The last few weeks in August are popular for vacations. People try to enjoy a few more days of summer weather or take time off to get families ready for back to school. With that in mind, it seems like the perfect time to feature a bit lighter post on almost everyone’s favorite topics: wacky boss behavior.

Now don’t get us wrong: We love bosses, and in fact, we’ve held managerial roles ourselves. But it’s just a law of human nature for people to gripe, whine, complain, joke and exchange stories about authority figures – and who better than the ones we interact with every day? Talking about our bosses seems to be one of America’s favorite pastimes.

With that in mind, we bring you this gem:

“If ever you find yourself doubting your competence as a manager and need a pick me up, just say to yourself, “At least I’ve never asked an employee to shave my back,” which isn’t something everyone in the world can say, according to a new survey from CareerBuilder.”

Based on a survey of 3,000 workers, CareerBuilder compiled an amusing list of the Most Unusual Boss Requests, noting that while their list may represent extreme examples, 21% of the survey respondents reported having had a boss who asked them to do things unrelated to their jobs.

Despite these findings, the survey found that 62% of responding employees would give their bosses an “A” or “B” for performance. Only 10% would give their bosses a “D,” and only 6% percent would fail them.

Here’s a fun follow-up game: spot the potential lawsuits in that list, whee!

Wacky boss behavior might be amusing, but the reality is that one employee’s amusing story is another employee’s basis for litigation.

If you enjoy stories about bad bosses, be sure to check out our Bad Boss Hall of Fame. We hadn’t made a new entry in some time – we’ll try to do better. The posts are a testament to the importance of training! There’s a lot of good advice from the “what not to do” school of management, but we prefer a more positive approach.

More on bosses

 

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