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Bad Boss of the Week: Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko

By Brie Hobbs on Friday, July 24, 2009

This week’s bad boss is corrupt corporate raider, Gordon Gekko from the 1987 film Wall Street. Gordon, played by Michael Douglas, is a dishonest Wall Street player who values the almighty dollar above all else. His unprincipled priorities leave no room to value companies or employees beyond financial profit. His love for money does not even flinch in the face of illegal activities.

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If you’ve had a bad boss who would stop at nothing for a buck, here are some tips to help you survive the greed:

Money can be a great motivator, but it can not buy you happiness. Don’t get caught up in the highly contagious greed.
If faced with illegal or unethical demands, choose to do the right thing no matter what, even if means finding a new job.
Help your boss realize how their decisions impact others.
Find value in things outside of work.

Share your bad boss stories at www.100worstbosses.com. For more information about 100 Worst Bosses – Learning from the Very Worst How to Be Your Very Best and the Movin’ on Up Bad Boss of the Week, click here.

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Bad Boss of the Week: A Christmas Carol’s Ebenezer Scrooge

By Brie Hobbs on Friday, July 17, 2009

Ebenezer Scrooge – the self-centered, tight-fisted, hum bug in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – is this week’s bad boss. His constant malice, degrading demeanor, and entire lack of work/life balance make him the classic bad boss.

While there’s a great deal to be said for hard work, knowing how to balance business with life is an important and necessary skill that eluded Scrooge for much of his career. He spent most of his life at work and expected his employee, Bob Crachit, to do the same, only reluctantly giving him Christmas day off.

Have you found that your work/life balance can be more work than life? In order to keep pace with a workaholic boss, here are three things you can do to reprioritize your life and still meet their expectations.

1. Discuss and understand your employer’s expectations
2. Take time to evaluate your goals and priorities
3. Establish an agreed-upon plan in advance, including deadlines and time off.

To view a clip of Ebenezer Scrooge in action, click here.

Share your bad boss stories at www.worstbosses.com. For more information about 100 Worst Bosses – Learning from the Very Worst How to Be Your Very Best and the Movin’ on Up Bad Boss of the Week, click here.

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Bad Boss of the Week: In Good Company’s Carter Duryea

By Brie Hobbs on Thursday, July 2, 2009

In Good Company’s Carter Duryea doesn’t have any over-the-top quirks, personality traits or attitude issues that make him impossible to work for. In fact, he’s quite likeable – even charming. What makes him this week’s bad boss is his inexperience. His lack of work experience causes him to have tunnel vision and he fails to focus on his clients’ needs.

Carter replaces a highly qualified twenty-year executive veteran of an advertising company after a corporate takeover. When Carter takes a mature, and seemingly conservative, client out to a hip-hop concert, his ostentatious sales approach exposes his inexperience as he fails to connect with his client. To watch a clip, click here.

So how do you cope with an inexperienced boss? Start with these 4 tips.

Recognize and acknowledge the skills they have
Be patient
Guide and teach them
Give them time and space to grow

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Bad Boss of the Week: Arrested Development’s Gob Bluth

By Brie Hobbs on Friday, June 26, 2009

Gob (pronounced “Job”) Bluth’s colossal incompetence and complete lack of qualification and experience make him this week’s Movin’ On Up Bad Boss of the Week. Gob is a deficient magician who is briefly appointed – by his mother – to be president of the family business, The Bluth Company, on the sitcom Arrested Development.

Hopefully, you’ve never had a boss so incompetent, inept, and unfocused that they’ve managed to make their office into a pool room, turn their desk into a massage table, and cost the company $45,000 in damages – all within their first three hours on the job. But, if you’ve ever had a boss who left you wondering what dark magic they used to get where they are, here are five tips to help you manage the situation and successfully work with a truly bad boss.

1. Manage up
2. Don’t undermine their authority
3. Support the strengths they have
4. Focus on doing your best job
5. Take responsibility for the things you can

Have you worked with an incompetent boss like Gob? How did you work through the situation?

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Bad Boss of the Week: The Devil Wears Prada’s Miranda Priestly

By Brie Hobbs on Friday, June 19, 2009

With a penchant for manipulation, a demand for the impossible and a sub-zero demeanor that would cause anyone to shudder, The Devil Wears Prada’s Miranda Priestly is the Movin’ on Up Bad Boss of the Week.

Well done, Miranda! Your self-serving ambition and lack of respect for your employees and human beings in general make you a nightmare of a boss and our Bad Boss of the Week.

If you’ve had a bad boss like Miranda, who not only expected but demanded the impossible from you, like a flight home in the middle of a hurricane or a pre-release copy of the latest J.K. Rowling novel, follow these tips to help you succeed in you career without having to acquire super-human powers:

1. Manage Expectations
2. Recognize What You Can and Can Not Control
3. Anticipate Needs
4. Offer Alternative Solutions
5. Communicate Your Successes

Employers often set standards high to inspire and motivate employees to be their very best, but if you feel defeated by your boss’s unattainable demands, practice the above tips for achievable solutions that will help you succeed no matter what.

Share your bad boss stories at www.worstbosses.com. For more information about 100 Worst Bosses – Learning from the Very Worst How to Be Your Very Best and the Movin’ on Up Bad Boss of the Week, click here.

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Bad Bosses: Have You Worked for One?

By Brie Hobbs on Friday, June 12, 2009

Most of us have had a bad boss – or two – in our work history. From the irrational to the absolutely, even clinically, insane, bad bosses and their impressions leave catastrophes in their wake. But, if you think that the icy, fear-inducing Miranda Priestly or the awkwardly dense Michael Scott couldn’t hold a candle to a chart-topping bad boss you’ve had, now’s your chance to share your story.

Express Employment Professionals is working with best-selling author Jim Stovall to gather stories for his next book, titled 100 Worst Bosses – Learning from the Very Worst How to Be Your Very Best. To share your story, visit www.worstbosses.com. Your identity, the employer’s identity, and the company’s name will be altered to maintain your confidentiality. If your story is selected to be among the 100 Worst Bosses stories featured, you will receive an autographed, pre-release copy of the book.

Need some bad boss inspiration to help jog your buried memories of an awful boss? Visit the Movin’ on Up blog every Friday in June and July for our highlighted Hollywood bad boss of the week. Check out this week’s bad boss highlight: The ever ridiculous Michael Scott character, on NBC’s The Office, unnecessarily worries his employees when he prematurely spills the beans about their branch office closing before corporate makes a final decision.

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