Shitholes, Continued

Glad to have you back, Jeneane. I was afraid we might lose you to the sisterhood. But you've done a bang-up job with it. Hats off! What's your energy secret? I don't know how you do it all.

Anyway, what a thread question! Shittiest job? Where do I start? When you've been on the treadmill for as many years as I have, it takes some thought. The Army would win hands down, but you said "company," so I can't use that. Besides, I probably shouldn't be dissing the Army, given the whipped-up, militarist sentiment prevailing in the land these days. (If Ashcroft and Gang want to cart me off, I'd be honored).

The first one that pops into my head is a restaurant equipment and design firm where I handled marketing and communications. I was pretty green in those days. The place was run with an iron fist by a full-of-himself Little Caesar whose only apparent purpose in life was to impress people with his importance. There were factory reps and other middlemen coming through the office on a constant basis and he wanted to impress them with what a professional office he was running. He had it wired up in his tinny little head that the way to do that was NO coffee, soda pop, or radios on anyone's desk--ever. Plus a strict dress code. It was a poor man's IBM--dark suits, white shirts, black shoes, and plain colored ties, no patterns. What a joke!

I only stayed there because my wife was disabled for six months and couldn't work. Our sons were just pre-schoolers, in need of lots of attention., and the office was very close to home. Plus, it was a steady paycheck. As soon as Jill went back to work, I hauled my ass out of there.

Naturally, employees were stealing the place blind. They delighted in ripping off the boss-man for whatever they could get away with. The idiot was so engrossed with superficial, surface controls that he had no handle on controls of substance. A few years after I left, the place expired, in no small measure because of all the thievery. Little Caesar was brought down by the very people he thought he controlled.