I don’t care what line of work you’re in, if you’ve had a few jobs in your life you’ve come across some weird types. I quit one of my first “real jobs” because I couldn’t take the office politics. It was in the claims office of an insurance company, and someone thought it would be a great idea to hire a bunch of new college graduates as trainees. I wasn’t that far out of college myself, but I had a couple of years of experience under my belt, and those trainees hated me for it. The genius that hired them promised all sorts of advancement opportunities and those new grads were out for blood. They saw me as someone standing in their way of advancement. I don’t know whatever happened to them. Even though it’s pretty easy where I live to keep track of people in the industry, I don’t know what happened to any of them. I suppose they were promoted and transferred out of state.

A few years and two jobs later I was at another insurance company. I still have some good friends I met there, but we had this nasty, crazy boss. It was a workers’ compensation claims office and this guy only knew liability. For those of you who aren’t in the insurance business, comp and liability are completely different. The laws are different, the way claims are settled is different, everything is different. Well, try telling that to the boss. He would instruct me, and other adjusters, to do things that were technically illegal, and nobody with any workers comp experience would ever even think about doing what he suggested, unless one wanted to commit career suicide. So I would try to tactfully point out why his way wasn’t possible. You would have thought I killed his kitten. He made sure he punished me for my knowledge at every staff meeting, and pretty much any time he came in contact with me. Even though I was the most senior person on his staff he went out of his way to make my life miserable. The thing is, he could have learned from me, but he saw me as a threat. I ended up finding a much better job that I enjoyed for almost eleven years. I worked from home. The office politics were hundreds of miles away and just background noise. I would probably still have that dream job today if the company wasn’t sold. But that’s not the point of this post.

The point is, there are crazy people in every industry. They’re like little Hitlers, these narcissists who think their only way to the top is by stepping on the people they perceive as being in their way. I heard that the boss from hell was promoted not long before the office he was running was closed. So their evil, crazy ways work for them because upper management doesn’t know what is going on in the field. It happens all the time, no matter where you work. Just look at what happened to Dana Loesch at Breibart. Andrew is gone, so he has no say in who has taken over his business or how the employees are treated.

Unfortunately, in this Obama economy, it isn’t so easy to move from job to job when one is subjected to the crazy bosses. I guess all you can do is put your head down and do the work. If they try to get you to violate your conscience or laws that apply to whatever it is you do, just say no. If they make an issue of it you can make your case to the powers that be. If your side isn’t heard, you might have to take the route Loesch took and sue.

People are crazy, and sometimes you have to work with the crazies, or worse yet, for them. But beer is good, and God is great. So there’s that. Oh, and if you’re in a work environment with a crazy boss you could always get them all liquored up at happy hour and then tape them with your phone. Crazy people don’t like that too much, but hey, you do what you have to do.

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As a side note, when I read the latest at The Other McCain I thought of this song, more than seven hundred words later I’m finally posting it. I really like the song, and I don’t like crazy bosses. Maybe I’m crazy, too. Then again, aren’t we all?

Update: Linked by Daily Pundit – thanks!