Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

Drunk with power defines some bosses.

I asked my Somerville social media friends this question. What’s the worst thing your worst boss ever did or said to you?

One of my radio bosses was pretty cantankerous. I got an offer from another radio station while working at one station as an intern. I had the chance to go to a station and make some money and when I told the boss about it this is what he said, “If you go to that station I’ll go on the air and tell all the listeners that you died of a terrible disease in a Somerville Hospital. Nice guy, huh? I’ve had some good bosses, but I’ll tell you I had some real doozies too.

Here’s what some of my friends shared. Copy and paste time! Lol.

“He docked my pay for attending my grandfather’s funeral. I grew up in the same house as my grandfather but he didn’t consider him immediate family.” Wow! Heartless!

As was this: “’Keep your personal life at the door,’” when my mother was dying and my coworkers were comforting me.”

“When I told my boss I was going to nursing school at age 28 he told me I didn’t have what it takes to be a nurse.” Idiot!

This one kills me: “Don’t talk to the doc about your dying relative at your desk, we don’t want to hear your personal business.” Creep!

A friend added: “’You’re fired!’ Two years of hell under him, 1984-1986.”

Here’s an outright nasty remark: “He told me that I didn’t sound like I came from Somerville.” To me that’s a compliment, but in a bad way.

Here’s a direct lack of boundaries: “’I told my nephew you would organize and type his college thesis for him.’ It went downhill from there.”

This one is downright chauvinistic: “’Why do you want to be here? Don’t you want to get married and have babies? Have a nice house and nice kitchen?’” Yikes!

This next one is unbelievable: “’Servants should treat their earthly masters as you would God,’ with his two hands on my head standing behind me at my desk. My immediate response was I don’t even treat my husband like my God.”

Here’s a good one: “After attending a sensitivity meeting, my boss whispered in my ear if I did one more thing wrong, he would transfer me to the farthest store. I turned in my retirement papers the next day!”

The next friend added: “After I had my first child and went back to work my boss told me I didn’t belong there. He said if I decided to have children, I needed to stay home and take care of them. This was in the early 70s and he didn’t like my answer.”

This one is unbelievable: “When I said I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning and would be a little late he said, ‘Who’s the lucky guy who gets to poke and prod you tomorrow morning?’” Downright disgusting.

One grumpy old boss once made a joke of my son’s serious ear surgery. Heartless.

I was totally thrown under the bus by one lousy boss. That was epic! I can’t divulge the who and where to protect privacy.

But even though I had my share of terrible bosses, I’ve also had a lot of great ones. Some people get drunk with power while others can be good and fair. Thankfully, I’m retired so I’ll never have a rotten boss again. Yay! One more thing, I still have reoccurring nightmares of the worst boss I ever had.