by Mike Hall, Aug 19, 2008

An ambulance company owner who forced a dispatcher to ride in a decrepit ambulance is not only a bad boss, today’s he’s been named the biggest loser of the workplace by online voters in Working America’s third annual My Bad Boss Contest. “Thunderstruck” from Illinois, who submitted this story, experienced a frightening incident of an infant choking, made worse by his co-worker’s lack of training.

Thunderstruck not only went on to a more rewarding job—a victory in itself—but, as the contest’s Grand Prize winner, gets a well-deserved vacation with a week’s free stay at a condo in one of more than 50 countries, plus $1,000 to put toward airfare and other expenses.

Online voters selecting this year’s worst boss had a tough choice: More than 600 workers sent in their stories describing mean bosses, drunk bosses, authoritarian bosses, sexist bosses, stupid bosses and just plain jerks.

Says Working America Executive Director Karen Nussbaum:

The stories submitted this year show that many workers have difficult bosses. The contest is a fun way to vent but also reminds us that many employees are stuck working for bad bosses because they have few available options in today’s economy.

A look at what Thunderstruck went through shows you why this boss took the “Bad Boss” title.

Thunderstruck was hired for a “dispatch” position but often was forced to ride in a dilapidated ambulance and sometimes paired with ex-cons and an employee with a reputation for divulging extremely personal details of her marital life. This employee was then fired by the boss’ sister for an incident that “took place months prior.”

The prize for the “Most Outrageous” bad boss—selected by the Working America staff who have seen a boatload of despicable and disgusting bosses in this and two previous Bad Boss contests—goes to Joan from Kansas. Her boss asked her to arrange for a company trip to a Major League Baseball game. But when Mother Nature rained out the game, Joan’s boss demoted her from office manager to assistant manager and cut her pay because, writes Joan:

My boss informed me that I had picked that particular date because I knew it would rain!

Joan also gets a week’s getaway at condo in one of 50 countries and $500 for airfare or other expenses.

Six people took runner-up prize packages that include earplugs to tune out the boss’s yelling and a rear-view mirror—the perfect cubicle companion so you can always see the boss coming. The goodie bag also comes with the “Very Best of Aretha Franklin” CD so they can get something from Aretha they never received from the boss: R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

For an equally frightening look at what millions of workers are forced to put up with, click here for a survey conducted for Working America that estimates some 15 million U.S. workers are dealing with bad bosses every day.

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