Five Truly Terrible Things Bosses Actually Did

Jeevan Sivasubramaniam Posted by Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, Managing Director, Editorial, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.



William Gentry's latest book explores what new bosses face: the challenge to shift from a "me" point of view to a "we" point of view. It requires a shift from a self-focused mindset to one where you are not the center of your world and your actions must also be measured by their repercussions for others.

That said, some leaders never quite make the shift. Worse yet, they do things that are so incredibly self-serving and damaging to others that it boggles the mind to even think anyone would be capable of such things.

Here are five examples of bosses gone horribly, horribly, horribly wrong:

1. Employee donates kidney to boss and gets fired. Debbie Stevens, a divorced mother of two, indirectly donated a kidney to her boss, Jackie Brucia. Though Stevens' kidney was not a perfect match for Brucia, she still donated the kidney to another patient just above Brucia on the recipient list so that Brucia could get a new kidney sooner. Brucia received a new kidney, but when Stevens began experiencing health issues as a result of kidney removal, Brucia fired her.

2. Boss uses employees' credit cards for his own expenses. Ex-major league baseball player Lenny Dykstra started his own magazine called Player's Club for professional athletes and their luxury lifestyles. His egregious behavior included constantly exposing himself to female employees, mismanaging funds, and plenty else. Dykstra also stole his employees' credit card numbers and racked up huge bills on private jets and fine dining for himself.

3. Boss tattoos employees with his "brand." The owner of Day and Night Spa in Mount Prospect, IL, forced all of his female employees to literally be "branded" with a tattoo of a horseshoe to indicate his "ownership" of them. He also insisted some employees have his date of birth tattooed on the back of their necks. Oh, and he also hired Eastern European immigrants who had entered the US illegally and held on to their passports, forcing them to engage in sex with him in return for his silence to the authorities.

4. Fired in recovery after a double bypass. New Zealander Murray Gardiner was in hospital for a double bypass. The surgery was a success and there were apparently no complications. However, as Gardiner was recovering the following week, his boss Julian Proctor dropped by--unfortunately not on a social visit. Despite official medical reports all attesting to the operation's success, Proctor issued an employment termination letter stating that the surgery had been "not fully successful" and returning to full duties "could kill" Gardiner, leaving him no choice but to terminate his position. 

5. Employees fired for disarming a robber. In 2011, four Walmart employees removed a gun from a would-be shooter and held him down until the police arrived. For this action, they were fired because employee policy stipulated that if any one brandishes a gun, ell employees must disengage and withdraw.