Now that the poser is gone, there's a job opening. Pushover boss is delighted because she can bring in another one of her work buddies from her last job. I'm OK with interviewing him and going through the process because I figure there are plenty of other candidates to look at as well. Then I ask, when are we getting more candidates? After all, this is a bad economy so the talent pool (looking for a job) must be pretty good. Pushover boss is shocked and angry at such a suggestion. "Why would we look for outside talent when we can hire someone I know?!?" Boy, she was pissed. So back to the interview. We question this guy who clearly states that he wants to be management someday, not do QA work forever. He does seem qualified but he's had more jobs in this decade than the number of DUIs another loser co-worker has...(and that would be 6 DUIs).
So I question the director regarding interviewing more than one person and she makes Pushover boss look at more resumes. Pushover boss sets up two interviews with other highly qualified candidates. But wouldn't you know it, those highly qualified actually got jobs somewhere else. (I knew there was talent out there!) So that was her lame attempt at "looking at other candidates". More proof of lazy. Lazy...hmmm, it hit like a brick - she wants this guy BECAUSE he wants to be manager, then he can do her work...how could I have missed that? Now it all makes sense. He starts at the end of the month. One candidate, one interview, one hire.
Showing posts with label Bad Boss Stories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bad Boss Stories. Show all posts
I haven't thought about my bad boss stories for a while. Although nothing has really changed since the last bad boss was fired. That's not totally a fair statement, having a bad boss hasn't changed it's just that the new version of the bad boss is very different from the old bad boss.
This new manager has been here a year. We pinned our hopes on a boss who was fair, knowledgeable and hard working, with the determination to set higher standards for our department since we are quality assurance. We did get someone who was knowledgeable. At least knowledgeable about how QA should work. As for the rest all we see is someone who is unfair, unmotivated and a pushover. She is nice to us, I will say that. But nice doesn't cut the mustard.
One of the first things on her agenda was to hire a replacement for someone who was leaving. A few interviews were conducted before she mentioned someone she worked with at her last job. She said she needed to convince him to submit his resume. It was looking like that company was going to close which is why she came here so she thought she could recruit someone else before they were all out of a job. It was difficult to convince him because he had the benefit of working from home. That would not be an option here, we only allow it for special circumstances (so we were told). So finally he came in. Some of the team got to interview him, and he was knowledgeable, in fact probably the best of the candidates available at that time.
So the boss buddy started working for us. He has a wacky schedule due to child care issues which isn't a bad thing for those he has to work with if it's consistent so his team always know when he can be counted on. After the first month of work went by the work at home days started. By the end of the third month there wasn't a single week without a work at home day. Others in the department joined in by taking last minute work at home days, following his lead. My child is sick, my basement is flooded, I have a doctor's appointment, my car broke down. The reasons were coming fast and furious as many on the team took advantage.
There is one person that the boss isn't really that fond of. Personally, I think this person is way overpaid for the little work they do and the expertise is suspect at best. He is a poser who makes excuses like it's too much to work on more than one project at a time, or he's never worked on that kind of software so he can't be expected to know what to do....whatever. So the boss probably has some justification for her dislike. As the work at home reasons kept coming month after month, it was May when one person decided to work from home on a Wednesday, boss buddy was going to work from home on Wednesday, then poser says he is going to do the same on Friday. No one asked for these days, they all just stated that's what they were going to do.
That was the straw that broke the pushover's back. Or so we thought.
So pushover boss sends a stern email to the team about too many work from home days, how it's not fair to those who use vacation/personal/sick for the same situations and to knock it off. Little did we know that she didn't mean that for everybody. In a one-on-one meeting I had I thanked her for putting her foot down and mentioned that one of the project managers thought that her boss buddy was part time since he was gone many days from the office. Pushover was shocked, she was complaining about the poser, not her buddy. So I guess I put my foot in my mouth on that one.
So the work from home days stopped for a whole week. Then boss buddy called in sick. The next day he called in sick again. But in the middle of the day we discovered he was assigned a project that same day to do from home. Since the project was just turned over, it was obvious she was covering for him by telling the staff he was sick but really he was working from home. We have the availability to run billable hours reports and that proved the work from home/sick cover up.
So here we go again on that rollercoaster of doing/fixing nothing. Just more bad treatment for some of us good employees.
This new manager has been here a year. We pinned our hopes on a boss who was fair, knowledgeable and hard working, with the determination to set higher standards for our department since we are quality assurance. We did get someone who was knowledgeable. At least knowledgeable about how QA should work. As for the rest all we see is someone who is unfair, unmotivated and a pushover. She is nice to us, I will say that. But nice doesn't cut the mustard.
One of the first things on her agenda was to hire a replacement for someone who was leaving. A few interviews were conducted before she mentioned someone she worked with at her last job. She said she needed to convince him to submit his resume. It was looking like that company was going to close which is why she came here so she thought she could recruit someone else before they were all out of a job. It was difficult to convince him because he had the benefit of working from home. That would not be an option here, we only allow it for special circumstances (so we were told). So finally he came in. Some of the team got to interview him, and he was knowledgeable, in fact probably the best of the candidates available at that time.
So the boss buddy started working for us. He has a wacky schedule due to child care issues which isn't a bad thing for those he has to work with if it's consistent so his team always know when he can be counted on. After the first month of work went by the work at home days started. By the end of the third month there wasn't a single week without a work at home day. Others in the department joined in by taking last minute work at home days, following his lead. My child is sick, my basement is flooded, I have a doctor's appointment, my car broke down. The reasons were coming fast and furious as many on the team took advantage.
There is one person that the boss isn't really that fond of. Personally, I think this person is way overpaid for the little work they do and the expertise is suspect at best. He is a poser who makes excuses like it's too much to work on more than one project at a time, or he's never worked on that kind of software so he can't be expected to know what to do....whatever. So the boss probably has some justification for her dislike. As the work at home reasons kept coming month after month, it was May when one person decided to work from home on a Wednesday, boss buddy was going to work from home on Wednesday, then poser says he is going to do the same on Friday. No one asked for these days, they all just stated that's what they were going to do.
That was the straw that broke the pushover's back. Or so we thought.
So pushover boss sends a stern email to the team about too many work from home days, how it's not fair to those who use vacation/personal/sick for the same situations and to knock it off. Little did we know that she didn't mean that for everybody. In a one-on-one meeting I had I thanked her for putting her foot down and mentioned that one of the project managers thought that her boss buddy was part time since he was gone many days from the office. Pushover was shocked, she was complaining about the poser, not her buddy. So I guess I put my foot in my mouth on that one.
So the work from home days stopped for a whole week. Then boss buddy called in sick. The next day he called in sick again. But in the middle of the day we discovered he was assigned a project that same day to do from home. Since the project was just turned over, it was obvious she was covering for him by telling the staff he was sick but really he was working from home. We have the availability to run billable hours reports and that proved the work from home/sick cover up.
So here we go again on that rollercoaster of doing/fixing nothing. Just more bad treatment for some of us good employees.
Tough boss is really hard on bad boss. I discovered one of his patterns. When he lies, his voice crackles. The more the crackle the bigger or the deeper he is in his lie. Every Friday he sits in tough boss' office and he has to explain why he accomplished nothing on his task list. This is the difficult thing about sitting outside of tough boss' door. I can hear everything. She is fair but firm with everyone, she lets no one off the hook, and her expectations are very high.
This day, the list is getting longer of unaccomplished items, the explanations are getting weaker, voice cracklier. I almost feel sorry for him. And a little ashamed of myself since I can hear all this. At the same time it gives me a sense that there is some justice in the world. After all, he is getting paid a lot of money to do absolutely nothing. The meeting goes almost an hour and by the end of it, he has no voice left. Lots of big lies.
I am so glad the weekend is here.
This day, the list is getting longer of unaccomplished items, the explanations are getting weaker, voice cracklier. I almost feel sorry for him. And a little ashamed of myself since I can hear all this. At the same time it gives me a sense that there is some justice in the world. After all, he is getting paid a lot of money to do absolutely nothing. The meeting goes almost an hour and by the end of it, he has no voice left. Lots of big lies.
I am so glad the weekend is here.
So here we go with interviews, round 2. Only this time it gets really weird. Bad boss does 2 phone interviews with 2 more candidates that I rejected. This time he doesn't even invite bad employee. He decides that we should bring in both candidates. Candidate 1 is from the area, has lots of QA experience but most of it short term, and none of it health care related which is really important. Candidate 2 puts on his (or her - can't really tell by the name) resume that he has knowledge of Medicare/Medicaid. I rejected this candidate because I believe the resume was padded. This person worked for a company that made ferry boats and then worked for a bank - so where the hell would Medicare/Medicaid come in?? Did I mention that the resume was so full of spelling and grammar errors that it was extremely difficult to read? But bad boss says the guy has lots of Medicare experience - he says when you follow the breadcrumbs it all came out in the phone interview so we should really bring him in.
Bad boss has a new boss who is really tough, so I mention to her my concern and send her a copy of the resume. I thought she was going to flip - she didn't even want to discuss the qualifications, the look of the resume was enough of a bad sign to her. Did I mention that this candidate lives in New Jersey? So bad boss wants to fly bad candidate in for an interview! Tough new boss says no, so bad boss makes the QA team phone interview.
The interview was an amazing exercise in futility. The first thing that happened is this guy spoke in bad broken English so fast none of us understood 75% of his words. When we finally go a word in we asked about the Medicare/Medicaid experience. He read the textbook definition of Medicare. We asked which state's Medicaid rules he knew, He read the textbook definition of Medicaid. We asked when he used this knowledge in his work and he got angry. He said I NEVER SAID I WORKED WITH IT I SAID I HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF IT. The guy then quoted answers to questions we normally ask about knowledge of UB04 forms and RUGs codes. But we didn't ask those questions - turns out bad boss gave him the answers and told him we would ask. I then asked the guy if he ever wrote documentation, instructions, or manuals. He said yes, he did manual testing. I reiterated the question. He answered the same so he couldn't even understand what I was asking. By then we all gave up and said thanks for your time.
We tried, but it was pretty awful. We were laughing at the answers to simple questions that this guy either didn't understand or we couldn't comprehend because of his accent. Even bad employee rejected him. Which is unusual - I'm sure bad employee would love it if we hired someone worse than him. We reported back to bad boss, then reported it to human resources, then reported it to tough boss. Bad boss was in trouble.
Next thing you know, bad boss is saying that the people doing the phone interviews must have been two different people since he had such a good experience. We quoted the stuff the candidate repeated that bad boss told him. Plus if you were going to have someone sit in to interview for you, would you want someone who didn't totally suck?
I think bad boss knows he's in deep doo-doo.
Bad boss has a new boss who is really tough, so I mention to her my concern and send her a copy of the resume. I thought she was going to flip - she didn't even want to discuss the qualifications, the look of the resume was enough of a bad sign to her. Did I mention that this candidate lives in New Jersey? So bad boss wants to fly bad candidate in for an interview! Tough new boss says no, so bad boss makes the QA team phone interview.
The interview was an amazing exercise in futility. The first thing that happened is this guy spoke in bad broken English so fast none of us understood 75% of his words. When we finally go a word in we asked about the Medicare/Medicaid experience. He read the textbook definition of Medicare. We asked which state's Medicaid rules he knew, He read the textbook definition of Medicaid. We asked when he used this knowledge in his work and he got angry. He said I NEVER SAID I WORKED WITH IT I SAID I HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF IT. The guy then quoted answers to questions we normally ask about knowledge of UB04 forms and RUGs codes. But we didn't ask those questions - turns out bad boss gave him the answers and told him we would ask. I then asked the guy if he ever wrote documentation, instructions, or manuals. He said yes, he did manual testing. I reiterated the question. He answered the same so he couldn't even understand what I was asking. By then we all gave up and said thanks for your time.
We tried, but it was pretty awful. We were laughing at the answers to simple questions that this guy either didn't understand or we couldn't comprehend because of his accent. Even bad employee rejected him. Which is unusual - I'm sure bad employee would love it if we hired someone worse than him. We reported back to bad boss, then reported it to human resources, then reported it to tough boss. Bad boss was in trouble.
Next thing you know, bad boss is saying that the people doing the phone interviews must have been two different people since he had such a good experience. We quoted the stuff the candidate repeated that bad boss told him. Plus if you were going to have someone sit in to interview for you, would you want someone who didn't totally suck?
I think bad boss knows he's in deep doo-doo.
Conversation between bad boss and wonderful manager outside of my cubicle:
WM: "So you were in the service?"
BB: "Yes, I was in the Navy, went to 'Nam."
WM: "Wow, so you're a Vietnam Vet."
BB: "Yes, I was shot in the leg when my helicopter took off."
WM: "Shot?! So, you have a Purple Heart?"
BB: "Ummm.....yesss, I do"
WM: "Well, thank you for your service to our country."
I hate myself but I couldn't resist even though I know he is a liar. It makes me feel even more pathetic when I get this e-mail back from my friend who works at the VA: "The regional office here verified that Mr. L. served during the Vietnam era. The regional office could not verify that he was in Vietnam nor if he was a purple heart recipient." I just had to check.
WM: "So you were in the service?"
BB: "Yes, I was in the Navy, went to 'Nam."
WM: "Wow, so you're a Vietnam Vet."
BB: "Yes, I was shot in the leg when my helicopter took off."
WM: "Shot?! So, you have a Purple Heart?"
BB: "Ummm.....yesss, I do"
WM: "Well, thank you for your service to our country."
I hate myself but I couldn't resist even though I know he is a liar. It makes me feel even more pathetic when I get this e-mail back from my friend who works at the VA: "The regional office here verified that Mr. L. served during the Vietnam era. The regional office could not verify that he was in Vietnam nor if he was a purple heart recipient." I just had to check.
Today we are interviewing candidates for a job opening in my department. The job is Quality Assurance Analyst – the qualifications include a background working with Accounts Receivable programs and since we work in long term health care, medical billing would be a real plus. So the boss gives me three resumes. One guy has billing experience, one guy was a programmer with Abbott Labs, nothing to do with health care or billing really as well as very little QA, and the third woman worked with physical therapy billing – jackpot! So I tell the boss yes to the first, no to the second, and definitely yes to the third person. The boss sends me the interview times for the two candidates so I can sit in on the interviews. But what he doesn’t tell me is that he is still interviewing the reject candidate and the bad employee is sitting in on the interview. That’s gotta suck for bad employee, since he is not even qualified to work here at all and he is interviewing a guy with better qualifications than his own.
We get through the two interviews and they both went pretty well so I suggested that they both come back for a second interview where we bring in the subject matter experts to ask more questions. Then the boss tells me that he brought in the guy I rejected because he thought he would be a good candidate for the other job opening we have. The other opening is for a QA Analyst specializing in payroll. I ask why he thinks someone who was directly involved in setting up laboratories would have anything to do with a payroll system. Bad boss says, “He has some database experience which would make him qualified.” DATABASE experience! I thought my head was going to explode – databases are used to store information no matter what system you have. That is like saying that a hypochondriac would be a good doctor because they always KNOW there is something wrong with them.
We get through the two interviews and they both went pretty well so I suggested that they both come back for a second interview where we bring in the subject matter experts to ask more questions. Then the boss tells me that he brought in the guy I rejected because he thought he would be a good candidate for the other job opening we have. The other opening is for a QA Analyst specializing in payroll. I ask why he thinks someone who was directly involved in setting up laboratories would have anything to do with a payroll system. Bad boss says, “He has some database experience which would make him qualified.” DATABASE experience! I thought my head was going to explode – databases are used to store information no matter what system you have. That is like saying that a hypochondriac would be a good doctor because they always KNOW there is something wrong with them.
So the boss tells the story of why he dyed his hair and mustache. He says that his sister-in-law has this cat that doesn't like his gray hair. So in order to spend the holiday with the family, he had to dye his hair so that cat wouldn't attack him. Apparently the sister-in-law's neighbor has a gray haired dog that tantalizes the cat creating his hatred for gray hair. Too bad cats are basically colorblind. Hmmm.
A new director started today. For the first time since I've worked at this company, there's a woman at the senior management level. I think it's great and hope things work out well for her. And for me. This woman will be my boss' boss. Already he is sucking up. And unfortunately, I sit right outside of her door so I have to hear his bs.
My boss is a total poser. He has been at my company for 7 months and he still cannot remember the simple processes that we have in place. He constantly asks for information that he already has. Then he wants to change the processes because he thinks they are inadequate. The problem is he is the inadequate one because he doesn't follow or know the process, so how can he change something that he obviously doesn't even understand?
To top it off he can't remember any of our projects either so he mixes them all up. Today he was explaining a project to the new director but he described parts of two different projects. He had it so messed up it was actually entertaining to listen to him make it up as he spoke. Making things up is his specialty. A few weeks back there was a thank you luncheon for everyone on a successful project. I was missed from the invitation list so I asked him about it - he said I wasn't invited because it was managers only. So I asked then why all the rest of the entire project team was on the invitation list. He agreed that I was missed - so he said he would get me included. But of course, he never did. Not that I really cared about the lunch, it was the principle of the thing. I knew he wouldn't follow up. Follow-through is another thing he doesn't do.
So back to the new boss...my boss was in her office only four times today. That's because she was in meetings some of the time so during the 8 times he looked for her, he could only stalk her four times. I wonder how long it will take her to figure out that he doesn't do anything but hang around. He calls it hovering - the rest of us call it lurking.
To make matters worse, this is not a good-looking man. He is short, overweight, and balding. Today he showed up with the little hair that he has colored! He went from a whiteish-gray to a dark color. Plus he dyed the mustache. It is not an improvement.
Next week for fun, I will have to post a stalking chart and record all his suck-up attempts with his new boss. He does make for some entertainment. It helps relieve the frustration of his ineptness.
New boss, new hope for termination.
Stay tuned...
My boss is a total poser. He has been at my company for 7 months and he still cannot remember the simple processes that we have in place. He constantly asks for information that he already has. Then he wants to change the processes because he thinks they are inadequate. The problem is he is the inadequate one because he doesn't follow or know the process, so how can he change something that he obviously doesn't even understand?
To top it off he can't remember any of our projects either so he mixes them all up. Today he was explaining a project to the new director but he described parts of two different projects. He had it so messed up it was actually entertaining to listen to him make it up as he spoke. Making things up is his specialty. A few weeks back there was a thank you luncheon for everyone on a successful project. I was missed from the invitation list so I asked him about it - he said I wasn't invited because it was managers only. So I asked then why all the rest of the entire project team was on the invitation list. He agreed that I was missed - so he said he would get me included. But of course, he never did. Not that I really cared about the lunch, it was the principle of the thing. I knew he wouldn't follow up. Follow-through is another thing he doesn't do.
So back to the new boss...my boss was in her office only four times today. That's because she was in meetings some of the time so during the 8 times he looked for her, he could only stalk her four times. I wonder how long it will take her to figure out that he doesn't do anything but hang around. He calls it hovering - the rest of us call it lurking.
To make matters worse, this is not a good-looking man. He is short, overweight, and balding. Today he showed up with the little hair that he has colored! He went from a whiteish-gray to a dark color. Plus he dyed the mustache. It is not an improvement.
Next week for fun, I will have to post a stalking chart and record all his suck-up attempts with his new boss. He does make for some entertainment. It helps relieve the frustration of his ineptness.
New boss, new hope for termination.
Stay tuned...
We had a department meeting yesterday. In the middle of the meeting someone from Human Resources interrupts to tell the boss that he has an emergency. He immediately stops the meeting because he has to leave. The weird thing is that he constantly halts or interrupts meetings to answer his cell phone. So why didn't this call come to his cell phone like all the others instead of going through HR? It doesn't make sense.
To preface this, he stated first thing Monday morning that both he and his wife blew out their knees on Thursday and since it was the Thanksgiving holiday, they did not seek medical help. But their holiday weekend was ruined because of it. So we assumed this emergency was something with the wife.
This morning the boss shows up with a cane. He limps occasionally, sometimes he picks up the cane and walks normally. He explains that his emergency yesterday was with his wife. She was in so much pain that she needed immediate medical assistance for the knee she blew out 5 days earlier. He goes on to explain that while he was in the ER, the doc noticed his limp and diagnosed him as having something he called weak knee and thus the cane today.
In all my years working in health care, this is the first time I've ever heard of a doctor examining and diagnosing someone who was not a patient at the time. Amazing luck. He also says he has a follow-up appointment tomorrow. Funny coincidence is that the doctor appointment was on his calendar Monday morning before the emergency call from HR.
Hmmm. I bet the limp is gone within a day or two.
To preface this, he stated first thing Monday morning that both he and his wife blew out their knees on Thursday and since it was the Thanksgiving holiday, they did not seek medical help. But their holiday weekend was ruined because of it. So we assumed this emergency was something with the wife.
This morning the boss shows up with a cane. He limps occasionally, sometimes he picks up the cane and walks normally. He explains that his emergency yesterday was with his wife. She was in so much pain that she needed immediate medical assistance for the knee she blew out 5 days earlier. He goes on to explain that while he was in the ER, the doc noticed his limp and diagnosed him as having something he called weak knee and thus the cane today.
In all my years working in health care, this is the first time I've ever heard of a doctor examining and diagnosing someone who was not a patient at the time. Amazing luck. He also says he has a follow-up appointment tomorrow. Funny coincidence is that the doctor appointment was on his calendar Monday morning before the emergency call from HR.
Hmmm. I bet the limp is gone within a day or two.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
- Follow Us on Twitter!
- "Join Us on Facebook!
- RSS
Contact