I love boobs, but you have got to be kidding me...

Have you ever had a co-worker or boss you couldn't stand for one reason or another? I mean really didn't like. I don't mean one that is kind of annoying or is always late or is always talking while you are trying to get a big project done. I mean the kind that lies and cheats to get ahead or tosses you under the bus for no reason at all. If so, I have a few stories for you...

I worked for this company a while back. It was a small, poorly run company when I started. They were looking to make some changes, bring some new blood in and get things turned around. They were hoping some changes would help bring them to a higher level. Well, this was never going to happen. They quickly fired the Operations Manager because he was trying to make things "too corporate". He was trying to put simple things like employee manuals and policies and procedures in place. The owners and long-standing employees balked at this and quickly ran him out of town. I would dare say that it was all down hill from there. One of the owners didn't have a stitch of business sense, constantly trying to spend big bucks on things that did nothing to help the bottom line, but "looked cool" or "added to the vibe" of the place. Really?! What good does that really do? Others in the company were fully supporting this attitude, and contributing to it. They were blowing ten's of thousands of dollars on all sorts of stuff that didn't do one ounce of good to increasing sales or attracting new customers. Not only this but he constantly relied on his employees, more specifically me, to take care of everything for him. Registering his car, ordering heating oil for his house and setting up personal appointments for him were just a few of the many ridiculous things I would have to do for him. This grown man had never done anything for himself, and the employees there saw nothing wrong with that.

The other owner had more business sense, but went about things in a completely ass backwards way. He would ask for something one way, get the info from you, then complain because he wanted it a completely different way (which is the way it would have been done mind you, had I been able to do my job). He added so many levels of complexity to even the simplest of tasks. There were times when I would do reports the same way for three months and then he would question things, despite the fact that it was done the way he wanted it. It was impossible to stay up to date with things when I was constantly going back and re-working and re-tooling things to make them come out the way he wanted them too. The other thing that drove me insane was having to send him things a handful of times. Instead of adjusting a spreadsheet or looking into his email for something he would constantly ask for things to be redone or resent. I would spend half of my day sending him things for the second, third and fourth time.

Now, I have no longer been with this company for a while, and have continued to help out from a distance. Most of this help went unpaid, but in return had my cell phone paid for by the company. This was to last until a predetermined date, at which point I would take over the plan and the phone was mine to keep. Now, despite the verbal agreement, one of the owners is fighting with me to get the phone back, threatening to bill me an insane amount for it. I would like to again point out that the phone is now mine based on the fact that the owner verbally assured me it was mine and not to worry about it. Now, I realize we are talking about a silly phone, but it is much more than that to me at this point. I lost respect for him as a business owner a long time ago, but now I have lost respect for him as a man too. His inability to be a man of his word is just plain sad to me. The company is continuing to struggle, basically hanging on by a thread. Seems to me that the downward spiral of the company coincides with his buying in to the company, I'm just saying...