I asked Tom to write about his best boss ever and after thinking about it, he felt it would be fun for him to write about his worst boss as well. The truth is that I believe you can learn equally as much from your worst boss as you can your best boss. I have had a couple of doozies myself…It’s amazing to me what an impact a bad manager can have on a company and get away with it. I have experienced everything from verbal abuse, harrassment, manipulation, and down right petty meanness, but I wouldn’t change it because it made me tough and showed me the exact way I don’t want to be. I had a friend who used to call me the “silver lining” child because I always made the best of whatever situation I was in. Honestly….it can almost always be worse and there are always good things that come from any situation especially if you are looking for it!!  

Worst Boss Ever

Of course, you have heard the saying that everyone has a boss, so this is a topic in which we all can relate. I will go the yin and yang route here and write first about the worst boss I ever had and then follow that with a story next week about the best boss I ever had. My overall advice after reliving bad bosses is to grab the good boss if you have one right now and don’t let go!   

There are many bad bosses from which to choose. By far the worst boss I have ever had was my first boss upon leaving the corporate world after 22 years. I will not use his real name, but in a lame effort to conceal it, I will call him Nad. The name works for two reasons.  It is his first name spelled backwards, plus this spelling is a shortened version for a certain part of the male anatomy.  Since I am still a kid at heart, you will have to excuse my grammar school humor! 

Nad had many chips on his shoulder. He was vertically impaired, which, coupled with his portly shape, made him look like a wine barrel with legs. He also did not graduate from high school and had two front teeth which reminded me of my Beaver mascot in college. We all have our flaws and I have nothing against physical features of which we have no control. It is how we handle them that matters, and Nad did not handle his flaws very well. He was out to prove that every male college graduate over 5’4” tall and not built like Humpty-Dumpty was not as good as him. This gave him many targets.

As a little background, Nad was and is a very successful businessman. He is one of those people who can take a glass of water and figure out 50 different ways to make a profit from it.  He is probably one of the most creative and resourceful people I have ever known. Nad made a lot of money in the restaurant business, then parlayed it into real estate and also into building a brand in the tactical industry.

So why was he such bad boss? He could be a nice guy at times. He really could.  Then the other personality would pop out and would have you wondering what had caused the change. Ultimately, he was a bad boss because he did not respect those around him and really only cared himself.

Whenever we were in a meeting, regardless of who was in the meeting, Nad would answer his cell phone. Anyone, himself included, could be in mid sentence in a serious discussion about a company issue and Nad would answer an incoming call on is cell. While the rest of us sat on our hands and waited, he might sit there and giggle about something and speak in a low tone if it was a friend or family member, or he could just as easily be in a serious conversation about one of his other business ventures. It didn’t matter.  He was on a mission to not let a call get by him, and he succeeded until I came along.   

I recall one meeting quite vividly when his cell phone finally was put on hold. After some extensive market travel, I called a meeting with Nad and the other relevant department heads to discuss the need to focus on exactly what we wanted the brand to represent to the consumer, and then how we communicate that across all areas in a consistent manner.  As we sat down to meet, Nad placed his cell phone next to his note pad. Since I thought a discussion about brand identity was a very important topic, I did the unthinkable and grabbed Nad’s cell phone, took it out to the receptionist, and asked her to hold it until our meeting was done. The look of shock on the faces of the other directors was classic. They wanted to cheer but knew better. Definitely the right thing to do in the real world, but not if you were living in Nad’s world.

The second issue with Nad can be common among individual company owners. Many have a hard time delegating and empowering others to do their work. Lacking the management skills to run an efficient operation, the small company owner is sometimes only comfortable when they are involved in every aspect of the business. That is how they started the business, and that is the only way they know how to run the business.. 

I had done my homework and spoken with the two sales managers who had held the position in the two years prior to me, and micro managing was one of the issues that both of the ex’s had mentioned. I addressed the issue with Nad prior to accepting the position, and he assured me he had enough to do in production and manufacturing and would let me run the sales and marketing. Being that it was a tight job market post 911, I had few options and took the position despite the potential risk.

What I know now that I did not know then is that micro managing is an addiction. As much as a manager might want to get off the crack, they cannot make the change. It did not take long to learn about Nad’s addiction. I think the first week was pretty smooth. If a phone call came in regarding something in my areas, he told them I was handling it now and to take it up with me. After that, every little detail was scrutinized and questioned.  

I recall one situation where I had declined to open an account. The opening order was $5k, the sales agency was in the midst of being replaced due to performance issues, and the account was not one that fit well with the brand. The head of the agency did not like my refusal to open the account and went directly to Nad, who took the call. He then came to me and explained how important it was to open even the small accounts (which I agreed with as long as they were within the brand strategy), and how the company could use every bit of the business.  For a mid sized company that had been around for over 30 years, I thought this was rather odd and explained that perhaps we should just wait until the new agency was in place and we could then take up the matter with them. No longer able to fight his addiction, Nad saved the company by accepting the $5k order. Hello micro, goodbye empowerment.

I cannot conclude without one more vignette. The business was located in the same town in which Nad was born and raised. It was a small farming community which had grown in population as a commuter town for the San Francisco Bay Area. Nad’s mom still lived in the town as well, and he went over to her house every night for dinner. He also gave her rides whenever and wherever she wanted to go. Sounds like a good son, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it was the company employees who would do the driving. Even if in the midst of a major project with a tight timeline, employees would be asked to drop everything and give his mom a ride around town to run errands. Not wanting any part of this task, I boycotted any contact with his mom. Mind you, I don’t have a problem with moms—I happen to have one myself and love her dearly! I just did not think the arrangement was appropriate in this setting.

You get the picture by now. It just wasn’t a good fit from the start. My first venture from Fortune 500 to a small company with an independent owner was a short stint, a disaster by all measurements, and yet also a great learning experience as well. I had to look into the mirror and also take some ownership in the situation. I was naïve with my expectations and paid the price with the stress that comes with a bad boss. I definitely try to choose them more carefully now.

Yes, there will always be bosses, but to me, there will only be one Nad. Well, you know what I mean…

-Tom Cassidy