October's Museum of Me installation is one that I bet a lot of you can relate to with stories of your own: compare and contrast your worst and your best boss.
Let's get the worst boss out of the way first. It was my last boss, a librarian in a middle school library. I feel a bit mean-spirited saying this because overall, she was a kind and generous person, but as a boss, she was very difficult for me to understand. She was a flighty type-A person, so she would give me instructions and then 10 minutes later, instruct me to do the opposite. I remember my first day when she told me to arrange and catalog our magazines by interest which seemed like an odd way to do it, but I tried. She came back from a meeting and decided that arranging them alphabetically would work better. That was much easier, but it was my introduction to doing things her way. I would be in the middle of checking out books to impatient 7th graders and she would tell me that cataloging and processing five carts of books had to be done now. She rarely checked books out and almost always made mistakes if she did. There was a day I was off and none of the books she thought she was checking out actually got checked out. That meant that we basically gave away 170+ books that day and had to wait until they (hopefully) got returned. There were only two of us running the library, so I had to learn to do what I thought best to actually get things done. It's a relatively minor thing, but in seven years she never learned to spell my name correctly. I told her once that it bothered me, but she continued to spell my name "Bonnie". As a bad boss, she wasn't too bad, but we were definitely different people.
(And no, we didn't wear gloves either.)
My best boss was the manager at the McDonald's I had for three summers in high school. Craig was kind, understanding, and never took any of us for granted. He had assembled a pretty good early-morning crew (we started at 6:00 am) and he treated all of us well, if only because he knew how difficult it was to find people to work that shift. He was even willing to look the other way if any of us were slightly hungover and had to go sit on the five-gallon buckets of pickles in the walk-in refrigerator. He let us use the plastic coffee stirrers that McDonald's used to have for the sculptural creations we made. We would melt the ends on the grill and stick them together to make people, animals, and once even a merry-go-round. There were four of us on the crew and since we were all the same age, I think Craig may have shed a few tears when we all graduated from college and didn't return to McDonald's. The worst thing he ever did was try to convince us that we should go to Hamburger University and become McDonald's managers (but he always spelled my name correctly).
So how about you? I'd love to hear about your best and/or worst boss. I'll be back on the second Friday of November with a brand-new installation. Thank you for visiting The Museum of Me!
This is such a great topic! I think the worst boss I had was the principal of the elementary school where I taught during my one year of teaching. She just made me so nervous and always made me feel like I didn't know anything. My best boss, though, was at my current job, though he retired several years ago. He's just a good human being who cared about us as people more than he cared about us as employees, and he always made it clear that while work was important, our families were more important.
ReplyDeleteflighty and type A - what a combination!! I can't say that I had a favorite boss but the worst boss what an underpaying family that I babysat for, I didn't realize how underpaid I was until I was older!! Loved the kids though.
ReplyDeleteOh my! That library lady would have drive me right up the wall.
ReplyDeleteLike you, my worst boss was my last one. He was the Director of Nursing and I was the Assistant Director of Nursing. He was hired directly into administration right after graduation and never worked a day as a nurse in charge of a unit, so had no experience with management on a direct care level. He wouldn't make a decision without consulting me, but usually did thing his own way. When that didn't work out (which was often), he would get angry and take it out on direct care nurse managers and the shift nurse administrators. After about a year of this, other members of the upper management team had him moved to a research facility 50 miles away. Due to civil service rules, he kept his title. I was appointed Acting Director of Nursing and kept my title. He had to check in with me once a week, but I was able to run the nursing department as I saw fit. I think I did a decent job and I hope no one thinks of me as their worst boss!
ReplyDeleteIt's very hard for me to imagine a person stepping directly into nursing administration without any management experience on a direct care level. I feel for all of you who suffered under him for that year. I'd be willing to bet that you ran the department quite well and that no one remembers you as their worst boss!
DeleteThat library lady sounds like she would have been difficult to have as a boss. My worst principal was in mid-career right after we got married. It's a long story but I had just finished a master's degree and we moved to North Platte because my soon to be husband took a new job there. This principal did not have an advanced degree or an administrative certificate (how she got that job is beyond me) and felt threatened by me. I had no aspirations about taking her job but asked a lot of questions because my previous supervisor had invited that kind of participation. Needless to say, this woman did not welcome any questions from anyone and especially me. She was critical of everything I did. It was a miserable two years. My best boss perhaps was my last one, a woman about my age who supported staff, tried to place us according to strengths, and best of all understood that teachers had their own families. Leadership philosophies are so interesting.
ReplyDeleteOh, that librarian. I'd like to give her a piece of my mind! So did working at McDonald's put you off their food for life?
ReplyDeleteI've had some great bosses -- one of them was a head librarian (I was in high school), and another has also been my BFF for the past 45 years. My worst boss was at a job that I loved, but he was... not so lovable. His automatic response to any question was always NO. Jerk.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Even my own grandmother never spelled my name correctly twice in a row (short version).
ReplyDeleteI had some really bad bosses . . . (so many I've had a hard time with my exhibit, which is still not "open"). More bad than good, I'm afraid. But I did have a really good one in the mix, too. Fortunately, that was in my longest-term job/my longest term boss, so overall my career record is pretty good.
ReplyDeleteAs someone with an unconventional name-spelling, I usually give people a pass when it comes to getting my name "wrong." Once. But after I've explained to them how my name is spelled (I mean, it's not THAT weird. . . ), I expect them to respect me enough to get it right. With bosses . . .it's a true sign of their integrity if they can't get your name right!
I have, likewise, had some Really Bad Bosses. (I mean really... they need a category unto themselves!) My best boss(es) were the years I worked at the bank... my daughter had just been diagnosed with Anorexia and the care regime was... rigorous. My current boss called my soon-to-be new boss to move me into a new position that would have more flexibility to get her to all the appointments. I know it seems odd to find not one, but two male bosses that were kind, caring, and supportive... but they were.
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