What's the worst thing your boss has ever made you do?

[Mizzougrad96]

I had a managing editor who would hit me up for tickets about five times a year. If the seats weren't great, he would ***** for weeks to me. Of course these requests always came before the biggest games of the year... He would also complain that I couldn't get them for free...

I'm sure there are a lot of great stories out there...

 

[Fudgie the Whale]

Let's just say the casting couch isn't limited to Hollywood.

 

[forever_town]

I won't even go there.

 

[mdpoppy]

What's the worst thing your boss has ever made you do? Work.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Clean out my desk so they could save a healthy percentage on their payroll.

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

Clean out my desk so they could save a healthy percentage on their payroll.

We have a winner? ??? :'( :-\

 

[Fudgie the Whale]

Let's just say the casting couch isn't limited to Hollywood.

Seriously, though?

Look me in the eyes and say "Take my word" when I asked him if this Saturday assignment was permanent and he said no. Turns out it was permanent. I never got over that. A ****ing lie.

 

[fishwrapper]

Interview for my own job two months after receiving nothing but exemplary marks on a performance review. Then offer it to me at 12% reduction.

 

[Grimace]

What's the worst thing your boss has ever made you do? Work.

Work sucks. I don't like it.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Clean out my desk so they could save a healthy percentage on their payroll.

We have a winner? ??? :'( :-\

I was?

 

[Jeremy Goodwin]

Kill a man

 

[Rumpleforeskin]

Clean out my desk so they could save a healthy percentage on their payroll.

We have a winner? ??? :'( :-\

I was?

No, I was saying this might be the worst thing a boss can make someone do. It was another way of saying End. Of. Thread.

 

[imjustagirl]

Knowing where 2much worked, I'd say fishwrapper's deal was worse.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Knowing where 2much worked, I'd say fishwrapper's deal was worse.

Not necessarily. When the local college hoops teams made it into their national tournaments, the only question the publisher ever asked me was, "Can you set it up with the AD so that we can take advantage of the team hotel rate?" (Yes, we paid.)

Never had a travel request shot down, never had somebody looking over my shoulder telling me what to publish or emphasize.

Wasn't a great town but for a while we had a great little paper. If not for Katrina wiping out our Gulf Shore sister paper, I probably would have been able to leave a few months later on my own terms. (No insurance down there because the sister paper's facilities "were too close to the Gulf." Turns out that was a really bad place to have a newsroom and printing presses. Who'da thunk it? We had the best presses in the chain, so we printed their storm editions and shipped 'em 1500 miles. Then everybody in the company was told to make cuts. We had no fat to cut.)

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I once got a call from the theater critic at my paper who told me that the superstar player I covered, who we only got access to once a week at a press conference, had been at the opening of a play. He told me, "I need you to find out if he liked it, if he would go again, what he thought of the ambience and what part of the play he liked the best..."

He needed it done that day.

I told him, "Look, if I could get him alone, I would be happy to help, but I can't so, either come up here and ask him yourself. I'm not doing it. We only get 20 minutes a week with the guy and he's been miserable to deal with as is."

Critic: So you're telling me no?

Me: If you want to come here and ask the question, that's on you, but I'm not doing it.

Twenty minutes later our managing editor calls me up and tells me that I absolutely have to do it. I don't want to get fired, so I go to the shootaround and beg the PR guy for 90 seconds alone with Player X. I tell him what it's about and I begged and begged and begged... I think he felt sorry for me so he made it happen.

I asked all of the questions and then send it back to the critic. His answers were pretty decent all things considered.

In the story the next day it said,

"Player X attended the opening and said he liked it."

No quote used...

 

[armageddon]

I once got a call from the theater critic at my paper who told me that the superstar player I covered, who we only got access to once a week at a press conference, had been at the opening of a play. He told me, "I need you to find out if he liked it, if he would go again, what he thought of the ambience and what part of the play he liked the best..."

He needed it done that day.

I told him, "Look, if I could get him alone, I would be happy to help, but I can't so, either come up here and ask him yourself. I'm not doing it. We only get 20 minutes a week with the guy and he's been miserable to deal with as is."

Critic: So you're telling me no?

Me: If you want to come here and ask the question, that's on you, but I'm not doing it.

Twenty minutes later our managing editor calls me up and tells me that I absolutely have to do it. I don't want to get fired, so I go to the shootaround and beg the PR guy for 90 seconds alone with Player X. I tell him what it's about and I begged and begged and begged... I think he felt sorry for me so he made it happen.

I asked all of the questions and then send it back to the critic. His answers were pretty decent all things considered.

In the story the next day it said,

"Player X attended the opening and said he liked it."

No quote used...

You didn't finish the story...You know, where you went over to the home of the movie critic and kicked his ass.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

If his column mug didn't run in the paper, I wouldn't even know what the guy looked like. I don't think we've ever been in the building together at the same time...

 

[forever_town]

Yeah Missou, sometimes you have to appease the hands that write the paychecks.

 

[Ace]

Not necessarily. When the local college hoops teams made it into their national tournaments, the only question the publisher ever asked me was, "Can you set it up with the AD so that we can take advantage of the team hotel rate?" (Yes, we paid.)

FYI,

If I was trying to keep costs down and justify a trip, I would find out where the team was staying and call the hotel myself saying I was with that group and ask for their rate.

I figured I was good with that because I wasn't asking the school to do anything for me. I was just piggybacking. Plus, it was better for me to be at their hotel.

 

[Jeremy Goodwin]

I once got a call from the theater critic at my paper who told me that the superstar player I covered, who we only got access to once a week at a press conference, had been at the opening of a play. He told me, "I need you to find out if he liked it, if he would go again, what he thought of the ambience and what part of the play he liked the best..."

He needed it done that day.

I told him, "Look, if I could get him alone, I would be happy to help, but I can't so, either come up here and ask him yourself. I'm not doing it. We only get 20 minutes a week with the guy and he's been miserable to deal with as is."

Critic: So you're telling me no?

Me: If you want to come here and ask the question, that's on you, but I'm not doing it.

Twenty minutes later our managing editor calls me up and tells me that I absolutely have to do it. I don't want to get fired, so I go to the shootaround and beg the PR guy for 90 seconds alone with Player X. I tell him what it's about and I begged and begged and begged... I think he felt sorry for me so he made it happen.

I asked all of the questions and then send it back to the critic. His answers were pretty decent all things considered.

In the story the next day it said,

"Player X attended the opening and said he liked it."

No quote used...

But without you feeding him the quotes the critic wouldn't be able to say if he liked it or no.