What's the BEST thing a boss has ever done for you?

First, he hired me away from a disastrous situation at a triweekly.

Second, he taught me more in one year than I had learned in the previous 10.

Third, when my one-year contract was up, he emailed a note to all the daily newspapers in Western Canada telling them they needed to hire me because I was that damn good.

It took a few months but the Paper For Which I'd Always Dreamed I'd Work called, without me passing on a resume and hired me ... based on his word.

He drops in and reads the board from time to time. If he stops by this thread, it isn't anything I haven't already told him.

But thanks. Again and again and again.

 

I'd have added my story of the best thing an employee's ever done for me, but I've mentioned that story a few times.

 

sent me to cover SpeedWeeks.

 

At the small daily I used to work at, my ME once did a small, but memorable gesture.

There was this woman who worked in the production dept. (the paper was one big room), who, if you weren't in her little clique, was one of the meanest people around. For her, junior high never ended. My (future) wife briefly worked at the same paper, and she made her miserable. Everyone, other than her clique, hated her, but never said anything because she was such a bully.

One early a.m., I come into work, and my computer doesn't work. The only one available was the mean one's, who didn't come in for another half-hour. I hop on her's and begin to work. She comes in early, and starts screaming at me to get off her computer.

I jumped up, told her to show me some respect since I had the title of 'sports editor' while she was a lowly member of the production dept. I also told her to shut her trap, adding a word that rhymes with 'witch'.

Meanwhile, a customer had come in early, before the customer service people came in, so my boss went over to help him out. Our shouting match took place right near them.

Idiot woman stomps off to the ladies room, where I later found out, she started crying.

I go back to my computer, my boss finishes with the customer. My boss comes over and I figure he's going to say something about our fight. Instead, he gives me the biggest grin and tells me that my computer will get fixed.

Later that day, several co-workers called me up to congratulate me on humiliating the pain-in-the-ass.

 

As do we all.
A board without s'chick?
Unthinkable.
Absurd.

 

The editor who hired me for my current gig - now retired - hired me based on the recommendations of others I'd worked with in the past. He and I had never met before we spoke on the phone to set up the initial interview.

Before we ever had a face-to-face interview, he 1) told me to stop off and take a physical/drug screening to fast-track that part of the hiring process and 2) had explained in detail about my salary, benefits, what was expected of me in the available position, etc.

There was some sort of lengthy editing test they used to give prospective employees. On the day I visited, he said, "That thing's a waste of time. Let's go to lunch."

He and his wife remain good friends today.

 

That is essential for any good marriage. But do you stay in touch with either of them?

 

That's really cool -- especially for a private company.

 

I couldn't honestly think of anything out of the ordinary in the newspaper biz.

But when I worked in a warehouse after high school and rode a bike about 13 miles to work, a couple of the fellow workers offered to sell me a beat up old Nova for $200, which I didn't have.

My boss heard about it and loaned me the $200.

That was unexpected and pretty cool.

 

I bitched about the worst, so I better do something about the best...
I was hired via a phone interview for my first internship during college. SE didn't know me, and while it wasn't the Washington Post, it turned out to be the best four months of learning I've ever had journalistically.
Realistically, I learned more there than I did in J-School.

 

This will sound strange, but I remember being a punk freelancer for the local paper in college. I got along great with both sports editors, and eventually went from doing high school stuff to helping with major bigtime college coverage.

One day, though, I was doing a high school story. I turned it in, and one of the sports editors read it. He was old-school, and loved to drink and smoke cigars. He reads through my story, keeps asking questions, changing things, then stops and says, "This is just shit. You're better than this. What happened here?"

Tough to hear. But great knowing someone had such high expectations.

 

Actually, if we're going on the subject of non journalism bosses, I have a few stories. The one that immediately comes to mind happened after I asked one of my bosses when my first paycheck was coming a couple of weeks after I'd started. The machinations of the college where I was working as a computer lab assistant hadn't been completed, so I was still on a holding pattern for my first check. And I was broke.

One of my supervisors explained the process, but he also did something I wasn't expecting: He offered to loan me $100 if I needed it to pay rent. This was in 1997, so that wasn't exactly chump change back then.

I figured I was working in a good environment when the lab manager (the boss of my supervisors) detoured to the cafeteria to buy my other supervisor lunch because he was broke and he didn't have his lunch on him. The loan offer proved it.