Bad bosses, do you have one?

[Digit]

I recently left a sexual harasser, and all around horrible boss for one who is just a tad better. It is a 3 person office, counting myself.
The first job was part of a corporation, so he could not pull the stunts the new boss is pulling.

It boils down to I was given the work hours, but now find out they are only a "suggestion". I am expected to come work early and stay late, and yes I am salaried, but make less than $30K. I am allotted an hour for lunch, but find my boss sitting on the couch, right at the front door when I come in from lunch, behaving like I have done something dastardly. Lately, I have not had time for lunch, or he has disappeared (to play golf), so I can't leave as my co-worker was on vacation.

Are all small offices this way?
This sucks since I am having to pay for my own health insurance which is over $5,000 per year.

[NewWaveChick1981]

1. I currently have a wonderful boss. But I once worked for a very

small office where four insurance agent ran the show. They were horrible bosses and used the office staff as pawns in their power struggles. It was completely demoralizing to work for such assholes, and the worst part about it, the only female agent was the worst offender. Thank Jeebus I am not working there any more.

[Digit]

2. Guess what? I am in an insurance office

ACK!

[NewWaveChick1981]

3. OMG, I think insurance attracts horrible people for some reason.

:hug: I know not every insurance person is like that, but there's a disproportionate amount of them. I feel your pain. :pals:

[Adsos Letter]

4. Not any more,.. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA...

[undeterred]

5. I have no job.

When I was in one small office, 3 of the people smoked and they took a 10 minute smoking break every single hour TOGETHER so the other 5 of us had to make sure we were in the office to cover the phones. I have no idea how they got away with the extra 80 minutes of break time. Really annoying.

[LostinVA]

6. Being salaried doesn't mean you're exempt

Most salaried employees are non-exempt.

[Nikia]

7. I think that small businesses, offices, dept. can get away w/ more abuse

Because you don't have several people to back you up and say that something is unfair. They are also less likely to have written rules for the employer and employee that are actually the rules. Where I work, I have had some issues in which I am not sure if something is right or wrong in how they treat me. Who can I ask though? Everything that I ask gets back to my boss and/or the president of the company and I sound like I am less dedicated if I am perceived to be whining about something.
Unless someone already knows the owner, supervisor, and other people in charge and finds them to be fair and decent people, I would tell anyone that they are better off working for a larger corporation than a small business or business branch. I would suggest that there be at least 4 people who hold the same or an equivalent position at your location, a written employee handbook covering all pertainent topics, and an impartial HR person in order to greatly increase the liklihood that you will be treated fairly.

[lizerdbits]

8. I did but got out of the nightmare

4 of us in the lab she was "managing" did a bunch of her work 4 days a week so I guess the rest of her day she was working on her career because she sure as hell wasn't managing the lab. We had to do more work in fewer days which resulted in overtime which she then complained about because it cost too much. Our weekly meetings were just verbal beatings about why this or that wasn't done. Layoffs and having to do more work faster was not an acceptable reason. Most of my OT was because a stoner coworker was surfing the internet looking at cartoons instead of working which I told her about and she never did anything to stop it.

Q: Should we take more days to do the work or keep working OT?
A: NO!
Uh, ok?

I was the 3rd of 7 people to quit in less than a year after she was put in charge of that lab (my previous nice boss was laid off when she was put in charge). I'm still friends with a few people there and a month after I happened to quit Polly Prissy Pants gets a raise and promotion to work in another group! More evidence that if you want to go anywhere and make more money you need to stop working hard and be an asshole.

My new boss is a lot better, my only complaint is that she calls me into meetings she never told me about but swears she sent me an email.

[Connonym]

9. That shit is why I don't think I can ever go back to the corporate world

I had a boss who timed our bathroom breaks and then took away the coffee pot because she determined that drinking coffee made us have to pee more. Same boss who wouldn't let me keep a bottle of water with me when I was pregnant -- even though I got my doctor to write a note stating that it was medically necessary. I hate people with control issues.