by Heinz Sladek

Created on: July 30, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

After working for the better part of 20 years, I have had many experiences with bosses. Some were good, some were not so good, and some were down an outright certifiable. One of the things that I have found to make up a good boss is a person who truly works on relationships with his or her employees and takes the time to be interested in the career paths of his or her employees.

One of the worst bosses that I have ever worked for was a senior vice president at a mutual fund corporation. This person ran a department that was responsible for marketing materials for the company. When I was first hired, I was given the responsibility of my own staff, which upon my starting she made clear that she had no interest in interacting with them. I did my own hiring, firing and personnel reviews even though I was just a supervisor. For a period of time, my group was located with her group but within about 6 months, we were moved to another area on the floor and her group was moved to another floor all together. I would go sometimes several months without seeing her or interacting with her, which, quite honestly was the best part of working with her. In fact, there was a time that I lost 40 pounds between times that I actually saw her. She was obsessed with money and flaunted her wealth whenever she had the opportunity. Shortly after I began working for her, she became engaged to an officer of the corporation. Her wedding was blatantly gaudy, to say the least, and I was the only member of my group to be invited. What really brought everything home for me was the day that she chose to visit my group, soon after she returned from her honeymoon, only to inform my employees that she spent the equivalent of their annual salaries on the flowers for her wedding.

Another time, I had an issue with one of my employees. This employee was not qualified to work in my group. My boss had hired her prior to my starting with the company. The employee had been a secretary who for whatever reason, my boss gave the chance to work in my group, which was a group of highly skilled people, all degreed. The employee struggled with the client needs, and consistently made mistakes, even after I would send them back to her for multiple times for corrections. I encouraged the employee to go to school to gain more skills and knowledge need for her job which she did. However, she continued to struggle and as she continued to struggle she became more and more aggressive to me. One evening, while I stayed

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