Message #44842

[supergirl]

I'm so glad you asked.  This week will be my last at the new job I started in early February.  Working for a boss like you've described is the biggest reason I am leaving.  

Examples:  1) He insists that all correspondence, reports, etc. be formatted identically by all the staff (technical and admin), to the point that he will send work back a dozen times, and cause it to be late to the customer, because "the font is a point off in the footer."  On Friday he asked me to do a "slight revision" on a letter composed by someone from another office of the company.  "Just add some paragraph indents; make it look more like our format--should take 15 minutes," he said.  Ha!  Three hours later, he was still pointing out things he wanted done.   "What's wrong?" he asked innocently, when I turned purple with frustration.  

2) His personal agenda is always a rush, but he refuses to delegate any authority to make things happen.  I have been acting as a go-between for bossie as he attempts to purchase file storage.  I found a set of 20 matching files at a reasonable price, including delivery, (amazing!) but he refused to make a decision or to let me make one, and they were sold to someone else.  Soon he was pressuring me again--"We really need to move on this file situation."  

3) He takes out his temper on the staff when things go wrong.  He called me at home early on to apologize for his behavior in the office.  I accepted his apology, but told him I wouldn't put up with his acting that way.  He was overly nice to me for a few days, then back to the usual.  

The guy is a control freak.  I'm sorry for him, but my solution is to get out of there.  Unfortunately other people in the office don't have the same freedom to pick up and leave.  

I recommend going to the HR department, if you trust them.  Perhaps the job could be restructured to eliminate some contact with the individual.  This was suggested to me, as the technical staff and parent company really wanted to help work things out, but I had already figured out another plan of action on my own.