Today my
boss went a little
bonkers. We were having a
team meeting and he talked about a
request he had -- one that he and his boss
thought would be
neat. He started talking about this
idea, and immediately...
three (out of five) of us snickered
Not a lot, mind you, just a quick, reflexive laugh. Because his idea was so stupid and impossible as to be funny.
Now to understand, mine is a small company with a lot of very smart people in it...and a lot of openness about ideas...but people are frank about what they think. So we weren't guarding our reactions, the laughs just slipped out. But my boss kinda freaked...I don't remember if it was just a raised voice or a yell, but he made it clear that he was hurt, then angry.
I tried to apologize or make some excuse...he would not hear of this, and started raising his voice again, whereupon the most senior team member got up to leave. He said he wasn't going to sit and listen to arguments like this...then my boss said You don't have the option to leave. Well my senior co-worker has been around longer at the company than the rest of the team combined, and he figured that he had the right to leave in the middle of a silly outburst.
Anyhow, both me and the senior member tried to apologize, but my boss would still have nothing to do with this. He yelled at someone yesterday also, and ours is not a company where people go around yelling.
Fortunately, I do not depend on my boss for anything, including supervision, review, raises, or job security. He, however, depends on us for knowledge of what is going on and what should go on.
Still, a crappy situation.