My Boss is So Annoying...

I have had a couple of annoying bosses. It actually goes deeper than that. They have had a greater impact on my career and me than they ever should have, but they were in a position of authority and I was stuck, liking my job otherwise. Let's share our rather humorous stories of ridiculous things that go on in corporate America, without getting ugly, angry, using profanities or naming names.

I am fortunate that I never had the kind of boss Meryl Streep depicted in Devil Wears Prada. Yikes! Scary! No, I was unfortunate enough to have a worse kind (in my mind). Meryl Streep, intimidating as she was, wore it all out there. She called it like she saw it and, while that can be harsh to hear, you know where you stand.

I had the kind of boss who smiled when you walked in the room, sat you down, cajoled you into a false sense that there was a trust building between boss and employee. He would talk of lofty visions for a promotion, notice and compliment my skills, and confide in me about others. No sooner than I would leave the room, he was onto his next prey, manipulating people like pawns on a chess board. Getting his pieces in order so that he always emerged as protected king was his triumphant skill. He did this at the expense of people, relationships, emotions and trust. And, he was a smooth talker so he never confronted me about anything awkward. We never had a real conversation. We always had pleasantries. But behind the scenes, he was able to sabotage a career with a deathly slice of presuppositions, unsubstantiated claims, heresay, rumors and playing the popularity games that we all experienced in middle school. The kicker for corporate America is that his peers bought what he said!! Why? As adults, why weren't more of his level seeing through this charade? Is it that they wanted to be "liked" by this person or they didn't have the time to deal with it? I witnessed this boss ruin a career of a colleague merely by bad-mouthing him at leadership conferences. It was toxic. Not only did he block any future growth for this employee - a manager at the time, but he tainted opinions towards the entire department, as people were questioning how this department could be any quality if they follow/work for this manager.

The worst part about a story like this is that this boss continues to wake up every day patting himself on the back for being "the leader" that he is. He proudly dresses for work and shows up thinking he is on top of the world and any "tough" things he has done are a result of him being effective. This type of person has no emotional intelligence. My boss is so annoying... he doesn't think he does anything wrong.