with Britt Reints
Forget the 9 to 5; Full Time, All the Time is a blog about the mobile working life - when you have the freedom to work from anywhere and the responsibility of always having your smartphone turned on. Britt Reints works as a freelance writer while traveling fulltime in an RV with her husband and two kids. She explores balancing real-life bills with an unconventional work life, and finding time to maintain relationships with family and friends.
You can also find Britt at InPursuitOfHappiness.net.
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Every morning when I get to work, I say a little prayer of gratitude for having a supportive boss. I’ve had my fair share of terrible bosses in the past and to work for someone who’s actually a good person is a nice change.
In fact, it’s downright liberating. I’m lucky that my boss is a working mom who understands working mom issues. She’s encouraged me to flex my schedule to allow for play-dates and has never once rolled her eyes when my family is sick once again.
I think I’ve probably worked for some of the worst bosses in the world. Or at the very least the worst bosses in Silicon Valley. I’ve had the micro-manager who put her team on a lunch schedule just to control her own need to know where we were at all times. I had the dishonest boss that would tell confidential information to his staff and then pick a scapegoat to take the blame when that confidential information was leaked. Or the manager that looked down on taking any vacation ever as if your vacation balance indicated your loyalty to the company.
There was the bully boss that reduced more than one person to tears. After a few months of being totally stressed out I found the bully boss’ weakness — a strong, loud woman. I spent the next three years having to raise my voice and be aggressive to survive (which of course, classified me as a bitch and nearly killed my career at the company).
I’ve managed people in the past and know that it can be a tough job. Sometimes you hire the wrong person. Sometimes you inherit a team of idiots. And sometimes you have to learn how to motivate and encourage people instead of ridicule or bully them.
So now, as I chat with my manager about ballet lessons (for her daughters), the Star Wars obessession (from my son), balancing work with kids with moms-nights-out, I thank my lucky stars that my jerky-bosses are a thing of the past.
Come on now, confess! Tell me your bully boss stories!! Sign in anonymously if you want. I promise I’ll never tell.
Nope, my bosses are AWESOME. All four of them are working parents. All of them have had to rearrange their work to accomodate their families at some point in the past four years I’ve worked here, and they allow the same for others. It’s fabulous. As long as the work gets done on time, we’re good. I appreciate it to no end, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve never yet considered looking for a job somewhere else, even if I could make more money.
Robyn | March 22nd, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Britt & Robyn,
Thank you for this post. I’m a married mom of two who has always worked full time, currently as a marketing director for a software company. I work really hard and am very committed but I don’t feel very appreciated by my two bosses. The rest of the senior management do have a good opinion of me and are very encouraging. But this situation with my direct bosses has made me very unhappy for the past 12 months. I continue to make the best of it - perform well, stay focused but I feel like these two guys don’t care about what I am accomplishing for this company (which is a lot). My short comings are pointed out at every review. I’d like to be appreciated for the stuff I do well and encouraged. I feel so horrible about myself at work and I hate that I have let this happen. I am embarrassed to even write this, but maybe it will help somebody. Switching jobs is not so easy when you have a family dependent on your income and health benefits (my husband is self employed). I have a great marriage, wonderful kids, great friends & family - all together a happy life - am I expecting too much to be happy at my work too?
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to vent. Your article made me feel better - some times you get stuck with crappy bosses.
Allison | March 24th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
I had a few bosses who were jerks. One told the only two women in his group we were best at the “softer skills” and she had a phd in materials science- we were both engineers. The next was like yours, you had to stand up to him, which most people didn’t, He mainly hired people from his church and was never satisfied with anything, as well as attempting to bar anyone from moving to another group. I’ve been fortunate with my managers, but have heard some awful stories. I usually leave when it’s bad.
Nicole Pelton | March 30th, 2009 at 8:18 pm