FRIDAY'S BOSS FROM HELL

File this one under the "paranoid egomaniac CEO" heading..

I worked for a software company in the northeast that was run by a man that some would call 'charismatic', but who I felt had some serious emotional issues. For example, over the years I noticed that people would just disappear from the company with no explanation, and that it happened pretty regularly. I learned later that they usually had made the mistake of repeating in public the worst-kept secret at the company: that the CEO was 'doing' the silicone-enhanced VP of Marketing.

So I just kept my head down and stayed under his radar (it was easier since we worked in a separate building). Anyway, just after the 9/11 attacks, he called us together for a company meeting, which was held in the cafeteria. We were all crammed in there when he came in and started going on one of his long-winded monologues about how he built this company from scratch, and he put his whole life into it, blah blah..

Then he made reference to the attacks, and the guy from Cantor-Fitzgerald that lost like his whole company in the Trade Center collapse, remember that? This was just after that guy appeared on TV and broke down in tears.. Well, the CEO starts to make this "gick.gick" sound and get all red in the face (kinda like he was straining to take a you-know-what), then he actually starts CRYING, for god's sake.. and saying "..and if I lost any of you, it would be like losing my FAMILY.". This went on for a minute or so..and in the stunned silence that followed, he went right to: "..and I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY MORE OF THIS LOCKER-ROOM BULLSH*T ABOUT <vp of marketing>!!!. SHE IS A TALENTED PERSON WHO CONTRIBUTES MUCH..blah blah blah" (of course, we all sneaked glances at each other about her 'talents' and 'contributions'.)

So I hung around for another couple months before bailing out, just as the major layoffs commenced (over 50% gone). And that's where I found out about another little quirk of our favorite CEO: he had his toadies find out where you were trying to get another job, then send them a legalese-laden letter threatening to sue over non-compete agreements. See, his ego made him think that since he ran a software development company, that any other company that either 1) developed software, 2) used software, or 3) hired actual live persons, was a competitor. Made the job search kinda tough.

Last I heard, he had set up his girlfriend in her own little marketing company, and was still making life hell for the poor bastards that stayed on (except for the toadies)

previous boss<<<<<<<<<<