Nov 30 2008
More Bad Bosses
I had a really nightmarish supervisor at one of plants, I will call Matilda. Some people were never meant to supervise others. If she didn’t get her way, she would first get mad and yell, then she would try to punish people in her department. At one point, her employee, Sue, refused to participate in a departmental party. Matilda came in to tell me she wanted to give Sue a warning for insubordination, because Sue refused to bring a side dish for their pot luck lunch.
I told her no, this was not appropriate. Then she went to the President of the company to complain that I wouldn’t let her discipline her employee. He told her that he trusted my judgement in these matters and no warnings would be issued, unless she wanted to get one for herself for wasting the President’s time. (Now, he was a great boss).
I’ve had my share of bad bosses, but this one is way off. Forcing someone to participate in a party, huh? And trying to punish them for not wishing to bring a dish… Looks like a control freak to me.