if people would just breathe in through their nose and out their mouths, have inner laughter at how silly their crazy bosses are, and finally to have a quiet feeling of superiority at having greater tact then then their bosses, then they wouldn’t drop dead from the stress. There is not much quite as satisfying as being a more solid individual than your boss.

I worked with an employee that was continually harangued and s**t upon at work by his two bosses. Nothing he ever did was good enough. I know, because I saw it almost everyday. (I work in the HR department and shared an office with one of his bosses.) Everybody felt sorry for him. The poor guy worked a lot of hours in a week to try and keep up with the work load. He had a wife and two small kids to support. One day, while driving home, he fell asleep and swerved into the oncoming lane and had a head on crash with another vehicle. He died instantly. His wife said that his place of work killed him. Other employees whispered that also. True story.

The sky is blue. Just thought we should get the obvious out of the way.
I find that moving my boss’s trash can to the other side of his desk reduces my heart rate 10%…I get an extra 5% reduction when I find him under his desk picking the trash up. On a side note, (not trying to defend bad leadership) but what are the rates for bad health with the managers themselves? It’s got to be up there is they think everyone below them are moronic children who he/she must hand hold constantly or risk failure…

Bad leadership can affect the heart eh.
No wonder after 8 years of GWB. I get strange visions like this:

Stand Clear, Stand Clear, We need to jolt this sucker back to life.

ZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTT. ZZZZZZZZZTTTTT.

Oh you are wonderful Dr. Obama, We now have a faint pulse in Patient America.

Thanks nurse paulsen, just keep him on a steady drip of the old green stuff for a year and he should be well enough to go back to work.

I can truthfully say, despite my blog demeanor, I am consistently kind to my subordinates…I try to listen to them intently, and respectfully,…they may be the only thing that saves my raggedy old incompetent ass (and in this ever-changing world, we are all ignorant about many different things…to paraphrase Will Rogers). Their world is coming…mine is in eclipse.

A poorly treated employee will let you swing in the wind, with justifiable relish. A boss always has less real power, and greater dependence, than most people (and some bosses) perceive. As Bing might say….payback is a mofo. (maybe Bing wouldn’t say that, but an old Marine would). I’d much prefer they keep the old wolf around for his occasionally valuable experience. That way, in your inevitable corporate infirmity, you may still get thrown the odd choice bones.

Jack, of Canada (and I sincerely admire your country, having spend considerable time there as a ‘border resident’), I am very optimistic regarding President-Elect Obama’s ability to implement policies that are beneficial to mankind in general. However, the jury is still out, the problems severe, and the expectations extreme. Patience (and there is little about modern society that suggests that human being have a very long attention span) should be the watchword. Mistakes, and errors will occur. No warrantees are expressed, or implied.

This points to the importance of having your wagon hitched to the correct star…indeed the consequences of being tethered to a Black Hole impact mind, body, and spirit…maybe I’m a hopeless optimist, but I believe the incompetents will someday get what’s coming to them via the karmic equity they have built up, and a small cog like me needs to focus on basic survival skills—engage while maintaining emotional detachment, learn to duck, find those willing to give shelter from the storm before it descends…that kinda stuff…

It’s really your decision whether or not you let the madness kill you…right?

There is a book that chronicles an executive leader’s role while enduring the uncertainty of heart disease.

The book is titled Dropping Almonds and the author is Bach Anon. He also presents 5 solutions to some of the bad leadership/management available in the marketplace today.

Bing –

I just read a nice shout out to you from Carey Tennis over at Salon. Nice to know some of my favorites are favorites of each other.

My new boss brags that she is bipolar and considers it diversity in the office. She tells stories of famous people in the media who have written about her. When she is in a manic state, she is triggered by the sight of papers that aren’t filed. If she sees papers stacked in the “to file” area of the office, she goes into a tirade at her support staff. Her son is the office manager. She will yell as she flies down the hall to berate him that she has too many incompetent people around and we need to get rid of them. She will send someone home usually without pay. She’ll yell at someone else about you, right in front of you and ignore you the whole time, telling that person what she wants done. The papers that need to be filed are more often than not hers because her office is such a blizzard of papers and case files stacked haphazardly, she can’t find her case files when it’s time for court. She won’t let anyone in her office except her son, and he is a bigger slob than her. He could care less if her case files are organized for her. If you enter her office, you are not supposed to knock; you have to enter and stand there until she says you can speak. She doesn’t look up at you unless your time is worth enough to her, because her time is worth much more, monetarily. Time is money and looking at someone while speaking is wasting her money. This means that the only people with whom she converses about work are associate lawyers. Paralegals and other support staff are there to be yelled at and berated. Equipment is always breaking down, but when we fall behind, it’s always our fault. It’s a crazy place, and the turn over is high, but the work is interesting.

Fire the boss and go solo. No reason to give a single person so much power over your personal life.

This is why people go ‘postal’ at work. All I can say is some bosses deserve it!

My former boss was INSANE. Because she had no control in her personal life she tried to control every aspect of her support staff. Including their personal lifes. She lied, degraded, embarassed and shamed whenever she could. I had always been a strong person. After 6 years of her abuse I finally cracked. I was diagnosted with accute anxiety and clinical depression. I could not process or retain information. I had short term memory loss. Some days I couldnt figure out how to drive. Making oatmeal was to difficult. It took 8 months for me to partially recover. I went back to work at the same place at a lower level position. My current boss is a goddess. She is sooo good to her support staff. My fellow co workers were shocked when I made comments like, we dont need a doctors note for a fan? we can choose our own screen savers and desktops? And above all we could talk. That scared me for the first week I was there. My husband works at the same place I do, in a different department. He runs into and wont speak to her. My old boss is no longer a supervisor. I will not speak to her. She can no longer touch me. It’s been 2 years since I came back to work. I am so much better than what I was. My supervisor is very understanding of my condition which is getting better little by little. Bottom line… the lower paying job is worth having your health.

This reminded me of the Whitehall studies of British civil servants, in which civil servants of lower grades got more heart disease than their bosses (ie civil servants at the higher grades). I read about the studies in a brilliant book, Why your boss is programmed to be a Dictator. The correlation between health and bosses is just too much to ignore, and it’s about time something is done (the book has some rather radical ideas and suggestions).

With the economy going south, conditions are going to get much worse which means bosses are going to get worse – which means our health is going to get worse too.

To the posters who posted at 1:49pm, 11:47am, 2:27pm, 10:37am, 4:33pm, and 4:35pm (and we know who you are): GET BACK TO WORK!!

To the posters who posted at 5:07pm, 5:34pm, and 5:40pm: if you have time to slander your superiors at this time of day, you should have time to give that extra bit of effort to your job.

To the posters who posted at 9:39pm and 10:39pm: if you would get some sleep at night instead of viciously attacking your superiors, your performance might marginally improve, and maybe your boss wouldn’t have to yell at you so much (have some consideration for the poor guy/gal, for pete’s sake!!!!)

To all of you: You’re a worthless pack of complaining morons and miscreants who add very little value to the company’s bottom line, certainly you add much less value than your paychecks, and you should simply be eternally grateful that we even allow you to continue to draw a paycheck!!! Now get back to work while I make up my mind which one of you losers I’m gonna fire!

Respectfully,
The bad, overworked, harried, have-to-accomplish-too-much-with-a-team-of-losers-who-do-nothing-but-complain-all-day
Bad Boss

I have had and still have bad bosses. I have hypertension because of their unprofessional behavior, bad decisions, and unrealistic expectations. An the undue stress it causes. It hurts team morale, professional respect & trust. I found myself praying for them but with my health now I pray that I don’t have a heart-attack. I really question is it worth a paycheck and benefits? Its not. I love my career but I hate bosses. Is this job worth my life to “them” no? to me, no. So now I have started to not give a F&@K! They can replace me in a second and would/will if I were to have a heart attack and drop dead. If I go on medication the company benefits will on cover part of the medicine but full if it is generic. I maintain a healthy lifestyle and look healthy but my work environment is killing me. Corporate America is becoming a joke and the structure has bad boss mistreating the workers. Instead of working toward a goal the bosses are the majority of time the main obstacle. And the companies are not recognizing it only the bottom line.