Tag Archives: bad boss

Your Workplace WMD – poison and disease attitude

Posted on December 10, 2015 | Leave a comment

 

team in gas masks with stretcher

Workplace poison emergency response team

This is about your job.

Do you know why ISIS and Al Qaeda have not used small pox, nerve gas, or sarin in an attack on the USA yet?  Because they are not as fast, painless, or sure as a car bomb….in killing the attacker. They are scared of how painful it would be for the terrorist to use those WMD’s.

Terrorists are smarter than people who are mad at their boss or a coworker. Workplace attitude poisons and diseases kill attackers more horribly and slowly than they kill their target. ISIS terrorist attackers want to die quickly and relatively painlessly so they won’t use poison and disease. People who are mad at their boss die slowly, painfully, and publicly from their own venom.  Their boss rarely suffers. The terrorists are smarter than upset workers.

Malice sucks up the greater part of her own venom, and poisons herself.  (de Montaigne)

Every day I talk to people with serious reasons to leave their jobs.  Most briefly state the problems, then go on with their job search. They are winners.  Some state the problem and then they try to poison and infect the people who contributed to the situation.  They are losers.  Examples of stupidity, gross unfairness, lawlessness and cheating are given, then repeated, then complained about. The trouble is that the attacker slowly poisons himself.  His pain is horrible to behold.

What is left is a twisted wreck of a person who is unemployable.

So what do you do?  Forgive.  Forget. Get on with your life.  The best revenge you can have is to be happy while they are miserable.  Let them wallow in depravity.  Don’t hop in the mud puddle to wrestle the pigs and expect to stay clean.  Forgive them.  Pen them up in a part of your life that is through.  Don’t talk about them.  Don’t even think about them.  Stop letting them ruin your life.

If you are still employed, you can pay them back.  Stop talking about them.  Stop worrying and fretting. It will drive them nuts when they can’t seem to get to you.  If something illegal is going on, quit now and tell the police.  Otherwise stay there, find a new job, and then leave.  They’ll hate having to replace you.  Never say an unkind word about them to anyone, just find another job, give notice and leave.  Then forget them. That is the ultimate revenge.

Something To Do Today

How To Stop Worrying And Start Living by Dale Carnegie can help.  It can help you get rid of anger and start living for the good things in life.

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Coming:

How to find a job at a convention

What to leave out of your resume

Persistence

Job security – what permanent means

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Quitting or Fired

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Forgetting to get a job – Liar research day

Posted on November 24, 2015 | Leave a comment

“Five wasted years due to a liar.  I was promised equity, part ownership, and then they sold the company without giving it to me.  I was robbed. I’ll never trust anyone again.  Now I’m in it for the money.  I’m in it for me.”

He has the skills to succeed, but who would hire him for an honest corporate level job now? He broods on wrongs done to him. His attitude and morals are shot. He is sure everyone lies and cheats. Every time he sends me a resume, it has incredible lies on it.  He only remembers the bad, never savoring the good.

Some places will hire him for sales or sales management because of an undeniable track record.  But will he cheat the customers or help them?  Will he ever be a customer centered salesman again? He will be fired soon.

I have kept in contact with him for years and he has never recovered. He refuses to move on mentally. Morally he remains disfigured, brooding, and unreliable.

The inability to forget is infinitely more devastating than the inability to remember. (Twain)

picture of hate

Grabbing offenses tightly only pushes needles through your hand.

There are a lot of people like him. I ask these scarred souls, “How soon did you figure out your boss was lying?”  Usually the answer is, “I found out 3 months (or 3 days) after I started.  But then it was too late to take another job.”  I ask, “Why didn’t you get the promises in writing?”  The answer is always, “I didn’t think I needed to.  He kept telling me he would do it.” By then you knew your boss was a liar, so you trusted him??

Time to forget that you were cheated.  You made two mistakes: 1. You decided to keep working for a liar, and 2. You decided you didn’t need promises in writing from the liar.

What you should do is learn from the two lessons above and move on.  Refuse to work for a liar again.  Get promises in writing.  And now start remembering all the good people you have known.

Good people attract good people.  You will find that people who tell the truth in business don’t mind putting their promises in writing.  As a matter of fact, they prefer putting promises in writing so that there is no dispute later about what they promised.

Now forget how you were robbed.  That was one bad boss.  No need to tell the story over and over.  Frankly forgive him.  If you are suing him, let your lawyer worry about it.  If you aren’t taking him to court, drop it completely.

Learn from your mistakes.  Continue trusting people.  Get promises in writing.  Learn the right lessons and forget the pain.  You’ll be happier.

Something To Do Today

Liar research day.  Who do you know who says they were robbed in a job or business?  Come on.  You probably know a few.  Ask them 2 1/2 questions:

  1. How soon did you figure out he was lying and why did you stick with him so long?
  2. Did you get all those promises in writing?

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Later:   I hate firefighters

Dead fish

Poisons

Liars

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Quitting or Fired, Uncategorized

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How to deal with absolute idiots, bosses, and 6 year olds

Posted on December 20, 2013 | Leave a comment

Into everyone’s life comes people who just don’t get it.  There is even a chance that you will be that person for someone else at some time.  The fact is, no one sets out to be an idiot.  They are always well intentioned, they just don’t get it.  So how do you deal with an absolute idiot? What if he’s your boss?

Pretend he is 6.

How do you deal with a 6 year old?  If they are not causing any real trouble you just smile and ignore them.  Sure, you correct them occasionally, but you let them mature until they understand something about life.  Smile and enjoy it.  You don’t spread malicious gossip.  Why should you?  They are only 6 after all.

And what if the 6 year old just gets too annoying? Do you gossip behind his back? Do you shoot him for target practice?  No.  You give him chores.  If you can, you give him chores that will educate him and make him less of an idiot. Otherwise you just have him do a lot of things that need to be done.  That gets him out of your hair, and gets things done.  In the end he may even learn that if he is annoying, he gets more chores to do.

If that 6 year old is destroying property or reputation, you take him aside tell him to stop, and tell him what the consequences are if he doesn’t stop.  Then you follow through.  He may consider it a threat.  You should just consider it a statement of fact. You essentially tell a 6 year old, “I love you too much to let you do that.”

What if the 6 year old isn’t yours?  Then you politely draw boundaries with the kid.  If the kid goes past them, you rudely let him know. You call his mom if he won’t cooperate.

Can you do that to your boss?

What if the idiot is your boss?  Same thing.  I mean, do the same things.

Sometimes you just have to smile at your boss and let him go about doing whatever he wants.  If he is doing something destructive, give him chores – try to help him see that there are things he can do that will help, or at least won’t slow people down.

If your boss is destroying property or reputation, take him aside and tell him what the consequences are if he doesn’t stop.  Are you telling his boss?  Leaving the company? Asking for a transfer?  Let your boss know that what he is doing is absolutely unacceptable and you will not allow him to continue doing it.  Be prepared in case he fires you.  Think about it, if your boss is damaging your reputation, won’t you be better off looking for a new job?

Of course there is always the final way to get rid of an idiot.  Move.  Get a new job or a new house.  Maybe you should try the other things I mentioned first. Treat the idiots in your life like a 6 year old.  It will preserve your mental health.

Something To Do Today

Don’t get mad at idiots.  Get an attitude change.  Look at them as really big 6 year olds.

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Later: Did you notice that job boards are mostly ads by agencies?

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Posted in Attitude, management, Quitting or Fired

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My last job stunk, what do I say?

Posted on April 9, 2010 | 1 comment

The weak can never forgive.  Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.  (Gandhi)

My last job stunk, what do I say?

“My last employer lied to me.  He looked me straight in the eye and lied to me twice in the employment interview.  Then he spent the next year undermining me.  He made it impossible to reach the pay level he promised me.”

I can handle it.  I’m an agency recruiter. I could see from his previous jobs that he was exceptionally good at what he does. Before he goes out on a job interview I’ll tell him how to handle that situation.  Eventually he’s going to have to get over that job wound.

Remember, your attitude is everything.  Managers know that some bosses reek.  Every manager has also had an employee who was terrible.  Your interviewer has to decide if you or your boss was the problem.  Because they lack facts, they will decide whose fault it was by your attitude.

When they ask you about that lying, thieving, disgusting, wife beating boss you had at your previous job, be careful.  Remember, the slimeball’s dog still loves him.  Say only, “At my last job I accomplished…”,  and list the good things you got done. 

If asked, “Why did you leave?”  Say, “My boss and I did not see eye to eye.”  Then add something else that is positive that you accomplished.

Never say more than one sentence at a time about that vile, filthy, back stabbing, dog kicking boss. Remember the Grinch’s cat still purrs when he pets it.  Make each short comment about him as positive as you can.  Follow that sentence with something positive you were able to get done at that job.

The best thing you can do is GET OVER IT.   Forgive the louse.  No.  Forgive the man.  Stop brooding.  It affects your attitude.  Hate will make it much harder to get a job.  Interviewers can smell your discontent. 

Forgive, forget, and get on with your life.  Do you really think you will be telling every interviewer for the next 20 years about that boss?  You won’t.  The time to stop telling people about that boss is now.

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Something To Do Today

Had a boss you hated?  Make a list of 10 things you accomplished there.  Not your job duties, things you made better.  Accomplishments.  Use that list every time you are asked about the job.

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Posted in Attitude, Interviews

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