My Boss is Stupid

Before a few months ago, work was great! I liked everyone. Everyone liked me. It was a pleasure to be there.

This was all before my direct manager decided to follow her husband to another city and leave her position to what can only be classed as a "very self-confident idiot". And let me tell you, that type of idiot is the worst.

Let me illustrate my point.

SCI (i.e. self-confident idiot) asked me to make a poster of the map with all our organisation's locations to send to potentional international clients. Easy. I found a very clear map from our database, added some 'design elements' and voila.

She looked at it carefully and said, "Sky, can you please add circles around the CBD, every 10km so they can see how far everything is". I pointed to a very clear map scale in the corner. She looked at it, laughed and said, "Sky, who can even read map scales? Add the circles."

I did not argue, smiled and said, "Sure".

(Only a couple of days ago, we got a community college course catalogue in the mail and my Dad and I heartily laughed at the course "Reading Maps" - only $75!)

Now, if this example wasn't enough to convince you, I will tell you of another one.

SCI asked me, "Can you design a poster?" I said, "Sure, what would you like it to be about?" She replied, "I don't know. Just do the design and I'll think about it later".

Really, I can go on and on. But I won't. Well, actually, one more example (just to make myself feel better).

We went to a meeting with external design agency and they asked, "How would you measure the success of your new corporate image?" An excellent question, I thought. She replied almost immediately, "I'll just know it."

I also get to hear her constantly complain how bad everything is and how she's going to change everything because she knows "what's good and what's not". If only that was the case, I might not get so annoyed at her. Unfortunately she has the worst ideas that I (and everyone else in my team) has to go along with.

She's also the type that likes to 'delegate'. She often asks me to deal with difficult client situations (even though she's the one who should do it) and print off documents (that I've already printed and she lost) for her "to make things easier".

The main problem is that she can't even do her job. One of her main responsibilities is to proofread/edit all text that comes in for advertising, brochures, newsletters etc. First day she joined our team, she gave me the article and said, "Sky, can you please proofread it. I never notice mistakes". Not only does she not notice them but she makes the silliest ones. I'm not one to write correctly, but to notice a professional's mistakes is just not right.

It's good that I have experience working with difficult people so I don't take it personally and don't try to object. The good thing is that she seems to like me. Thank God. Makes my work life just that little bit easier.

Would love to hear of any other "difficult boss" stories. It'll make me feel better.