Ever been lied to by your boss? Share it.

I've been around a long time, and I've been lied to a lot.
Times are so tough now, so let's have a little fun.
What are the lies and stories you have been told by your managers?

I did a start-up once and was told when I was hired that there would be two computers and another editor on the day I started.

I didn't get the second editor for six months, and we didn't get the computers for the next year. We had to work elsewhere in the building.

 

Oh, man, I don't even want toget started. I'll give SOME of them the benefit of the doubt by allowing that what they HOPED would happen just never actually did.

Wonder if I can get interest on some of those raises that never materialized years back?

 

Lying is really the sign of the weakest manager alive.
Don't lie, people.
Geezus. I have not been lied to by a sports editor or sports writer on the staff. ME's of course they lie. Many are scumbags.

 

"We'll make it up to you"

 

Google the name "Edgar Simpson" - the man was one lie after another when I worked for him in Missouri.

Sports lies? Need to think of this ...

 

This is a great idea.

 

was lied to on a regular basis by last boss. the only reason i wasn't lied to daily was that the bastard wasn't there every day.

 

Had a job offer on the table, went to the SE and ME not so much to get a counter-offer but just for an outlook on my overall status, rosy future, etc. (this was some years ago, when the words "rosy future" didn't trigger a spit-take for anyone in this biz).

Both told me, ME particularly strong, that it was onward and upward and that my work was aces. So I decided to stay.

Two weeks after I turned down the offer -- just long enough for it to be offered to and accepted by the other place's next choice -- I got "reassigned" to duties I never, ever wanted or would have stayed for, and that pretty much anyone on this board would agree was a demotion. ME and SE claimed they'd never considered the move when we had talked previously. Right. All they would have had to do, when the offer was live, was tell me, "Well, that sounds like something you'd want to seriously consider," and I'd have been gone. Must not have suited their dick-around-with-people power games: "Employable elsewhere? Hah, we'll show him."

I left that place ASAP after that. Fortunately, both of those jerks are out of the business now.

 

Earlier in my career, I was shocked when I got my first 2 percent raise. So, I go to my boss and was like, why's this so small? He told me specifically what it would take to get the maximum raise. I did those things to the letter and went back to my boss. He then tells me, yeah, you did everything I asked, but I want to see that on a more consistent basis. So, of course, I did that and several months went by. So, i go back to my boss. He then tells me how impressive my work has been and how I've exceeded his expectations. Shit, i actually impressed myself. But then he explains the company policy that 2 percent is standard according to company policy and the maximum is basically not allowed because that would mean perfection and nobody's perfect at anything.
This was my first experience with Gannett.

 

Not my experience, but at a small paper I worked for, there was constant turnover with the ad salespeople. I wondered why, until I chatted with one salesperson who was on her way out. It seems that whenever a salesperson sold a particularly large ad, the publisher claimed it was a 'house account' and wouldn't pay the salesperson their commissions, inspite of their work with the account.

Same publisher also complained when I told them I 'wasn't available' to cover a bar's volleyball tournament for a local charity because they told me the wrong starting time. Keep in mind, I wasn't getting paid overtime for that weekend day after I already put in over 40 hours that week.

 

Not sure if this counts, but my current boss has a habit of "forgetting" key parts of conversations between the two of us that get contentious or cover a topic he's scared to death of dealing with.

In a couple of heated moments, I've told him I'm going to start taping our one-on-one conversations and he bristled pretty good. Had to suppress a laugh both times.

I've gotten in the habit of making sure touchy subjects are covered in e-mail form so there's evidence of what he says. I hate that because I think good frank discussion should be man-to-man/woman-to-woman. But I'm not going to let him paint me in a corner anymore by saying 'Well, I never said that.'

 

Years ago, because of my father's health, I took a job closer to home for a substantial paycut even though the paper was a similar circulation to the paper I left. The sports editor promised 1) they'd pay up to $500 in moving expenses; 2) I could move into an assistant editor position that was open within six months, and thus get my pay back near what I had been making. So I made the move. Then came the rude awakening. The paper paid only $200 of moving expenses (which covered about a third of my actual expense) and the promotion and raise never came even though I was essentially a non-titled assistant sports editor. When I called him on it (as well as the managing editor), I was told that there must have been a misunderstanding. I've made certain I've gotten everything in writing ever since that experience. And I don't really regret that move because it eventually led me to a sports editor job at another paper in the state. Plus, my parents got to see their grandkids more than once or twice a year.