Worst manager ever...

thehouses

What is the worst experience you ever had with a manager? I heard of someone who worked for VHI and was told by two managers that they were late by 1 minute one day, despite always being on time up to then. One even proceeded to explain to them how being 1 minute late could affect the work of the "team."

Have you have had any funny/strange experiences like this from managers?

Nody

My worst manager was simply a person who'd lie me up in the face over and over again while sticking a dagger in my back when speaking with other people. I simply could not take anything he told me as true and he often went back on anything written as well (which I started to request to have a clear agreement of our discussion that he'd not be able to back out off).

That makes for a horrible working relationship (but as it was my direct manager it was not an option of ignoring it) as I could not trust anything said nor get any back up if needed on the issues to be solved etc.

brokenarms

The worst manager I had was one who was too nice to everyone. Company policy being ignored to favour peoples personal circumstances ..

Giving people a break on the rules is great. But should not happen for everyone all the time.

He got the elbow and a real Nazi was brought in to correct things.

superelliptic

Worst I had was a direct manager and his boss - both people who loved to have too much work to do so that they could always claim to be frantically busy. They were big fans of a certain type of american puritan style of work ethic which I see as particularly corrosive whereby they would faf about with endless meetings which they would spend posturing instead of doing any actual work and then at the 11th hour work until 11 or 12pm at night to pull the project back from the brink and then top it off by complaining that they never got to see their familys, etc, etc... Just really emphasising how much they were taking one for the 'team' and that they were real hero's - utter BS in other words.

The real problems came when it became obvious that they expected the same lunacy from their staff and started pulling peoples bonuses and threatning jobs if we didnt start working the unnessessarily long hours with them. :mad:

Never let anyone tell you its the amount of hours that you put in that counts. It usually isnt. I know its a cliche, but there is something to the phrase "work smarter, not harder". Anyone with half a brain can fit a productive day of quality work in between 8:30am and 5pm without having to burn the midnight oil every other week.

Jim2007

thehouses wrote: »

What is the worst experience you ever had with a manager? I heard of someone who worked for VHI and was told by two managers that they were late by 1 minute one day, despite always being on time up to then. One even proceeded to explain to them how being 1 minute late could affect the work of the "team."

Have you have had any funny/strange experiences like this from managers?

I once had a manager who always communicated via memo... Having seen me toss one of his memos in the trash, he went back to his desk and sent me a memo about not throwing his memos in the trash!

Then I had a manager who did not like delivering performance reviews, so he got his junior assistant to deliver them: "John thinks you are...."

And of course there was that one that complained to me about not getting a certain report one month! When I explained to him that he had terminated the person who did the report, he disappeared for a while only to return wondering if I'd ring the lady up and try to get her to come back!

I guess I've been around a while

Jim2007

superelliptic wrote: »

Never let anyone tell you its the amount of hours that you put in that counts. It usually isnt. I know its a cliche, but there is something to the phrase "work smarter, not harder". Anyone with half a brain can fit a productive day of quality work in between 8:30am and 5pm without having to burn the midnight oil every other week.

Well here in Switzerland they work from 7:00 to 17:30 or so, but if you are seen to be working regular over time it is assumed that you or you boss are just not up to the job! It is amazing how many Americans & Brits get a bad performance in their first year over here

padma

One of the worst I had was a polish chap who was an unreal racist towards Irish and Africans. He got promoted to manager due to the other manager walking out of the job.

1st thing he did was cut all the Irish guys hours and the African dude who was there years.

He then brought three of his friends from Poland over to start a new job in Ireland. Gave them full working weeks. After his second month in the job it was clear he was driving the mans business to the ground by having people who couldn't speak English in a Customer Service role. Plus they were very arrogant to customers and other staff.

Area manager demoted him on his performance and brought in a girl from a different store who was one of the company's best. She soon turned around the store by utilising the best staff to do certain jobs etc. The three guys from Poland walked out after a few weeks and the original Polish guy stayed for half a year out of stubbornness hoping to get the power back, but alas t'was not to be.

wmpdd3

Worst manager ever, stapled a memo to a sweeping brush that I left on the shop floor.

mikemac1

I was a barman and our bar supervisor was sacked for dipping into the till.

He somehow got an assitant store manager job in Lidl. I forget what the salary is but that's a good job for sure with opportunities for progression. Sacked again for thieving.

brevity

superelliptic wrote: »

Never let anyone tell you its the amount of hours that you put in that counts. It usually isnt. I know its a cliche, but there is something to the phrase "work smarter, not harder". Anyone with half a brain can fit a productive day of quality work in between 8:30am and 5pm without having to burn the midnight oil every other week.

While I agree with work smarter, not harder, I think its unfair to insult people by saying they have half a brain if they work more than the standard.

In certain circumstances overtime is required either due to not enough staff or project deadlines, not because of someone's inefficiencies.

I personally hate micro-managers, just let me do the work with out bothering me every 30 minutes :mad:

superelliptic

brevity wrote: »

While I agree with work smarter, not harder, I think its unfair to insult people by saying they have half a brain if they work more than the standard.

In certain circumstances overtime is required either due to not enough staff or project deadlines, not because of someone's inefficiencies.

I personally hate micro-managers, just let me do the work with out bothering me every 30 minutes :mad:

Yeah, I can see how that could be interpretted that way. I just started getting very angry while typing that post - all the memories started coming back :pac:

To clarify - Im not trying to imply that if you work overtime alot that you are in some way thick - I had to work overtime ALL the time - I never got out of work when I was supposed to hence my reason for posting. My former manger(s) did not work effectivly during office hours and would (could?) only work under self imposed pressure created by leaving everything to be completed at the 11th hour. This meant that our normal bread and butter work was being constantly interrupted to cater for their last minute (usually huge) delegated tasks, which meant constant unpaid overtime for myself and at least 2 other guys I worked with directly - All because these managers had rubbish time managment skills and little appreciation for the complexity of the tasks that they were delegating. Add to that these guys attitude when it came to treating the staff who were suffering for their mistakes and you have a recipe for a boycott on your hands.

Ultimately, the best managers are the ones that give clear targets to achieve, time manage the most effectivly for themselves and their teams, and micro manage the least.



(so am I back on the xmas card list )

brevity

superelliptic wrote: »

Yeah, I can see how that could be interpretted that way. I just started getting very angry while typing that post - all the memories started coming back :pac:

To clarify - Im not trying to imply that if you work overtime alot that you are in some way thick - I had to work overtime ALL the time - I never got out of work when I was supposed to hence my reason for posting. My former manger(s) did not work effectivly during office hours and would (could?) only work under self imposed pressure created by leaving everything to be completed at the 11th hour. This meant that our normal bread and butter work was being constantly interrupted to cater for their last minute (usually huge) delegated tasks, which meant constant unpaid overtime for myself and at least 2 other guys I worked with directly - All because these managers had rubbish time managment skills and little appreciation for the complexity of the tasks that they were delegating. Add to that these guys attitude when it came to treating the staff who were suffering for their mistakes and you have a recipe for a boycott on your hands.

Ultimately, the best managers are the ones that give clear targets to achieve, time manage the most effectivly for themselves and their teams, and micro manage the least.



(so am I back on the xmas card list )

Ya I understand where you are coming from. That paragraph you wrote describes perfectly where I am at the moment.

(Back on the list, in fact I suggest the 12 pubs of Christmas while we are at it :pac:)

superelliptic

brevity wrote: »

Ya I understand where you are coming from. That paragraph you wrote describes perfectly where I am at the moment.

(Back on the list, in fact I suggest the 12 pubs of Christmas while we are at it :pac:)

Nice - I suggest starting at Grogans, OP you in? :pac:

PropJoe10

I'd a manager who told me in a private chat that all they wanted from their job was a redundancy cheque. I felt so motivated.

gandalf

The worst manager I ever had was the worst people manager I have ever experienced. He had the knack of demotivating us all with one sentence. He used to put on his special "manager voice" when talking to us especially if he was in front of the MD of the company. The worst thing of all about him was his inability to make a decision and stick to it, because of this indecisiveness issues with certain clients were left to fester for months on end with yours truly getting it in the ear when they eventually blew up. This happened despite the company actually implementing in most cases the recommendation to the problem I made when I initially brought the problem to his attention.

Aglomerado

I used to work for a fairly large company in the mid west. Lovely company to work for, can't fault them, but the line manager in our department was an absolute wagon. I managed to stick it out for 3 years before deciding that I'd finally had enough and went back to full-time education. She:

Reprimanded me for "playing manager" when a new girl bored out of her wits on her fourth day (boss was ignoring her and not sorting out her training) asked to sit beside me and watch me doing my work:

This same girl never turned up for her second week in the department. We never heard from her again.

Told two girls that they had to ask for permission to leave the office and say where they were going in future just because she caught them having a fag in the basement (pre-smoking ban days!). There was no proper smoking break time. Boss didn't smoke so she didn't care if people didn't get to have a fag.

Would pass comments about Arts graduates (me) loudly in the office, while boasting that her daughter had a "proper" science degree (but was working as a waitress in Spain).

She changed a procedure which directly affected my work, without telling me, and then bawled me out for not going about my work in the "correct" way. I protested rather loudly at the time, which resulted in her ignoring me apart from work related matters until the day I left - she didn't take criticism very well but was well able to dole it out!!

She would spend ages talking loudly on the phone to her children. If they had good news, she would sit at her desk so we would all have to listen, if it was bad news she would run into another room with a cordless office phone. If her children were calling from abroad, she would ring them back from the office phone. As far as I know, senior management didn't take her up on this... maybe they were afraid!!!

Horrible, horrible woman. When I left I asked her manager (who I got on fine with) for a reference, stating that I had no respect for her and thought it hypocritical to ask someone who didn't have my respect for a reference.

thehouses

Aglomerado wrote: »

I used to work for a fairly large company in the mid west. Lovely company to work for, can't fault them, but the line manager in our department was an absolute wagon. I managed to stick it out for 3 years before deciding that I'd finally had enough and went back to full-time education. She:

Reprimanded me for "playing manager" when a new girl bored out of her wits on her fourth day (boss was ignoring her and not sorting out her training) asked to sit beside me and watch me doing my work:

This same girl never turned up for her second week in the department. We never heard from her again.

Told two girls that they had to ask for permission to leave the office and say where they were going in future just because she caught them having a fag in the basement (pre-smoking ban days!). There was no proper smoking break time. Boss didn't smoke so she didn't care if people didn't get to have a fag.

Would pass comments about Arts graduates (me) loudly in the office, while boasting that her daughter had a "proper" science degree (but was working as a waitress in Spain).

She changed a procedure which directly affected my work, without telling me, and then bawled me out for not going about my work in the "correct" way. I protested rather loudly at the time, which resulted in her ignoring me apart from work related matters until the day I left - she didn't take criticism very well but was well able to dole it out!!

She would spend ages talking loudly on the phone to her children. If they had good news, she would sit at her desk so we would all have to listen, if it was bad news she would run into another room with a cordless office phone. If her children were calling from abroad, she would ring them back from the office phone. As far as I know, senior management didn't take her up on this... maybe they were afraid!!!

Horrible, horrible woman. When I left I asked her manager (who I got on fine with) for a reference, stating that I had no respect for her and thought it hypocritical to ask someone who didn't have my respect for a reference.

Some people seem to be on a power trip. Maybe they are jealous and feel threatened by their staff who they know would do their job better....

johnnymt

thehouses wrote: »

Some people seem to be on a power trip. Maybe they are jealous and feel threatened by their staff who they know would do their job better....

Agree with you there. Managers who are insecure in their own ability/position often take the power trip approach.

DeltaWhite

A boss I had would not do a THING in the job, like seriously, he wouldn't get his own glasses of water, wouldn't make his own coffee cos apparently he doesn't like the taste of his own coffee!

He would never make his own calls, even if he had a clients number is his iPhone he would make me search for ages on Google trying to get their number, or ringing offices to get number rather than just take his phone out of his pocket and RING HIMSELF!! awh even thinking of it now irritates the crap outta me. He would do absolutely nothing to get involved with the company, even though the place was falling apart with the banks in investigating us cos we weren't making money. He still sat at his desk all day shouting at everyone. Poor me was only short of having to wipe his arse for him... Arrogance like I've never seen before.

Wanderer2010

Not me but my mate worked for a solicitor who was the biggest coward she had ever met. Where do I start? He left two of the staff wander in 15 minutes late every single day both for starting time and lunch time (one in particular wanders in 20 minutes late after lunch all the time), but demanded that my mate be there at 9am and 1pm to deal with clients etc, anytime she was a little bit late he would get very annoyed with her. Also, he used to hide upstairs in his office whenever difficult clients came to the practice wanting their money, documents etc. He left my mate to do all the hard work (making up excuses, fobbing off people etc) while he being the wimp that he is hid upstairs.

The best one ever though has to be that he expected his tea made 3 times a day and handed to him plus his lunch to be made every day and dropped up to him. And hes a grown man in his 50s. Eventually my mate snapped one particularly stressful day when she had to deal with a very irate client and said "You know what hes upstairs go up and take it up with him", cue an hour long tongue lashing from the client and threats to sue and report him. The coward never even spoke to my mate afterwards, just avoided her. On top of all that, he let the women in the place that were there a long time dictate to him what work they would and wouldnt do. Shes gone a year now and still gets angry thinking of him- what a spineless cowardly excuses of a "manager" he was.

Thoie

One of the worst managers I ever ran across was a "lady" who treated everyone like naughty school kids. Everyone was working overtime, coming in early to get a project finished. One newish guy (English wasn't his first language) reporting to me had come in at 8am. Just before 9 he went out to his car to get something, and when he came back she had locked the door and said anyone arriving after 9 wasn't coming in, and would be docked a day's pay. He got so upset he couldn't get through to her, and someone came running for me to tell me he was crying in the car park. I sorted that one out and had some words with her.

A few weeks later I wasn't feeling well, and around 11am said I'd better go home. As I was heading out she called me into her office to ask where I was going. I explained I wasn't feeling well, and was heading home. She forbid me from leaving. Then I threw up on her desk and left.

mojesius

Ahh where to start?

1. When I was 16, I worked in a ladies clothing chain shop, where two of the managers robbed at least one piece of clothing most nights and offered that we 'take' something too. I never did and was looked down on because of it.

2. Worked in a restaurant a few years later, most of the managers were women and it was a complete bitchfest all the time. One of the managers used to 'test' new staff, which consisted of her bullying them until she got bored of it/decided she liked them/a new member of staff joined. She used to openly brag about treating new staff members like **** to other staff or managers. It was useless going to the general manager because she was a complete psycho as well. And the owners were even worse.

3. Working in a bar, the manager used to go off to do coke in the customer toilets every half hour and bring his mates in and feed them drink for free all night. He lasted a week.

4. Another restaurant, another coke-head manager. Moody príck. One day, him and his head-waiter mate stood around all lunchtime doing nothing, leaning against the wall (and we were busy) while barking orders at me. I wouldn't mind, but we all shared tips. Anyway, after 2 hours of being told 'You're too slow, do this, clean that blah blah..' the manager loses the rag with me and brings me out the back and starts shouting about what a crap waitress I am. Then his nose starts bleeding as he's giving out to me. I acted the eejit, saying he should go to hospital as he looked very pale and wasn't himself today! He scurried down the office for the rest of the day

There are lots more, lots and lots...

danthefan

Nody wrote: »

My worst manager was simply a person who'd lie me up in the face over and over again while sticking a dagger in my back when speaking with other people. I simply could not take anything he told me as true and he often went back on anything written as well (which I started to request to have a clear agreement of our discussion that he'd not be able to back out off).

That makes for a horrible working relationship (but as it was my direct manager it was not an option of ignoring it) as I could not trust anything said nor get any back up if needed on the issues to be solved etc.

More or less the same. Further to it, he was completely incompetent at his job so had to compensate for this by constantly complaining about the most inconsequential stuff you can imagine, just on a constant power trip. He had no working relationship with any of his staff at all.

thehouses

Hey, heard another one about VHI. It seems that if an employee is late three times during the year, they have to sign something stating that they will not be out due to illness for x period of time afterwards. It seems to have some really bad managers because that (and other things I heard) are standard.

L.Jenkins

I worked in a family owned Hotel for a period of 9 months and had to throw in the towel. The Managers, Father and Son couldn't agree on the colour of shíte and all too often resulted in conflicting requests. Failure to comply with either, resulted in trouble. Not an environment I enjoyed working in, when management never communicated.

Clauric

I've been unlucky enough to have had two terrible managers over the last 15 years or so.

1) Working in a small "boutique" B&B as a receptionist. Was constantly expected to clean up after manager, her father and the cook. Would come in at midday, and they would all be waiting around, smoking, doing sweet FA. Was expected to clean up breakfast room, then clean down kitchen, and hall. At the same time, I was also expected to check in and out the guests. Would get bitched out of it if I wasn't at the desk when a client wanted to me, even if I was cleaning up in a different part of the building. Kicker was when they expected me to clean the floor with a chlorine based bleach with a nail brush and no protective gloves!! Quit on the spot.

2) Worked for a charity, but was seconded to another charity. The secondment manager was absolutely brilliant, however, my other manager would constantly come down to my office and try to give out to me for not doing my job correctly (she wouldn't even check to see what I was doing). She would also demand to see the proof of my work (my line manager was perfectly happy with it), including providing print outs of people's PPSN and pay records to show I had done it correctly (I worked in payroll, and these staff didn;t have anything to do with her company). Eventually, she reported me to her management for not following her orders. My line manager told her to get lost eventually, and got her removed from her position.

thehouses

thehouses wrote: »

Hey, heard another one about VHI. It seems that if an employee is late three times during the year, they have to sign something stating that they will not be out due to illness for x period of time afterwards. It seems to have some really bad managers because that (and other things I heard) are standard.

Should have written if they are sick three times during the year they have to sign the form.