Archive for January 2008
Anything that can possibly go wrong does go wrong. Stuff you didn’t even know could go wrong goes wrong. But before you throw in the towel, check out these tyrannical bosses and think to yourself, “At least I haven’t been beheaded… yet…”
1. Faye & Ray Copeland
When I retire, I look forward to traveling, spending a lot of time volunteering at a no-kill animal shelter, writing… the usual stuff. Faye and Ray Copeland, however, decided that when they retired they would become serial killers. From 1986 to 1989, the elderly couple hired workers to help them around their farm in Missouri. After being tipped off by a former neighbor, police searched the farm and found five bodies buried. Faye insisted she was innocent, but evidence against her included a list in her handwriting of farmhands hired – 12 of them had X’s scrawled next to their names. Of those 12, five of them were found dead. Police also found a cozy quilt inside the house made of the clothing of the men the Copelands had killed. Ray and Faye were the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the United States at the ages of 75 and 69 respectively.
2. Elizabeth Báthory
No matter how good the pay was at Elizabeth Báthory’s castles, it wasn’t worth it: the Hungarian countess killed hundreds of girls and women, many who were employed as maids and servants on her property. She didn’t just kill her victims, oh no. She tortured them first. During her trials, it was discovered that the methods she used to kill included starving, freezing, beating, burning and biting. Oddly, though, she was never sentenced to death. Her accomplices were, but Elizabeth was merely bricked up inside of a room at her house for the rest of her life. A small slit was left open so she could receive food. She was put under house arrest at the end of 1610; she died in August of 1614.
3. Rolandas Milinavicius
After reading this you might think twice about asking for a raise this year. In July 2007, a Georgia business owner shot and killed his only two employees when they asked for a little more compensation on their paychecks. Rolandas Milinavicius told police that he was stressed out because the business was accruing a lot of debt and the talk about raises just pushed him over the edge. I would assume that legal fees and not having an income at all due to being in prison would probably hamper his finances more than anything else he could have done. I could be wrong though; I’ve never owned a business.
4. Henry Clay Frick
Back in 1892, Henry Clay Frick was not a boss you wanted to cross. Frick and his business partner Andrew Carnegie ended their working relationship when Frick reacted a little… rashly… to the Homestead Steel Strike. In 1892, a labor strike impacted the Homestead Works of the Carnegie Steel Company. Frick was staunchly anti-union and thought he would thwart picketing workers by having Pinkerton agents access the grounds via the river. When the agents got close enough, they fired into the crowd which was enough to start a full-blown riot. By the time the chaos was broken up by the state militia, several men were killed and many were wounded. Thanks, boss.
5. Henry VIII
It’s common knowledge that Henry VIII had no qualms with having people close to him killed – wives, employees, friends, contemporaries, whatever. He had Sir Thomas More beheaded when More dared to disagree with King Henry’s religious ideas. Prior to his death, More had served as Henry’s Lord Chancellor. Another employee was the king’s minister, Thomas Cromwell. He supported Henry when he was tired of Anne Boleyn and wanted to marry Jane Seymour. Jane died soon after childbirth and Cromwell quickly urged Henry to marry Anne of Cleves. The marriage was a disaster. Cromwell divorced them, but being of no further used to Henry, he was sentenced to death for treason. The young executioner hacked at Cromwell’s head three times before he finally succeeded in beheading him. After that, Cromwell’s head was boiled and place on a spike on London Bridge.
6. Leona Helmsley
Obviously real estate mogul Leona Helmsley would have been pretty horrifying to work for – she wasn’t called the Queen of Mean for nothing. Stories of her ruthlessness abound. Lawyer Alan Dershowitz said he once had breakfast with Leona at one of the Helmsley hotels and the waiter brought him a cup of tea with a tiny bit of water spilled on the saucer. Alan says Leona grabbed the cup from him and smashed it on the floor, then demanded that the waiter get down on his hands and knees and beg for his job. Some stories claimed she would fire maids on the spot if she found so much as a crooked lampshade in a hotel room. One maid, when working through lunch, snagged an apple from the kitchen to quell her hunger. Of course, Leona fired her.
See, your job really isn’t that bad. Or is it? What are your bad boss horror stories?
Big Fat Walleye Fish
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For five years, a New Jersey company has been depositing thousands of dollars in paychecks to a Palatine man’s bank account.
During that time, 34-year-old Anthony Armatys collected about $470,000, police say.
The catch? Armatys never worked for Avaya, a communications company based in Basking Ridge, N.J.
Around 7 a.m. Wednesday, Armatys was arrested at his home on Flake Drive and charged with one count of theft by deception for knowingly accepting paychecks for a job he never had.
Authorities said the deception dates back to 2002, when Armatys was offered a position with Avaya, which he accepted. But he backed out before actually starting the job, said Wayne Forrest, the Somerset County prosecutor in New Jersey.
Wednesday’s arrest came after an 11-month investigation by New Jersey detectives.
It started when Avaya auditors discovered the payroll checks being deposited into Armatys’ account as part of a system error.
New Jersey authorities said their probe also found that Armatys had withdrawn about $2,000 from an employee retirement savings account to which Avaya had contributed.
Authorities said Armatys claimed to be an Avaya employee when he called Fidelity Investments, which administered the fund, to set up the transfer of the money into his personal account.
“I’ve been in this business now over 30 years and I don’t recall a case with facts like this,” said Forrest. “This is highly unusual.”
Bail was set at $50,000 and Armatys is awaiting extradition to New Jersey.
Palatine police would not discuss the case.
A woman who answered the phone at a number listed for Tony Armatys at the Flake Drive address said the family had “no comment at all.”
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When Marie Lupe Cooley, 41, of Jacksonville, Fla., saw a help-wanted ad in the newspaper for a position that looked suspiciously like her current job — and with her boss’s phone number listed — she assumed she was about to be fired.
So, police say, she went to the architectural office where she works late Sunday night and erased 7 years’ worth of drawings and blueprints, estimated to be worth $2.5 million.
“She decided to mess up everything for everybody,” Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesman Ken Jefferson told reporters. “She just sabotaged the entire business, thinking she was going to get axed.”
It didn’t take Steven Hutchins, owner of the architectural firm that bears his name, much time to figure out who’d done it — Cooley was the only other person who had full access to the files.
Police arrested Cooley Monday evening and charged her with causing greater than $1,000 damage to computer files, a felony. She was bailed out the following afternoon.
Hutchins told one TV station he’d managed to recover all the files using an expensive data-recovery service.
As for the job, Cooley originally wasn’t in danger of losing it. The ad was for Hutchins’ wife’s company.
Cooley no longer is employed there.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,325285,00.html
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Einstein and his Boring Job at the Swiss Patent Office
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As much as it wanted to make the job itself a work of imagination , I would of never found a way to do it. However at the time it was never wasted, a person cam file quite well and do many other things , such as writing and planning a party or social event. Screw management, screw incompetent management. Look at the former mighty general motors (G.M.) as an example. Remember that Einstein’s job at the Swiss patent office. In his later years, Einstein was grateful he had such dull, routine, mindless job , for it had freed his mind to fly and excel to focus on the advanced physics concepts of quanta, quantum theory and light products. We many not of had the concepts and explanations of relativivity is Einstein had followed another path.
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People speak of being trapped in a most boring job as if it were a prison. If you feel trapped in your job, remember that prison was setting in which some of the greatest creative works of mankind were born.
It seems as if the greater the physical confinement the larger the imaginative space grows. Works such as “Pilgrim’s Promise” was written in prison. Alexander Solzenitsyn wrote his major efforts “The Gulag Archipeligo” was written in prison even despite the fact that he was allowed no paper. He wrote in his head and memorized what he wrote. Prison did strip him of most things but not his will , his passions and dreams and his imagination.
You need not be a writer to use work time creatively.
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A monotonous Job can allow you to channel mental energy not only towards spiritual growth but also planning after hours acitivities.
Among the beneficiaries of my boring job at Acer Stup Kirk Aircraft were a group of junior boys that I had taught at Sunday school. It takes some planning to keep one step ahead of fourth to six grade boys and even more to exert a genuine spiritual influence on them. Much of my lesson preparation took place at work.
Similarly during my ditch digging days our church , having moved to a new location , need someone to spearhead a neighborhood outreach. I composed as survey we could use to find out more about people. mapped out our approach , and as well devised an integrated , simple yet comprehensive record keeping system of new contacts – all in my head. The pastor and board liked and were enthusiastic about the plan. A few weeks later , our members were canvassing the neighborhood, meeting our neighbors letting them know that we cared and building a card file and database of names.
A more challenging job would not have freed me to brainstorm the church visitation program.
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Maybe it is not them.
If employee turnover and absenteeism within the company are too high, and productivity and morale too low, the person in charge may be the one at fault.
To find out how good — or bad — a boss you are, the National Federation of Independent Business, a small business advocacy group, suggests asking yourself these questions:
1. Have you ever publicly criticized an employee?
2. Do you take credit for your employees’ work?
3. Do your employees fear you?
4. Do you expect employees to do what you tell them without question?
5. Do you believe employees should know what to do without you telling them or providing guidelines?
6. Are you a yeller?
7. Do you demean employees as a form of punishment?
8. Do you play favorites?
9. Do you hate delegating?
10. Do you check everyone’s work?
According to the answer key, the more “yes” answers, the greater the likelihood you are a bad boss.
A SHORT CHECKLIST Given that Trevor Gay wrote a book called “Simplicity Is the Key” — published in
In his 35 years of work (in the health care industry), Mr. Gay said he discovered that his best bosses had these attributes:
“Inspired confidence
Were humble
Had integrity
Knew what they were talking about
Let me get on with things
Were always there when I needed help
Usually said, ‘yes, try it.’”
His worst bosses, he said, had these deficiencies:
“Never seemed to be around when I needed them
Always asked me to justify what I wanted to do
Always wanted to know what I was doing
Often said ‘no, we can’t do that’
Gave the impression of being distrustful
Didn’t smile much
Talked about them a lot.”
HOW TO BE A BAD BOSS Paul Lekberg, an executive coach, has compiled a list of ways weak bosses can hinder an employee’s performance.
His advice to those bosses is to “stop immediately,” if they are doing any of the following:
You don’t give employees a clear and compelling company direction. When people align themselves with the company’s goals, they are free to invent, to improvise, to innovate, to inspire each other.
You say important things only once. If the message is important, it is worth repeating.
You don’t hold employees accountable.
You concentrate on trying to improve employees’ shortcomings. “Bad bosses waste too much energy on employee makeovers. Don’t worry about weaknesses — instead, figure out what employees are really good at and train them to be.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/business/smallbusiness/08toolkit.html?em&ex=1200373200&en=ff6e0326b848e7c3&ei=5087%0A
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As one example Ritway Brown while working at Belinsky Aircraft spent many hours at a time praying and meditating on Scripture. Ritway reviewed Bible verses that he had memorized , taking time to dwell on the meaning of those verses and to think and ponder about how best to apply them in his life.
Next Ritway as a Greyhound bus driver, turned boredom into spiritual benefit and benefits. Rit copes with and actually profits from the boredom in his job in two ways. First he memorizes Scripture. Though he is now 58 years of age ( and some say older people cannot memorize as well) Rit has learnt fifty new verses within the last year. While driving he both learns new verses and reivews old ones , to keep clear his memory.
Rit also spends much time praying. He does not just toss a quick greeting to everyone. Instead he has created a well defined prayer list that he works through. After spending time praising and thanking the Lord , he prays for his extended family. Next he prays for a “critical list” of urgent problems. Fourth he prays for all Christian pastors, beginning with his own. Finally he prays for missionaries , including those that helps supports.
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The bible says ” Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth: meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful”.
How people can obey this admonition better than someone in a boring job ? Those with challenging work which demands their full attention actually have forty hours a week less to meditate and pray than you do .
Many Christians have difficulty finding a few minutes each day to spend quietly before the Lord.
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Of course any job – whether monotonous or exciting – serves God if we do it. But even ass we are consciously trying to glorify god in our work and daily jobs repetitious jobs may bore us because they offer no mental challenge what so ever. The worker on an assembly line operates as an automatic pilot collecting a pay check and paying his or her mortgage. Let them export these jobs as outsourcing to China or India. Never the less , you can always take what is the worst aspect of your job humdrum and turn it into a benefit. Lemons into lemonade. Take advantage of those eight hours a day when your mind runs idle. Those hours can do double duty for you. You can get paid for your physical labor or presence on the job while engaging in your own mental pursuits.
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