One day at work I suffered a sever asthma attack that ultimately
landed me in the hospital. I searched all over the plant for the
foreman to let him know I had to go home to take my last ditch effort
medication that I wasn’t allowed to take at work or prior to driving
but couldn’t find him. I told the next down in the chain of command
what was going on and I left.

Upon returning to work, earlier than the doctor recommended, the
foreman screamed at me for leaving without telling him personally. I
advised him that I had ended up in the hospital in pretty bad shape.
He stated “I don’t care if you drop dead you don’t leave this
building with out telling me first!”

I work for a state agency but I am a contractor on a federal project.
Just recently our boss sat us down, told us the state is no longer
allowing contractors to work at their facilities and our project is
done. He told us we may have a month left and wanted to give us a
“heads up” so we could save money. He then went on to tell us how
hard it has been to have known this and kept it from us for the last
FIVE months. But not to worry: the good news is he can start
collecting retirement, has paid off his mortgage and his only child
will now be eligible for tuition assistance when they go to college
next year. The rest of us are under 40, have kids, a mortgage, and
are still paying off our own student loans.

Aside from generally not being very bright, my boss couldn’t put a
sentence together to save her life. Here are some random snippets
from emails from my boss.

“I need that report by noon. Does that make since?”

“There is already a ticket open. It’s a know issue.”

“You are suppose to be in a meeting right now.”

“I will be out of the office starting the afternoon on Wednesday
3/17/10 and all day 3/18/10 – 3/19/10. I will return until Monday
3/22/10.”

I was working with an injury because the boss hurried me back to work
against my doctors wishes. One day a lady in our department slipped
and broke a bone in her elbow. She said nothing until the next day.
That was when he took his brand new Blackberry and slammed it against
the wall and proceeded to tear her a new orifice.
He may be changing because my injury became worse and when I had to
go back out of work, he was as kind as anyone could be

My boss thinks she sets a good example, has good leadership skills,
and is captain of our work “team”. Well today is St. Patty’s Day and
she’s wearing elf ears, a green tank top, and lime green fishnets.
So….I guess that’s who I’m supposed to look up to, who I should
take advice from. She looks like a hooker, I guess that’s the example
she sets for her employees.

During a second interview, my future boss, a woman, closed by asking,
“Do you have a problem with taking orders from a woman?” I was a bit
confused, not really knowing if it was because I was young that I
didn’t understand the question or if it was just a stupid question.
So my response was, “Not at all, my mother happens to be a woman
too…” She laughed and we became great work friends over the
years.