Outrageous Boss behavior you've seen

I would occasionally go with a boss to lunch, after which he would steer with his forearms so he could floss his teeth while driving.

In a meeting, when speaking about something IT related, the boss says "even my son knows how to do that."  

Well, this spills from the Big Boy thread, but when I was the DRB Supervisor (dishroom, we also cleaned bathrooms and bused the waiter stations - dish-run-bus)at the advanced age of 17, the cheapo manager was running out of Kale, which they used as a garnish for the plate. They weren't edible, it always came back and found its way into the garbage (yes, this is the 80s so restaurants in general, used raw kale and other sprigs of stuff to "dress" a plate). Anyways, he told me to run the Kale through the dish washer in its own crate, so they could re-use it (the plan was to put it in the cooler after the dishwashing bath). I ABSOLUTELY REFUSED. He tried to strong arm me with threats, when I told him, "go ahead and fire me asshole" he dropped the subject. And I can say, no Kale was re-used that day or any other day (usually Sunday, because there were no deliveries over the weekend) that I worked there. 
 
Paul Harvey rest of the story:I didn't learn until I was "promoted" out of the dishroom, that I earned big "street cred" with the line cooks, who hated dressing the plate with unedible crap like that, and were wanting to use paprika, and herbs sprinkled on the plates for show, and perhaps flavor. Because the photos in the pictures of the food in the menu had the garnishes, managers said they HAD to use them - the plate had to look like the menu - they were big on that. But when I refused to re-use the Kale, and we ran out and I refused to wash the already plated garnishes, unbeknownst to me, the manager went out to the line cooks and told them to go ahead and use the spices and herbs. They were ectatic, but didn't looked overly pleased (on purpose) to the manager, who then grumble that the "kid in the dishroom is being a dick." One day, and I didn't know why at the time, the cooks made me a dinner on the house at the end of the shift when I was working late. I was surprised, because I didn't think they really knew who I was.   

Ok... Its a Saturday night, 600+ covers projected, down 2 line cooks, a KM and a bartender. Then it hits the fan. I've been bailing out the bar for the past hour or so and its only 6pm. They came early this night and we were not prepared. While I'm slinging drinks my ASM has "managed" to flood the dining room with 200 or so guests within half an hour. Apparently the whole time I was playing barkeep he was on his ass in the office and the host staff couldn't keep up with the herd stampeding through the door so they put the restaurant on a false wait. He realized this and panicked, grabbed every FOH staff he could find and sat every open table virtual at the same time. You can guess what this did to our kitchen.
 
My EC has been there for about 16 hours at this point (from scratch kitchen = early mornings for the chef) so I tell him to go home, I'll run the pass and my ASM can run the front which was at a stand still due to the long tickets so there wasn't much for him to do (screw up). I find him in the office again and I explain what was going down. He troughs his hand in the air, stomps his feet and exclaims "whatever zak, whatever!!! I need to leave, I have something important I need to do!!!"   I reply, "Sorry bro you're a restaurant manager and these things happen sometimes" again, " whatever whatever!!!". He jumps from the chair with tears in his eyes crying about a lease he has to sign or something (WHAT!?!). I look at him as if he were a spoiled rotten child and ask him to suck it up and act like an adult. Balling his eyes out and in a high pitch voice he says, "I am an adult Zak, I am an adult!!!" and storms out of the office. Unfortunately for him but to the amusement of myself and everyone else that worked there... the door was open the entire time. 
 
I've worked restaurants for about 15 years and I have seen some wild stuff but never have I seen a grown man cry because he couldn't leave early on a disaster of a night. And no I was not his boss just a level above or else I would have fired his ass on the spot. I found him in the bar after and told him "don't you fu$#ing ever do that to me again" and sent him on his way.

Had one boss that everyone thought was a complete dork and could never figure out how I could stand working for him.  One time, at a convention on chicago, a bunch of us in the company (including my Boss's Boss) are standing around waiting for an elevator. You know elevators at conventions...S-L-O-W!  For no reason, my boss starts kicking the elevator door.  Several eyebrows were raised, including his Boss's.  Was shortly thereafter he got "transfered"

I worked for an architect-slash-developer (emphasis on the slash) in Chicago in the late seventies. He had a bank account for each of his development projects (about 6) and would pay us out of the money he borrowed for the project. He did not have a book keeper and couldn't keep track of which Paul he was robbing to pay Peter. We three employes kept track better than he and would remind him there was no money in this one or that one. Every pay day the three of us would race to the bank to cash our checks first after the currency exchange down the street refused to cash our often bouncing checks. There was a period of weeks when he couldn't pay me and I quit the instant he paid me the last $300.00 he owed me. It came out of a manilla folder in a file cabinet. When I told him I quit as he handed me the cash, he angrily announced it would be the last time he'd pay me with money from his mother...I chuckled a little bit.
 
Unfortunately, I was out of the office the day two plain clothes Chicago cops came to the office and arrested him for un-paid parking tickets. He borrowed $1,000.00 from a fellow worker to bail him out...that was about a third of what he owed.
 
I was there when the gas company came to take the gas meter for unpaid bills. He owned the building we were in, which had about a dozen apartments upstairs, so he promptly retired to his shop and welded up some pipe and connected our office gas line to the meter of one of his studio apartment tenants. Poor DePaul student's gas bill went through the roof...
 
Long after I moved out of the City he got in trouble for practicing architecture without a license. As with everything it was too burdensome to pay the registration fees and hey, its Chicago...who's going to notice? He's still out there somewhere..
 

I worked for a guy long ago in my early engineering days that, come payday, I had to travel around to several bars to find him and have him sign checks for payroll and bills. I was real young then and moved on.

I once worked for a radio station that handed paychecks to on-air staff only while the staffer was broadcasting. I finally quit by walking out of the studio while MacArthur Park was playing and heading for the bank to cash my check. If you got there right away the check wouldn't bounce.

To get back to my topic post, Norm, took me to lunch in Marina del Rey one day. We were in the middle of lunch, I don't remember what, nothing big, but in our conversation I said I LOVE bacon, I could eat 5 lbs. of it, he said nobody could do that, I laughed and told him I could easily do it. About 20 minutes later a waiter rolls out a cart with a platter covered with a silver lid, takes off the lid and Norm says here's your bacon let's see you eat it all, he laughs and says, walk the walk. I did, I ate every slice, then ordered a Hot Fudge Sundae just to blow Norm's mind, it did...true story.
which really stunned Mr. Kniffen

Someone left the cake out...in the rain.

That was the favorite of disc jockeys everywhere. It was long enough to allow for visits to the head, trips to the coffee machine, and important telephone calls to people of the female persuasion.

fabulousoyster
In a meeting, when speaking about something IT related, the boss says "even my son knows how to do that."  

My father used to teach the introductory computer course at his college. His first few years, when he wrote the final exam (2 hour), he handed it to me. If I couldn't get an A in 20 minutes, it was too difficult.
 
Bart

As chef, I have always been the boss in the kitchens where I have worked.  I don't think I ever exhibited any "outrageous boss behavior".  But there was that one time that I came back from vacation and my cooks had the radio blaring Elton John's song The Bitch is Back.....

I don't know, I have had the same boss for the last 26 years.  I find him to be the kindest, smartest, gentlest and generous person I have ever met.  And downright handsome too!

joerogo


I don't know, I have had the same boss for the last 26 years.  I find him to be the kindest, smartest, gentlest and generous person I have ever met.  And downright handsome too!

Yeah. I'm self-employed, too.

joerogo


I don't know, I have had the same boss for the last 26 years.  I find him to be the kindest, smartest, gentlest and generous person I have ever met.  And downright handsome too!

I didn't know you worked for me, Joe!