How Many of You Have Had Stupid Bosses?

Having set up a number of certifications such as ASME certifications, ISO, 6σ....... there are documents and a paper trail required for tracibility....... one of them is a log of calibrations for the equipment.........

This may be the case.

I'm sure all of us have worked for clowns........ but could this be a legitimate request?

I have a picture of one of my bosses somewhere here,....... lets see.........,

Oh, Here it is...........

all I'll add to this esoteric thread is, I've worked with people who were more focused on control and making those around them bend just to exercise control. is this stupid? in a sense I suppose it is.

Yes it is. It promotes a negative culture within the company and they are in complete denial that they are the problem.

I needed a small quantity of silicone gum to mold some 1/8 dia. x 1/8 long snubbers for an electronics package that was going up in a rocket.

I needed about 4 ounces of the raw stock.

Had a local supplier who could get the small quantity I needed.

Go to purchasing, tell them who has it and I want to buy it from them.

"Nope , they're not on our approved supplier list"..

So, I find an approved machine shop in town who has some and will supply it and copies of the required certifications for $100.00.

Go to purchasing.

"Nope, they are on our approved supplier list as a machine shop, but not as a materials supplier".

So had to order 4# minimum with a 4 week lead time from an approved materials supplier at about 100X the cost.

That's when you request an "engineering sample" and get it that way.... of course then you have to figure out how to get the finished part into the supply chain....

I've done that......... fortunately and I didn't feel guilty either..... we did a lot of work with the supplier, and he suggested it..........

In my first real job in this industry, I had a boss who took inappropriate pleasure in reviewing all purchasing activities. It was as if he assumed everyone was stealing, he just needed the proof. We were an equipment mfr building Motor Control Centers and control panels. One day he called me in asking me why we were buying so many of these "control power transformer" devices. I had to explain to him what it was! Not only that, but his response was "Don't we make those?" (we didn't). Keep in mind, he was the BOSS of this outfit, yet he displayed that he knew nothing about what we did for a living... I found out years later that before getting the job there, he had been a regional manager for a chain of clothing stores. So the real criminal in that story is HIS boss, who hired an utter nincompoop for managing a very technical business.

That reminds me of something else from Dilbert:

• Sorting Algorithm of Stupidity: The Pointy Haired Boss claimed that a good manager will always hire people smarter than them, and Dilbert pointed out that that must mean the CEO is the dumbest person in the company.

When I worked at the shipyard, one of our contracts was the Avenger Class Minesweepers.

They where made from wood and non ferrous meterials…..

Well we had to cut out blocking for machine gun/radar mounts. All of the blocking was made from Oak.Which we used our Shoda CNC routers.

These blocking had to match the camber and shear of the deck of the ships.

We used a Fantacci bit which is an aggressive looking bit, and it cut like it looked.

One of the bits had a 50 mm (about 2") wide cut, and we could cut about 35-40 mm (about 1-1/2") deep, 12,000-14,000 rpm at about 100-120 inches /minute.

Below is a picture, I believe this is a 30 mm

Beautiful….. really hogged the material off.

Of course our incompetent supervisor are always doing time studies….. and he came up with a new bit that would put the Fantacci to shame…….. told him I have to see to believe it.

Well he purchased not one (1) but six (6) of these bits and he want me to used them……

These bits were for metal, low rpm, and 3" cut, no gullet space for shaving removal……. After having it out with him, it was an down and out order or get fired.

Well, I was more then happy to oblige.

So I emptied out our sawdust bins, and also transfer the vacuum to an open box, to remove an posibity tfor an explosions or fire……. (at least to keep the fire under control.) Evedently, word got out, what this supervisor told me, and the guy the hired me, came down when I was cutting the blocking……

Smoke was everywhere………… already burned up (2) bits……. And I could not slow down the rpm far enough…. (7,000 rpm before inverter kicked in on the routers) anything under 7,000 rpm's it would trip a breaker. the lack of rpm's alone dulled the bits as well as loading up the gullets.

And since the shaving that the bits took off with the Fantacci 's, it also carried the heat away and kept the bit warm. But those no bits were burning.

Well, the guy that hired me showed up and laughed, and said, I see your proving your bosses incompetence.

I told him, he left me no other choice.

I just happen to have been a Minesweep Navy Sailor here. USS PLEGDE (MSO-492) and USS ENHANCE (MSO-437).

Our contract were MCM (Mine Counter Measure) Avenger Class

Yes, those were the new Mine Sweepers. I got out of the Navy when the MSO's were being decommissioned. I was part of the decommissioning crew for the USS Enhance. It was decommissioned shortly after returning from minesweeping in the Persian Gulf. Shortly after I got out, COMMINEGROUP1 relocated from Seattle, WA to Texas to start manning the MCM's.

Perhaps it was only a matter of incorrect specification.

Maybe he meant that the setting of the PS would be verified and documented to be correct. If it required adjustment it would show up.

Perhaps not a stupid boss, but one not being accurate in communication.

I have had a stupid boss.

He called me on my bench telephone and during the conversation asked me where I was !!

( "where are you now ?" )

Then he asked you ..... "Where he was"

By that time the phone was too far from my laughing head for me to hear anything.

Tried to prevent him from hearing me chortle.

We just got a new boss that made our techs assign serial numbers to every meter and gauge in the building. All of the meters in question have been in place for over 25 years and do not require calibration.

The techs then put stickers on the faces of all meters. The new stickers are random sizes (depending on who was doing it that day). Now some meters have stickers half the size of the meter face.

What was the rationale?

The meter's true serial number was on the back, and it was perceived to be too hard to open the cabinet and look for the serial number...

...for the once-a-year inventory.

This was one of his better ideas.

In my shop, I had ID'ed all of my tools big and small........ (engraved) and painted them an ugly baby blue........

My rational?.........What this did, was stopped theft that was occurring..... and the color, we did a lot of service work, working with other contractors at customers locations...... makes it easy to identify your tools.

Stupid??????/

My workers started to do the same with their own tools,....... crappy green, bright russet, pale violet.......

I was one of three shift engineers working 8 Hr shifts which suited me. One was made up to engineering manager, my first reaction was to fall about laughing. He really was useless, he could talk a good job, couldn't do it.

This now meant there were only two shift engineers, 12Hr shifts and we weren't happy.

Being awkward (bloody minded) was 2^nd nature to both of us. We would do what ever he said, not think about it, just do it. "I told you it wouldn't work" became the norm.

By the time we had finished with him he had a nervous breakdown and resigned.

I once had an Executive Vice President order me (in strong terms) to have the PC board assembly house start building the boards while Engineering was finishing up the circuit design and getting ready to start the board artwork. She really got mad at me when I tried to explain why this was impossible.

At another job a VP ordered the production run to start several months before we did the required testing on the prototype. Yep, passed EMI but failed environmental.

I'm going to use this here: Simple Physics Question. I hope it's OK with you.

A bit like Christopher Columbus:

He sailed off on a journey of discovery, in command of a motley crew, not knowing where he was going.

When he got there he did not know where it was.

And on return he didn't know where he had been.

And he did it without using his own money.

The King of Spain paid, and called it America.

Who's the idiot

Being my own boss too....I have been there, done that and bought the "T" shirt! HA HA HA!

Well at least it shows that you didn't burn any bridges with yourself.

Once in a while they make life interesting.

One day one of our equipment at the fourth floor stopped working causing the process to stop. We found that a wire in a limit switch had come loose, touched the metal casing and tripped off a circuit-breaker. Among the loads on this breaker was the controls for the equipment at the fourth floor. The funny thing is that the limit switch that caused all the trouble was located in the ground floor.

My boss was already upset that we had to stop but when I explained what had caused it, he really blew up.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND! HOW CAN SOMETHING DOWN IN THE GROUND FLOOR CAUSE A PROBLEM IN THE FOURTH FLOOR?"

For the next ten minutes he raged and bellowed while everyone watched him. When he finally left, everyone smiled.

I got more where that came from but I don't want to hog the thread. (",)

regards,

Vulcan

In fact I very much doubt that there are people who are not convinced their boss is a big big zero!

Thereality is that most of "leaders" in technical directions are from a non technical ground and do not understand what the subordinates do. I also had my experiences when I made suggestions which were not accepted and we went directly in the wall.

Unfortunately Peter's priciple which was thought as a joke is 101% true to our dispair.

The Peter's Principle is humour as well, but it is also fact and has been proved many times by simple folk such as ourselves. I learnt about it first from my boss of the time (who was also a Peter!), who was a good boss, till he got promoted again!!! (See True Joke below.)

Anyone interested can read more here:-

Peter_Principle

Seen it too often NOT to believe in it.....I am sure that I am not alone here either!!

True Joke about Peter!

When he got promoted to European, he retained his office in Germany and when he was there, we would sometime ask him to handle certain things, just as we had for years. His answer was always the same:- "I don't work anymore for you Guys!"

One of the things I had previously done was to keep his Laptop free of Viruses as a sideline....it was the early days of Viruses....

He stormed into the office one day, looked at me with a very angry face and said "I've got a bloody Virus on my laptop!! WHY??"

I said to him cool, calm and collected "We don't work for you anymore!!"

He looked at me, went very quiet for 30 seconds or so and then he laughed!!!!

I read that book back in the 1970's.

People being promoted to a level of incompetence.

Working in a tunnel one day. The thing is in bad shape and all the top brass turn up. It's kind of a flashing 'blues and twos' situation. 'how much has the tinnel collpased in ?'. ''Well, I need to stick in some ref points". 'I can stick in some pins, take measurements, then tell you the change in about an hour'. Blank look. 'Yes, you silly sod, I can get it measured right now, but the important thing is how much it changes and at what rate. DUGH. I can't possibly tell you the change without two measurements.

Another classic was reporting to the senior eng on site - he held the chart upside down with zip all comprehension ! I gave him a slightly baffled look and rotated the chart in his hands. It was hilariously funny - we both had a darn good laugh about it later and reached an understanding - I did the practical stuff and he drove the deskj.

Absolutely mate. GA.

The OP may just have been communicated with in a manner not appropriate for that between a mentor and an intelligent subordinate.

The way we are told or the way that you tell makes a big difference.

Still, stupid bosses are real and they walk among us.

There are also different types of stupid too. The OP's boss, for example, was stupid for not being able to explain why the cal was necessary and not optional.

I knew a manager that had temper tantrums and would throw screwdrivers across the room. Another one when he said "Win-win situation" meant that he had won twice.

I was hired to design a new style, more efficient trawl net for a specific fishery. The netting company hiring me was one of the top 5 largest in the world.

After three days of work in their net loft, 3 more days bobbing around on the Ocean.... the sea trials were complete and successful. The new net design, which was smaller in size, out produced the older design by almost 40% in catch and saved 20% on fuel. Use of their own high tech netting enabled me to make a net that held up longer in use.

Returning to the corporate HQ I thought I was going to be thanked and hired on for another project. Sitting with the execs and Supervisor, the story went like this:

...." We brought you over here to design us a new , more efficient trawl for our local shrimp fishery of which we sell hundreds of thousands of pounds of netting and rope to each year. Instead ,you have succeeded in creating a serious problem. The 30 Meter trawl you produced out caught our older 40 Meter net by over 40%. By using the UHDPE netting you have created a net that will last longer without having to be replaced. We make money selling materials. IF we sell a smaller net that holds up longer, that correlates to less netting material, reduced sales and less profit. Thank you for your time but we are cancelling this project. Have a nice flight back to the US."

Duh?????

Your story has me hoping that you are now the president, or at least chief of design and production and major stock holder in your own company outselling everybody else! Is that the case? If not, why not?

No its not! Thats completely wrong.....

Blighty means basically Great Britain.

For example, "I'm off to Blighty next week!" It can be anywhere within Great Britain, no need to give a town, county or country name for example.....

Look here:-

Blighty

Etherville is probably not blighted by your comments, or is it?

<splarf>

.... and I am sometimes the janitor, book keeper, shipping clerk and maintenance dept. too!!!

My years working with the Japanese taught me that NOTHING is a failure. YOU learn from EVERYTHING that happens...GOOD AND BAD.

So from this adventure I learned that what a major corporate office wants and what they do with it when they get it are 2 different things! haha!

Ah yes!

I saw a cartoon once. The big boss of a toy company called a meeting and asked the engineers:

"Now, who's the fool who designed this indestructible toy?" (",)

regards,

Vulcan

Its all part of life my man.... Just deal with it

I worked for a company building large battery chargers for power stations. The engineering manager had written the test spec for a prototype unit I was testing. The charger was a 200V 400A unit connected to a very large battery bank. I saw a problem in the spec and thought it would be good for a wind up so I phoned the manager with most of the department listening in.

"We have a bit of a problem here. It is the earth fault test. We have shorted the rails individually to earth and that was fine. Its the next bit where you told us to short both the +ve and -ve rails to ground simultaneously....." I could almost hear him going pale as he realised what he had written. He eventually replied, "My God, you didn't do that did you?!"

The first foreman I had for a boss was an idiot.

I know for a fact because I overheard him admit it to his own boss.

"..I am an idiot, I know it. I must have been mad agreeing to let him (meaning me) work in my department. He hasn't a clue, I have to show him everything, I do all the work and he stands around watching me..."

I got a bit worried.

But a bit less worried when his boss agreed but in my defence told him to give me a chance "...he's a new apprentice, he's only 15, and it's only his second day at work...."

Perhaps he wasn't an idiot after-all. At least I hope not!

Good day at my house I heard from a reliable source my last incompetent boss got fired sometime in the last few months!

Now back to bad bosses. I don't know where to start. The one who returned a shipment of bandsaw blades after chewing out the company who made them because they were manufactured inside out.

Or the one who bragged up how he fixed a machine in 20 minutes to which I shortly found out from the machine operator that he screwed around with it and messed it up so bad that he had to call in an emergency repair job from the manufacturers company, which took a well trained service tech from the manufacture a full day to fix, to which in the end I called him out on it during a group meeting and he proceeded to literally throw a hissy fit along with is paperwork and what ever else he had in his hands and walk away not to be seen for the rest of the day.

Or the guy who tried to fire me for a paperwork screw up that was not even mine. (Wrong truck, wrong shift, wrong paperwork, wrong guy, (but we both did have brown hair so close enough.) To which I took it to upper management and was promptly un fired and given a day off only later to have him try and refire me for the same paperwork screw up that his boss had cleared me of two days before that then required a second meeting with the same upper level people who unfired me again.

(He was demoted from manager back to truck driver shortly after that and had to work with all the people he had pushed around for now honest reasons when he was manager.)

Then there was the manager who tried to fire me for totaling a company truck of which he claimed to have seen it happen in person yet when questioned by his superiors could not produce a damaged truck, any shop records of any truck I had ever driven having had any damage let alone having been totaled, plus could not actually give any description as to the when and where of having seen me do it.

How about the one who fired me for unexcused absences for scheduled days off that were agreed to before I had started working at that company plus for 'unexcused time off' for when I got married despite everyone in the company including his boss knowing exactly when and why I was gone on every single day that was put up for question. then when all of this was brought up during my dismissal meeting just stared at the floor when I pointed out the when and wheres of the days in question and his boss even admitted to having known about them and asked what he thought he was doing.

Then there was my last manager who tossed his ego around so hard pursuing his goal of doing nothing while getting paid the most while doing it that the whole workforce walked out on him in one day resulting in his getting investigated by the company and ultimately fired.

I'm half tempted to get another job just to see what happens next!

The answer to your question will have no number yet, since we only can make the addition or sum after all inputs. All the rest will be predictions or assumptions. Bosses are always stupid in one or more ways. That is why they hire people with minimal 2 functioning brain cells to complete the setup.

I knew of a guy that was a salesman in the oil field. He told us he made 7 figures a year on a 5 % commission . His company was bought and the new owner said he was making way too much so they cut him down to 2% commission.

(5% and he 's making 7 figures? Know what he was he making for the company??)

My podna' left, went to his competitors and they gave him 7% plus perks.* His old boss never had him sign a Non-Compete clause*

Conclusion: Employees make the boss look good, NOT the other way around.

I had one that wasn't real bright and also didn't have a good sense of things better done behind closed doors. Once when I met him in his office right after he had lunch, he pulled a roll of floss out of his desk and proceeded to floss his teeth while he continued talking to me. There would be chunks of lunch dangling from the floss as he went along.

Another one had hemorrhoids and wasn't shy about sharing the details. One day he got into some lengthy explanation about some treatment by his doctor using rubber bands back there, and he wasn't sure if they were working. I swear he was about to ask me to go back into the lab with him so I could observe and report how things looked. Fortunately I got myself out of his office before it came to that.

jhammond

Had one once who used to go on forever about the benefits of the colonics he used every morning (c'mon, EVERY morning? That would throw your electrolytes off so far you'd be either dead, or at least suffering massive muscle cramps in your intestines, as they rolled themselves in little balls), but the worst thing was, he insisted on taking the five of us out to lunch several times a month, and talked about the RESULTS of those things, in color, every time, all the way to, from, and during lunch.

Happily he didn't last more than about 3 months with the company. Weird guy.

Hammond. "...Fortunately I got myself out of his office before it came to that..."

It's one way to avoid piles of work I suppose

When I was watch section super at a Navy Base I was on, we had a power outage, unexpected. My crew followed procedure and secured main power, shut down the feeder panels (30), secured rack power 210 racks, and Teletype posit power (4 per rack), preparatory to bringing everything back up in the same order (main, feeders, racks, posits) in order to create the smoothest reload of our feeders. The Ops section super, who outranked me, insisted that I had to do it the other way around, turn everything except the main on, the bring the main online fully loaded.

He was going to write me up for disobedience to a command, and I knew if I did it his way, it would melt the newly laid feeders right out of the ground. Happily, I had a written SOP, and MY boss, who outranked the Chief, backed me up. Otherwise we could all have been dead!

I just remembered my last Boss before retirement, who leaked a secret memo that he had got me to write, to the person who it was about....after promising not to (before I wrote it by the way!!!)

He promised me a pay rise and totally ignored the fact that the date promised was 6 months past before he paid it.....

My second (unpaid) job with the same company was to improve the "quality" of the way we installed and the customer used the equipment we sold. I was then actually, for this job alone "equal"my own Boss.....boy he loved that!

I remember that we were at a meeting with deputy CEO (who was Spanish and had a name that required a degree of Spanish knowledge to say it correctly! Which I could of course!) of the company (who liked me and had made me the quality manager for Europe, Middle East, Scandinavia and Africa), who gave us all our new assignments.

I duly noted down what I had to do over the following weeks on a block. When we left the office, my Boss asked me what he had to do (in front of several others also present!). I told him that I didn't have a clue as to what he had to do as I had noted only my own assignments!!!

Boy was he pissed, but due to other top management being present, he had to cool his reply down...I then said that if he had asked me nicely up front, I would have noted it down for him, but now it was too late. The rest stood around and sniggered....

Then we were taken over by a huge US company, who laid off anyone who cost real money, no matter what they brought in.....they were unfriendly and unmannerly people......

I was happy to be retired (as being too expensive according to them!!) as I could also see that there was not a future with us together.

A year after my retirement, I heard through my colleagues that my old manager wanted to buy a bigger house, asked his manager (yes you know who!!) if his job was secure and was told it was. He bought the house and was "released" two weeks later!! REALLY GREAT!!! He deserved that.......

Due to not having anyone chasing up quality after that, THE WHOLE COMPANY WENT "TITS UP" A FURTHER YEAR LATER.........and was itself taken over....to be expected......a 10 Billion $ Company.....

Anyone who wants "names and places" can send me a private email.....I may tell you!!

I had a boss that called me into the office one day and says to me "I don't know whether to keep you or get rid of you!" What started this was that I had troubleshot a problem on a complex machine in about 5 minutes and the mechanics had worked on it for three days (it wasn't a hydraulic problem, but an electronics problem). Two weeks later when I gave him my notice, he asks "Why are you doing this?".

A month later when calibrations were due, the aircraft customers started shutting down the production lines due to "Out of Date" calibrations. He had to ask "Who did the calibrations?" the response? Jim did! And I won't go into the EPA project!

I think the problems is with a boss, is that they feel they have to say something..... when in fact they are better off to just keep their mouth shut...... and just look stupid.

I was hired by a company that factory floor was union, and at the time they had went out on strike. (An illegal strike later finding out) And the owner had trouble hiring engineers. But I think he just had trouble retaining.

Well it was basically drafting position, And I needed the work..... but there was a difference between what I was asking and what he'll offer.

Well we agreed to go as a trial basis at the reduce wage , and after 3 months we would make the adjustments., I've done this before and it always worked out for me better.

The union basically cross the line, because they found out, that the union was not looking after their best interests, and frankly, they were a great group of guys.

Well while I was there he was still hiring designers and engineers, and they'd come and go. I had an idea to keep looking elsewhere, which I did.

3 months came, and I was working at time till 8:00pm, he was there also, and I mention if tomorrow morning we can discuss our arrangement, of which he agreed. But the reason he was working was that he was traveling the next morning and would not be there....... I gave him the benefit of a doubt that he simple forgot.

He did patronize me on what a great job I was doing, but frankly, I'm insulted when I'm patronized, that is not what I'm looking for.

Or another time,I bring it up, during the day, and he'd be expecting an important p[hone call and didn't what that interrupting our conversation and if we could bring it up The following Monday…… Sure great.

Well Monday came, and he was not there, ………. I was told he had Monday night football tickets for when the Packes played the Cowboys in Dallas.. It was always something.

I was there for 17 months, and after a year I realized, it was not going to happen so Well after a year as Roseanne Rosanna Danna use to say, "It's always somethin" ^{(A Saturday Night Live comedic Character)}

The last 7 months I was also looking, but was a more picky at what I wanted. As far as work, my interested dropped.

Then he came in to let me know he was hiring as he put it a drafter, his name is Chad…..and he starts Monday.

This was the Sixth guy he hired since I started…… So, I five (5) others had already came and went.

But he just wanted to just let me know, that this was the guy he really wanted to hire instead of me……….. as surprised at the comment, I could not help but laugh, (to myself of course).……………..

But I did say something he was surprised about, and that was when I congratulated him on finally bringing in someone he actually wants, he didn't realize that I was offered a job elsewhere.

It shook him up, and was willing move me around…..well, our discussion changed direction, and All I told him, that the very least he could have done was been honest with me.

He apologized, and I responded with a question, How many times have you apologized to me?….. his reply was a lot…… I reminded him that was the first honest answer you gave me, unfortunately, you apologize so much that it carries no value with me anymore.

Needless to say, that was my last day.

Ran into some of the some of the people on the shop floor about a year later, and Chad, well,…. he lasted 3 months and left and so did about 4 others.

I was their for 17 months, I guess I had more patience……. Ya, that what it was,…… patience…..

I had one when I first got out of the navy, and was working as a contractor at a US Intelligence establishment, who make promise after promise about what he'd do for us, if we "only did this" for him. I had promised him I'd stay on the contract a year when he hired me, and I stick to my word. That was 32 years ago, and I stuck one year. But at the end of the year, I told him I was leaving, and he, to his credit, found me a position in our engineering branch. I worked there for the next 17 years, until the company riffed all 200 of us one weekend. We all knew it was coming months in advance, so none of us was on the street more than a week.

I've never had much respect for his honesty, but it really stuck with me when he said the reason he was trying to find me a position in engineering (vice field services, where he was the manager) was because I had been honest with him.

Sometimes, I guess even dishonest people can appreciate the ones among us who try to be honest. And sometimes they even show appreciation for it.

But other times I've stuck it out, and when asked why, all I could say was "too dumb to quit, I guess".

I have no idea what happened to him. I would guess he's 20 years or so older than I am, and since I'm 59, he COULD still be around. Shoot, from some people I've worked with, he MIGHT even still be working. Just not for that company, since they no longer exist.

Back to basics and understanding what "calibration" is. I have had the argument about "calibrating"certain pieces of equipment with several ISO auditors and it comes to understanding the definition of calibration. Yes there are some pieces of equipment that you can calibrate(acutally adjust something, like an attached meter(volts, amps, whatever),to bring them into your specified range as compared to a calibrated comparison device) but many things can only be "verified", i.e., check what the specific detail you are looking for.

Biggest thing I run into are measuring equipment like tape measures, squares, etc, which of course, at least in most cases where you are not spending a fortune to purchase them, can only be verified.

I think your boss just isn't aware of the proper definition of "calibration". It's an easy mistake made by many, many people. Whether you want to point this out is up to you.

Wow, that brings back memories...... in High School, We had micrometers that had verification plugs to 'verify'.

That was the last time I saw these plugs.

And, by the way, I too have had a boss or two like the one you describe and even worse. It is likely be inevitable that everyone will run across one during their working life. Not much you can do about it except complain, and better yet, confront. Confrontation may cost you your job (it has me), but it may make your life a little less stressful (at least until you find another job with, hopefully, a "smarter(for lack of a better adjective") boss. And with any luck, the "boss" will get his in the end as well, and that is truly a great feeling - I know from personal experience, even though it did not get me my job back, it moved me onto better things and today, I think I am a better "boss" because of it.

Was any of them named Anonymous Poster by any chance?

Did you give him one?

A sticker I mean.

Just give then more rope.....they'll hang themselves.

Stupid bosses are normally my customer's problem.

There is always a no hindrance clause in my contracts...so if my customer has a stupid boss in their employ I talk to that boss's boss (my client) and let them know the cost of not reigning in the stupidity.

Stupidity stops. If not then my bottom line goes up ( I don't tolerate third party stupidity induced scope creep) and there are no surprises.

Seems that all bosses are getting a rough time here....a little unfair. I think we need to distinguish between stupidity and just being wrong or erring...it's part of being human.

Also, bosses have personal problems too.

Then again there are some that seem to be other than human just on brain cell count.

Wal at 66 refers to bosses being wrong rather than stupid. A human trait I agree.

I am my own boss and I often have arguments with myself over the best way to do things. Sometimes I'm wrong. But usually not making the same mistake again.

When I did work for others I found my bosses were not stupid. Let's face it; they got paid more, and salaried at that, with bonuses, sick pay, company car, an expense account, longer holidays, and a pension fund.

I had nothing but an hourly wages. And it was the work I did that the customers were paying for.

DO NOT FORGET!!

When talking to yourself, you know at least ONE intelligent person is listening!!!

Any tips on how to tell who's who' ??

Thats easy, only one choice!!!

I don't know about that advice, Andy. Someone once told me that jumping into an argument already in process when you walk into a room is bad policy, because you might find yourself defending someone you really can't stand. Imagine how much worse it would be to wake up arguing with yourself, and jump in and get the wrong partner!

Well, I guess that requires a 3-way split personality, but I think the point is clear.

Actually, adding some soothing common sense to ANY argument, when done properly, can take the heat out of the situation.......but it takes skills to be done properly that many simply do not possess.....

Do you yourself have them?

I recently noticed on another blog that you have not a clue about Googling/Searching on the internet apparently.....The answer being October 6th by the way......

Which blog, Andy? Don't leave us in suspense.

Actually, I DO know how to find information by searching, but I'm certain I didn't do so because I didn't think it necessary.

It's OK for you to argue with yourself, but when you start to lose those arguments, that's the time to worry. Evaluate yourself with this.

Never lost an argument with myself up to now, but it could happen as I get older of course!!

Like most topics here, and on other sites where posting is a general free-for-all, the "terms" are seldom ever defined, before things take off in a direction, which was not necessarily the intended course.

As a rule, I don't see how anybody who runs a very successful business with a great reputation, could be lumped into the same category as a bumbling middle management lackey, who is trying to prove the 'Peter Principle', by climbing the corporate ladder as fast, and as high as their ego driven lack of expertise can carry him, or her. A successful business owner who has a few people under them who call them "boss", might occasionally do A 'stupid thing'; but, if they were truly "stupid" they would NEVER have gotten where they are today!

If it is true that: 'Stupid' is as 'Stupid does', it is equally true that: 'Successful' is as 'Successful' does! And, 'stupidity' is not a consistent part of the equation in the latter.

I am certain it was not the intent of the OP, nor most here to cast aspersions on the 'office' of "Boss; but to just point out the LACK of eptitude in a select few who have occupied the 'Boss's office'.

"eptitude" is not in my Oxford Dictionary, its probably not in yours either unless you wrote it in yourself....I know which word you meant by the way, but that is still very poor spelling.... they "a" and the "e" are not next to each other on most keyboards either.....which is where I get it often wrong....

The CR4 spelling checker finds it/marks it in my post here perfectly...

I don't know if 'eptitude' on it own is a legitimate word or not either; but, I was just trying to be a bit silly, by removing the 'in' from the front of 'ineptitude', and substituting the word 'lack' in its place.

You forgot the smiley to explain that!!

There are so many bad spellers here, you need the smiley.....