“It’s sheer agony working for my boss,” a woman recently told me. “He’s unbelievable.”
She continued: “In conversation he always puts you on the defensive. He asks rude questions such as “How old are you anyway?” “Are you a natural blond?” “How much money does your boyfriend make?”
“When he wants to make a point, he puts his hands on your shoulders to let you know he’s serious.”
“He assigns you a project, but then checks up on you 25,000 times. He butts in, changes it. He won’t let you be responsible for it.”
“He comes up and picks lint off my suit. He straightens my collar or my scarf. I want to say ‘Buzz off, slime ball.'”
“He acts like I didn’t have a life before I started working for his company. He thinks he made me what I am.”
“He can’t sit down very long. In the middle of a brain-storming session someone will be talking and he keeps butting in and interrupting. After he says what he wants to say, he gets up and leaves. Or he leaves while someone else is talking. We think he’s gone to the John. He doesn’t come back. We say, ‘Where is Fred?'”
“When decisions are made after one of these brainstorming sessions, he’s mad if we don’t use all his ideas.”
“When he’s with a client, he promises them the world. And then he reneges.”
“He is unbelievably tight when he negotiates salary. He uses every tactic in the book to intimidate you and make you feel insecure. He tells you that earnings are down. Times are hard. He’s doing you a favor by keeping you on the payroll. No one else would want you anyway. He, on the other hand, lives in a million-dollar house and drives a Jag.”
“He talks of being friends and thinks nothing of asking you to stay late or to come in early or give up a weekend. He says, ‘Friends do that for each other.’ But he never says thank-you or rewards you with a bonus.”
‘He takes your ideas and somehow in a week or two they become his ideas.’
“He starts a conversation in the middle of what he’s thinking about and you are always trying to play catch-up and figure out what he’s talking about.”
“He makes lewd remarks about other women.
“He makes lewd remarks to your boyfriend about you.”
“He never asks any follow-up questions about your life. You could say, ‘I broke my knee last night’ and he wouldn’t ask you how you did it.”
“Almost everyone thinks he’s a jerk. Doesn’t he get it?”
Check out Doris’ latest books, “The Boy Whose Idea Could Feed the World” as well as, “The Parent Teacher Discussion Guide.” and “Thin Becomes You”. Doris’ web page: www.doriswildhelmering.com
Doris Wild Helmering 