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Is Your Boss An Idiot?
Dracos writes "CNN Money is running an article entitled "Is Your Boss An Idiot?" Advice on how to cope with a PHB is prefaced with humorous, though suspiciously anecdotal, examples of how to identify one."
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So, Yes my boss is an idiot
What a fool! Always late for meetings, never gives any supportive commentary, the pay sucks, the hours are long, and _HE_ gets all the glory for the crap I have to do all day long! What a bozo!
Waiddasec. I work for myself.
Is there a doctor in the house?
Event Management Solutions : http://www.stonekeep.com/
Sure he is
If I tell the truth my boss will feel bad.
And he will tell his wife.
And then she will get on his case about how I'm a bad.
So the boss is just fine. Honest.
So, the answer is "Yes."
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
The highlight of this article, as far as I'm concerned, is the poll "Is your boss an idiot?" When I checked it a few hours ago, 51% said yes, 49% no. Now that the superior-to-all-bosses /. crew gets to vote, what are the odds that by the end of the day CNN will find that 90% of bosses are idiots?
As for the article, it's short, lightweight filler. It could've been funny if a little substance went into it. As it it's it's only a few apocryphal anecdotes, some of which shouldn't even be in there. IMO.
Disclosure: I'm a slasdot reader, so I voted 'yes'.
The danger with "idiot" bosses is that they often become "blame you" bosses when they are in danger of being discovered. It's like a form of Darwinism - idiots who take responsibility for mistakes tend not to survive, while idiots who blame others for mistakes tend to hang around to be an example for future idiot bosses.
I would take the articles advice and get out - as soon as possible. Even if things seem tolerable.
God is real unless declared integer
when bosses or managing directors with power percenatges of ownership, hire friends with no experience to fill positions, and release qualified, validated personel. Although probably an isolated practice, having witnessed it, I am amazed that it's even legal.
my boss is a complete fuckin idiot ... imagine explaining to a manager at a Consulting firm how client/server technology works. And thats just the beginning
yes
Fun anecdotes to be sure, but the article has nothing more intelligent to say than (pretty closely paraphrased quote from the article) "If your boss sucks, get over it or get out of there." Anyone have mod points to rate the article "over-rated"? *mutters* Slow freakin' news day.....
How about we make a site which lets people rate their boss, and if the boss gets enough bad ratings hopefully the higher ups will see the data and fire him.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Not a story. :)
Why? It's the Peter Principle...
In companies, people get promoted on merit, status and capabilities, going further up in the company until... they reach a position that they're incompetent or ineffective in. Why? Because they will get promoted no further and it's incredibly hard to demote people without causing harm to the way the company structure works.
In theory you could increase productivity in a company by demoting everybody by one position. That way everybody is operating at the edge of their abilities, not way beyond them.
Well, they give all managers lobotomies. How else would they be able to stand going to meetings for 7 hours a day.
Where am I going and why am I in this handbasket?
I mean, everyone's always so negative around here. Is there anyone that really likes their bosses?
*crickets*
Is Your Boss An Idiot?
Is that a rethorical question?
Of all the annoying bosses I've had, the 'technical' bosses were the worst... Early in my career, I had a boss who would want to try and 'fugure out' my code. He would stay all night and call me at 4:00 am because my code was 'broken' and I had to fix it be the open of business THAT DAY... would turn out he had changed the code to see what it would do, broke it, deployed it to check if it was broke, and then couldn't remember what he had changed! Source control saved me many many hours of work during that stretch...
Yeah, right.
Since when has something as lightweight or obvious as this been worth an article? Why is it I seem to have to go elsewhere for stories that are actually interesting. How long are we going to have to wait before we can chose the stories that are run?
I don't know about BSD dying, a think Slashdot will go first.
Most people, and therefore employees, are also idiots.
I've never had or even seen an idiot boss. The closest thing I've seen is one boss (not mine) who thought that the only way to get people to do anything was to scream at them. People mostly just ignored him.
Wow.. i would think a quick word to the boss' boss would put a quick end to that.. I had that happen ONCE to a project teammember and the architect (fancy name for a tech manager) got "fire and brimstoned"
----
techie managers suck (not good enuf to do tech and not incompetent enuf to do management)
This guy is my boss and DAMN he's an idiot!
(Unfortunately, it looks like someone has DoSed the site. Bummer.)
I've worked for many people and also for myself and my boss has never been an idiot. I would have been an idiot to work for an idiot, and the one time this almost happened (reorganization in the company I worked for), I quit and found another job.
It does not say much for someone who knowingly works for an idiot! Yes, tell me about job insecurity and so on, but if your boss really is a fool, your job ain't safe either.
Work for competent people. It's so much more fun, more secure, and generates more money.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
...because if he finds out that it is me, he will tell his wife and then she won't fuck me anymore :(
...SATAN!
I dare you to call him an idiot!
T&K.
Political language
Jeanne Sahadi fired over a dispute about calling her boss an idiot. Film at 11.
Hate me!
Can be found here! This is so funny i almost shat myself!
Yes my boss is an idiot. However, he's a genius for figuring out a way to get into a nutshell
I for one welcome our new idiot masters...
Wait I don't, but they're already here.
Disclaimer: If I disagree with you I'm probably trolling...
There was an office manager where I worked who had absolutely no idea. He just happened to be the brother-in-law of one of the Directors of the organisation (an ISP).
Other than having a propensity to open up every infected email he received (the best one was when he sent "I Love You" to all the employees), he did some other things that were pretty stupid. My favourite, however was when one of our bigger clients needed to talk to him about something. We looked all round the office, and couldn't find him, so we suggested to the client that they called him. The boss answered the phone, and they had a conversation about whatever it was that was required, though there was a really bad echo on the line. The disucssion was, however, suddenly punctuated by quite a loud "plop!", as if something was dropped into a bowl of water. It then dawned on the client why nobody could find him when we went looking.
He was on the crapper!
This guy had answered his mobile phone to one of our largest clients, while sitting on the john! The client had called the manager in front of us, and we wondered why he at first went bright red and then broke down in laughter.
He didn't tell us what had happened until later.
-- james
Anyone else get the feeling that we have been secretly spammed by this article on /.?
I mean really, isn't this article the same annoying type link you get five or six times a day from your "too much time on their hands at work" friends?
Upcoming Slashdot articles:
Is your sex life in need of a jump start?
Mates that cheat, and the test to tell.
Your job, is it right for you?
The survey to know if your mom is REALLY your mom.
Find your soulmate at the zoo.
Anyway, compared to a lot of these comments, I feel quite lucky. My boss (her name is Kari), is very nice. She's not too nosy, trusts me to do my job correctly, and takes enough time off for her family that she doesn't mind when I take a "sick day" here or there. Others I've heard, aren't so lucky. I have a Worst Case Scenario Handbook for work (quite humorous), and it lists three different types of bosses in there. The Micromanager, The Workaholic, and The Buddy.
The Micromanager - I think everyone has had one, a boss that wants to be into absolutely everything you do, and is basically breathing down your neck 24/7. The advice the book gives is to flood this boss with information. Copy them on every e-mail, no matter how miniscule the subject matter.
The Workaholic - I've never had this type of boss, but this certainly seems like sound advice: put vacation pamphlets on their desk, tell them about your family, show them pictures of your kids, etc. This type of boss has lost touch with the real world, they say. Unless you bring him back to some degree, or show him you're not the same, and that you have a family (or computers) that need your love and attention, this boss will demand the same performance from you.
The Buddy - I've been accused of being this way in other positions. I like to get to know the people I work with, and I'm constantly giving them too much information about my personal life. I'm a bit nosy too, so I ask a lot about things that they did over the weekend. I'm a people-person, I can't help it! ;) The book recommends that you either avoid this boss at all costs or you "make up" a hobby that you can safely tell them about without divulging any information that is of any consequence.
+5, Female
He hired me.
This is the premise that Dilbert was created on. Most of the ideas based on "my boss is an idiot" for the comic strip were submitted from the real world. Nothing new here, move on...
Your boss is vaporware?
Stick Men
I've had some really good bosses and some so-so bosses. But if you ask them I'm sure they'd say they've had some really good staff and some really bad staff.
From my own experience I would say having a bad employee work for you is worse than working for a bad boss.
I've always thought people complaining about their bosses generally ends up sounding like teenagers complaining about their parents.
Many people's attitude changes onces they've had staff of their own.
You try dealing with a guy who seriously yelled at the entire IT department for keeping livestock on premises... He was refering to the server farm, and no I'm not kidding...
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
Yes, Bill Gates is an idiot!
He understands basic logic (look, every one else's machine is doing what you're trying to do and doing it fine so the problem must be in your machine) even if he doesn't understand everything about computers.
But his boss is an idiot that buys every damn toy on the market and expect me to make it work just like the sales person said it would.
And my boss keeps giving me raises because I keep his boss off of his back.
QUICK VOTE Is your boss an idiot?
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http://Lenny.com
While it may be difficult to call my current boss just an "idiot," he is still an asshole. On the other hand I know people who have nice bosses, but are still idiots.
Someone I know has a boss who treats everyone extremely well, but is out of the loop so much that his actions nearly caused the whole department to be laid off.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Here are the reasons:
Doesn't care how I dress - my big thing, I like my jeans !
Doesn't care how I put in my hours
Does not micromanage The main thing she cares is the work gets done, all other items don't matter.
At least us lowly programmers don't bring our keyboards to the John, so why are you clamoring that our code is crap?
Was it SGI head honcho that wanted to fire all of its 'c' programmers, because they only wanted 'a' programmers on staff a few years back?
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
you have to ask?
Ok I'm the IT Manager at an oncology/diagnostic imaging clinic and holy shit is my boss, the general manager (COO if you ask him) an idiot. Some examples include:
Asking a patient out on a date.
The patient he asked out didn't want to date him but did set him up with a friend of hers who just left her husband a few weeks prior, who also happened to be a patient at our other clinic across town. After going out with her he decided to hire her as our new receptionist. Ten minutes after the Doctor saw one of his other patients working the phones she was gone and Frank got an ass chewing.
He reportedly said, in the middle of a meeting with the doctor and a female employ: "Sometimes when I get home after a day like this it's just brain masturbation." There's nothing I can say to put this in context because there was no context, he apparently just blurted it out for no apparent reason.
He's a verbal train wreck in general. Last week he interupted a group us working by the MRI desk (not together, just happened that a lot us needed something from that area at the same time) and shouted "Hey if none of you have any work to do maybe I should dock your pay, har har har!" He then proceeded to hold us hostage for about 20 minutes while he told stupid stories about being a self made man, tried to sell my assistant some old suits he couldn't wear anymore and then told us all the story of how his father died of a heart attack at 52.
Fortunatly he didn't hire me and can't fire me. The Doctor/owner of the clinic hired me directly a few months ago and loves me because I'm finishing projects my predecessor spent the better part of a year fucking up.
"Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" - Kurt Vonnegut
"NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - You can't live with 'em. And you can't shoot 'em. "
Apparently they missed their own headlines a few days ago:
"Salvador Tapia returned to the Windy City Core Supply warehouse where he had been fired six months ago and killed six of his former co-workers, police said Wednesday."
Apparently, if you can't live with 'em, you can shoot 'em.
- Kate
"DNA is life. The rest is just translation."
I don't know how, but I'll find a way. Pack up your stuff, "boss", because as soon as I can find a way to acquire you, I will terminate you so quick you'll think you were in a seedy uptown clinic dodging a coathanger.
Whoops! That's a little tasteless. Sorry. You're still fired, though.
Bob? Is that you Bob?
You're FIRED!!!
Reuters. Midwest headquarters, Chicago. Stock trading workstations. Instead of taking a 14 dollar NIC off the shelf at the Radio Shack in the lobby of the building 3 blocks away, the company forced me to send the machine to London for NIC replacement. The customer lost his workstation for 3 weeks, during which time he was unable to conduct transactions on the Mercantile Exchange without calling a middleman and paying fees. Fees he had originally avoided by leasing one of our Globex machines. Fees I would have saved him by spending 14 dollars from my own pocket to have the machine fixed in under an hour, walking time to the store and back included. Not to mention the risk to his data during the trans-Atlantic flights, a risk I was not allowed to alleviate by tossing his drive in my machine back at the office and burning a couple CD's for him before shipping out the box. Which is why I quit.
That, and I taught my boss how to say a few bad words in his wife's native language (Polish), and it got him slapped so he quit talking to me in the smoking lounge.
"The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants." --Thomas Jefferson
My bosses coded in assembler and qbasic (in the 70's/80s) and somewhere between the two of them I'm getting nailed. I was trying to load edi data into Oracle and I was looking for some internal people that could help, so I asked my bosses. One of them broke it down into assembler, the other one flowcharted in qbasic with goto's, and I had to listen to each manager for about 2 hours while they fleshed it out. All I wanted was a name of someone in the company that experienced this before, not their ancient and unimplementable or irrelevant solutions.
I'll take a non-tech manager anyday - at least they know that they don't know.
No, he isn't.
Oh and my review is coming up soon. I've working incredibly hard, so I'm sure I will get a good pay increase. Isn't that right of most noble lord of the workplace?
Methinks there's little of the announced "Advice on how to cope with a PHB" to find in the article, apart from "Get over it or get out". We are informed however where to get more, as that grand insight is given by ... Kathleen Lundin, coauthor of "When Smart People Work for Dumb Bosses: How to Survive in a Crazy, Dysfunctional Workplace." That worth a posting on Slashdot ... ?
I would like to know who IS my boss...!?!?
Well, that's a common complain among helpdesk people. For the longest time, the internal travel reservation web site at a Large Computer Manufacturer had a list of dos and don'ts containing this little gem:
Don't call us while performing bodily functions. We can hear you flush.
It lasted until a higher management type made a reservation himself instead of bugging his secretary. The "unprofessional wording" was then quickly removed.
You know this web thing is not a geek-only affair anymore when management uses it. And then you wonder, is it really a victory?
--
Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
The other day, the moron walked up to my desk, looked at me for a moment, and then said "uh...". He kept looking at me for a second, and then he walked into the bathroom.
Amazing.
For a daily dose of those needing a clue-stick:
http://www.computerworld.com/sharky
Bookmark it people! Put it on your daily reading list! A new story every day!
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
The logical successor to the Peter Principle is the Dilbert Principle: The most ineffective workers are systematically moved to where they can do the least damage: management.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
When I working tech support at UPS in Hialeah, FL I had one technically challenged boss. He was trying to get a PC configured with some very clear instructions handed down from the corporate offices in Atlanta. The machine was somewhat critical as it monitored the package flow rate on the conveyor belts that ran throughout the building.
Anywho, The instructions called for such things as a specific PC that used a particular clock rate (the software was DOS based and had problems with faster machines), configuration of the serial ports, specific version of DOS, etc.. He and another tech were having problems configuring the machine so he asked me to take a look after they'd been looking at it for a few days. I got there and quickly realized that the PC was not the one specified, the com ports weren't configured, the DOS version was wrong, and just about everything else was incorrect.
He asked me to call our national tech support to get the problem resolved, even though he knew all the specs were wrong. So I called the third level tech support guy that he'd been working with. I explained to the tech that I was just put on the project and let it be known that the PC was different. Oh really, the tech said. Apparently my boss had been telling him that the PC was the model that was required. Tech support was pissed.
When this came out I spoke to another boss. She must have said something to my boss because a few hours later he told me to stop trying to troubleshoot and that I should package the machine and ship it to the regional service center so that they can configure the machine.
My jaw dropped.
Umm, you want me to ship this machine, one that is clearly listed as not working for this application, to a technician in Kentucky so that he or she can read the instructions then send it back because it's the wrong PC?
I got out of there quickly. To be fair, he was the worst boss I've ever had, but there have been others that were close.
... when the boss asks you to do something that could cost you your job
A blog I run for the wealth
I can't believe nobody (or at least no high-scored-post) has yet mentioned that Scott Adams has written many books about this. All the books are full of real life examples of stupid boss behaviour but some of the content is disguised as humorous instead of being documentation for real life. Don't fall into that pit! Scott Adams has even a web site dedicated for idiot boss and cow-orkers. You might want to become a member of DNRC, too.
_________________________
Spelling and grammar mistakes left as an exercise for the reader.
The boss is a person who's good at doing 20 jobs at the same time. Yes I think he's an idiot but I couldn't possibly do more than 2 jobs at a time. As a nerd I focus on one thing and do it well. SO i admire the bosses when they can watch over 30 projects or so. I find this very facinating despite the fact that my boss looks at me with the "zoning-out" look when I explain the new algorithm.
I work for myself, blah, blah, blah.
Now I think, I'm also fired.
I remember an article some time ago, saying basically that after Sept. 11 there was a growth in the number of idiot bosses.
The reasoning was this: after that fatal day many bosses/managers/etc. were able to hide their incompetence by blaming the downturn in economy caused by Sept. 11.
I personally worked for such a company, which managed to get from 300 employees to less than 70 in two years. And I'm not talking about some "dot com" startup, that was an well established company, owned by a bigger corporate, with good products and satisfied customers.
But a new management was put in place and strange (and obviously stupid) decissions started to be made. Customers started complaining, the books got red.
Management's strategy when the owners started to ask questions? Just keep blaming "Sept. 11" and keep sacking people to save the costs - starting with the best techs. So the company is dying because of idiot bosses.
Has anyone else had bosses using Sept. 11 to hide their own incompetence?
The Peter Principle: People rise to their own level of incompetence.
Its really simple, if you can do your current job reasonably well and your immediate bosses job becomes vacant, you're a candidate. Run this algorithm over time and everyone eventually gets promoted to a job they are not competent to hold.
Some firms attempt to circumvent the Peter Principle by bringing in "management" from outside. This is generally worse since the people doing the work see a constant steam of incompetents who know nothing of the business brought in to tell them what to do. With this scenario, not only is the "boss" incompetent but he or she also doesn't understand the business whereas promoting someone from inside may mean you get someone who doesn't know how to manage but at least understands the business.
Regardless of whether you promote from inside or bring management in from outside, there will always be a percentage of people attracted to these positions because their motivations are power, prestige, etc. Since they generally have few useful skills, these people will generally be more politically adept than the poor slob who is actually technically competent and happens to be a person who still hasn't topped out against the Peter Principle. Been there; had this happen to me. That was when I decided that a management career track wasn't for me.
Its really sad commentary about the so-called planned economies of the Soviet Union, etc. that this "system" is still more efficient than any planned economy.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
All those who work in the White House say: Amen!
Carpe Diem: Seize The Day!
Who's the bigger fool? The fool, or the fool who follows him?.
From 'Betterman,' Algernon
http://www.google.com/search?q=betterman+algernon Couldn't find a really good link that explains it all, sorry.
thats my boss Dumbass Tech. He knows diddly squat he barely knows how to check his email and browse goofy web sights. 1: i will never work under a Salesman(you know the type) again 2:i wonder when some cnn employee tells of ted turners leadership style
Never underestimate the logical power of sarcasm
Boss - "My boss says we need some eunuch programmers." Dilbert - "I think he means UNIX and I already know UNIX." Boss - "Well, if the company nurse comes by, tell her I said never mind."
c-hack.com |
I've seen plenty of idiots in charge of things, but mercifully haven't worked under one for a while.
I think good management is a culture that comes down from the top. In the company where I work, there are around 50 of us. The MD (also owner of the company) is a very down-to-earth guy, knows the technical side but is also the kind of manager who reminds you to take regular breaks because they're good for you. He hired a smart guy to lead the half of the company I work in, and he in turn hired/promoted smart team leaders for each individual project. Working conditions are among the best I've ever seen, and almost no-one ever leaves...
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
I work for a relatively new company that is establishing itself. I have three effective bosses (co owners) and they break down like this: The guy who I used to share a flat (apartment) with who will make any and everyone laugh and taught me that the most important thing in the workplace is communication. He understands that people have to be given the opportunity to screw up and will not assign blame without their being good reason. The guy I go to the gym with who goes out of his way to ensure the company pays people early at xmas, that the company pays for staff days out and sees himself as some sort of father figure to everyone. The guy who invites people to his house for meals and wine and trusts us all to do our jobs, even when we don't. And people wonder why I am so damn happy here even though I could make more money elsewhere. Great jobs are great because of the atmosphere and the people you work with. In the past I have had my share of fun bosses tho: The anti social anal retentive who couldn't get anything actioned and I spent my entire day talking people into doing what he wanted just because he had no people skills. The guy who, with one breath, would claim you were overexagerrating the scale of the problem and then claim you weren't doing enough to deal with something you knew to be important. The raving lunatic who once told me that we had been doing something in a certain way for twenty years despit the company being 3 years old and the system for doing said operation still being in development . . . .
And, his boss probably knows it, but thinks all of us in this State are fools, and that he needs a good thief in charge of us.
How depressing! Here's a solution: plain kiddie pr0n, warez and Enron memos on his hard drive and narc him. Scratch one PHB!
-Billco, Fnarg.com
I love my job. I love my boss. I wake up looking forward to work.
:-) But let it be known that it IS possible for managers with good technical knowledge and managerial/people skills to exist. They're rare, though. If you find one, you'll probably be happy to deal with the odd bits of shit that get through to you.
(And no, I'm actually NOT being facetious!)
My manager used to be a tech geek. After the company was bought out, he left due to personality conflicts. When the subject of said conflicts was fired for being utterly incompetent, he came back as manager of a tech group, and has steadily worked his way to manager of the entire Unix team (about 40 of us or so).
His job, officially, is to make sure that we provide the best possible service (Unix hardware and software both) to our customers. His idea of how to accomplish that is to fight like hell to ensure:
1) We don't have to deal with corporate bullshit.
2) We have the equipment and tools we need to do our jobs.
3) We get the training we need, initially and ongoing.
4) We don't have to deal with client-side politics. If the customers have problems with us, they take it to our manager. (who in turn deals with us fairly)
And on top of that, he's been away from the command line for a few years now but he still at least understands the work we do.
Am I just bragging here? Maybe.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Well, they give all managers lobotomies. How else would they be able to stand going to meetings for 7 hours a day.
Meetings are lobotomies. Long, drawn-out ones, that slowly kill you over time, like cigarettes.
PUBLIC SPLIT ON WHETHER BUSH IS A DIVIDER -CNN scrolling banner, 10/15/2004
My PHB was a real idiot. He made the whole company switch to Linux because he had this anti-MS religious belief. Everyone except the CEO and the VP's were bullied into using Linux.
The problem is, our product is Windows-based. So, he grudgingly allowed some of us to dual boot to Windows. But he disallowed use of VS.NET, which we were firmly entrenched in. So, we spent 2 months porting our product to VS6.
After we shipped (almost 1 year late) we went bankrupt, ostensibly due to a "bad economic climate".
I heard stories of another PHB who organized a group sex event among his coworks to improve morale and breakdown interpersonal anonymity.
CBC radio airs a program called "Workology". Past show subjects can be reviewed and listened-to (RAM) here.
A lot of it is pretty funny and useful.
The buddy system worked for me. ;)
My former supervisor was a very nice guy and talked about his personal life JUST enough that you felt like he was your friend. He never used anything you said against you.
He lived about an hour and 15 minutes away from the office, and would almost every day talk to me for the entire drive home about all of the stupid crap that went down.
I'm not dumb; at first I didn't state that I saw anything wrong with the way things were done... I let him throw the first punches and name names. After that, it was a nice bitch session every day, including smoke breaks that I would spend with him complaining about the idiots that run the place, and how ineffective the entire management structure was. It was great.
I was laid off due to financial constraits (and I was the last in the door; the customer [I was a contractor] decided on me, not my supervisor).
My boss went to bat for me and tried to find me positions on other teams in the company. After he told me about that in my "we have to let you go" meeting, he actually produced a STACK of papers that were email trails with the leaders of the teams he was trying to get me positions with.
He left the company since because he couldn't stand the way they ran things. He left cold without another job lined up. He can't even get unemployment as a result. Things were THAT bad there.
In closing, I'm very glad that I got to have discussions about all of the "water cooler rumors" that spread around the office with him, and got to share my TRUE concerns and hear his about the way the company was run. I still talk to him on the phone to this day... He is a little more free to talk to me about what happened there now that his job is no longer at risk
I once worked for a startup with a raving idiot for a boss, who could not open his mouth without making disparaging remarks, which he apparently felt was neccessary to establish his dominance. Three months after the firm went under and laid everyone off, he called me for a reference. Rather than hang up, I realized that Divine Provenance had Delivered Him Unto Me.
"I'm sorry, I only give out my name as a reference to people who can perform real work, which is not something I saw from you in the brief period of time under your supervision. I do wish you the best of luck in your job hunt, and enjoy the weather, it's gotten quite nice lately".
The other one was having the CEO of a multibillion-dollar firm intervene in my review. It was better than the massive raise and bonus I received.
I have two bosses.
I work for myself and someone else.
When I work for someone else I make sure that boss is a good boss or I'm soo gone.
When I work for myself I get an idiot every time.
(If I were such a great boss I wouldn't need a second job to pay the bills)
I don't actually exist.
At least this is the Schlumberger way, when a boss gets in deep sh.. , he is sent overseas..., maybe to spread the sh.. around the world or enhance his curriculum calling him and international sh.. spreader.
So if you work at Schlumberger, here are the tips to make it big as a boss:
Be arrogant with the clients.
Deminish the work of your co-workers saying stupid comments on their work, on the long run you'll be called an expert.
Spend long hours reading the corporate e-mail giving stupid feed backs, this will show you as a business-care person, while projects and clients go to hell.
Don't develop products or ideas, is a lost of time, someone else will do it and you can get the credits later.
Find an egghead and ask him for technical things and repeat as a parrot on meetings, if someone ask you the why of the things work your way out of the conversation.
To be an idiot pays BIG at Schlumberger.
Well, we have prepublishing, and I'm pretty good at training our staff, and we got the last project done a month and a half ahead of time. I'm a "ghost in the machine" boss: I have no official standing, no job description, and it's my wife that owns a part of the company, but I do get things done. Which isn't to plug myself: I can't negotiate a contract worth didley-squat. In a way, that's my one job as a boss, and I'm lousy at it.
/. PHB article (not this one), and I commented on PHBs. Sure enough, when I looked in the mirror, my hair was sticking up, and from one angle I looked exactly like Dilbert's PHB.
Oh, yeah... I'm slightly balding in front, too.
But anyhow, I spent all night at the office recently, and shipped the book the next day. Then they had a
Aaaaaaaargh. Bad hair day.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
Back when I used to work as a software engineer, we had a large automotive engine tester that we made. Our boss, VP of Engineering, was out trying to help sell gobs of them to some large car repair chain. They asked him, "What operating system does it use?" His reply? "We use Microsoft Word."
There is no hope for him. I'm glad I'm out of there now.
Lemon curry?
The boss monkeys look down from high up the tree and all they see is a bunch of smiling monkey faces.
While when you're at the bottom of the tree looking up, all you see is a bunch of assholes.
And actually, my boss is very competent.
If you think your boss is an idiot probably your boss knows that too or he is just trying to social engineer you by pretending to be stupid.
Before trusting your and your peers judgement about a boss being stupid or smart first try to evaluate yourself from the eyes of others. Start with your family for instance including your kids, your parents and your colleagues. You will be surprised to find that many of them think you are stupid too.
In real life bosses who are stupid are generally smart and bosses who act smart often are the most stupid people.
IMO, the problem is not how technically knowledgable the boss is but rather how inept he/she is and whether there is too much micromanagement involved. I would suspect that an inept but knowledgable boss is invariably more dangerious than an inept and unknowledgable one.
The worst bosses I have ever had were the inaccessible micromanager types-- you know the kind-- the kind that thinks they know exactly how best to do your job and assume that they don't ever need to be available to discuss issues with the employees. I have seen this happen with both technical and nontechnical bosses and the result is always the same-- teamwork simply isn't, and the boss is resented by everyone.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
What does she use, a strap-on?
Ah, well. I've registered a domain for us. I intend to use it to help geeks bridge the gap between their worlds and the rest human life form.
pointyhairedboss.geek.nz will be coming to you soon. Because...we *do* understand.
-- Free software on every PC on every desk
Thank god for those helpful links to CNN and CNN Money. We never could have found our way to the main index pages from the linked article otherwise.
You mean the one looking at my screen over my shoulder? Of course not! Hes the smartest guy in the world.
In my last job, my ex-boss wasn't an idiot, but his boss (our CTO) was. This is a true story:
One day he went to one or our co-workers and asked: "What is the multicast protocol about?". The guy explained him everything and he seemed to understand. About one or two months later, managers from another branch were complaining about the low performance of their Intranet systems. This CTO was a disaster, they spent millions and had no results at all. Well, then, on the phone he said: "Don't worry! We'll implement the dreamcast protocol and this will improve our bandwidth utilization!". Our "ERP" system was web-based (Cold Fusion on Windows / MS-SQL, to run over links from 64k to 512k. Yes, they were able to waste millions even with only 64k links).
One time my boss asked me to print one of his emails, scan it, convert it into a pdf, and then email it to someone.
;)
Just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should
and my boss is an idiot.
Also as usual you have to look at the question. Yes they may not be an idiot but they may be clueless by choice.
My boss, for example, was a programmer, yet now you try and show him some code or new software or something and he just glazes over.
All he cares about now is talking about work rather that actually doing any work. The more meetings the better!
Bush and Blair ate my sig!
I'm a student tech for the Housing Dept at my school.. My boss is an complete tech idiot, even though her resume shows that she's been working with computers since the mid-80's. On Thursday I walked in from fixing a computer and she tells me a girl is on the phone and upset because people are looking at all her files. I say, "Tell her to stop sharing them." She replies, "How?" I reply, "Uninstall File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks." Pretty simple, huh? Her reply, "Don't get all technical with me, explain that."
/release". I wander off for a couple minutes to do something else, and come back to find her talking to the Help Desk asking if the network is down. I remember what she had done, so I open a command prompt on her computer and type "ipconfig /renew" for her.. and whatta ya know, she's back online.
I just walked out of her office and hid for about 20 minutes to keep from blowing up on her.
She was helping a student on the phone the other day, and going through the actions on her computer so she knows what the student is seeing. She wants the student to release their IP address, so she types in "ipconfig
After reading this discussion, I realize that I've seen the Dilbert Principle in action. We have a girl that is about worthless, just comes in the office and surfs the web. Boss lady gave the girl a raise and made her the "office manager." Great.
Good thing I graduate in December, I don't think I could handle this nonsense much longer.
My new boss who had a "lot of experience" in IT took a look at the server room not long after he started. He kept pointing to the many UPS and calling them 'servers'. I knew it was going to be a long year...
Where ever I go, there I am
There's no 'I' in 'team', but there's a 'U' in 'fuckwit'.
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
To avoid Peter's Principle the answer is simple: Don't link pay raises to management status.
The best way to get Peter's Principle is to have promotion to management be the only way to get a decent raise. Then everyone wants to be management, whether they are competent or whether they would even like to do it. If money is taken out of the equation, the odds of promoting a skilled techie to an incompetent manager drops dramatically.
There have been issues with this in many local gov't jobs over the last decade (not mine, thankfully my boss is a good one). The main issue being that the unions made firing incompetents difficult, demoting them almost impossible, but moving them "up" easier. So, eventually the fat rises, and the competents stay down because they are needed, but incompetents get moved up because it's the only way to get rid of them. It's sad when it happens, but it does.
The best boss is one who knows how to keep you on track, keep other people from getting in the way, and not get in your way him/herself
What makes a good Vs a bad boss, and... as much as some people may b*tch about their boss, do they think they could do a better job. Hey, bosses do dumb things, but as a worker have you done worse?.
I've been lucky as far as my bosses. In most cases, the best thing I can say about them is that they've known when to trust my judgement and do my job. In others, they've kept people off my back who would have otherwise distracted me from doing more important work (got something for me to do, talk to the boss about it first).
And, when things have blown up beyond my control (
Some of my cooler bosses have had a smattering of technical knowledge. Many like techie toys, and I've found it cool to help them learn to use 'em. I think that it's great to have a boss that understands to some extent what you are doing, but better to have one who knows his/her limitations. In the end, having a boss that helps you do your job is much better than one who knows your job.
Any responses on what makes a good boss? How well do you think you would do in management?
Darl, oh Darl!
I was in the rest room with the Director of "Organizational Effectiveness"(think of the consultants in Office Space). We were both using the urinals.
Now, I think it's one thing to *answer* the phone while you're in the bathroom. It could be a *really* important phone call coming in. I can accept that in certain cases.
It's another to *INITIATE* a phone call WHILE YOU'RE TAKING A PISS.
And it wasn't some urgent phone call to the CEO. it was just a quick call to his adminsitrative assistant.
I would've been floored if I weren't so icked out about the bathroom floor.
Are you guys hiring?
</obvious>
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."