To readers of David Yamada’s blog:
I’m retired, so can put my money where my mouth is on the subject of blowing the cover of bad bosses.
I had a great boss once: Robert C. Mahoney, retired from the MITRE Corporation in Bedford, MA. He gave me every opportunity to succeed. I didn’t, but it wasn’t his fault: I was in the wrong job that didn’t suit my few talents and many personality faults.
I’ve had a few lousy bosses, most of whom were more befuddled than evil.
One in particular on Cape Cod was and probably still is a genuinely mean-spirited, disloyal, unscrupulous bully: Don Clark, of Onset Computer. When I worked for him, he was enabled by a personnel director who was so ignorant that she thought “curry favor” means “sexually harass”. That’s what I mean by “befuddled”.
I am sad when I think of Douglas Fletcher, deceased, former CEO of Convention Data Services. Doug had a good heart, but was seduced by a couple of henchmen who now have senior management positions at his company.
Others, like Tom Kennedy of Back Office Associates, had no business managing people at all. Intensely charismatic, a brilliant idea man and obsessively hard-working, Tom lacked the patience, wisdom and compassion to be a great leader. I wanted so badly to please him but instead was metaphorically slapped in the face. His wife Trish on the other hand is one of my personal heroes. They sold their company to the Vampire of Wall Street, Goldman Sachs. No hard feelings, good luck to them.
I once worked for Gary Morris of Marketing Advocate. Gary was a combination of Doug and Tom: hard-working, great thought leader, phenomenal family man but led astray by someone who did him and his company no favors. Like Doug Fletcher, I believe Gary was taken in by fast talk and a flashy personality. I tried to do my best for him but was undermined by an underling.
So, there you have it.