my boss is ...
 

sorry if I picked the wrong place to have a moan, but I need to moan to someone and you're all such nice sympathetic people here at tfp :)

so my boss is (was) an asshole.

the intention of this thread being a) to give me a much needed destress and b) for other people to say similar things, or maybe even nice things, about their boss. I did a search and didn't find any thread on these lines, pardon me if I've missed it. We were going to sign a full-time contract from 1st of May, I've done a lot of part-time before that and been paid less than the going rate. Thank goodness I didn't sign anything

my ex-boss is an asshole!

I've just quit my job for the first time ever, as opposed to resigning and working out the notice period. It feels so GOOD! also I don't have to worry about acheiving what is maybe not possible anyway, so that's a relief.

dramatis personae:
BOSS - my boss
Andy - me
dad - my dad, I's living with the folks at the moment

the names have been changed... the last few messages follow, in reverse order... needless to say I disagree with nearly everything he says.

thanks for listening, I feel so much better now :D

hmmm...while it's good that you quit from the situation... are you still expecting any monetary compensation?

also IMO it's bad form for your father to have "stepped in" and spoke for you, that should have been all you.

that depends if he wants to he ever wants to see his software again :) I don't care, I'm off to New Zealand to play with chainsaws, or something exciting like that.

yeah, I wasn't happy about my dad talking to him really, but there are special cirumstances. For one thing I'd already told him several times, but it didn't seem to sink in. I would have moved back up there, but my parents wouldn't have been happy, I fucked up last time I lived up there, y'see. And they had to sort me out. Nah, I agree with you there, but I'm a bit of a moral coward sometimes :(

(yes, he did know all of this before-hand...)

Well I work in a restaurant and the head chef (and my boss) for the last 2 years left yesterday. He was a nice guy, I enjoyed having him as my boss, but he really hated his job. My new boss seems ok though, he seems much much much more organized which is a huge plus.

I've encountered and heard about plenty of asshole boss incidents, but I fail to see what's so bad about yours. Sounds like he's trying to accomodate you working from home even though it wasn't part of the deal, and is just asking you to show what you worked on last month since you haven't yet done so. Am I missing something here??

yeah, he's terminally unwilling to pay me, which is a major failing in a boss I think

ok, he's not a total asshole but I do like to get paid once in a while, it makes life worth living you know? ;)

it's not just me, i have independant witnesses B)

Well, yeah, that's a problem. But couldn't you show him what you've done so far accompanied by a list of hours you put in? I worked from home for 2 different companies for several years. I'd get the work done, write up an approximate timesheet (I rarely tracked my hours since I'd work for a while, watch some TV, work, answer the phone, work, eat lunch, etc), and that did the trick. Never had any problems with that arrangement.

I worked for a really shitty guy once. Shortly before I quit working for him I started another job. When it came time for me to quit he was reluctant to pay me for my last 2 months of work. When I pressed him, he threatened to sue me for violating a noncompete agreement when he found out I was working for the other company. It never would have held up in court (the companies were not competitors, and even if they were, noncompetes rarely hold up anyway) but at the time I didn't have the money to hire a lawyer to defend against his BS charges so I dropped the issue.

It worked out in the end though; the amount he owed me for those two months work is what I make every week now, and last I heard he's broke and on the run from about 5 outstanding fraud-related lawsuits. Almost makes me believe in karma. :D

lol - always nice to hear "bad karma" stories :)

that is good, constructive advice. Thanks. Possibly too late now. I could show him, but since we've been emailing at least a few times a day about what I'd be doing, since before 1st of May in fact, he finally pushed me over my threshold of pissed-off-ness.

(that is the point at which stress involved in earning money exceeds the value of the money earned.)

I did show him the hours I'd put in ... I guess my basic position was that I was supposed to be working full time, had done the hours and he was still messing me about.

I wonder what he'll do now... the software I was writing was pretty simple but needed a lot of background reading, also some system design issues I hadn't finalized... I reckon I'm well shot of it all.

From his angle, it'd be just as easy to assume that you didn't actually do any work. I'd withhold the product untill you know for sure it's gonna get you some pay. Even if it's half of what you should be expecting, there's really nothing that's going to give you back your time, so just trade off your last bit of work for a last bit of pay.

Wow, we have something in common...

My boss is an asshole too. Who would have guessed?

all I can say is that your boss sounds like a cocksmoker

and he can't really write or spell very well or communicate effectively in any case....

standard jackass boss who doesn't know what he's doing. i'm glad i'm not working for him! take the advice of the other folks in here who know more about software development, but i'd say fuckit. maybe you'll be his manager in a few years, but then again, why would you want to??

find something better!!

i am also glad i am not working for him, and as soon as i figure out what could be more fun than software development, I'm gonna go and do it.

Hmmm ... doesn't narrow it down much, does it? ;)

I worked for a guy that was unbelieveable. He owned a very large manufacturing co. When I gave him my 2 weeks, he suggested (in front of a lot of people) that I get a new suit so that I'll look good in my casket. He once called an overweight coworker "a fat lazy bastard" to his face. He told an openly lesbian purchasing agent "don't buy motors from California...there's nothing there but fags and mexicans."
I could go on for hours.