Reflecting On Thirty Years of Working for Dumb Bosses

One thing retirement does is give you time to reflect back on thirty years of working for dumb bosses. I could tell you so many stories about the dumb things that I have seen and heard. Some of the stories are so dumb they are just plain funny, while others could have ended with very dire outcomes. I have started asking just about everyone that I come in contact with what is the dumbest thing you every saw a boss do, and the stories that I have heard would amaze you. If you have a dumb boss story then please send them to me. At first I did not understand why I love hearing these stories, and then I realized that it is for the same reason that everyone loves watching America’s Funniest Home Videos. There is something entertaining about people doing stupid things that could have been avoided by using common sense. This is especially true when someone has chosen to put these dumb bosses in charge of large organizations that can cost the company a lot of money.
Most of the stories that I have heard or seen involved bosses that either had no common sense, or they just decided to ignore their common sense. I began to wonder why the smart people of the world don’t just rise up and take over power in the workplace, and I discovered that the answer is simple. They have common sense, which tells them "don’t do anything against the person that signs their paycheck". It is like a little parrot sitting on your shoulder saying “don’t say anything, don’t say anything, don’t say anything”. Somewhere around my fiftieth year, I would put the parrot on mute from time to time. It did not make the most popular person, but it allowed me to live with myself, and by the grace of God I still stayed long enough to retire. Retirement lets you have the freedom to kill the stupid little parrot. The smartest people just hang around to clean up the boss’ mess while keeping their mouth shut. I guess that makes me only kind of smart, since fifteen years is all I could stand.
The best advice that I can give anyone is if your boss hires or promotes a relative, friend, friend of a friend, drinking buddy, ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, ex-con, relative of a politician, or current girlfriend, then find a new place to work, otherwise you will be just be waiting around to clean up their messes. Large companies have no intentions of allowing you to hang around long enough to retire anyway, so beat them to the bunch, and let someone else clean up behind the dumb boss or let them clean up behind themselves.