Tell us about bosses you have had - from the sublime, to the ridiculous...

[KateMumsnet]

Hello all

With Workfest only days away, we've been mulling the subject of bosses - the good, the bad, and the startlingly inept - here at MNHQ. Have you encountered a bounder - or conversely, a bit of a gem who makes the daily grind more bearable? Do share your tales of alarming habits and unreasonable demands here - as well as examples of bosses who, actually, are really rather lovely.

And if you haven't yet booked your ticket to Workfest - hurry, it's this Saturday!

I had a very lovely boss when I was about 23. He was called Roger and was bald and was in charge of a wholefood shop.

He was just the loveliest person in the world, sadly (for me) he was already attached, but I had the biggest crush on him.

I still see him about, now I'm 40 and he always says hello.

Those were the days.

I had a boss who was amazing at the beginning and shown me everything she knew about our job. Most people were scared of her but I thought she was fab - until I realised she thought she actually owed me then it went tits up!

I had to cover the fact her daughter didn't turn up in work for six weeks (because she couldn't be arsed) she even clocked her in!

She asked to see my scars after my first eptopic pregnancy (whilst as I was teaching) and expectantly waited for me to pull my waist band open

Insisted I got a warning as is been off for two weeks because of it as her dd recieved one for time off due to periods (luckily general manager said no)

After I complained to her that her dd had actually put a child in danger she told me she had told DD to 'watch her back'

Got a parent who she is very close friends with to write a letter to my manager saying I was bullying her child. Twice. Luckily my other managers seen through it.

Would stare at me through the window while I was teaching trying to intimidate me.

Absolute unhinged nightmare of a woman !

Best boss - my first really 'good' job in the City. Young American woman. She was fab - really knew her shit and was happy to teach you. Very encouraging and supportive. I learnt so much from her.

Worst boss - next job. Weak, ineffectual man who was bullied by his boss who was a bit of a 'lad'. They'd sod off down the pub for four hours, while we did 10 hours a day with no break, then come back and moan you'd not done some little thing.

God he made me cross

The worst boss I ever had was called Lonan O'Bastard (like the sandwich shop) name and shame

He hired me on one of those government schemes where the company pays a pittance towards your salary and the govt makes up the rest.

He was rude to me all the time, he mocked me for reading a book! The nerve of me, receptionist, with delusions; reading!
He made me root through a bag of mushy rubbish to look for a number because it might have been a new client. I couldn't find it. I had to put all the mushy rubbish back in to a new bag and bring it back to skip outside. He didn't care that I hadn't found the number, he was smug that he'd 'made his point'.

When some woman came back from maternity leave, (I hadn't known she existed, so I think there was a plot not to tell me) he suddenly out of the blue fired me because of the lost post-it note incident about four months earlier.

I hated him. He got me to work there for about a year at a cost of about 4k to his company. That's what really pissed me off. He used the govt scheme to exploit somebody and that somebody was me. This was a long time ago but I hope now that there are penalties for scheister employers who behave like that.

Actually, no that's not his sur name. Got it wrong

I had a boss that used phrases such as "we don't have problems here, only solutions!". He never offered solutions though and us poor souls on the phones had to fend off irate building site managers who had issues with what they had been sent. Which was completely out of our control. He sat in his office being smug a lot of the day.

Another boss I had was a woman who was utterly hilarious. A small team of us, about 6 in total, she was in a side office overlooking us. She alternated between being a hormonal cow and when she had a bloke, revealing s with stories of their dates and walking round singing an all saints song. Then they broke up and we got the saga of the break up including how he interviewed the door of her shed to get his lawnmower back. Then she went out with someone else and we got it all over again. She couldn't work her computer either, we had to set up a word document any time she wanted to type a letter. She was good fun although a bit daft.

Best boss- wonderful supportive woman who knew her stuff and was happy to share. Always had her teams back. She really understood how to get the most out of people without bullying.
Worst- picked his nose constantly always touching my keyboard leaning over me. Told me he had sacked someone (no real reason) and when I texted them to say how sorry I was it turned out he had told the entire office before her

Awful boss when i was 17. If I wasn't finished by a certain time she would go home and turn the lights off on me while I was working. She also took the filing cabinet keys home making me believe i had lost them, because I had left them out on the side for a second. I didn't sleep all night. She waved them in my face the next morning saying 'looking for these Sparkling?'

My mum died when I was 21 years old and working 500 miles away from where I grew up. I took three weeks off of work, 2 when she was rushed into a hospice and a week after the funeral. On my return my boss had reorganised the team and I dealt with mail. She had very kindly organised my work so that the top dozen pieces of mail were people reporting a death.

That year at my appraisal, she said, 'I know your mum died this year, but it's not really an excuse for the standard of work you've turned in'

Years ago I worked shifts.
In the interview I said the only shift I couldn't do was the last shift on a Sunday night because there were no buses to get me home.
I was told no problem,thats fine.

My manager knew my close friend at the time.

I was only there a couple of weeks when I was asked to do lates on a Sunday,I said I am sorry but I explained in my interview that I would not be able to get home on a Sunday.

The manager its ok I have phoned your friend and she said you can sleep at her house and share a bed with her dd.

I told her no thank you I would rather sleep in my own bed in my house.

Worst boss: in my 20's, I worked in a role that involved in-house customer service, for want of a better term - people within the organisation would either phone or call in to our office for asistance they needed.

It was Christmas Eve. I was due to travel back from London to my family by train (standard nightmare rail journey) after work. A 200-mile journey. Getting to the station early would have been a real help.

There were 2 of us on duty in the 'customer assistance' role, everyone else had taken leave. The boss was lurking in her office. She and the other person on duty with me were both London-based, lived alone and had easy, short journeys back home.

After approximately 3 hours sitting drumming our fingers with absolutely nothing to do, and no calls for assistance, my colleague suggested I should just go, because she could cope with any calls that came in - obviously, nothing was going to happen by that stage. It was about 5 pm and I was due to finish at 6.

As I sneaked past the boss's office, she shot out and demanded to know where I was going. Then marched me back to the office in disgrace. Where I sat for another hour of ZERO calls. And eventually got to Euston at peak time and had to virtually engage in hand-to-hand combat to fight my way on to the train.

I have never forgotten, or forgiven

Lovely boss: chap who stood up for us and guarded us from management crap leaving us clear to do our jobs. He expected us to work hard and well at had no truck with presenteeism. At 5pm he'd tell us to get our coats.
Bad boss: A bloke who was with us for 3 months during which time he brought the department to the point of mutiny. Lies, rumour and counter rumour were rife until someone got hold of the CEO and it was sorted.

When I was a teen, I had a Saturday job in a tea and coffee shop (not drinks, tea/teabags/coffee beans etc), run by an incredibly delightful chap who had retired from his career as a tea taster in Sri Lanka and then ran this shop to keep him out from under his wifes feet. It had a 40 year old tea bag machine and was filled with proper tea chests and the sort of customers who would come in for a sit down and a chat about the cricket (he was a member of the MCC). I loved him so much I used to go and help out at Christmas even when I had a real job because he got a bit flustered if it was busy.

Another job, in my early twenties, the boss used to call you into the office and ply you with evangelical leaflets. Christmas merited a special chat about how it wasn't cause for celebration, and before I got married I got a lecture on my wifely duties

My current boss is wonderful. An inspirational leader and a gentleman. The business is really struggling to survive right now and he hasn't been paid for nearly 6 months but still turns in to try and save the business and make sure the staff get paid. He totally rocks!

My first boss was awful. She was the ward manager, I was at that time a HCA. She was lazy, would gossip, belittle you, ignore your concerns and had a habit of taking lots of annual leave, more than her entitlement. She used to have two sets of off duty, the one we had access to and her 'other' copy minus her annual leave. How she got away with it I'll never know as it was common knowledge.

I left to start my training, I found out after, that before I was given the job, she had read out my application form to the ward staff during morning report. She had no concern for confidentiality. I did complain and nothing came of it.

I was glad to leave.

I have had some fabulous bosses over the years, but also 2 that were beyond awful.

Boss 1: Small open plan office. He asks his PA: Could you please tell Pippi xyz. Within earshot. PA then walks over to me and tells me what he just told her. Again, he can hear everything that she says to me. The whole place was bonkers and I quit within a week.

Boss 2: Very small company, a lot of remote working. He either wasn't in when I was supposed to meet him or he left me sitting in his office on my own while he watched Mad Men in the kitchen. I actually had to tell him "I am only here because I need x, y and z from you. I cannot leave or do any more work until I have x, y and z." My blood pressure is rising just thinking about him!

Best boss was the one before my current one - she was lovely. Very supportive, had my back if I needed it and gave me freedom to do my job effectively.

Worst boss was the second one when I started my career - he was arrogant, narcissistic and bullying. The staff hated him and yet were frightened of what he would do and say. He talked to everyone like we were nothing and make people cry (men and women!)

He used to not bother coming in or lie in bed or go see his mate and we would have to cover for him or go to the house and bang on the door to get him to come in or to tell him to ring head office or whatever. Complete nightmare. Showed me what a manager shouldn't be for sure.

worst boss: Fed Haribo to my guide dog. Booked a team lunch at a pub which was only accessible by car and then told me I would be unable to attend as it would be unfair to expect anyone to take me plus said guide dog. Told me I would never be promoted because of my disability. Someone reported her to the equal opportunities officer and she called me into her office to demand to know why I felt I had the right to talk to anyone, and demanding to know how I was going to put it right. After I left (I was moving anyway) I found out that someone else had taken her to court for changing her contract to a temporary contract while she was on maternity leave so she could then get rid of her.

In my very first job the teamleader sacked a member of staff in front of the whole team. the manager of the team was bisexual and would spend his time talking about the fantastic sex he'd had with his boyfriend an then his previous girlfriend, going into intimate detail....Nice enough bloke but seriously lacking in boundaries.

Another boss would get phone calls saying her dog had escaped and was shagging a dog down the road, she would jump in her car to go and fetch him without hesitation. she lived 30 miles away so it wasn't exactly a quick trip....

Best boss 1 - wonderful lady who stood up for me against a head teacher. Im a careers adviser and the head wanted to know why an A* student wasnt applying for his 6th form and why I had told her not to. I hadnt, we had discussed her options as I would do with anyone else. She firmly pointed out to the head that the student had religious beliefs which meant that she wasnt interested in studying full time and that I had discussed a part time programme with the head of 6th form amongest other options. The truth was that numbers for 6th form were down and he needed to explain it to the govdnors. The head had called a formal meeting to go through this. Boss 1 explained all this to him and then asked me to leave his office when I believe she torn him a new bumhole and said that she would make a formal complaint if he ever tried to bully any more of her staff.

Boss 2 - quite happy to cover reception and anything else to make sure people had breaks. A real team player.

Boss 3 - current one. Can talk to her about anything and she will always make time to listen. She treats everyone fairly across the board which isnt always easy.

Boss 4 - worst one. Complete ladette. Got drunk and leary when on a residential in a lovely quiet country retreat hotel. The comissioners were paying for this event. It was awful the following morning at breakfast.

Had some awful bosses including the one who left me to run the cookie selling kiosk on my own as every member of staff in the place bar me left the building on a smoking break. For 30 minutes. On my second day. Miracle I lasted three months.

I had another boss who went xmas shopping on one of the busiest shopping days of the year for 4 hours, turning his phone off, when he was supposed to be on shop floor. We had a customer ask to see the manager 30 mins in and refused to leave until he came back. It was brutal. We got her food and a cup of tea because we were so embarrassed. We even had to cover when the area manager phoned asking for him. He was a knob.

Best boss - I'm marrying him next year

I had a boss who I learnt not to talk to after his regular liquid lunch. He stare at my boobs and rant away for hours and hours. Was lovely and respectful before 1pm though!

My grouchy cow of a last boss asked me if i thought i was suited to work in retail and then told me when i handed in my resignation that i wasn't the face the company wanted. I almost asked her if this trying-to-be-posh bath and body product company wanted someone who could speak understandable English to the many tourists and was presentable (if slightly eccentric of hair colour) verses a wee Glesga keelie with dyed black hair and a perma-tan, who is at best brusque on the phone and often downright rude in person. I was soooooooo glad to move on! I long to see her and tell her what i think of her!

Worst boss - bullied young soldiers into having vaccinations they didn't need with threats of demotion, bullied older soldiers into the same vaccinations by promising to "send them straight to the front line" if they didn't have them. When I gave a perfectly understandable (and confidential) reason for having the vaccination slightly later (5 days - I was 'late' and the medical centre had agreed to test after a week, then vacc if I wasn't pg) he asked then DP in front of 30 other guys "what was he going to do if LtEve was knocked up". At that point I hadn't actually told DP. Same guy told a Squadron of men "I don't care how many losses we take, as long as we come back with some gongs" Not exactly a rousing 'night before a battle' speech.

He routinely reduced rough tough squaddies to tears, destroyed a great family of men and took pride in his "Spoilt B'Stard" nickname.

Thankfully he was the worst in 24 years. And I did take the chance to get my own back to great effect.

Best boss - was nominated by parents for an MBE for services to education. She knew everything that went on in that school, knew every child well and was a brilliant teacher in her own right. She was brilliant with staff and bent over backwards to help/support or encourage us. Absolutely inspirational.
At the other end of the scale: boss who talked a good talk but hopeless in practice. Deliberately withheld information during an inspection to make himself look good. Booked cover for himself - costing the school money to go on various course. We, as a staff became suspicious as it is was becoming every other day. It was discovered that these "courses" were made up and he was using the time to conduct an affair. He was, whilst this was being investigated, walked in on, in his office receiving oral sex from another woman and got involved in a fist fight with a dad over yet another affair.
Of course, he didn't lose his job. He got moved sideways then promoted. After all, he was golfing buddies with the director of education in this area.

What did you do Eve?

Worst boss did too many unbelievable things to list here. The best one was cornering me in a store room to tell me that two named colleagues had complained about me being rude and arrogant and that I needed to show a little humility. When questioned by HR as part of the investigation into the 4-page grievance I submitted about her the two people named had no idea that they had said these things and gave me glowing character references. She was a very nasty piece of work who managed to get 4 of my colleagues sacked before she was finally shown the door.

Other bad boss was a lovely chap but also a delusional conspiracy theorist. I had to listen to his theories several times a day and then had to run the small office without him for 3 months when he refused to come in because I was an HMRC agent sent to spy on him