Why You Should Not Ever Work for a Boss From Hell

If I told you about this man, everyone’s blood would begin to boil. He was and is the most complete hypocrite I have ever met. An ex-friend of his, (a psychiatrist) diagnosed him with Narcissism, so you can start with that.

For the purpose of this article I will call him Lou Cipher (Lucifer).

I knew Mr. Lou Cipher from school. When he offered me a position in his office, I assumed equality, not Master/Slave.

For that is the key feature. A Boss From Hell (BFH) treats his employees as slaves. Don’t miss it, don’t forget it, don’t ignore it. If you work for him you are a Slave.

At first I was easy. Cipher sent his son to pick me up in the morning, his wife would drop me in the evenings. He paid me a salary nd sometimes bought lunch. It was okay.

That was the cloud, the fog, the misdirection. That was to prevent me from seeing through him too quickly.

After a few months, instead of his wife picking me up between 4 and 4:30, it was 5:00; it was later, and one night  it was past 7:00 pm.

I decided that I should take a lift home, so would pay a taxi to pick me up at 4:30. BFH came up with some last minute things but I lied and said that the Driver had a schedule and I had to be there by 4:30 and left the office.

It annoyed me that I had to lie and virtually get permission to leave on time.

Shortly after this, his son stopped collecting me and I was paid more to cover the expense of travel.

This meant I had a little control over my movements.  I arrived at 8:30 and left at 4:30.

Things had begun going downhill from the first few months, but so slowly I didn’t realise it. By the time I reached this point of controlling my in and out I realised that he had controlled my days.

He began insulting me, ridiculing my work, treating me more and more like dirt.

As bad as this is, the effect on me was enormous.

I began to ‘cheat’.   I never did this before, nor since.

I would arrive at 8:30, sign in and then spend 30 minutes doing absolutely nothing at all.   At 9 I would make a play of working, but wasn’t really.   I would do a document, taking my time, leaving it on the computer until he asked for it.   I would do one file on my desk a day, maybe two.  But very slowly.

At 11 I would take a fifteen minute break, going to the bathroom, hanging around outside.

At 1 pm I took my one hour lunch.   At 2 pm I returned and did absolutely nothing at all until 2:30.  Then I would make a pretence of working until 3:45.  I would start closing down so that by 4:15 I was running various virus detectors on my computer, telling him how important maintenance was.   By 4:25 I was by the door and going down and out.

I know the times I took to do nothing because it was my schedule.

When sent out of the office, I always took an extra thirty minutes.

These ugly traits became part of me.   I would clock watch, I would get up to use the bathroom at set times for a set time.

When he would berate me, I clock watched, loving the longer he went on.  For when he finished I would act as if I were crying and go to the bathroom for thirty minutes.

I was paid for a 40 hour week and did less than 20 hours work.

When I left it took me a year to actually feel like me.  To complete work quickly and on time.  To do what I had to do.

If I had stayed beyond 3 years I might never have been able to get back to me.  I might have become a thoroughly useless person.

This was what happens when you work for a Boss From Hell.   This is what happens to you.  And it isn’t good.