Sharing his misery...

A follow up to "Parachute, Anyone???" concerning a different Boss. It's a long one.

So after leaving my old job (see www.bossbitching.com/boss/read/30 for reasons why that was a good idea) I moved to a Silicon Valley startup in Cupertino. The company had three founders. All nice guys but no clue about business, so they hired a CEO. The only problem was that the guy was a nightmare...

And here's some evidence.

The head of tech support, let's call him Marvin, was a natural born worrier. He was in the unenviable position of being married to a very demanding woman who made his life fairly tough. In one staff meeting, he was particularly down because his wife had been on his case about working for a startup. She flat out told him that she would divorce him if he ever got fired or if the company wasn't a big success. It was as he was finishing this bit that the CEO came in. He made some snide remark about growing balls but otherwise said nothing.

The next day, CEO calls Marvin into his office and starts yelling at him about what an awful job he's been doing. He then threatens to fire him (loud enough that we can all hear). He keeps going until the guy is literally shaking and in tears, and then throws him out of his office, telling him (publicly) to get his shit together or be fired.

The very next week, Evil CEO sets Marvin an impossible task (I forget what, but something like re-writing all product documentation within 72 hours) and when he fails to complete the task, he GOES THROUGH THE WHOLE FIRING BS AGAIN!! He did this to Marvin every 7-10 days for the rest of the time I was with the company.

But now for _my_ story. In my previous job, I'd been doing some neogiating with a very large company (lets call them LargeCorp) and had a very good relationship with them. The new company badly wanted a relationship with LargeCorp and that was EvilCEO's number 1 task.

Just after I joined the new company, LargeCorp had a developer event that was held north of San Francisco. Before going to the event, I spoke with the CEO and the founders and offered to make an introduction to a Senior VP at LargeCorp as I had just spent 6 months working on a deal with him at my previous employer.

EvilCEO stated that I had no chance, because _he_ had been trying to reach the guy for months, but I was welcome to try.

First day of the event, Senior VP came to find me. Turns out he heard that I had left my old company and had tasked his assistant with tracking me down. I gave him a one on one demo of the product and he was very impressed. I dutifully passed on EvilCEOs contact details and he promised to follow up.

Day two. I get a call from the OUTRAGED EvilCEO, I don't remember the exact words but it was close to "get your f_cking ass in my office, 9am tomorrow, and we'll discuss your future with the company".

The following day I was supposed to set up and man a tradeshow booth at the developer conference. The office was in Cupertino and I was up in San Rafael, about a 65 mile drive (through San Francisco and the heart of Silicon Valley). So I asked EvilCEO if someone else could come and set up so I could be at the meeting on-time. He tells me no one can be spared and reiterates that I better be "at the f_cking meeting on time".

I find one of the conference organizers and get special permission to get into the exhibit hall early to set up. I start set up at 6am and leave at 7am to drive down to the office. Traffic is hell and I'm driving like an idiot trying to get there on time. I walk in the door literally AT 9am. Other than the receptionist, I'm pretty much the only person in the office.

At 11:45AM EvilCEO finally arrives. Heads straight for his office trying hard to pretend he's not looking to see if I'm at my desk.

He waits 20 minutes and then calls me in to his office.

He launches into a tirade about how I was a loose cannon and "a f_cking liability", grossly incompetent etc etc etc. I'm speechless at this point. So I ask him: "what did I do wrong?". He tells me that he got a call from the VP at LargeCorp who wanted to schedule a meeting. I still wasn't seeing how that was really a bad thing. Then he launches in to a long speech about how I was the worst person in the world to introduce the company to Senior VP. I probably screwed up the demo and he's got a totally bad impression of the product. I single handedly destroyed any chance of a meaningful relationship with LargeCorp by getting a meeting set up.

sigh...

Anyway, he runs out of steam and kicks me out of his office. I am, of course, PISSED.

By now the office is pretty full and they have an idea what's been going on. One of the founders comes to chat. I give him my side of the story "remember when I asked about introducing us to the VP at LargeCorp? I did that. He called EvilCEO and now EvilCEO is pissed at me". He goes to chat with EvilCEO.

The next day, all three founders sit down with me and apologise on behalf of the EvilCEO. They've talked with him and he's promised to improve his behavior. In the meantime, I'm "to be sensitive to his needs and try not to tread on his toes".

I swear, I am a magnet for the crazy ones. I have one more post to make. By now I work for myself (so my boss is an ass, but at least I know what I'm getting into).