I’ve spent 30 years in a whacky industry that is out of the public eye. No one goes to college to major in it. It’s an odd business, and it’s cyclically tied into the interest rate. Every few years people spin in or spin out based on either their best offer or the whim of leadership.
So, I’ve worked in a lot of places with a lot of bosses. Some of those bosses have been good. Some have been mediocre. A whole lot of those bosses have been terrible, but the King of terrible goes to my last boss. Here’s the clinching story:
It was late on a Friday. She clomps up to my desk in her cheap shoes, bad hair, and stretch marks and says, “I need you to put together a quick bullet pointed list of requirements for <InsertBusinessTaskHere>.
I said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that because I’m not an expert in that area of the business. Moreover, the business leaders of that department are at an all day conference, however I’ll be glad to pick that up first thing Monday morning.
She said, “I need it today. Why don’t you bring your laptop to my office. I’ll dictate the requirements to you and you can write them down.
I silently thought, “Uh, you could just type the damned things yourself.”, but I dutifully grabbed my laptop and headed to her office.
For about a half hour she rattled on, and I typed on. For everything she said, I asked clarification questions to make sure I was getting it right. And the lines I wrote, I read back to her to make sure I had gotten them right.
I was in the office until nearly 8PM that Friday formatting the document, filling in boiler plates of the template, putting on a cover page, and making it look nice. I emailed it to her and put a printed copy on her desk.
Fast forward to Monday. I arrive at my desk at 7AM as usual. About 10 AM I hear the familiar stomping of her cheap shoes heading toward my desk. When she arrived at my desk, she announced her presence by slamming the copy I printed for her down on my desk; She then bellowed, “WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET THESE REQUIREMENTS!”
I said, “Uh, from you?”
She said, “No you didn’t, I didn’t say any of this to you!”.
I said, “Uh, so where else would I have gotten it from?”
She snarled, “I don’t know, but this is entirely unprofessional and unacceptable!”.
I said, “Well, my apologies. Tell me what I need to update, and I’ll be glad to make the changes,”.
The look in her eye grew joyous as she said, “You mean to tell me you don’t know what you missed?”
I said, “That document is damned near word for word what you said. I confirmed each statement you made with you at the time, so, if I missed something, it’s probably something you didn’t’ tell me.”
She spun around and walked away. Over her shoulder she said, “Be sure to have the corrections on my desk ASAP.”
I said, “Uh, I’ll be glad to fix it, but you need to tell me what needs to be fixed, because you’re the one who dictated it to me.”
She said, “If you don’t know what you did wrong, it’s your problem, not mine!”, and continued to walk out of the office.