Yeah, I know I’m not supposed to be here complaining about my job, after what happened at my previous job. I mean, nothing could have been worse than what I was going through, really. (In fact, as they haven’t even posted my position yet, one of my former co-workers asked me if I was interested in coming back. I think my e-mail back just said NO.)
So this isn’t a complaint, more like…a worried observation. My boss at my new job is acting, well, strangely. He doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing; that’s nothing new in any office. Most people cover up this condition by either being super nice or super bossy. He does both, sometimes within the space of five minutes or so, ranting at me or someone else then frantically apologizing for his behavior immediately afterwards. He makes inappropriate personal statements at work, such as when in a one-to-one meeting with me he started talking at cringeworthy length about his broken marriage and how he was hoping that if he could get a job for her at the company that might bring her back to him. There have been rumors that in the past he has cheated on her with women who work at the company. He makes snap decisions without thinking of the consequences that send dozens of others in the company, in his office and out of it, into a squabbling tizzy. Of course, I’ve seen that before, but he seems to make a particular specialty of it.
The most recent incident, though, is really making me wonder. A co-worker and I were working on a project together early this week. The boss had told me that the project was due on Wednesday (today). Yesterday the co-worker finished his part of the project and sent the final draft to me. We chatted about it, and I said, well, I’ll look over your half of the stuff and turn it in before the deadline. All was well…until at 10 pm last night I got cc’ed on an e-mail the boss had sent to my co-worker that read to the effect of “Why do I not have this project? The deadline was 5 pm today, where the hell is it???” I had the full project in my e-mail folder, and I immediately sent it to him and said, hey, I’m sorry, I thought the project was due Wednesday. At 11 (!) the boss writes me back and said, look, I told your co-worker the project was due today because I didn’t trust him to make the Wednesday deadline, so he would work harder to get it done. I wrote back, saying, well then that was my fault, because he had it done today, but I wanted some extra time to look over it. And just before midnight my boss sends this almost weepy e-mail, saying, I’m in so much pain these days, things at home are really bad, I’m sorry I lashed out at your co-worker, I just don’t know what’s wrong, etc. etc. etc. I mean, what do you say at this point?
The kicker? I talked to my co-worker this morning and asked him about the deadline. He’d never heard about the 5 pm Tuesday deadline–the boss had told him the deadline was 11 am Wednesday. I thought maybe the boss had moved up the deadline, so I asked him when the boss had told him that. “Yesterday afternoon,” he said. So within the space of about eight hours or so my boss had totally forgotten when he’d asked my co-worker to get the project done, then gone apeshit when he’d failed to meet the nonexistent deadline…and made the mistake of cc’ing me and two other people on the apeshit e-mail.
So…yeah. It’s just odd behavior. I’m not sure how to play it other than putting my head down and working the best I can, and trying to build working relationships with other people in the office. Dysfunction is everywhere, I guess.
How are you expected to work without needed supplies on hand?