Two weeks ago I was telling you about Ralph D., the worst boss I ever had in over 45 years. Here are a few “horror” stories about Ralph. As VP of operations he oversaw two departments. One was mine, manufacturing, and the other was engineering. There were about seven engineers in the Engineering Department working under the Engineering Manager. One day one of the engineers brought Ralph a store receipt for $1.89 for him to sign so he could be reimbursed through petty cash.

Ralph asked him, “What’s this for?”

The engineer replied, “Batteries for my calculator.”

Ralph, “This is your calculator isn’t it?”

Engineer, “Yes, but I use it here at work every day.”

Ralph, “I’m not paying for batteries for your calculator.”

So the engineer took his calculator home and then went to his boss and told him that he needed a calculator.

His boss asked him, “Didn’t you have a calculator?”

The engineer replied, “Yes but it was mine and I needed it at home.”

So the company had to buy him a new calculator that cost about $169 instead of $1.89 for new batteries.
The company that we worked for had about 80 employees, so we needed a small company phone directory. Periodically it was updated and a new one was issued to everyone.

On the day that the new directory came out, one of the people who worked under Ralph noticed that his name was not in the new directory. He stopped Ralph in the hallway and asked him, “I just got the new phone directory and my name isn’t in it.”

Ralph answered, “Oh yeah. I’ve been meaning to talk to you. Step into my office.”

That’s how the person learned that he had been terminated.

My department was heavily involved with the assembly of small, delicate parts. We had about 15 women who sat at five rows of tables doing this sort of work. Naturally, human nature being what it is, they spent a good part of the day talking to each other. They continued to work while talking but it meant turning around to do so. Inevitably that slowed them down.

One day I decided to change the seating arrangements so that the women would be facing each other instead of all facing the same direction like the pews in a church. This way they could talk to each other without turning around. Production increased by about 25 percent with the new arrangement.

About a week later, Ralph walked through the assembly department, noticed the new arrangement and immediately walked into my office to insist that we change the seating arrangement back to the old way.
I told him that the new arrangement had increased production by 25 percent. No matter, Ralph believed the women should be working and not talking to each other.

Soon after this incident I started looking for another job.