DEPARTMENTS

My dad is a fairly high level manager for a large manufacturing corporation. They are well known in our area for being a horrible place to work.

My dad also has kidney disease, and is nearly to the point where he is going to need dialysis. Because of this, he is highly susceptible to disease, such as pneumonia.

Around Christmas, he caught pneumonia. The doctor wanted to put him in the hospital, but my dad had to work. Finally, he took some sick days, as he was about to lose them at the end of the year anyway. His boss called him at home, and told him he could jolly well work at home from his laptop, because the end of the year was no time to be getting sick.

Then, about a month ago, his boss informed him that if he goes into kidney failure, he had better figure out a way to come into work, because his being sick wasn't his boss's problem. LINK

During college I worked in a call center providing customer service for satellite TV customers that had purchased an extended warranty.

At first I worked in customer service, and had to explain to customers things like, "No, of course the Protection Plan doesn't cover that. If high winds blow your dish out of alignment, that's covered, but if high winds blow a tree into your dish, which knocks it out of alignment, then that's an act of God, and is not covered." Many customers didn't seem to understand the concept of a "limited warranty" and complained, "But they told me it would be covered... blah blah blah." The fact was we charged $75 for service calls unless the fault was expressly covered by the warranty.

Later, due to a staff shortage, I ended up being cross-trained, and was shown the actual sales script we read to the customers: "From electrical to mechanical failure, you can rest safely knowing that you're covered by the Protection Plan. You will never pay for a service call or replacement part again, because you're already covered!"

I then understood why they separated the two jobs. LINK

When I take a long time... I am slow.
When my boss takes a long time... he is thorough.

When I don't do it... I am lazy.
When my boss doesn't do it... he is too busy.

When I do something without being told... I am over-stepping my boundaries.
When my boss does the same thing... that is initiative.

When I take a stand... I am stubborn.
When my boss does it... he is being firm.

When I overlook a rule of etiquette... I am rude.
When my boss slips a few rules... he is being original.

When I please my boss... I am apple polishing.
When my boss pleases his boss... he is co-operating.

When I get ahead... I am lucky.
When my boss gets ahead... that's hard work. LINK

I was hired fresh out of school by one of the world's biggest computer companies. My sales team's customers were other large corporations, which tended to cough up a multi-million dollar order every three or four years, but in between generate very little revenue.

Our sales reps were all very sharp, driven, well-paid guys: studs, essentially, who wanted to nail a customer for a big order, then get the hell out so they could start looking for the next attractive order.

The last thing the reps wanted was to hang around, making sweet talk, when they'd already got what they wanted. But the customer would be offended if the sales rep immediately rushed off and stopped returning phone calls. That could jeapordize the next big order, a few years down the track.

So my job was to cuddle them. The highly-paid rep would move on to another account, and the customer would be told that I was their new rep. We tried to make it seem like I was a stud sales rep, too, so didn't tell them that I earned a quarter of what the other reps did, split my time between ten times as many accounts, got no commissions, and wasn't really expected to generate big orders. I was there to cuddle them: to hold them, whisper sweet nothings to them, and make them feel cared about. LINK

I was a golden-girl director of a department in a southern conservative corporation until, much to my surprise, a man with no qualifications even near mine was promoted over me to run my department. This was a man I had just a year ago helped "get ahead" and even coached on his salary negotiations. When I asked my boss why he was promoted over me I was told because I had "a bad attitude." When I calmly asked for specific examples none could be provided. One was lamely offered up as a reason but was quickly proved to be incorrect.

Alas, the guy moved up over me and I quietly went about my job of being the one actually running the department when I found out that he had be secretly meeting with one of my employees about splitting the department and giving the younger guy half my employees. The younger guy came and told me about this because he was so upset about it going on behind my back. He and I decided to together to talk to our new boss about it. The new boss then wrote us a threatening and nasty email.

I then met with the HR Director after that to ask for his advice and he questioned my integrity and threatened my employment (mind you, I had a stellar record prior to this). I later found out my new boss and this HR Director were buddies and good friends and had also been talking about this behind my back and my fate was pretty much sealed regardless of what I did. They were both soon promoted to VPs. I soon resigned my position and now I make more money working for myself. LINK