Have you ever worked for a crazy person?

**sidewall** · 08-20-2010, 08:02 AM

Someone who is emotionally unstable, goes on yelling sprees then calms down and apologizes, who is totally unprofessional yet you can't do a thing because they are in charge/own the company?

**OldLarry** · 08-20-2010, 08:15 AM

I have ONLY worked for these kinda of people.

**chatton18** · 08-20-2010, 09:21 AM

My boss is nuts. The guy is 72 years old, his hobbys include beekeeping (he has about 80 hives) and yard work. The guy is always going full speed. He is worth millions of dollars and has a very profitable company, yet our office has not been remodeled since 1985, most of his suits are from the same era. He does not know how to use a computer. I don't think he showers on a regular basis. His yelling has calmed down over the past few years, but it still occurs on occasion. While my job is doing research, I have been asked to do the following - start his lawnmower (circa 1972) when he broke a rib falling off a ladder (I ended up at the office until 9 that night finishing the rest of my work), every Christmas we send about 1000 bottles of honey to clients that we pack ourselves, moving a refrigerator into his basement, etc.

**Poop~Ghost** · 08-20-2010, 09:32 AM

Has anybody ever decked their boss? I've come very close...

Shit-bird boss walked up behind me and slapped me in the back of the head saying, "Hey, what are you doing?!"

I'm a programmer.

My response was, "WHAT THE FUCK?! YOU EVER HIT ME AGAIN AND YOU CAN CONSIDER IT MY LAST SECOND ON THE JOB!"

Dude got shit canned a few months later for being a dick head. He tried to sue them for wrongful termination.

**GiBo** · 08-20-2010, 09:34 AM

Do now. He yells, bangs the table and walls. Gets way too excited over some stupid little detail. But I have a method for dealing with these people. I just stay very calm and rational. Speak very slowly and deliberately. Within a minute or two, they calm down. It's hard to stay all fired up when the other party being super chill.

advres · 08-20-2010, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by sidewall

Someone who is emotionally unstable, goes on yelling sprees then calms down and apologizes, who is totally unprofessional yet you can't do a thing because they are in charge/own the company?

I do now and unfortunately I work for myself.

**PassTheDutchie** · 08-20-2010, 10:06 AM

I worked for this guy for a couple of years maybe seven or eight years ago. He was about five feet tall, extremely soft spoken and an uber-Christian. Just pleasant as hell... Until something went wrong (which happened maybe two or three times while I worked for him). He would go absolutely apeshit apoplectic, banging his fists on his desk, swearing at the top of his lungs, knocking shit off his desk, slamming doors, phones, whatever he could get his hands on. I had about a hundred pounds and a foot and a half on him... and I have never been so frightened of another person in my entire life. I spent one afternoon cowering in a bathroom stall, making deals with God... And I was previously agnostic. I have no doubt that if there were a handgun in his desk, we would all be dead. Really, I've never seen anyone go off like that. Especially nuts when one considers the relatively trivial reasons for the eruptions.

**GiBo** · 08-20-2010, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by PassTheDutchie

I worked for this guy for a couple of years maybe seven or eight years ago. He was about five feet tall, extremely soft spoken and an uber-Christian. Just pleasant as hell... Until something went wrong (which happened maybe two or three times while I worked for him). He would go absolutely apeshit apoplectic, banging his fists on his desk, swearing at the top of his lungs, knocking shit off his desk, slamming doors, phones, whatever he could get his hands on. I had about a hundred pounds and a foot and a half on him... and I have never been so frightened of another person in my entire life. I spent one afternoon cowering in a bathroom stall, making deals with God... And I was previously agnostic. I have no doubt that if there were a handgun in his desk, we would all be dead. Really, I've never seen anyone go off like that. Especially nuts when one considers the relatively trivial reasons for the eruptions.

You worked for Mel Gibson?!

**sidewall** · 08-20-2010, 12:46 PM

What am I missing? What makes these people think this is the best way to manage?

gunit130 · 08-20-2010, 12:49 PM

Studies show that "crazy" people rise to the top.

First, you have to be a bit crazy to want to work so much.

Second, a lot of crazy people are intimidating and are good at playing mind games, which in turn, helps them move up.

**paj** · 08-20-2010, 12:57 PM

one of my managers from lifeguarding was crazy. He recently got fired though. Smiles all the way around from the other staff

**frozenwater** · 08-20-2010, 01:29 PM

I sold furniture for three years for a guy everyone called "stormy". He was called that because he would rage like a storm every couple days. His really hot 20 something wife would occasionally try and stop his tirades, but to no real effect.

I had yellowbooks, chairs, staplers, stools, etc thrown at me by him. He would turn purple yelling at you.

He also knew he was an ass and gave everybody qurterly bonuses that were huge to a 19 year old for putting up with him.

He also bought me booze, which was cool.

He asked me to stain his fence at home for 100 bucks one time. There I was middle of august staining his fence. His hot ass wife comes out and gives me some lemonaid. No biggie.

Then she goes back in the house and puts on her swimming suit, right where I can see her. Fully all freaking penthouse forum story type scenario.

I'm all ogling her when he comes up and throws a half empty can of stain at me freaking out for blatantly checking out his naked wife.

I literally ran from there and never looked back.

In hindsight I should have banged his wife. Damn she was hot.

**OldLarry** · 08-20-2010, 01:33 PM

When I was ~ 22-23 I worked for a guy who would scream at me from ~8am until 4pm, pretty much non-stop. At 4:15 he would go down to the baron the ground floor of out bldg and tell me to meet him there after everything was cleaned up. From there he would buy me drinks basically until we we in danger of not making it home. I didn't even have to hang out w/ him- was on his tab.

lather-rinse-repeat for about 18 months

rather common story in my line of work- made a boatload of dough for a guy my age w/no mba. didn't learn shit. Learned more from a nicer guy who merely bought me lunch every day.

**Labcabin** · 08-20-2010, 01:34 PM

I do now.... fortunately another maggot here got lucky and has been released from her talons.

**DoWork** · 08-20-2010, 01:43 PM

You have no idea. Mine's family, so we were all born with the gloves off. It gets pretty crazy sometimes.

**boarddad** · 08-20-2010, 02:01 PM

My first job out of college I worked for a real nut-job. The job seemed great but, first day on the job, the other guys sat me down over beers and basically told me I'd made a big mistake. It was basically an engineering sweatshop. The guy hired nothing but interns and streight-out-of-college types and on a daily basis would threaten to shut the place down. He'd sign plans without hardly ever reviewing them, then go ape-shit when an error would be uncovered either by review or during construction. He'd take weekly trips to the job site, then come back and yell and scream at us the next day. You didn't dare get to work after he did or leave before he did.

The worst was yet to come. He hired a guy we all called "Psycho Gene". Gene had some medical condition that would cause him to go into a trance, then back whoever he was near into a corner while he spoke in tongues. The trance would end when he started to froth at the mouth. He'd then snap out of it, go back to his desk and arrainge his pencils, then go back to what he was doing as though nothing had happened. Gene also stole everyone else's work. We as a group decided we'd had enough of Gene. We assigned him a job that was nothing like anything in he office, then let him fail. When the boss found out Gene wasn't cutting it, all he'll broke lose. Gene went into one of his trances and the boss went into one of his tirades. Gene finally left, and we all cut out for a long lunch and lots of beer.

I finally found another job and left a few weeks later. I was later contacted by the labor commision. One of the guys I worked with took him to court over un-paid overtime. I could have gone after him too but just chose to let it be. The boss later lost his engineering license when one of the structures he'd signed off on blew over in a moderate wind storm. The End. Luckily noone got hurt.

**Elkhound Odin** · 08-20-2010, 02:17 PM

I don't work for one, I'm married to one.

**Big Snowballs** · 08-20-2010, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by Elkhound Odin

I don't work for one, I'm married to one.

Please tell us more

**JoeStrummer** · 08-20-2010, 05:57 PM

I put my foreman in a chokehold once. He dropped a hammer off a scaffold, on purpose, and nearly killed one of our laborers. It was hot as fuck and the laborer had his hard hat off, so foreman decided to scare him. Except the laborer moved and almost got his skull crushed.

So when the foreman came down I put him in a choke hold and rammed his head into the gangbox a couple of times. Got paid on the spot for all hours worked, so that was nice.

**sftc** · 08-20-2010, 06:03 PM

It sounds like I've worked for a lot of the same people you guys have, but the one true crazy person I've know was my high school Health teacher. She also taught girl's gym and coached sports.

She graduated from our high school and her kids all went to there as well. She did a lot of organizational stuff and put in a ton of extra time making sure things like dances, volleyball tournaments, fundraisers, etc. went off with out a hitch and I thank her for that. She was a little over the top but she was cool.

Right after I graduated she had some weird shit go down in her family life and she felt the need to legally carry a handgun in her car. Basically everyone knew she was doing this but it wasn't really a big deal, considering my friends could still drive to school with deer rifles racked up in their trucks at this time. Things continued falling apart in her life until she finally hit the wall during a girl's lacrosse state tourney game. At halftime she told that girls that if they didn't pull out the win she might be forced to do something drastic, then she glanced towards where her car was parked.

One of the girls went over and talked to her Dad, who was a general practice doctor. He made the phone call and a couple of nice guys with white jackets showed up and drove her away after the game. Full on mental breakdown.

[/sweet high school related blog]

**Dirty Hoar** · 08-20-2010, 06:46 PM

awesome thread...

**Pimpin Panda** · 08-20-2010, 07:27 PM

Originally Posted by advres

I do now and unfortunately I work for myself.

Then in other words you DO work for an emotionally unstable crazy motherfucker.

**Chainsaw_Willie** · 08-20-2010, 08:21 PM

Wow. I'm pretty lucky, never worked for anyone really crazy. I wouldn't last working for someone like that either, I'd rather be unemployed than put up with some crazy fucker's shit.

I've quit on a couple assholes before. Life's just too short.