Bosses From Hell.And What You Can Learn From Them You may hate your old bosses like Lucifer, but you can learn from them. Just don't join their minions.

Cam Marston didn't want to look at the face across the desk.He didn't like his latest assignment, but what could he do? Hisboss had ordered him to fire this employee, a nice guy who may nothave been a brilliant worker but was coming along. However, thecompany was pretty successful: "I figured my boss knew what hewas doing," explains Marston. And so if this had been a moviewestern instead of an average day in 1996, here's the partwhere the then-26-year-old Marston would have cocked his pistol-andfired.

The employee went down, pale and frightened. And then hepleaded, "But why . . . ?"
"It's just a management decision, based on the way you fitin here," said Marston, who actually had no clue why this poorschmuck was getting the ax. "I thought this was going to bethe one," the employee gasped, shell-shocked, rubbing hishands through his hair. "I really like it here. I liked theproduct." Then he started to cry.
"I'm sorry," Marston wheezed. "I'm reallysorry." Eyes red, hair a mess, the employee slunk back to hisdesk and gathered his photos of his wife and children. He clutchedhis coffee cup and some pencils, and he started the long, miserabletrek out of the office. His shoulders were stooped, and thoughtall, he looked very small. But just before he reached the exit,Marston's boss emerged. He was, Marston swears, a beady-eyedman with veins popping out of his neck. "Wait a minute,"the boss said. "Cam just fired you, right?"
"Y-y-yes. What's going on?"
"Well, you're not let go," the boss announcedcheerfully. "I just wanted to see if Cam was able to fire you.I didn't think he had the strength to do that. You're notfired; get back on the phones. Cam, good job! Come into myoffice."

The Boss From Hell. Most of us have worked for one. He or she isthe employer who, no doubt about it, was sent from Satan below tomake our lives miserable. The one who wields power like a ThirdWorld dictator with a nuclear bomb. The one who may be the bigcheese, and this cheese is rancid. And you, with your meagerbenefits and opportunities, stayed with that molding cheese, like astarving mouse with nowhere else to go. Until you finally made yourescape. So it's a good chance to ask yourself: What did I learnfrom my boss from hell? Am I a better boss for having worked forsomebody who made Jack the Ripper seem like a stand-up guy? Or,like your dad and his inexplicable love for polka music and yoursurprising appreciation for the genre, does the apple fall not farfrom the tree?

Geoff Williams once had a boss from hell, or at least heck.She would frown at him as he was leaving work on a Friday, and hewould worry about it until Monday morning, when he could then gaugewhether she had actually been angry at him or had just beenconstipated.

Are You A Jerk?

If you've morphed into a boss from hell, you're going tolose more than a popularity contest. Mean or devious bosses will"experience low productivity, employees who will not makedecisions, high turnover and the inability to recruit a qualitystaff," predicts ToniTalbot, owner of Human Resource Management Services inWilliamston, Michigan. "Bosses from hell will eventually endup taking the company to hell because no company can survive thatkind of management style. Not today, not in this economy." Ifyou had a wretched boss who treated you like a galley slave, relax(a little): Chances are, you've already sworn never to treatyour own employees that way. But if you worked for a tyrant andstayed on his or her good side, you may have subconsciously decidedthe tyrant's tirades weren't a bad way to go.

As with watching the gazelles on a National Geographicspecial, there are signs that can clue you in that the animals areupset. (By the way, tip No. 1: Never refer to your employees as"animals.") Few people likely aspire to be the boss fromhell. Sharon Jordan-Evans,co-author of Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting GoodPeople to Stay, suggests three warning signs of unhappyemployees:

1. Avoidance behavior."If this person doesn't ever seek you out, chat with you,share information readily with you, those are clues that theemployee isn't comfortable with you. It doesn't meanyou're a jerk; it might be you're just not veryapproachable."

2. Visible drop in productivity andmorale; increased absenteeism. "If people don'tseem very enthused, it's time to look in the mirror becausevery often it has to do with the boss."

3. Heavy turnover. "Ifyou had a revolving door, wouldn't you get the idea that youhave something to do with that? But I can't tell you how manybosses don't get it. They say 'Yup, that's just ourindustry.' And they don't even check. Or they blame it onthe age group: 'Well, they just change jobs all the time.'They find other excuses."

What They Learned

Kevin S. Grangier is president of CarryOn Communication, a publicityfirm in Beverly Hills, California, that opened in 1998. But beforethat, he worked for a multitude of employers. Some were good; somewere not-like the boss who would often tell Grangier to fight theheavy traffic and bring her paperwork to her house because shedidn't want to do it herself. "It was a one-hourdrive-each way," he sighs.

That same boss once told Grangier that if he wanted to leave theoffice early to catch a flight for Thanksgiving weekend, it wouldhave to come out of his vacation time. So he offered to work on theairplane, which the boss readily agreed to, as long as Grangierdidn't want to be paid for that time. But she did expect him tobill the client (at $275 an hour) for the period spent working onthe airplane.

"I quit a few months after that," reports Grangier,who says his own company is the antithesis of most of the companieshe worked for in the past. "My philosophy is that if youcreate an environment that's fun to work in and respect youremployees, they'll be happy," he says. "Ifthey're happy, they'll do good work, and if they do goodwork, of course, the client will be happy."

Grangier readily admits it isn't easy keeping employees ingood spirits, especially when you're experiencing rapid growth.In a recent span of nine months, Grangier went from five employeesto 32, and his firm, which brought in $5 million in 2000, expects$9 million this year. "It's easy to lose that comfortableatmosphere. It can happen overnight if you allow it to," saysGrangier, who says he's passed on some big accounts simplybecause he knew it would tax his staff. "[But] I don'twant employees dropping off like flies. Why would I want to doanything to jeopardize something I've spent so much timeon?"

Heaven can appear through the clouds after working for the bossfrom hell. In Marston's case, he quit a few weeks after beingforced to fire his colleague, and in 1996, he and his mother, JudyMarston, started MarstonCommunications in Charlotte, North Carolina. And now Cam'slife's work is to consult with employers who have troublerelating to their under-35 employees. In short, MarstonCommunications' goal is to forever rid the world of bosses fromhell.

And just how do you do that? It's not hard. At least, not onpaper. "Be absolutely honest," says Marston."Don't try to deceive: You can never get away with it. Andno one is an experiment. This is not a laboratory for you to seewhat would happen if-these are people's lives you'redealing with."

Then Marston reveals what is probably the best lesson anyemployer can learn: "People aren't loyal to companies;they're loyal to people they like."