I Hate my Boss: Part 1

Like most working Americans, I have a boss. Like most working Americans, my boss is a pain in the ass. I am kind of a jack-of-all-trades, I assist in running fundraising campaigns for a non-profit organization. My job consists mostly of design work, writing articles, updating the Web site and building relationships with volunteers and donors. Unfortunately, this means that I don’t have a lot of say in how things work. On a typical Monday morning, I enter the boss’s lair with my notebook and a big cup o coffee. After hearing about her drunken weekend for about 10 minutes, and about her annoying Mother In Law for another 5 – we finally get down to the point of me sitting across from her in the first place: My weekly agenda. I start by explaining the responsibilities I have outside of her campaign (I work for multiple people at my office) and make a guess as to how much of my week will be taken up with these projects. From there, she forgets everything I just told her and starts assigning tasks. This process usually takes less time then she spent explaining how she vomited in her front yard, again. I frantically take notes – trying to understand what her vision is through her rapid-fire description. Already exhausted, I head back into my office and try to sort through my notes. I spend my week working through the mess to create something that will appease her “vision.”

When I have a rough layout done for whatever the project is, I send it to her. She hates it, she always does (I never use my favorite ideas right off the bat, or they will end up in the trash). She tells me again, exactly what she said before – expecting that I know what she means when she says “I’m thinking spicier and luxurious” (I’m not even kidding). After another attempt or two – I have finally put something together that she likes – or at least she thinks is passing. So the next thing I do is take the “OK’d” item along with the first few drafts to her boss, let’s call her V – we have to have everything to a certain standard, and that’s what this person checks. V looks at all of the drafts, and more often then not chooses one other then the final “approved” one and gives it her stamp of approval. I then take it back to my boss – who has decided she agrees with V – then takes all of the credit for the effort and creativity that went into the project.

Her inability to give anyone else credit for the work they do is one of many reasons I hate my boss.