Working For The Boss From Hell

For three years, eleven months I was in slavery.   I worked for the most complete devil I have ever met.

He is the biggest hypocrite in Jamaica, maybe the whole Caribbean.  He claims to be a liberator, he claims to care about human rights; no one oppresses a staff more than this man.

He thinks he owns you for the salary he pays, and no one stays with him.

My almost four years is a virtual ‘record’ for one year is the usual with many staying only two or three months.

He demanded we be at the office at 8:30.  Many times he didn’t show up until 9:30, so we were to stand on the street and wait for him to open the office.

He would not let us escape at 4:30, always would find a task for us to do to keep us later.

I survived because I developed the most horrible traits imaginable.  Traits that I can only say were inspired by self-preservation.

I would enter the office when it opened, (usually he was there by 8:30).   I would go up stairs to my office and set up. This meant I did absolutely nothing at all for one hour.

I would bring up a document I had been working on yesterday at 9:30 and go over it, or over other items, which I left on the computer.

As he had said he didn’t want me to print anything until he saw it, this meant I could bang off three/four documents and leave them.

At ten he might have something for me to do which required my leaving the office.

This was the joy.

I would go and take my time, and not return for two, three hours.

When I got back I would act as if I were preparing what I had done but most often I was playing Scrabble or writing for various sites.

I was able to get out at 4:30 because I told him I had chartered a Taxi and could not be late as the driver had other tasks.

I would start shutting down at about 3:30 so that by 4:15 my computer was running some anti-viral so just in case he came up with something I tell him, “I can’t, I’m running maintenance…”

As he was computer illiterate, (needing his emails printed) he wouldn’t dare tell me to shut it off.

By 4:25 the computer was off, unplugged and I was leaving the building.

Friday was the most blessed day in the week.

As a habit I keep my cell phone on silent.  This was not directly influenced by him but had great benefit to me.

One morning, while I was eating breakfast I notice my phone light was flashing.

I picked it up and there were missed calls, (12) and messages.

This monster called my number at 4:46 am, then again at 4:50, then at 5:00 am… on and on.

As I usually woke at 7 am you can imagine sitting at the table, eating breakfast, realizing that if I hadn’t shut off my phone, this animal would have woken me for his stupidity.

The joke, if there was one, is that he wanted me to go across the island.  His son came to pick me up.  I did not walk out of the house until my usual 8:00 and instead of getting into a taxi, I got into his car.

He called me while we were driving, and I told him that my phone is on silent, which he found incredible.

When it came to pay he would deduct for lateness and absence.

One day when I got in an hour and half late and he sneered he would take it out of my pay I retorted, “Take the Day!” and walked out.

The hatred I developed for this man was so intense that I realized I should leave.

I began packing on a Tuesday, taking bits and pieces, and then on the Friday, left without a word, and never called or returned.

I left him with a pile of work to be done, lots of appointments that he could not manage without me, but I was free.

It took me six months to begin to feel free, to begin to appreciate I was in control of my life.

If you work for a Boss From Hell, get out.  Plan it so that when you walk out you leave him with a pile of work he can’t imagine.

Don’t worry about the money, because Bosses from Hell use money as a carrot on a stick.

If you can, leave the day after pay day.

Say nothing, just go.