Big Boss Lady

This may sound sexist, but I don't think women should be bosses. Every one I have had has been a dismal failure, and the one I have now is the absolute worst of the lot.

First off, I don't think she has even the slightest idea what professionalism means. Since the first day I started working with her, she has spent hours of company time complaining to me about other staff. I have no doubt she talks to other staff about me, as well. This is one of our (all the staff's) major problems with her. I wouldn't be upset if she complained about us to her boss or the other house managers, but to complain about staff A to staff B is just wrong. It puts us in a pretty awkward position, let me tell you.

This leads into my second complaint, which is that she has never in all the time I have worked there actually confronted a staff about their poor performance. She will discuss it with everyone in the house BUT the person she is unhappy with.

One time I had heard from just about everyone how she was unhappy with me over something, so I came into work early to talk to her. I pulled her into the office and explained that since I had heard rumors to the effect that she was angry with me, I thought I should talk to her and find out what the issue was.

SHE FLAT OUT DENIED ever saying anything about me to other staff, and even went so far as to assure me that she had much more respect for me than to talk about me behind my back. Needless to say, she dropped right off the scale on my Respect-O-Meter when she said that. Especially since I had been listening to her complain about other staff to me for about 1 1/2 years at that point.

I actually laugh at her, because one of the things she harps on CONSTANTLY is how she hates the rumor mill and wishes we would all talk about work related matters only. The funny part is that she is usually the one who is starting and spreading rumors. She seems to take great delight in nosing into every one's personal business and then passing judgement on it.

She is also horribly inconsistent. The Sarge and I actually implemented a setup for "minutes" at meetings, because she changes her mind so often about how she wants things done around the house (and then denies she said any such thing) that we felt the need to have everything in writing so that we could defend ourselves when she got b*tchy about things not being done the way she wanted.

She chooses "scapegoats" that, in her mind, are the cause of all the troubles at our house and then makes their lives miserable until they quit. She has gotten rid of so many staff this way that I have lost count, yet she still keeps folks on staff that should have been sacked ages ago.

One particular staff, Ms. Pain In My Ass, has been there almost 10 years, and I haven't EVER seen her accomplish any work. There is another staff that we know sleeps all day on the weekend while the guys run wild in the house. Of course, some of the staff she has let go really needed to go, but some of them were just fine. They just made the mistake of getting on her bad side and not being tough enough to take it when she got catty.

Big Boss Lady seems to be completely ruled by her emotions. If she has a bad day, or for whatever reason, she will completely nit-pick at everything in the house trying to find fault with whoever has worked that day.

In case you couldn't tell by this post, to say I despise her would be an understatement. Quite frankly, even the sight of her makes me nauseous.

The REASON I am posting this now is that, once again, I have found myself in the position of being one of the folks she is presently picking on.

Last night I arrived at work to find that she had written a rather scathing remark about "night staff's performance" in the Communication Book. [For those of you who don't know, in direct care there is always some form of notebook that staff write notes to each other in. It usually is just little stuff about what happened during the day or notices of supplies that need purchasing or appointments that have been made.]

The part that makes me mad is that she saw me the morning before, and said nothing about concerns she may have had with my "performance". In fact, not more than 1 1/2 weeks ago she was telling me how well I am doing. In any case, I feel that it would have been much more appropriate for her to speak to me in person and in private about any concerns she might have. I don't appreciate finding a rebuke in such a public forum.

This was also an attack against the Sarge, which REALLY makes me mad. The Sarge has taken shifts with no notice when folks call in sick, worked 2-3 shifts in a row just to make sure they were covered when we were short staffed, taken on shopping for the boss, and done many other things to help Big Boss Lady out.

Besides, the Sarge is SCARY when she is mad!

I am not really too upset about this whole thing, to be honest, because I have no respect for Big Boss Lady and as a result could care less what her opinion of me is. I know I take impeccable care of my charges and that is all that matters to me.

Besides, this isn't the first time she has had me in her sights as the "next one to go", and she has never yet won the battle. Even if she wasn't too chicken-sh*t to fire ANYONE, she would have a very hard time firing me. I am just too good.

Does that sound conceited? Too bad, cuz it's true.

I also have quite a bit of protection since I work the overnights.She is too darn lazy to come in to work in the middle of the night just to make me unhappy, and she can't do it long distance since I really don't care one wit about what she says.

Still, last night I was hopping mad and ready to just walk off the job. I am not much of a game player, and I really don't like this kind of game anyway. It is just too much work for little to no gain, in my mind. However, I have calmed down enough to find amusement in her snarky little comments.

I just wish I could document all this and report her to her supervisor. That won't work, though, since her supervisor is also her BFF of many years and the company REALLY frowns on going too far over your bosses head. They don't like to be bothered at the higher level with the troubles of the individual houses.

I can't wait until I CAN quit, though, because there will be a letter sent to the CEO that will make this look like a nursery rhyme.