My current workplace has a great president and my department head is also amazing.
The president handed me $100 and told me to get a nice bouquet of flowers for my mom who had been just diagnosed with Ekbom. He let me work remote for a week so I could drive out if state to take her to doctor’s appointments.
Recently, I asked again if I could work remote for a month while I help my mom sell her house so she can move closer to me. My department head said absolutely, no questions asked. The president also okayed it.
When I arrived first day on the job, I asked hiw long we took for lunch, and my department head said: take as long as you want. As long as you put in your 8 hours a day and finish your projects, you’re fine.
I love my job. The lack of micromanagement and the trust my employers have in us is worth so much more than I imagined.
I lead a team of about 20 designers and engineers at a custom equipment manufacturing company. I try to do my best to lead by example and not buy ruling with an iron fist. If an employee wants to come in late, that’s fine. If they want to leave early, that’s fine. As long as they’re obviously not trying to abuse the system, who the hell cares? All I ask is that they let me know so I can have a valid reason to tell the owners of the company if anyone asks. As long as projects are getting done on time and under budget and not fucked up when they are ready, everything else is just secondary.
Not my boss but a guy who I’ve hired before and absolutely will hire again and again.
In the middle of a major project one of this guys key people learned his wife had terminal brain cancer. She had months to live, they had young kids. Ryan kept showing up and working until one day he didn’t. Assuming the worst I called the owner of his company and asked if everything was ok.
The owner told me they sent Ryan home until he was ready to come back… which meant until after she had passed and he’d grieved. Full pay and benefits for the guy, they just wanted him to spend the rest of her time together with the whole family. They also started a fundraiser for the kids education, that we tried to help as much as we could. They matched every donation.
Subsequently, I’ve hired this firm again even when they weren’t the cheapest option. I want to work with good people, not necessarily cheap ones. That’s how good people operate imo.
I had a boss at my old job, one time a customer was rude and bitchy to me, so he called her out and told her she’d be banned if she ever disrespected staff again. Another time a Karen really pushed my buttons, and told me to fuck off. So I told her to fuck off right back. She went to my boss to tell him I swore at her, and his response to her was “what did you say or do to him? He’s my employee and I know he wouldn’t have said that unless you antagonized him off the edge”.
He always stood up to rude customers and refused to let anyone, be it a customer or even his bosses talk down to or disrespect us.
My boss knows I sleep inconsistently and lets me improvise all my work time based on when I’m awake. I’m told this is not normal, which is a shame because it implies we take humanity for granted enough to revolve our bureaucracy/system around commonalities that don’t exist. And then we try to throw a drink (coffee) at the problem as if that’s good for us or even does the job well, alertness and wakefulness not being the same thing.
One of my first bosses let me play videogames all day if my work was done. I worked hard when needed and chilled out afterwards. He pushed for awards and raises for me every year.
I once had a bunch of peyote, i told my boss about it and said id need 2 full days off with no chance of being called in. He was fine, found me a good weekend and swore to not call me as long as i gave him some. Cool dude, miss that man.
I was sad because my friend was dying in the hospital. My manager noticed my demeanour and asked what’s wrong. She asked me if I needed to be there, but I said there’s nothing to be done.
Later that day I got a phone call from another friend saying it was the end. I put on my jacket and went to my manager’s office. I didn’t want to, but I started crying. She hugged me, got her jacket, and drove me to the hospital herself. (I didn’t have a car then, I’d planned to take the bus.)
My friend died, and that was the saddest time ever in my life. But I’ll always remember and appreciate the kindness my manager showed me.
A previous employer. I had left so I heard about it later. A new boss had taken over, after the owner sold up. He was originally head of finance, so a beancounter through and through, or so I thought.
The warehouse manager (relatively young) was diagnosed with cancer. Obviously a big deal. He gave a heads up that he would need to take some time off for treatment etc, but would try and minimise it. He was (effectively) told ‘fuck that’. Instead he was only to come in when he wanted too. If he kept working, that’s fine, if they didn’t see him for 2 years, that’s also fine. No pay cut or worrying about his job.
He came in intermittently, as his health allowed. The warehouse mostly ran itself, since he’d done his job well. He had far less stress, and could focus on fighting, and his family. Unfortunately, cancer still won. The boss, (among other things) organised paying his widow over 6 months of his (the manager’s) salary. He couldn’t do much to help with the pain of loss, but he could make sure that financial stress wasn’t added to it.
It turns out bean counters can have a lot more heart than we give them credit for.
My step uncle is one of the most thoughtful and considerate bosses I have ever experienced. It was just him, myself and his best friend Artur doing construction for years after hurricane Sandy. The pay wasn't amazing for any of us but it was how he treated us and the other couple people that would rotate in that really stayed with me.
It's the only place I've ever been encouraged to take the breaks needed when doing grueling, back breaking labor in the blistering heat and freezing cold. I was also encouraged and told to take the time actually needed to complete a task as long as it was done correctly. I honestly only saw us mess up a bare handful of times in the five years I worked for him.
He bought us lunch every day. Normally at some cool local joint he knew in the area we were working in. And lunch was almost always closer to two hours than one. We pretty much would finish lunch then have poop time because we were all on the same schedule.
My work day "started" at 8am. But that just was when I got to his house and he'd be there reading the paper eating breakfast. I was offered anything at the table, always given coffee when I asked. About thirty minutes after I showed up, I'd be asked to go grab Artur from his little studio apartment out back.
I wasn't treated this way because I was family. Anyone that worked with us was treated the same way. Like a human being.
Don't get me wrong. We absolutely busted our asses and did high quality work. And if we had to pour a foundation or something time sensitive, that shit always got done in the time needed.
This is how bosses are supposed to be. Leading from the front lines. Leading by example.
When I had to care for a friend with terminal cancer my boss basically told me to go away and come back when I was ready. Same boss came in one day when I was having a health panic and offered right then to pay for a private doctor. These are just two instances but he is a great boss.
Did a story on /R/talesfromtechsupport back in the day.
I worked as the IT guy for an advertisement company and there was one sales monkey who for the life of her could not walk 5 steps from the printer to fill the paper back up, she would hound me until I did. Well after a few months of trying to show her red light here means more paper is needed she would start complaining to her boss about how the printer is always broken.
Well one day I snapped at her and yelled at her to use her fucking brain.
She filed a hr complaint about me citing the phone call and general inability to keep the printers working.
When the meeting with HR my manager and I was scheduled I insisted on having the sales manager there too.
Both of them went to bat for me against the complaint and at the end of the meeting the complaint was dismissed without merit.
The reason she was to insistent on the printer working was she would print out any email she got, write down the reply on the paper, type up the reply, print her reply, then delete the original email.
Once that was discovered she didn’t last much longer.
I’ve had several great bosses through the years. Ones who considered teaching me and developing my skills/career to be part of their primary job duties instead of feeling threatened. I learned a ton from them.
My current boss is also amazing. I’m a nurse at a hospital that just unionized, and she really puts her job on the line to make sure we have what we need to keep the patients on our unit safe. She’s a lot of the reason I didn’t quit a long time ago.
I worked at a gas station for a while, at the time I was deeply depressed and suicidal. My boss had to deal with me vanishing from being hospitalized over a suicide attempt and he didn't fire me, or reprimand me, he got me a get well soon card, and told me to let him know when I was up to come back.
I eventually left and ended up on disability, but even when I quit he was understanding, wished me the best, and told me if I was ever looking for work again to apply there.
Good fucking guy, really did his best to make our lives easier, and make sure we were doing ok.
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