What personality trait is this?

[BarryBobPosthole]

I've only run across is a few times in my career. The trait I'm talking about is the need, the downright compunction, the drive to never find anything anyone does as 100% satisfactory? I work for someone like this right now. I've always tried to understand who and what I work for, but this is one of those things I can't get used to. Send him a powerpoint slide and its a 100% guarantee that he'll change something on it. Give an answer to a question and he'll amend the answer just a little bit. He's gotta pee on every single thing. He never complains, is a very positive guy, but this little habit drives me absolutely crazy. I mean, I'm all for constructive criticism. But this is like passive aggressive shit that I don't understand.

I was talking to Keith yesterday about retirement. He just got laid off recently and has decided he can actually retire if he wants to. Actually he seems headed in that direction. This deal here has got me about to the point I'm ready to go earlier than I thought myownself.

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

My first Boss. I retained my sanity by making one very obvious and correctible error near the beginning of everything I sent her. Once she found it, she'd be happy and leave the rest of it alone.

[Big Muddy]

Down here, we call that the "little prick" syndrome.
He feels the need to prove he's better than everyone else, when actually he's just a prick, with a little prick. ;)

[Trav]

I know what you mean I had one of those

[Buckrub]

Control issue.

I have a 10 y/o with a very similar issue. His stems from never having anyone in his life to trust that would look out for his BEST interests, so he developed a system where HE made HIS decisions about anything having to do with HIMSELF, and trusts no one to do that for him. Thus, if you suggest he eat, he immediately and instantly says "Actually, I ate yesterday". Makes no sense, but it leaves him in control.

It seems the same is true of such folks.

It's one reason I never cared for management. I heard "You are Empowered" and I was not, I was "Emasculated" 100%. No one trusted me 100% to do it right, even when I knew more than they did about it. They just can't buy into not being Top Dog.

Trust me. Retire right now. Today. This afternoon.

Sell that big house, live in a travel trailer, kick out the kids, and smile real big. Next year you'll be driving over to hug my neck. Trust me.

[Buckrub]

Oh, I meant to ask........

is he an Oldest Child??

[LJ3]

Bucky's grandson notwithstanding - It's called being a friggin' insecure dick. In fact, I just got laid off by one :)

I don't attribute it to control issues directly. I think it's a self image problem where a person can't conceive that something could be 100% correct without some sort of input from them. Sort of a self aggrandizing caused by any number of things in their formative years. To those being corrected it can look like condescension or any number of unpleasant traits. I see it as weak and pathetic but admittedly, I have my own issues and biases in this regard :

[Buckrub]

I go overboard in the other direction, I'm told. I readily admit I'm a screwup and a failure and I don't care. I don't NEED to be great at anything. I'm comfortable in my own skin, but silently..........outwardly, I am a Big Nothing, and I don't mind YOU being Top Dog. (But you better be good at what you do, or I'll notice and be done with you shortly!!!). Thus, these Great At Everything And I Can Help You Fix Everything guys, just turn me off. There's not one trait that I despise more than empty egotism.

I still say, Retire, Dude.

[LJ3]

Bucky could be on to something :)

[Sunshine]

If he's going to continue being this way, then make a personal game out of it and put something tiny wrong in it!!
He'll correct it, to the way you think it should be and you are the winner. :D
He wants to play a control game, step up to the plate and take control of the game!!

[Sunshine]

Bucky my response to your grandson and his " I ate yesterday" would have been....
Well that's good!! Now I don't have to worry you are going to starve!!
Then I would have turned around and walked away.
Maybe he needs to go without a few meals and that crap will end.

[quercus alba]

you'd be amazed what a good power slam on the conference table will do for an anal boss's attitude

[Buckrub]

I had a boss throw food at me (a salad, nonetheless), and I should have quit on the spot, and hired a lawyer. But I was scared to.

I ain't scared no' mo'. I'll quit in an INSTANT any more!! I'm a tough hombre now.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I don't play games at work. Sorry, I just don't think its the thing to do. I've known a bunch who do and its just not my bag. What I do try to do though is understand what people 'needs' are. My boss before last was a data person and only felt comfortable with a lot of information to feel secure. Easy enough. I gave her data and she left me alone. My last boss totally trusted me to run my business and I heard from her about once a month. She was happiest working on her shit and didn't wantto be bothered with mine. A match made in heaven. Now I'm in a PMO group full of PMO people who don't do jack doodly shit, and they don't know jack doodly shit and they don't accomplish jack doodly shit. Their idea of a work product is a powerpoint presentation. My boss's boss spent four days before I left for vacation stressing over one slide.
So part of the problem is me. I probably could never do as pretty a slide as my boss. Don't care to either.

Good advice Bucky. Just need another year.

BKB

[Niner]

So....exactly how many phones does a powerpoint slide sell????

I guess prolly about ZERO??

Is there a "larger picture" these folks aren't seeing?

[HideHunter]

I've been fortunate not to have to deal with "bosses" much in my various careers - but I do wonder if it's the same trait that does not allow someone to hear something "nice" said about someone else. I hear it a lot but I have one friend who's really bad about it. If I were to say 'That Posthole is a hell of a fisherman" he'd say "Well, yeah, but he has a friend in Florida who wears pink pants". WTF? I just like to say something nice about someone once in awhile.

Aw, maybe it isn't. It just kind of sounded the same when it popped in my head. ;)

[Thumper]

Am I the only one here who saw the humor in post # 3 & 4?

Big Muddy,


Down here, we call that the "little prick" syndrome ... he's just a prick, with a little prick.

Followed immediately by Trav with;


I know what you mean I had one of those

Ha! I spit iced tea all over my keyboard! :lmao

[Buckrub]

You NEED to not die.

I almost did.

You NEED to listen to me, as dumb and stupid as I am. OK?

That's what your redheaded butt needs.

[Thumper]

Hey! Retirement for me was waaaay down the road, but I was "forced" into it early ... basically overnight. I had visions of losing my cars, my house and having to move in with family. BUT ... we re-arranged our lifestyle a bit, made some "adjustments" here and there and somehow we pulled through just fine. And that is with ZERO, NADA, ZILCH in the way of retirement plans, savings or investment portfolios. We still have our cars (just traded Lynn's for a new one) and are now back to a semi-normal lifestyle ... even taking vacations. In fact, we're leaving again next Thursday for another week long trip (actually 10 days) for a bit of R&R. You can do it if you just put your mind to it. I wouldn't have believed it ... but I'm living it. I just wish I weren't as physically limited as I am right now. There are things I'd like to do but simply can't physically do ... for right now that is, but that will change.

[Chicken Dinner]

Maybe "lucky" isn't the right word as it didn't happen by accident, but I've spent the last 20 years working for two of the best bosses I could ever imagine. They give clear direction on priorties, trust me to do my job and inform them of issues at the appropriate time and get the hell out of my way. It's almost a running joke with my current boss, but I spend about half my annual review making sure he's okay so that I don't have to start looking around for something else.

[BarryBobPosthole]

That's the way it ought to be, Hank. I've had about seven bosses in the last seven years. The corporate culture here is of constant reorganization, at least at that level. The underlying belief is that you can actually solve problems by changing who the director and VP is. Nothing changes below that level so no real change ever happens. Its the strangest thing I've ever seen in 35 years of working in this business. Bucky, I guess the ILECs were as screwed up as we always thought they were. One of the big downsides to changing bosses that often is when you get a good one, you lose them. But then again, when you get a bad one, its easier to survive them. My current boss isn't a bad one, by the way. He's a good guy, easy to get along with, and at least used to leave me alone.

BKB

[Buckrub]

Maybe he is getting pressure that you don't know about.

Buddy, when people ask me what I did for a living, I have to stop and think..........it's growing dimmer by the day. That new avatar picture is what I do for a living.

Work is not your life. Work is how you finance your life.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Oh, he is getting pressure and its pressure I know about. The pressure is that every is trying to manage their boss and appear like they're really on top of a bunch of stuff that nobody, and I mean nobody really is on top of. Except for me anyway. And therein lies the problem.

BKB

[LJ3]

BBP, Have you considered bringing your shit up a notch or two? Perhaps if you stop phoning it in every day your boss wouldn't have to correct you so frequently.

Maybe if you got the ear of the CEO and said what you just said, you'd be the telecom version of Joe the Plumber :)

[BarryBobPosthole]

HA! Then somebody might actually put me to work, Len! and I actually like our CEO. He ain't the problem. But anyway, it ain't my responsibility to fix it either.
I'm just bitchin'. I guess McGill used to bitch enough for both of us. Now that he's gone I'm just holding up my end finally!

BKB

[Buckrub]

You ain't but a skip and a jump from the dang CEO anyway. Go buy him a beer.

THEN retire.

[BarryBobPosthole]

Looks like I'm going to end up paying my oldest daughter's college loans even though I swore I'd never do it. I got roped into it via co-signing and since my credit score is in her hands, I prefer to just buckle down and pay them off myself and give her the heave ho. That's the only reason I need another year of work and its the only reason my wife is working right now. Adult children are a royal pain in the butt.

BKB

[Buckrub]

Son, you have NO IDEA. NONE. Well, some. But not enough.

And working won't solve that problem. If you think it does, I challenge you to come here and publicly tell me outloud in FIVE YEARS how it helped that situation for you two to work one more year.

[LJ3]

He can't Bucky, he's too busy fucking up his powerpoint slide decks :)

[BarryBobPosthole]

If I were a superhero, I'd be Generic Man, and my cape would have a bar code on it.
Nuttin' fancy here.
BKB

[Buckrub]

Would you get a haircut?

[BarryBobPosthole]

No.

BKB

[Buckrub]

I was going to buy the cape.

But nevermind now.

[LJ3]

I'll stop fuckin with ya now, BBP. It was kind of you to not take a swing at the unemployed dufus. Speaks to your character!

[Buckrub]

Thought you had a hard nibble????

(No, Thump, I didn't say nipple.....go back to sleep)