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I work for a company mired in the Stone Age, but that's not really the
problem. It's that the boss is an argumentative, rude, vulgar despot (but
close to retirement) who, if HR policies were actually enforced, would be
sent packing to Sexual Harassment Court, Miss Manners, and the Decency
Police. Unceasing torrents of obscenities rain down on everyone at work,
including his wife, his boss, and people that don't even work for him...on
speaker phone at unbelievable decibels. If an engineer misspells a word in
an e-mail, he'll give him a public tongue-lashing, and then bellow, "What
kind of %&# -at- ! idiot can't spell <fill in word>". He's rather fond of young,
passive, female underlings because they don't have the nerve to shout back
when he gets going on his daily eight-hour rant about how stupid everyone
else is.
Unfortunately, I am neither young nor passive, but I'm not averse to trying
to change the old clown's belief that any fool can create a relational
database or content management system, and it shouldn't take more than an
hour...IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING, which he certainly does not. When he
starts to spout the most ludicrously misguided lunacy, two inches from my
face, I don't know whether to laugh or cry, since he will eventually shout
me down until I just walk away in disgust. Again, this happens to nearly
everyone there except the most vulnerable, who would melt into a puddle if
he looked at them sideways.
Okay, long story short...the boss has now put me in the middle of a turf war
between two departments; one is the one Dear Boss and I work in, the other
is a rival department. Dear Boss is afraid of the rival department's boss
(a woman who to me is friendly, intelligent, effective, and assertive in a
good way) and he therefore forces me to do his dirty work. He frequently
tells me to call this woman (a manager) and ask questions he's too spineless
to ask. He tells me to make suggestions to her about how to run her
department; for example, he wants ME, a tech writer, to implement barcoding
on the production line. Then, when I haven't delivered enough intel to him
(those questions no one would think to ask), he makes me go to the rival
department again...and again with new questions. And we're separated by 15
miles. I can imagine that this is beginning to ruin my relationship with the
rival boss, who's showing some signs of exasperation. Rival boss has told me
to ignore him, but that's easier said than done when someone's shouting in
your face. Besides the HR person (completely spine-free, as well), she is
the only woman in the company with the title "manager." Greetings from
1947!
I was hired as a tech writer 6 months ago, yet I have not written one word
since I arrived. Needless to say, I'm looking for a new job. I really like
my co-workers (except for you-know-who), the pay is average, I have a short
commute to an area of town that is rife with crime, but I don't know how
long I can stand the boss's demotivating, demoralizing badgering. I've done
contract writing for many, many companies, but never once have I worked for
a company that would allow this kind of stuff to go on.
My friends, in a not-so-hot job market, what would you do if you had to
endure this stuff for up to a year more?
Even if you don't have a solution for my diurnal nightmare, thanks for
listening.
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