thought less of us), liar, cheater, hypocrite, never lived to his promises, micro manager, annoying and the list goes on and on. What else can you ask for? What about you?
The president of the first company I worked for; I'll use his initials T.R. I was hired as a part-time programmer when I was a sophomore in college. It was a very small company; when I was hired, it was the three owners and me. I was obviously very green, and needed a lot of guidance. The problem arose from how T.R. provided that guidance. He was very judgmental and critical. I learned to be constantly on my guard, and to have a justification ready for everything I was doing. Even when I did things correctly, T.R. didn't provide any positive reinforcement. Instead, he seemed to seek out ways to mark what I'd done as a failure. Another problem with T.R. was that he was very "do as I say, not as I do". The standards he applied to me did not apply to himself, which was frustrating and confusing at times. This created problems when we were working on the same project, as it was not always clear what part of the work belonged to whom. I worked for that company through college, and for a couple years after I graduated. In retrospect, I did acquire some valuable skills from working for T.R. over and above the things I learned from the actual assignments. I learned to be thorough when analyzing a problem and considering a solution. I learned to be persistent. I also learned to have no confidence in my judgement, and to have no perspective on how far to go when solving a problem. I really wish I could have learned the first lessons without the second. It took me ten years and three employers to develop a more reasonable perspective. To this day, after being a software professional for over thirty years, I have problems dealing with managers more than a couple layers over me in the hierarchy.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
A far better question would be: who is the best boss that you've had and why? I bet almost no answers to that one since they're all pretty bad: most people become managers for the wrong reasons and then fail becuase they receive either the wrong training or none at all and are socially incapabale of managing other people. Just becuae, for instance, someone is a great developer does not mean that they will be a great manager.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
I actually had an entire good organization, good enough I was utterly unprepared for reality after my internships with them. Effectively the entire department was engineers, or former engineers, some of whom knew how to do some coding. When it came to dead lines they were reasonable, they managed me by feeding me tasks as I completed others, and best of all after proving I was competent they not only respected my opinion on what needed to be done, they actually listened to recommendations I made and to some extent allowed me to roam through the existing code to find large scale issues to correct. As an intern I was given limited authority, a surprising deal of freedom, and actually made a significant impact. It was amazing, and set my expectations far to high for the real world. Now... now I'm considering posting to the main question.
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The Wife. :rolleyes:
If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
[My articles] -
Well, I can say that my current boss, who was a technical manager, was the worst. He had me attended management meetings because he had no idea of what the change requests were, even though he had a chance to familiarize himself with those. I attended a couple of them and got myself to answer questions that were supposed to be answered by him, coordinated with the other managers instead of him doing it, and doing other stuff that was, I think, supposed to be done by a manager like him. I consider the fact that he was new, but I cannot accept that he is trying to let me do all of his tasks. Besides, that was not a part of my job description as a developer. :mad:
Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.Barry LePatner
...it's our division that makes us sane(r), and their unity that makes them crazy.Ian Shlasko
Arguing with your boss is like wrestling with a pig in the mud. After a while, you realize you are getting dirty but pig is enjoying it.amitkarnik2211
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A far better question would be: who is the best boss that you've had and why? I bet almost no answers to that one since they're all pretty bad: most people become managers for the wrong reasons and then fail becuase they receive either the wrong training or none at all and are socially incapabale of managing other people. Just becuae, for instance, someone is a great developer does not mean that they will be a great manager.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
I've had quite a few good bosses. They trust you to get on with what you have to do, protect you from crap if necessary, don't take credit for your successes, nor let you take the wrap for failures. They also are prepared to let you have flexibility in when you do work and when you need to take some time out or be flexible. They are also happy to help you progress and move on, even if it is not going to be the best for them. I have only really had one terrible boss, promoted well beyond his capabilities because he was an old mate of the big boss. I was actually called in by the IT director and told to try to help him out as much as I could because he was struggling. He took credit for everything good and passed down the blame for everything bad, and caused carnage when trying to actually do anything that invariably had to fix afterwards. I was also given a bollocking for having too much holiday left to take on the same day I had a holiday request turned down because they couldn't afford to lose me for a week in one go. And he consistently tried to talk me down to those above to make sure I remained where he needed me, covering his arse.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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I have been "blessed" with the fact that I can say that I've only had 2 bad bosses. First one was actually only annoying, but the second one was the whole enchilada. He was bipolar, treated people like slaves (he is french, we are from a third world country so he thought less of us), liar, cheater, hypocrite, never lived to his promises, micro manager, annoying and the list goes on and on. What else can you ask for? What about you?
I think I can explain with this: You have 3 projects with no specifications You need to replace the existing client integration by working with their team on the other side of the planet. You have one month to do this. We believe in you! I used to think they were treating me like a child. Now I'm convinced.
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The Wife. :rolleyes:
If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
This is going on my arrogant assumptions. You may have a superb reason why I'm completely wrong. -- Iain Clarke
[My articles] -
I have been "blessed" with the fact that I can say that I've only had 2 bad bosses. First one was actually only annoying, but the second one was the whole enchilada. He was bipolar, treated people like slaves (he is french, we are from a third world country so he thought less of us), liar, cheater, hypocrite, never lived to his promises, micro manager, annoying and the list goes on and on. What else can you ask for? What about you?
I did a stint at Detroit Water and Sewerage. The "woman" I worked for there was a micro manager in the extreme, always playing games for favors and power, and, oh yeah, didn't bathe for 3 straight months. I came close to throwing up in the garbage can just about every day.
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Dave Kreskowiak -
I did a stint at Detroit Water and Sewerage. The "woman" I worked for there was a micro manager in the extreme, always playing games for favors and power, and, oh yeah, didn't bathe for 3 straight months. I came close to throwing up in the garbage can just about every day.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave KreskowiakDave Kreskowiak wrote:
at Detroit Water and Sewerage
Dave Kreskowiak wrote:
didn't bathe for 3 straight months
Perhaps she was being ironic :)
Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
-Or-
A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^] -
I did a stint at Detroit Water and Sewerage. The "woman" I worked for there was a micro manager in the extreme, always playing games for favors and power, and, oh yeah, didn't bathe for 3 straight months. I came close to throwing up in the garbage can just about every day.
A guide to posting questions on CodeProject[^]
Dave KreskowiakDoes her name start with "T". Not the one I am talking about, but I met someone like that.
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I think I can explain with this: You have 3 projects with no specifications You need to replace the existing client integration by working with their team on the other side of the planet. You have one month to do this. We believe in you! I used to think they were treating me like a child. Now I'm convinced.
I've been in a couple of similar situations. It is very simple, we developers are at fault for not reading minds! hahahah
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The president of the first company I worked for; I'll use his initials T.R. I was hired as a part-time programmer when I was a sophomore in college. It was a very small company; when I was hired, it was the three owners and me. I was obviously very green, and needed a lot of guidance. The problem arose from how T.R. provided that guidance. He was very judgmental and critical. I learned to be constantly on my guard, and to have a justification ready for everything I was doing. Even when I did things correctly, T.R. didn't provide any positive reinforcement. Instead, he seemed to seek out ways to mark what I'd done as a failure. Another problem with T.R. was that he was very "do as I say, not as I do". The standards he applied to me did not apply to himself, which was frustrating and confusing at times. This created problems when we were working on the same project, as it was not always clear what part of the work belonged to whom. I worked for that company through college, and for a couple years after I graduated. In retrospect, I did acquire some valuable skills from working for T.R. over and above the things I learned from the actual assignments. I learned to be thorough when analyzing a problem and considering a solution. I learned to be persistent. I also learned to have no confidence in my judgement, and to have no perspective on how far to go when solving a problem. I really wish I could have learned the first lessons without the second. It took me ten years and three employers to develop a more reasonable perspective. To this day, after being a software professional for over thirty years, I have problems dealing with managers more than a couple layers over me in the hierarchy.
Software Zen:
delete this;I feel your pain. There is a saying that "everybody raises to their level of incompetence". In this case of my exboss it is exactly that. And the problem was that given he has no friends (because nobody can stand him), he is always power struggling and trying to make everybody think he is this great shot, which of course he isn't, and he is trying to make money to make for all of it.
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A far better question would be: who is the best boss that you've had and why? I bet almost no answers to that one since they're all pretty bad: most people become managers for the wrong reasons and then fail becuase they receive either the wrong training or none at all and are socially incapabale of managing other people. Just becuae, for instance, someone is a great developer does not mean that they will be a great manager.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
I have to utterly disagree with this one. Given that I started this thread I have a reason to point out a bad boss, but about good bosses I can actually brag that my current boss is amazing. Well, actually I have two: the PMO head located in Virginia and the local General Manager located in Costa Rica. They are both great bosses, but the best is the one in Virginia. He can take on a project, even though not too technical he can understand what we tell him, he can see the big picture and work with the client on scoping out the work. He is a fair person, which added to his other capabilities make him an amazing boss. And no, I am not showing this to him and chances are he will never read this. I actually hope he doesn't read it, he might think I am just trying to earn some points with him, which is not the point. I just want to point out that there are good bosses, just that they are hard to find. :laugh:
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The worst boss I ever had wanted me to do engineering things that violated the laws of physics. I declined, so he put on my performance evaluation that I wasn't a team player. Then he dinged me for writing software to help me do my job - claimed I wasted company resources, even though I did it on my time, on my computer, with my compiler, at home during nights and weekends. Then he changed my forecasts and tried to blame me for making bad forecasts, except I had the originals and had put them in the company's correspondence files, stamped with official received dates. That was fun. He finally "graduated" up to head office and was instrumental, I'm sure, in making sure I got laid off. So I got 48 weeks of severance pay, the rights to all the software I wrote, and I would have resigned within a month or two anyway, even without the severance pay. Then they called me back and paid consulting fees for me to finish up the last project I had worked on, so he jump-started my consulting business. And then I sold lots of copies of the software back to the company. It was living h*ll at the time, but it all worked out. The best thing he ever did was make me open my eyes and notice that there were lots of other ways to make a living without having to put up with the likes of him.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E. Comport Computing Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
For me it was great having this bad boss. I've learned a lot, but just because "good judgement comes from bad experiences". I had a horrible experience, but that has helped me a lot now in life not to make the same mistakes. It's all part of growing up.
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I had a good boss once Allan. He knew his stuff could talk quite happily about programming and was an all round decent bloke. True the bosses above him were the usual umm not very kid sister friendly word who when he was on holiday tried to blame me for the late delivery of a project that I was only on because I was drafted in to help out when it was realised they wouldn't reach the deadlines. Of course my going balistic on the main bosses about trying to lay the blame at my door didn't help. Allan told me that if they'd done that to him he'd leave. I took his advice.
pseudonym67 My Articles[^] Personal Music Player[^]
"You can't hire 9 pregnant women to have a baby in 1 month". That's what I always say when a boss realizes that the deadline is impossible and they just add new resources. It just doesn't work that way.
