I recently left a local company where the COO did all the client billing. Her invoices weren't based on reality (time and materials) but rather on what she felt each client would find acceptable. Thus, she over-billed some while minimally billing others, all the while maintaining with our clients that it was purely T&M. She even went so far as to make up complex line item descriptions for the fake pieces, hoping that clients would feel they were getting more than their money's worth.

As a new employee, when I questioned her, she explained that this is a credible, accepted accounting system called "the Mixed Billing System" and that it doesn't matter whether or not anyone else (much less an accountant) could reconstruct the books based on T&M, or other nonsense. A couple of weeks later she called me in to ask how much my clients "would be able to bear" for the current billing cycle.

I was fired for my reply.

She and Blago are probably Facebook friends!

Beverlie,

Thanks for your honest input. While I won't argue that what makes a bad boss was a fairly obvious topic, it was meant as a lighter piece to bring in some humor at the end of a particularly dreary week in the job market. I invite you to browse our blog archives to see that we do focus heavily on the more serious side of employee management, engagement and retention. Our intent is to address the concerns and areas of interest to hiring managers and recruiters. That said, please feel free to tell us what sort of issues you'd specifically like to see addressed on our site. I'm sure others who feel as you do would appreciate it as well.

Why waste people's time in writing such a stupid article. Do you have nothing less obvious to write about-perhaps something a bit more intellectual?
In my opinion, one quality every boss should have: Never ask anyone on your staff to do something you cannot or would not do.

I recently left a local company where the COO did all the client billing. Her invoices weren't based on reality (time and materials) but rather on what she felt each client would find acceptable. Thus, she over-billed some while minimally billing others, all the while maintaining with our clients that it was purely T&M. She even went so far as to make up complex line item descriptions for the fake pieces, hoping that clients would feel they were getting more than their money's worth.

As a new employee, when I questioned her, she explained that this is a credible, accepted accounting system called "the Mixed Billing System" and that it doesn't matter whether or not anyone else (much less an accountant) could reconstruct the books based on T&M, or other nonsense. A couple of weeks later she called me in to ask how much my clients "would be able to bear" for the current billing cycle.

I was fired for my reply.

She and Blago are probably Facebook friends!

Beverlie,

Thanks for your honest input. While I won't argue that what makes a bad boss was a fairly obvious topic, it was meant as a lighter piece to bring in some humor at the end of a particularly dreary week in the job market. I invite you to browse our blog archives to see that we do focus heavily on the more serious side of employee management, engagement and retention. Our intent is to address the concerns and areas of interest to hiring managers and recruiters. That said, please feel free to tell us what sort of issues you'd specifically like to see addressed on our site. I'm sure others who feel as you do would appreciate it as well.

Why waste people's time in writing such a stupid article. Do you have nothing less obvious to write about-perhaps something a bit more intellectual?
In my opinion, one quality every boss should have: Never ask anyone on your staff to do something you cannot or would not do.

Nothing is worse than a boss who seeks out people who make "mistakes" rather than celebrating good work. Bosses shouldn't be baby sitters, and if they think they need to act this way, they've obviously hired the wrong people for the job. A good boss trusts the team and can help when things do go wrong, but shouldn't constantly focus on the negative.