I couldn't have found your site at a better time! I myself have been feeling very let down by my boss lately. I've even considered moving on and checking out a new career. After completing your course on how to "Off My Boss", You can't believe how much better I feel !

Guys.....You gave me just the thing I've lacked these past few months. A way to look at it all and laugh. I read every single word there was to read and had to wipe the tears away more than once. Thank you so much for showing me how to find some humor at a time when I was beginning to think there was No such thing. I can assure you that when I go into work tomorrow I'm going to find it very hard to keep a straight face. I've sent a link to your site to a few of my co-workers.

Hey....share the wealth ya know? I'm sure we'll all feel a bit better about our "Little Complaints" now. Once again Thanks so much for bringing a little bit of laughter to what I was considering a Lost Cause.

I think that this website is one of the ultimate websites of all....Keep it up!

Subject: The boss is REAL employee

Yes, I am a dreaded boss.. the curse of Middle-Management in a large hospital.  I take great pride in building relationships with the employees and breaking the rules and regs to suit their life. When I employ someone, I employ the WHOLE person.

I believe that ANYONE should follow the order of Priorities of God, Family, Self and then Work. If you respect those values, you get a much better PARTNER, NOT just an employee.

The threat of termination is very idle.. If that's the way you are managed, why did the boss hire you in the first place. Remember, we too are employees... but the difference is we should work to SUPPORT the employees, NOT have the employees support us. It is Ying/ Yang for all of the existentialists out there.

We middle managers are on yearly contracts and are in constant fear of termination. I empowered my inner boss LONG ago. I no longer live in fear of my unemployment... and more importantly.. I don't pass my paranoia onto my co-worker employees, because I don't have any. I have all the job security I need... Right between my ears. Just like everyone of my employees. We just have different jobs.. but we have the same mission.

I would suggest that employees not only shop for their next job.. but shop for their next boss. Don't work for the putz ! Demand more of yourself and look for a partner not a boss !!! I've had many offers for more money... I stay with the boss I have because I am treated fairly.. and she allows me to treat others with the same respect and level of dignity. That's what really matters.

Subject: Why things don't work/fall apart/quality stinks...

Next time a part you order doesn't fit, a shirt collar falls off with the first washing, the handle of your new car's door comes off in your hand, don't blame "shoddy workmanship" or "lack of pride in the American worker," blame the BOSSES who put arthritic old ladies on two production machines at once, deliberately do not train temps or new hires because they "don't want to waste the time on somebody who might quit within the week," pressure workers with dirty looks and snide remarks to keep them nervous while pushing out product faster and faster instead of better, etc. etc. Get the picture? Around here, somebody in a Union shop has to die for somebody from outside to get in--meanwhile, in non-Union shops around here, turn-of-the-century-era "sweatshop mentality" rules. And products sure look it and perform to this "standard," don't they?

--Love your Site!! Still laughing because I just sent the link to my boss! Thanks a whole bunch...

--I’m an account assistant at a large firm here in the capital of “Redneck Heaven”! You think the boss’s you describe are bad... you should take all of the horrors you talk about in a boss, and add three parts tobacco chewing, two parts Chevys and gun racks, and one part “let’s see how long I can wear the same overalls to work before they walk away on their own” contests! Seriously! And they are the ones in charge! Everyone thinks of boss’s as at least washed and well dressed... but not the group of power hungry “hygienically challenged” road-kill I have to take orders from! I just bought your second edition of OFF THE BOSS, and see that you’re going to add chapters with each new edition. How about a chapter on Redneck Bosses in the next edition?

--I work at a tiny (and I mean tiny) mail order company. It’s so small that there’s only me and my boss. A lot of what you and your readers talk about have to do with bosses with many employees and lots of departments. At least more bodies pulls the focus away from you for a few minutes each day! At my job, my boss sits at a desk facing me in a room that even Superman would have a hard time changing in... and he’s at me all day long!

Is there anyone else out there who has a situation like I have... where it’s just you and the boss and four walls? Please let me know... so I know I’m not alone in this two person living nightmare version of hell!

-- When you have a hot head for a boss, sometimes kindness is the key. I have a boss who yells at you every chance she gets and who makes you take the blame for everything even if you are not the one at fault and she is. I am the admin. in our department and on secretary's day she sent flowers to another admin. in the company who is not in our department. I got my laugh, when I sent her an email thanking her for including me in the decision to send this person flowers and for informing me I was no longer the department admin. She received this email and became irate. She wanted to know what it meant and I told her in a very kind voice, it meant just what it said and she dismissed me from her office in a hurry. Two days later she sent me flowers and wanted to take me to lunch. At lunch she admitted to yelling at me for the last few weeks.

--Just a thank you for being the perfect “gift store”! We have a new regional manager at our company, and I swear if she ever cracked a smile it would kill her. No one knew how to get to this woman. She’s really not all that bad a boss, I have to admit, but you never know what she’s really thinking, or where she stands... or more important... where we stand with her! On her birthday the men in the company were going crazy trying to figure out what to get her.

In this age of “say their hair looks nice and go to jail”, no one wanted to send her flowers, or candy, or anything that would smack of some kind of harassment or worse! Then I came across your catalogue, and saw the OFF THE BOSS SURVIVAL KIT. Since my boss has several boss’s above her, who frankly are making HER life a living hell, I thought this would be the “political correct” gift from all of us who work for her. Sure enough when it came in the mail, she opened it immediately, and I swear she couldn’t stop laughing! She came in to thank us, and gosh-oh-golly, I felt like I was in a production of “Good-bye Mr. Chips”! I mean, she actually got a little teary-eyed! Now, she smiles more than Marie Osmond on laughing gas, and our workplace has improved immensely!  Thank you all!

M.P. (and company), St. Petersburg, Florida

-- Hey, to that New England Paralegal ... Believe me, you’re not alone. I could pass the bar with what I know (though never did have the money to go to law school... such is life)... and I’ve had my “boss lawyer” make me write up papers for them, and I’ve actually drafted contracts... then their clients are charged their $150’s an hour, rather than my $18’s an hour! And I’m a single mom! But what I’ve found to keep me sane is that I keep a nice neat record of all the “goings on” here. One day, I’ll have a great time seeing them get their comeuppance (remember Tom Cruise, in “The Firm”?), or hey, come to think of it... I could always write a book like you people did!  Thank you Off The Boss... you’ve given me the courage and vision to keep on going, and to know there are other options in life! Hey... did you know we charge our clients two dollars a page for a damn Xerox!?

Good thought, BV.! Check out our “Boss Aptitude Test”... I have a feeling we found it in YOUR boss’ wastepaper basket! Once again, this only shows that some of our best material and ideas come from people like you! Yes, we’ll put our fine-tune team to work on your idea, and if others are listening... send in your stories about “dumb things” your non-brainer boss has done to you at work! And for giving us another great idea, B.V., we’re sending you a hundred foot roll of OFF THE BOSS wallpaper... just kidding... we’re going to send you a “Boss Aptitude Test” postcard to give to that road-scholar boss of yours, along with a bumper sticker and T-shirt.

--To the waitress or anyone else who has had a boss make such a ludicrous demand. (She was told they would have to pay for parking, because they were "taking space" from customers...despite the fact they are on 50 acres. And that though she took the bus to work she had to pay too, because it's only fair) ASK THEM TO PUT IT IN WRITING....that usually scares them. Say, I understand that I am going to be billed/charged for parking. It is my understand that I will also be billed/charged even though I take the bus. Can you please put that in writing for me. It is always hard for a boss to deny such a reasonable request. And since a request from them for you to do anything, is in a way a policy, why not get it in writing. Usually that will scare them enough, you shouldn't hear anything more on the matter. Especially if the waitresses boss is the owner. He'll be afraid you are fixing to sue him. Just remember to ask them calmly and nicely. If asked why, just say that I want to be sure of the instructions and/or policy and would like a written copy to refer to. Do not at all be insubordinate. You can get fired easily for insubordination, so be polite. And don't be surprise if the matter gets dropped all together.
M.C.I.---these are my real initials too =)