Not sure what to do...

1. Bad temper....have heard him screaming on the phone through office walls...MF this and MF that...drops F bombs in staff meetings which I can tell make the women on the staff uncomfortable.

2. He fires people without any foresight....we had a guy who prepared year end statements who got on his "list" so he fired that guy in November....now I have to take on the work and I have no earthly idea on how it was done or where he got the info and I'll probably be next if I can't figure it out.

3. Had a friend from his old company steal proprietary info and send it to him so we can see how they price competing products and told us to keep it quiet.

4. Gets defensive if you disagree with him even if your opinion is totally valid.

Although most the time he's totally reasonable....it's like he's manic depressive or something.

Blah....what would you do...?

Might have to...been there 16 years and would have to give up a lot...

Less vacation, less pay...ugh

Meh, everything is negotiable. I negotiated more time off with my current company after they told me that was their "standard" time off policy.

aTm2004 said:

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MickeyFinn said:

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3. Had a friend from his old company steal proprietary info and send it to him so we can see how they price competing products and told us to keep it quiet.

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If this is true and you have proof, go to HR. If they have any ethics, he'll be shown the door, or at the very least, be put on a short leash.

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I don't disagree per se but, depending what form the information came in, it might be very difficult to prove the source.

I have no trouble finding competitive list prices, part numbers and such from Google searches. Especially if you know the part number, you can plug that into Google and it will turn up a State or Federal contract bid, or more frequently, some European reseller who hasn't locked down their site and confidential information that has been shared with them (especially pricing) is readily findable.

The new manager tool could just be talking a good game to try to make himself sound more connected/valuable than he really is.

I can tell you there is nothing public about this excel workbook.

Curious, how big is this company? And what industry?

And how long has this boss been there?

less than 200 but part of a conglomerate with a few thousand employees.

Insurance industry.

Boss has been there almost 2 yrs.

by creating this thread I am assuming his behavior has not been the norm in the prior 14 years.

and is probably not what his leaders want the company to be known for.

1 & 4 just make him a jerk, but 3 and maybe 2 appear to cross lines that may help him find an exit before you.

with a conglomerate of that size and in the insurance industry, there is likely a way to anonymously report those things that approach or cross ethical lines. I'm guessing he didn't forward the competitors .xls too broadly so "anonymous" protection may not be very "anonymous".. but doing nothing doesn't really feel like an option either.

Go to your compliance officer...

I don't disagree, but there is generally a longer leash with cursing versus ethics or proprietary.

Varying for company culture and 'direction' of the hostility. "You're a mf'r" wont be tolerated by most but an occasional f-bomb may slide.

MickeyFinn said:

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Not sure what to do...

1. Bad temper....have heard him screaming on the phone through office walls...MF this and MF that...drops F bombs in staff meetings which I can tell make the women on the staff uncomfortable.

2. He fires people without any foresight....we had a guy who prepared year end statements who got on his "list" so he fired that guy in November....now I have to take on the work and I have no earthly idea on how it was done or where he got the info and I'll probably be next if I can't figure it out.

3. Had a friend from his old company steal proprietary info and send it to him so we can see how they price competing products and told us to keep it quiet.

4. Gets defensive if you disagree with him even if your opinion is totally valid.

Although most the time he's totally reasonable....it's like he's manic depressive or something.

Blah....what would you do...?

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Go to HR and think about interviewing if things don't improve. #2 shows bad judgment, but #3 is horrible. It's one thing to use literature to for a new method to price your products, but to blatantly use another companies process.work product isn't right. If it's not a known method, don't you all have a review process to discuss any changes to pricing methodology? Did it get discussed with them?

I assume you're an actuary and he is too since you're discussing how to price products. He's in violation of Actuarial precept 9 and you have an obligation to report him under precept 13. Report him to the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline.

That's why I would interview first and have something in my back pocket before going to HR.

Richline said:

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That's why I would interview first and have something in my back pocket before going to HR.

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have something in pocket, collect hard evidence of insanity/wrongdoing, blow the whistle, and not have to care about the result.

TAMUallen said:

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Smile, nod, agree and flee.

Apply to as many other jobs as possible so that you leave by your choice not his.

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This right here. Getting a job while employed is a lot easier than when you're out of work. It's a subconscious thing on the part of hiring managers. You'd be surprised how long hiring in this day and age takes. Start now.

Can you anonymously report him to HR? That was your name isn't behind it.

Based on your description, I assume you work for an agency that is part of an aggregator?

Call the Whistleblower hotline and report it.

MickeyFinn said:

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Not sure what to do...

1. Bad temper....have heard him screaming on the phone through office walls...MF this and MF that...drops F bombs in staff meetings which I can tell make the women on the staff uncomfortable.

2. He fires people without any foresight....we had a guy who prepared year end statements who got on his "list" so he fired that guy in November....now I have to take on the work and I have no earthly idea on how it was done or where he got the info and I'll probably be next if I can't figure it out.

3. Had a friend from his old company steal proprietary info and send it to him so we can see how they price competing products and told us to keep it quiet.

4. Gets defensive if you disagree with him even if your opinion is totally valid.

Although most the time he's totally reasonable....it's like he's manic depressive or something.

Blah....what would you do...?

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Start looking for another job. This person is an insecure leader. I work for one just as you described. Except for the stealing information part. In the process of looking now. It has just gotten worse over time. You will be on the list if you are perceived as a potential rival. It has created such a toxic work environment that everyone hates coming to work.

Had a truly certifiable, maniacal boss about 10 years ago. Bad enough to motivate me to go out on my own and take a huge risk with our first (and only) child on the way. Never looked back.

A terrible boss is not something to live with. And as others have said, HR is for the company, by the company. The old boss had multiple complaints, including stressing out one of her other reports to the point she was in the hospital trying to prevent a miscarriage. Issues reported to HR so many times that I met one of the HR managers a few years down the road, mentioned the company I worked for, who I worked for, and she was very familiar with the person.

So get your resume in order and get a backup plan in place. Maybe during that time the boss spins out of control one day and you can stand down and hope new boss is better.

TMoney2007 said:

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You should call the company that he stole the company secret from. Maybe they'll have a supervisor position open soon.

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If you can pass that information on to the company the information was stolen from without outing yourself, it might be the solution to your problem.

Price and customer lists are real, actual trade secrets that companies protect. If your boss really stole this type of information, your current company will get sued and it will be expensive. Current company will give the person that caused the massive spike in legal spend the heave-ho pretty quickly.

Wish that could be me. Assertive leadership.

AustinAg008 said:

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Call the Whistleblower hotline and report it.

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This. If your company has a few thousand employees surely they have a hotline to report anonymously.