When You Work with Insufferable Idiots

1. Sometimes I wonder, am I such delightful company that when it’s time to leave the office and I have completed all my urgent tasks you feel compelled to dump something at me at 6 pm? And it’s always at 6pm – always!

2. You don’t pay for my cell phone charges, but feel it’s your right to call me at any time of the day. Not only that, you have asked the secretary to put my mobile number on the master telephone list which is sent out to everyone. And when I don’t call you back after a missed call you’re sure to let me know, in the most annoyed tone that you called, when you next see me.

3. When I do stay in till 10pm killing myself to complete the work dumped on me, you come in and say “Oh great you’re still here, could you do this?”, and hand me even more work!

4. When I leave at 7pm you say “Aren’t you leaving a few hours early?”. You laugh like it’s a joke but somehow the hair standing at the back of my neck tells me it’s not.

5. I’m blamed for stuff that happened before I even joined the company. The logic is, you’re here now, so you have to take responsibility.

6. Your idea of passing me a portfolio on my first week of work is to forward me hundreds of emails. Meanwhile you’re aware that my email account hasn’t even been set up yet by IT.

7. Because I am such an underling, I am given the worst PC that continually hangs all day and IT says you’re too ‘low level in the hierarchy’ to get a new one. I am becoming such a pest with IT they probably curse when they see my number.

8. You talk down to me like I am a five-year old and you use words in your email like ‘reprimand’. My 15 years of work experience mean nothing to you.

9. You tell me that you’re great at numbers and that my numbers are all wrong. You could have just told me my numbers are wrong without the blowing of your own trumpet. (my friend just related this gem to me)

10. You tell me on my first day of work that you were not the one who decided to hire me. It was your Director whom you loathe. Wow! that’s a great way to start my first day at work.

11. I am forced to spend my lunch hour with you while you scrutinize my food and say “Are you really going to eat that? It’s so fattening”. And I’m thinking, I need all the comfort food I can get so I don’t feel like blowing my brains out. And when I don’t spend my lunch hour with you, you make sure I suffer the second half of the day.

12. You feel that I have this magical ability to read minds, and you don’t need to give instructions. You shoot off rapid fire unclear commands and any attempt to ask for clarifications is met with great annoyance.

13. You feel the best way to manage an office is through fear, where all the underlings are trembling on their toes. Everyone is so scared and oppressed that they dare not utter anything that is unfavorable about the boss, in case it somehow gets back to her/him. This especially works when the economy is bad and they have nowhere else to go.

14. You make me dread work so much that I am grateful when I have to go for an emergency operation (which you probably cause by all the distress you inflicted upon me), cos that will mean I don’t have to see your obnoxious face for a while.

Is there anyone out there who can relate? Lately I’ve been thinking I’m just a wimp, or a big magnet for bad luck.

But really the reason why I am sure about a bad work environment is because I have been in really great ones too. The difference is like heaven and hell. That’s why I advise anyone I see, if you’re just bored at work, don’t leave. (I wish my older self could have given my younger self that advice) You may end up with tyrant bosses and mean co-workers.

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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10 Responses to When You Work with Insufferable Idiots

  1. crossgrid says:

    Hey, thank you for this post. I got a killer combination of items 8 and 11 thru 13, yesterday. Psychological violence, as you call it in another post. Variously, subtle and full-frontal; outrageous and abusive. Me, probably I’m a magnet, but I’m learning quick and yesterday was just a remedial lesson. More power to you too, friend!

    • bookjunkie says:

      it’s awful how all the idiots have all the power at work while people with a heart suffer. Hey crossgrid, thanks so much for reading. I really appreciate it 🙂 It’s so cool when someone can relate!

  2. 365days2play says:

    I got agitated reading this. Just don’t understand what the bosses gain by behaving in such a tyrannical way? Are they so insecure and incompetent that they must resort to such methods? I had a really horrible big boss previously who would just make it seem like every single thing I did was wrong. But yet I was only doing what the small boss said was okay!Luckily things are much better at my current place. My current boss’s motto is “Do to others what you would have them do to you” which I am thankful for.

    • bookjunkie says:

      Your old boss sounds like an ass. I really like your new boss’s motto. I used to work at at place where we had that motto and things were good till the recession and outsourcing. I must confess that I get agitated just recalling and writing about the toxic environments I suffered at. But it sure does help to have empathetic listeners 🙂

  3. 365days2play says:

    Also to add on….don’t understand why the bigger bosses don’t see the tyrannical ways of the lower bosses….

    • bookjunkie says:

      I experienced that too. I think the lower bosses know how to present two different selves. One to their underlings and one to the big boss. It makes me so mad.

  4. LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! Great post and I’m still laughing. Why are bosses SO controlling and have to be such asses???? It is an epidemic, I swear!

    • bookjunkie says:

      I think it’s a worldwide epidemic. Wish we could round all up these mean bosses and give them a taste of their own medicine aka movies like ‘9 to 5’ and ‘Office Space’. LOL.

  5. sang says:

    I love this post and can totally relate. What pisses me the most is when after going through all the trouble of whatever it is that you need to get done, the boss takes all the credit for it. And when something bad happens that you didn’t even lift a finger on, you get all the blame.

    And we all have to work our sorry a**es for the rest of our miserable lives. On the bright side, at least the boss is the only complaint I have..everything else in my job is great.

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