Message #47781

[gingertea]

Well, I must have worked in either the wrong places or with the wrong people because I’ve heard lots of yelling throughout my working years.  Looking back, most of it was while I worked in the Sales department; perhaps salesmen are more volatile than other people???  I remember taking a call from the big boss; he went off on a tirade about something and I stopped him by saying very firmly, “Mr. X, you DO NOT yell at me!”  He stopped, there was a slight silence, then he apologized.  I don’t think anyone had every confronted him before.

My direct boss yelled frequently and I heard all of it since my desk was right outside his office.  I coped with it pretty well but one day he was angry about all of the problems with the new telephone system and he acted like I was personally responsible.  I had reached my limit so I marched into his office and said, “I am taking the rest of the day off.”  He asked what was wrong, I repeated – more firmly  - “I am taking the rest of the day off.”  He asked if I wanted to talk about it, I repeated again – through clenched teeth – “I am taking the rest of the day off.”  He said, “Maybe we can talk about it tomorrow.”  I replied, “Maybe.”  I went out and had a facial – felt great!

That particular guy had such a reputation that even his VP from headquarters mentioned it to me.  The VP asked me to get something from this guy then he said, “Be careful when you ask him about this issue, you may not know it, but Bob has quite a temper.”  I just laughed and said, “Whatever you have heard I have heard first, louder, and longer!”  

In the morning I could tell his mood by the way he walked down the hallway.  He would be scowling, muttering, and stomping his feet, but not looking anyone in the eye.  On those really bad days I would look at him and say, “Good morning to you, too” in the royal tone.  He’d catch my sarcasm and say, “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”  Sometimes that would bring him out of it.

I put up with him for 5 years, but the other people in the office also had to suffer through his eruptions and they were quite sympathetic to my dilemma.  Many of them would frequently go out of their way to comfort me when they could see that it was getting to me.

Bob was eventually fired for submitting questionable expense reports – God is good!