Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The World's Worst Boss

A bad boss is cliché in stories, especially comedies.  "The Office" is such a hit largely due to boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell).

I have been fairly fortunate in my career, but I have heard the horror stories from others.

One of the most despised bosses is the one who takes credit for your work.  You know, the kind that gives you a rough vector on what to do and then walks away until the project is complete.  If the project is a huge success?  He (or she) takes the majority share of the credit to make himself look good to his superiors.

Who wants to work for someone like that?  Nobody I have found.

There is a bigger, badder boss out there who takes complete credit for your successes, and he thinks that everyone ultimately works for him.  No, it's not Donald Trump.  Guess again.

This boss takes the process to an entirely different level.  He actually tries to get the people who work for him to believe that he is the only reason for their successes.  Any and all successes the boss claims, and gets his workers to think that it was only through the boss that they had that success.  They all willingly give the credit to the boss.

Their failures?  Well, the workers keep the ownership of their failures.  Only successes come from the boss.  If there was a failure, it was clearly due to the worker's deviation from what the boss had instructed.  That's the reason which is drilled into the workers' heads on a regular basis.

It's brilliant, in a deviant, evil way.  The longer the workers work for this boss, the more completely they absorb the mantra that they can do no good apart from the boss.  Workers find themselves wondering if they could ever do anything right without the boss backing them.  That keeps them working for this boss.  And when they see others who are self-employed or who work for another boss, the workers reflect their fears onto these others, and suspect that they are never successful and can never do anything right.

He's got such a brilliant scam that people actually want to work for him.  So, without further delay, let me introduce you to this mastermind, the world's best, worst boss.  You can call him Jesus.

2 comments:

  1. And when they see others who are self-employed or who work for another boss, the workers reflect their fears onto these others, and suspect that they are never successful and can never do anything right.

    I saw other who were self-employed or work for another boss who were very successful and seemed to have the Midas touch. I always chalked it up to "God makes it rain on the just and the unjust". Sometimes I even attributed their success to the devil. He was trying to make them feel they were just fine in their current employment status so they wouldn't go to work for the other side. ;-)

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  2. Great adder! That's also a perspective I have heard. I don't know which one is more dominant. Probably yours.

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