"My Bad Boss" Winner

[pzarquon]

A few weeks back, Working America called for everyone's "bad boss" stories. More than 2,500 were submitted. Five finalists were selected and put up to a public vote. The winner was: "Millionaire Dentist Stole from Employees on 9/11."

That day, the patients all cancelled their appointments. Perfectly understandable, if you ask me: there's a national tragedy and the last thing on anyone's mind is their oral health. But this meant no income for Dr. X. His response? Taking $100 out of every employee's paycheck.

And there's a local link, here. The author, "Cat Scratch," is actually Melissa Dylan of Off To Work I Go. She's 29 and has held 36 jobs. They include working with the Hawaii Convention Center, a one-day stint in the lobby of a "news station," and serving at the Cheesecake Factory. The dentist, though, was her employer in California.

Got a "bad boss" story? Er, speaking totally hypothetically about previous employers you can barely remember, of course.

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: "My Bad Boss" Winner

Eeek. She's gone through 36 jobs and she's only 29? My salaryman soul cringes at the thought.

[helen]

Re: "My Bad Boss" Winner

I haven't read through any of the links but I suspect that those 36 jobs might be part time or maybe she was working at 2 or 3 jobs at one time. Then again she might have started early like the age of 17 or so.

[pzarquon]

Re: "My Bad Boss" Winner

She does count that one-day stint at a local "news station" as one of those 39, so it isn't quite as bad as it sounds. Still, though, what is the formula and threshold -- {x} jobs in {y} years -- to determine whether the problem is the workplace, or the workforce?

[glossyp]

Re: "My Bad Boss" Winner

There's a reason I'm self-employed and much of that has to do with bad bosses. My first bad boss was when I was in college. I had a part-time job of verifying the totals from all the registers of a major department store. We started at 5am (no problem in college days - I usually just stayed up!) and were finished by 9am. The boss was a woman and there wasn't anything she didn't fuss about. I was used to this type having been schooled in fussy female by my grandmother's behavior. One day she found out my great-uncle was the boyfriend who dumped her in high school and I was fired. I knew nothing about any of the old history, but it didn't matter. The official reason given was I didn't dress appropriately. It was the first time I seriously wondered about a system where employees are at the mercy of the whims of "The Man" or woman or whatever.

[AbsolutChaos]

Re: "My Bad Boss" Winner

Eeek. She's gone through 36 jobs and she's only 29? My salaryman soul cringes at the thought.

I happen to know Melissa; she's a friend of mine. She is married, so there's another source of income through her husband, plus she's a writer and actress. In order to accomodate her demanding/erratic acting schedule, she tends to work a lot of temporary jobs.

As for bad bosses in paying positions, I can honestly say that so far I've not had any that were particularly noteworthy. However, I can say that I've held a volunteer position in the past where I quickly grew disillusioned and disgusted with the "leader" who never showed up at any of the meetings, despite plenty of invites to do so, yet freely criticized the end products of these meetings and treated us as though we were dirt beneath her feet. I quickly stopped volunteering at that place.

[tutusue]

Re: "My Bad Boss" Winner

I happen to know Melissa; she's a friend of mine. She is married, so there's another source of income through her husband, plus she's a writer and actress. In order to accomodate her demanding/erratic acting schedule, she tends to work a lot of temporary jobs.[...]

Melissa's a good actress. Say hi to her for me!

I'm so glad I'm my own boss 'cept I tend to fire myself on a regular basis.

[damontucker]

Re: "My Bad Boss" Winner

I haven't really had any bad bosses...

However, I did have a good boss about 10 years ago

And still to this day...he has continued to invest energy in my skills despite no longer being responsible for my income or output.

That's what you call an excellent boss!

[SouthKona]

Re: "My Bad Boss" Winner

One time I had a boss who got mad at the whole crew. At Christmas, he called us all into the wine cellar and gave us each a bottle of champagne, with a "Merry Christmas" wish. Then he politely told us all to go home for the day .... and not ever come back to work! (That took the bubbles out of the Christmas Champagne for some crewmembers.)

Or a shop I worked at, where a customer brought in a big tin of Christmas cookies. The shop owner went out for a "beverage lunch", and came back after having enjoyed too much liquid Christmas Cheer. When he went for a cookie, they were all eaten. He went ballistic. Not all the employees stuck around for the finish of that day ... or job.

Christmas seems to bring out the worst in some people.

[pzarquon]

Re: "My Bad Boss" Winner

Our own Erika Engle featured Melissa's win and tells us a little about her in TheBuzz in today's Star-Bulletin.

Dylan has also appeared in local theater productions including "Into the Woods," at Manoa Valley Theatre, "Anything Goes," at Diamond Head Theatre and "Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris," an HPU Theatre production. She has a degree in theatre from the University of Washington but calls acting more of a hobby. Her long-term goal is to get her novels published, but in the meantime, she's "temping" where ever the agency sends her.