Bosses I have known

To-do list or not to-do list, that is the question!

My boss is addicted to to-do lists; she’s very organized and a great boss. However, I’m not a big to-do list kind of person. I know this drives her crazy and causes her to worry that I will forget something, but the truth is I never really got the knack of making and following them. I just know what I’m suppose to be doing, I can’t explain it any better then that. I really, really wish I was as organized as she is. If I were, I think I would feel more in control. Of course I hear that the whole idea of control is a fantasy.

Today I made a rare to-do list of things I need to accomplish next week at work. There are eight items on it and I know it will take me most of the week to get them done, because it’s a list of general items and isn’t broken down into all the pieces of work that goes into each item. I plan to show it to my boss, it always makes her day when she sees I’ve made a list. Its good policy to throw the boss a bone every once in awhile.

Another thing my boss does is ask questions, this is how she processes information, so she asks a lot of them. This particular practice drives a few of my colleagues crazy and makes them paranoid. I kind of like it because at times it gets me to thinking about things in a way I haven’t thought about them before.

This gets me to thinking about other bosses I’ve had in the past that I haven’t appreciated quite so much. Like Bart the Fart. Maybe I just misunderstood him. He didn’t ask any questions, he just barreled along and blamed staff when things didn’t turn out to his advantage. He was the kind of boss that when staff is volunteering to work on projects we all hoped he wouldn’t decide to try and help us. That would just turn the whole thing into a mess and take 4 times as long. Perhaps that was how he processed information, and I should have been more understanding? Maybe I should have continued to reach out to him after I pulled the knife from my back? Perhaps I should be ashamed of the voodoo doll I stuck full of pins in my desk drawer? Nope! Just can’t do it. He really was a Fart!

Then there was Bob Busy Fingers, the boss/owner who couldn’t keep his fingers out of your work. Every Monday we’d come into work and it would take us an hour to figure out what he had done to the computer files over the weekend, when he was maximizing our efficiency. This is also the boss who bounced four of my payroll checks, causing the bank to lock up my debit card just before town on vacation. Maybe I should have been more sensitive to his need to create chaos while yearning for control? Don’t think so!

Who could forget Skip the Power Trip? He liked to sit around while he pointed and commanded things done. He never actually helped with anything. He also liked to promise prime shifts, or days off but never quite got them into the schedule. This was his opportunity to command that you work what you were scheduled, regardless of prior arrangements. Perhaps the shock treatment I administered by leaving and refusing to play his games was the wrong way to go? Maybe I should have been more understanding? Right!!

And then there was Sid the Sociopath, a truly disturbed individual that worked on the assumption that if he thought it was a good idea it had to be. Of course the way he determined if something was a good idea was by gauging how powerful it made him appear, and how little responsible he would actually have. Sid was very fond of interrupting work to make loud proclamations to us little people. He felt it was his duty to let us bask in the glow of his presence on a regular basis, unless we needed something from him of course, like a check the bank would cash. Threatening to sue him might have delayed advancement in his treatment, that is if he were being treated for his mental affliction, might not have been the most sensitive move to make. It did get me paid through and a letter of recommendation.

Yep, I’ve had some bosses that were real stinkers, not to mention ones that should have been locked away for the sake of society. But, for every bad one, I’ve had at least two really great ones. I have a great one now, who doesn’t even insist that I do to-do lists.