Thanks to everyone who entered to win The Office Season 6 DVDs (that Universal was so kind to give us for this contest) and congratulations to the winners! The winners and their "Worst Boss" stories are listed below.
Chad Hunt (Monroe, Utah):
Chad Hunt (Monroe, Utah):
"For a summer I worked a home security company doing summer sales door to door in the midwest. First mistake.
"My district manager was a nice guy, but the regional vice president was a real douche and I had the wonderful opportunity of going out one day with him to try and make a few sales, because I was not exactly producing numbers — mostly because I refused to lie and manipulate old people.
"My first sales experience with this dude involved him talking his way into this old lady's house and being an asshole as he got her to sing up for a service she said over and over she didn't really want. I just watched and, though I tried to get up and leave several times, it was like some sort of train wreck I could not look away from.
"After he "closed the deal" he schooled me about how that was a textbook sale and how I should be doing that at least once a day. My wife, who worked in the office helping to manage new accounts later informed me the lady called to cancel within her three day grace period saying she didn't know what she was signing.
"About a month later, the district that that VP guy was over took a dirt nap, and he brought his horde of goons out to my district, which then led to the straw that broke me, ending with me telling him and a few others were they could shove that job.
"I was basically only still out there at that point because my wife was supposed to make good money and get a sweet bonus a the end of the summer. That was the one reason that was preventing me from sticking a pen through my eye socket.
"One day, douche guy decides in a morning meeting that he wants to help me out and give me a referral that was in my area. I said fine, and thought I would check on it. I called him several times during the day and he would pretend he was busy and never answer me. At the end of the day I got home and he and a few other dickbags that he had talked with informed me it was a "joke — no hard feelings." I nearly snapped.
"The next week my wife was "let go" and we took a week's vacation before we got back to Utah and moved into a new apartment to start school.
"A year later the company went belly up and the douche and everyone else still working for them were also "let go." Also, the company was millions of dollars in the hole and had been double dipping on accounts and not paying their employees. I think several lawsuits also arose from disgruntled employees."
Sam Maw (South Jordan, Utah):"My district manager was a nice guy, but the regional vice president was a real douche and I had the wonderful opportunity of going out one day with him to try and make a few sales, because I was not exactly producing numbers — mostly because I refused to lie and manipulate old people.
"My first sales experience with this dude involved him talking his way into this old lady's house and being an asshole as he got her to sing up for a service she said over and over she didn't really want. I just watched and, though I tried to get up and leave several times, it was like some sort of train wreck I could not look away from.
"After he "closed the deal" he schooled me about how that was a textbook sale and how I should be doing that at least once a day. My wife, who worked in the office helping to manage new accounts later informed me the lady called to cancel within her three day grace period saying she didn't know what she was signing.
"About a month later, the district that that VP guy was over took a dirt nap, and he brought his horde of goons out to my district, which then led to the straw that broke me, ending with me telling him and a few others were they could shove that job.
"I was basically only still out there at that point because my wife was supposed to make good money and get a sweet bonus a the end of the summer. That was the one reason that was preventing me from sticking a pen through my eye socket.
"One day, douche guy decides in a morning meeting that he wants to help me out and give me a referral that was in my area. I said fine, and thought I would check on it. I called him several times during the day and he would pretend he was busy and never answer me. At the end of the day I got home and he and a few other dickbags that he had talked with informed me it was a "joke — no hard feelings." I nearly snapped.
"The next week my wife was "let go" and we took a week's vacation before we got back to Utah and moved into a new apartment to start school.
"A year later the company went belly up and the douche and everyone else still working for them were also "let go." Also, the company was millions of dollars in the hole and had been double dipping on accounts and not paying their employees. I think several lawsuits also arose from disgruntled employees."
"I worked for a cable company here in Salt Lake that will remain nameless (oops, there's only one cable company in Salt Lake, isn't there?) answering phones in customer service. My job mostly consisted of teaching old people how to use their remotes and explaining to middle-aged women why there were $9.99 pay-per-view movies on their bills (ask your husband and/or son). My boss hired me to work part-time hours (I was going to school full time), but after four months (including eight weeks of training that could have been accomplished in two) she still wouldn't give me less than 40 hours a week. I rarely got the chance to tell her that I couldn't work that much and go to school because all she did every day was sit in her car and smoke. Eventually, my grades were dropping, and I told her if she wasn't going to give me part-time hours like she hired me for I was going to have to quit. Two weeks notice was officially given.
"Two days later, the whole call center had every employee's name in a basket for a drawing for a bunch of prizes. While I was on the phone once again explaining to a customer why his cable rates had gone up again, a bunch of people ran up to my cubicle and excitedly told me that I had just won a brand new HDTV! (keep in mind, this was 2005, so an HDTV was even cooler than it would be today.) No more than 3 minutes later, when the euphoria hadn't even come close to wearing down, my boss pulls me into a small conference room (away from my excited coworkers) and tells me that because I had put my two weeks notice in, I was not eligible for the contest and my new TV would be given to someone else. I'm pretty sure she just made the whole thing up; after all, it was Human Resources who had my two weeks notice, and they were the ones who entered all the employees into the drawing. So as a 21 year old in 2005 I owned an HDTV for about 3 minutes until my boss came and took it away. I was definitely glad to get out of the place!"
Steve Evans (Elizabethton, Tennessee):"Two days later, the whole call center had every employee's name in a basket for a drawing for a bunch of prizes. While I was on the phone once again explaining to a customer why his cable rates had gone up again, a bunch of people ran up to my cubicle and excitedly told me that I had just won a brand new HDTV! (keep in mind, this was 2005, so an HDTV was even cooler than it would be today.) No more than 3 minutes later, when the euphoria hadn't even come close to wearing down, my boss pulls me into a small conference room (away from my excited coworkers) and tells me that because I had put my two weeks notice in, I was not eligible for the contest and my new TV would be given to someone else. I'm pretty sure she just made the whole thing up; after all, it was Human Resources who had my two weeks notice, and they were the ones who entered all the employees into the drawing. So as a 21 year old in 2005 I owned an HDTV for about 3 minutes until my boss came and took it away. I was definitely glad to get out of the place!"
"Worst boss I ever had was so like Michael Scott you would not believe it. Everything was about him and nothing else. He used to call me into his office and shut the door, leading me to believe it was about business..and he would then begin his story about him and his crazy friend who used to go into the local target store and fart into the plastic food containers they had for sale..or how he was playing paintball one day with some friends and they came upon a guy who was doing it in a field with a horse..and how they shot his bare butt with paint balls. Or the time he took me to lunch and told me he had a secret to tell me...that he had a PHD and no one else in the office knew it besides me....oh really, is this a test to see if I would spread a rumor around. Or how he would only sign important documents with a crayon. Or how he would get up in front of a crowd to give a speech and pretend to inhale the fumes from his dry erase markers. Or how he lived on a boat..on land and was always claiming to be overcome by the fumes of the glue he was using on some fix it up project..or the time he didn't show up for work one friday and when I called him at his boat..yes he had a phone line hooked up..he told me he didn't come in because it was saturday...only it wasn't. Sure, it all was funny, and he continued to life for laughs, but he was a vice president of this large fortune 500 company...and having him for a boss was anything but funny!"
Please check back frequently because we plan on hosting contests like this frequently. Check back next week because Universal is once again donating to our cause and we will be giving away three copies of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood.
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