I had two bosses that I worked for over the years that at one point in my career I thought they were the best people ever to work for. One guy just let me do my job by telling me what he wanted to see happen and telling me to report back when it was done. The other was good at being a buffer between us and his boss who was a crazy man. Later in my career I would work for both men again, and at that time I thought both were terrible bosses. What had been their strengths became their weaknesses.
The first guy became the acting chief of police, and he really wanted the job permanently. The mayor would express his desire for an outcome, and then express how he thought that outcome should come about. The chief would go into a frenzy to make sure it happened exactly that way - even if it made no sense. The day he got his job I took over a division that previous administrations had allowed to wither on the vine and become totally ineffective. At almost the same time there were some tragic deaths that took place (and were all over the news for several days) that might not have happened had my division been doing its job in the years preceding.
The next morning he was at city hall getting his marching orders and a few hours later I was in his office. What I was told to do was a massive undertaking, but nearly identical to a program I had created years before. But the way I was told to carry out the job was wrong in a lot of ways. I thought I knew the man and how he worked from our previous experiences together, so I spoke the truth.
Chief, can we go back to the mayor with a counter proposal? I can make this happen, and I can do it more efficiently and effectively than what you're telling me to do. I think we should tell the man that we have a better way of doing this.
What I got was a cold hard stare - while everyone else at the table stayed silent - and then this reply:
Thank you for your contribution. Now, we'll move on to the other elements of the plan.
The other guy, the one that was a buffer between us and his bosses earlier in his career, he got promoted and I worked for him again later in our careers. It took a while to figure out what was happening, but he was not passing anything up or down the chain of command. His office became a black hole from which nothing ever escaped. That wasn't too bad when it was a case of something stupid coming down to us, but there were a lot of things we needed the higher ups to approve and fund.
Hey Captain, do you have any idea when the approval is going to come through for those cars I want to buy? The heat and a couple of wrecks have played havoc with my fleet and I've got detectives sitting around the office when they need to be on the street.
Oh yeah, I've got to get with Chief Jones on that. I'll get back to you.
His secretary finally let on that the boss's in-box was stuffed full and nothing ever went into the out-box. Eventually we started going straight to his boss for some things just to keep the place running. Somebody screwed up an promoted him again and he got the opportunity to be a roadblock for almost a thousand employees.
In my last year at work, a new chief was appointed and he figured out both men in short order. He got the mayor to offer his predecessor a job somewhere outside the PD, and Mr. Roadblock was encouraged to take retirement rather than face demotion.
I can't say that I've ever really clicked with a boss. One of my best bosses ever later became one of my best friends. But when we were working together we had quite a few occasions when we locked horns - and it got ugly a few times. Now that we don't work together we can laugh about it - he will admit in so many words that he is an "anal control freak" and I have come to admit that there were more than a few days when I decided to see how far I could go in breaking the rules.
But I think that may be the nature of the beast. There is a man who worked for me for two years who was absolutely worthless. When I finally became tired of trying to motivate him positively I called him in and I gave him thirty day to improve or find a new assignment. He hated me and I know he badmouthed me all over the office behind my back, but he went on to new adventures elsewhere. After I retired we were partnered up as cart partners in a charity golf tournament. I enjoyed the day immensely because the guy has a terrific sense of humor and we had a lot in common outside of the job. We had such a great time together that later he was telling people "man, me and Leonidas had a blast!" Some of the people he talked to told me about it later and said they asked him "I thought you couldn't stand that guy."
Oh yeah. As a boss I hated him - thought he was a total d!9k. But get him away from work and he's pretty cool.
He's one of my regular golf partners now.
