Boss from just this side of hell

-Schedules meetings, shows up late, discusses things not on the agenda with one or two team members leaving the rest of us twiddling our thumbs for an hour ("it's important, so we'll cover it now") and fails to cover important issues that the team needs resolved. Meetings never start or end on time. eg 2pm-3pm really means 2:30 till 4pm.

-In the middle of a one-on-one meeting, boss gets a phone call and talks for twenty-minutes plus (couldn't you just say you are busy and call them back later, I'm here now - should I leave?)

- is always staying back late to complete projects. (and bragging about how late) I'm thinking 'get a life'. It does not impress me how many hours you work - It just shows me how disorganised you are.

2. Disorganised (see also above time management)

-Puts tasks on people's agenda without telling them, and then asking in a meeting in front of everybody how progress is going.

-asks for a task to be done, then ignores the results

-takes on too many projects so the team does a half-baked job on a short deadline, and we do "fix-ups" for months afterwards

- does not bring in the right people at the right time - I have lost count of the number of times I have heard about a project three days before deadline, and I have two-weeks' work to do on it.

3. Has difficulties in making decisions based on professional advice

- boss: "we should build it this way, because my next door neighbour who is an expert says so". Ahem! We the team are experts, that's why the company hired us.

- I need such-and-such to do one particular task efficiently (ie in minutes). This will cost us $100. Boss says no, so I do things the long way, taking a half-day each week. (they pay me how much?)

4. Failure to communicate

- I am asked to research xyz, and report back with recommendations - which I do. These recomendations are subsequently ignored, despite my emails and verbal prompts.

Sometimes I hear whispers on the grape vine that what I had advised was accepted (ie boss thinks it is a good idea) I would like to hear it first hand, and I would like it acted upon.

5. Does not listen

- boss gives me several tasks. Me: "Hang, on, let me write this down first before you say more". Boss: "yeah, okay, blah blah blah blah..."

- boss is constantly interrupting someone else with "yeah, yeah, that's right, okay..." This is very difficult to talk or hear over. Listening is using your ears, not your mouth. Very very distracting. Either you are not listening to the speaker, or you are not listening to yourself.

Actually, I found this one to be a real problem at first - I thought "yeah yeah, that's right" meant that boss already knew what I was on about, so I stopped talking - then later on, boss complained I didn't give all the facts.

This boss is seemingly oblivious to the fact they are not liked - I think the boss thinks we are all great friends.

The real amusing thing is though - everybody in the company knows the reputation of this boss and wonders how this person could possibly get to that level. We laugh at this boss behind their back. - and when we can get away with it, we just get on with the job and make our own decisions.

However, we do have to live with this person.

Call this posting part vent, and part cry-for-help. There's no bullying, racism, intimidation, or anything that can be dealt with through legal channels, (might be better if there was) it is just a really incompentent boss.

What is a person to do? You can't change someone's personality, and you can't change their habits if they don't want to - or don't recognise them!

There's only so far you can go with changing the way you deal with a person above you - you cannot avoid your boss forever.

Reply from:	ana
Date:	3/2/2005 5:46:00 PM
Reply:	It sounds very difficult- I had a similar situation, perhaps not that bad. Here is what we did - we were are small team - which helped- he organized ourselves to ge the work done. We decided the how to do the work and than just presented results to de boss. We moved all in sync so that he was relax at the office and felt everything was under control all the time. Basically, besides the "team" meetings with him, it was as if he did not exist.

Reply from:	Juggalette92
Date:	7/25/2007 10:13:00 AM
Reply:	That sounds like hell right there. It sort of reminds me of my mother's old boss, who gave her an extremely hard time. My condolences to you, I hope things turn out (or work out) better for you in the end.

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