70

Worst disturbance while working?

Some of my faves:
- Mgr flying his new $400 drone around the office (hitting walls, ceiling, etc). I mentioned the price because he crashed it a week later (un-repairable kind of crash), so I didn't feel too sorry for his loss.
- Mgr trying out his new blowgun and blowing darts at a cardboard box down/bewtween the cube hallway (where anyone could walk out of at any time). We would hear the "pfffft" and a loud 'Yea!'.
- Mgr would walk by a cube entry-way, fart, and walk away laughing.
- Mgr called me into area and his desk+the floor area around his desk was covered in peanut shells.
Me: "Wow, you got a mess here."
Mgr: "Yea, got tired of trying to hit the trash can. Maintenance will vacuum the office this weekend."
The mess was one thing, but what disturbed me the most was this asshole thinks Maintenance-Jim has nothing better to do than clean up after this so-called adult.

Karma kicked in and an hour later the owner's wife (we're still a family owned company, so he+his wife are on friendly basis with everyone) stopped by to say hi and walked in on the mess.
June: "What do we have here!?"
Mgr: "Oh...um...uh..I was eating a few peanuts and putting the shells in the trash can and accidentally knocked it over. I was on my way to get the vacuum cleaner."
June: "Hmmm...this looks like more than a few. *You* clean it up right now and *never* let me see this again!"
Mgr: "Yes..yes ma'am...right now.."

Whole office heard the exchange and it was frickin' awesome.

Comments
  • 10
    What fucked up kind of manager is that?
  • 1
    Woooooooooooow. That is definitely NOT how management works.
  • 1
    How does that company have any staff which such a horrible manager :O
  • 1
    I like stories with an happy ending :)
  • 2
    Maybe he thinks his employees are a bunch of boring jerks. Become friends with him and join him in wasting time every day.
  • 3
    @epse

    > What fucked up kind of manager is that?

    'John' had two sides. The side he presented in front of his underlings, and the side he presented above his rank. He could easily (and did) dismiss any grumblings by his employees by singling them out as 'not team players'. A true master at the 'corporate speak'.
  • 4
    @aBrokenDonut

    > I like stories with an happy ending :)

    Yes, the day he was fired, it was all I could do from saying "Ding dong, the witch is dead." Seriously.

    VP called all of us in the big conf. room, walked in and said 'Good morning everyone. We had to let "John" go today. I'll be in my office if you have any questions'. Then the VP leaves.

    Dead silence for a few seconds with those words SCREAMING in my head and another voice "Say it...SAY IT!".

    Maybe the icing on the cake was the panic look on "John"s enforcement team. The group of 'yes men' who would run and tell "John" about any devs who didn't "play ball". Yes, I was on 'report' on a nearly daily basis.

    Those frackers no longer had anyone to hide behind and they soon quit+got fired.
  • 1
    @PaperTrail what kept you all that time from not quiting yourself?
  • 2
    @aBrokenDonut

    >what kept you all that time from not quiting yourself?

    If I quit, he won.
  • 1
    Manager sounds like straight out of The Office
  • 0
    That's why I use eardots and headphones at same time...
  • 0
    @drdre

    >Manager sounds like straight out of The Office

    Manager in The Office was funny. Nothing funny about 'John'.

    He had targets on 4~5 us and constantly focused his micro-mgmt nonsense on what we did. Didn't properly capitalize check-in comments, misspelled variables, etc. Mind you he was the entire department mgr, not a group/area manger (who was responsible for such things)

    I am the only one left. He managed to get one fired and others quit out of frustration.

    'John' was fired almost 5 years ago and we *still* talk about him and his minions.

    The good news is all the managers now gauge their competence against 'John'. I can't rant too much about our current structure. They set the goal, define the parameters, and stay out of our way.
Add Comment