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!

A manager I had a few years ago had a complete fantasy life. He had an imaginary wife and would bring in cakes she had baked which we had to eat and a fake daughter that would text from his phone while they were on holiday. He would talk about all his houses with marble flooring and whatever when we knew he lived alone in a bedsit. He was inappropriate with female staff and I actually used to time hair washing to try to put him off stroking mine. He was aggressive and used to throw things around the office and bang his fist on his desk. Once a colleague blocked him from hitting me. There was a camera on us and the higher managers would watch it for entertainment. I had to book leave for a funeral and they made me wait more than a day to approve it because I hadn't given enough notice. I ended up having a bit of a break down and refusing to go in and the hr manager came to my house to try to persuade me to go on anti depressants and come back! Whenever I'm stressed at work I think about that and get over it.

I had a part time job at a vets. One of the partners was a megalomaniacal bully with no manners and less personality. She would ignore us minions, unless she was barking commands at us or standing over us as we took messages, complaining that we hadn't got all the information when we were still on the phone to the client taking the message. She wouldn't let us use the computer in the office. I had come from a job where all my work was computer based yet I was deemed too ignorant to use Windows. She treated everybody like absolute shit. I wish to God I'd had the balls to tell her what I thought when my contract ended. Her partner was a useless spineless twat who just let her treat us like shit. I wish I'd given him a piece of my mind too.

Then I worked part time in an office for a lovely woman. She left and put a young girl of nineteen in charge because she was full time whereas we were part time. The girl was thick as shit but thought she was Alan Sugar. I came in one day and she'd decided that she preferred my desk to hers as it faced the main door so after I'd left the previous day she'd gone through all my stuff and moved it into another desk. I was so shocked and cross I didn't know what to say. So she said in her wisdom that I was only cross at her because she was younger than me. I left at the end of the week. Unfortunately she was partly right. Her sheer lack of experience, common sense and basic bloody manners did indeed contribute to my opinion of her.

My first boss used to tit wank the secretaries in the board room and then clean himself off on the curtains!

the hr manager came to my house to try to persuade me to go on anti-depressants and come back

Whao

My worst boss used to regiment our working hours and shout at us "if you have enough time for lunch you aren't working hard enough". She was the biggest skiver out there , days off that were never sick or leave, spending all day on the net, imaginary meetings so she could claim travel for a haircut. She was also a hypochondriac and ended up with our private health refusing to cover her any more.

I had a workaholic boss who seemed genuinely puzzled that his employees regarded time off as - you know, their time. He was always asking people to stay late/come in early/come in on weekends, etc.

I was his favourite - a distinctively mixed blessing - he used to ask me to run errands "on your way home", despite the errand being 10 miles on the opposite direction. We published a magazine, and of course he thought he knew more about design than the layout people. He once asked me to make a headine larger, but take up less space.

Oh well - a long time a go.