My boss is a very frustrating person to work for.

[Skalm]

This is a bit of a rant.

I work for Facilities for a University, graveyard crew, as a leadworker. My section's crew has the supervisor, three leads including myself, and 20 grunts.

My boss is lazy, petty, short-sighted, and generally not qualified to do his job. He was hired on the recommendation of another department on campus he was working for, which we later found out was because he was on the verge of getting fired there and transferring/promoting someone is easier than firing them.

Anytime we're down people and the leads have to float buildings, bossman has mysteriously gotten some back/neck injury that means he can't help, he has to stay in his office and write e-mails. He's never helped with frontline work.

Anytime anybody takes a break from working hard, outside of the sanctioned two 15-minute and half hour lunch breaks, he will breathe down their necks and scold them for wasting company time, then go back to his office and listen to music for an hour.

If you defy him on any of his insane proposals (like resurfacing 3500 sq ft of floor finish in two days [it takes four at least, not counting the day a week later for a burnish and final coat]), you get 1s (on a 0-3 scale) on your evaluation, regardless of how good you are at your job.

If he makes a mistake, he makes it your mistake, making it required for the leads to get everything from him in writing so we can defend ourselves when he takes it to his boss.

Personally, I can handle the shenanigans, I'm only here for a few more months until I finish my morning classes. But I'm concerned and annoyed because whenever the boss doesn't do his work, it means more work for the other two leads, who are careers and will stay at this job until they retire or die. One is prone to seizures when overstressed, which happens often these days, and the other is recovering from cancer (in remission six months ago). All us leads have good work ethics, which means that we're pushing ourselves to our limits every night to keep the place in good shape, but I know that it's taking a toll on the others. The joke going around day and swing shift is that the leads run the show here, and they aren't wrong.

Honestly, if he just left, productivity would go up. Nobody on the crew likes or respects him, he slows people down when he's roaming around trying to talk to people because he's bored and wants to micromanage, he can't do the e-mails to the building coordinators right, causes legal problems for the University, doesn't document poor performers properly (so they never get fired/disciplined properly and it drags down the good performers too), and can't do paperwork like supply orders and responding to service requests. But he won't ever get fired, because it's a state job and that's difficult enough to get fired from, but also because his boss works swing and doesn't bother to come around to see this in action, and the boss's boss's boss is sympathetic and willing to work with the leads to get boss out, but is leaving in a few weeks, which isn't enough time to build a case.

What I predict is that when any one of the leads leave, me or the others, there will be a chain reaction of the high performing workers transferring or quitting until all that bossman is left with are the dregs, and I don't want to be there for that.

[former player]

Document everything he does which is either 1) contrary to his terms of employment (does it say anything about frontline work?  If so document all requests for him to do this and whether he does them) or 2) demonstrates failure to understand the requirements of the job (eg time required for refinishing, paperwork failures).  Encourage others to document everything too.

Encourage your fellow leads to practice good self care.  As you work for a University, are the university health/counselling facilities available to you?

Anytime he asks for something that will put extra pressure on his teams (including the micromanaging) tell him how much longer it will take and ask for him to authorise the overtime.

Have a good look at your University's employment policies.  If you can move any of your bosses' behaviours into the gross misconduct category that would get him instantly dismissed, do so.  Bullying? Harassment?  Swearing?  Sexism/racism? Petty theft?  Dishonesty in his records?  All fair game, and someone as crap at their job as that will slip up on something serious sooner or later.

Make sure the boss who is leaving in a few weeks has all the documentation up to his date of leaving and has it filed for his successor.  Then carry on documenting for his successor.

I've worked for two bosses like yours.  The first time I moved on.  The second time I had learnt well enough to get the boss moved on instead.

[Skalm]

Document everything he does which is either 1) contrary to his terms of employment (does it say anything about frontline work?  If so document all requests for him to do this and whether he does them) or 2) demonstrates failure to understand the requirements of the job (eg time required for refinishing, paperwork failures).  Encourage others to document everything too.

His job description does include front line work, his boss altered that to only apply when we are 4+ people down, but usually when we have that many people out, he's "so behind on paperwork that I can't help."
I like the idea of documenting, but if we document to his boss, his boss will rat us out in a second, which means retaliation in the form of bad reviews. If we document to HR, that might be safer but if it comes out before any big action is taken, the retaliation would happen again.

Encourage your fellow leads to practice good self care.  As you work for a University, are the university health/counselling facilities available to you?

Yes, but both have issues that require outpatient stuff that the University health center can't handle (one has siezures and the other's cancer is in remission). The insurance does cover it all, which is great, and I try to take the hardest stuff off them when they're having a bad night.

Anytime he asks for something that will put extra pressure on his teams (including the micromanaging) tell him how much longer it will take and ask for him to authorise the overtime.

No overtime is allowed for routine stuff. We were told by the director that we can't be everywhere at once and to just do our best and he'd handle it if there were complaints, but then the supervisor countermanded that by having a fit every time we got a complaint. We've learned how to navigate away from those though, mostly.

Have a good look at your University's employment policies.  If you can move any of your bosses' behaviours into the gross misconduct category that would get him instantly dismissed, do so.  Bullying? Harassment?  Swearing?  Sexism/racism? Petty theft?  Dishonesty in his records?  All fair game, and someone as crap at their job as that will slip up on something serious sooner or later.

     This is the baffling part, nothing seems to happen disciplinary speaking. One employee sexually harassed to two other employees, multiple times, and they just moved him to not be in contact with them or any other females. One employee has been caught multiple times sleeping on the job and he's still here. Another has been caught multiple times stealing money from a machine and still has the key for it and nothing happened.
     The supervisor is openly homophobic (two of the night security ladies are dating and they just refuse to come near him), racist (he's barred from going into an area where a couple from Albania work because of past issues, and makes veiled remarks against African Americans), and lies in evals (he rarely comes around or works with someone long enough to get a feel for their work quality, so he just bases them off how much they suck up).
     On the plus side of nothing happening with discipline, one of the leads gave the supervisor the finger when we were doing some intensive work and supervisor was standing around watching us and trying to tell us how he would do it.

Make sure the boss who is leaving in a few weeks has all the documentation up to his date of leaving and has it filed for his successor.  Then carry on documenting for his successor.

This is probably the best avenue I could hope for is that a new manager (so it goes worker -> lead -> supervisor -> assistant manager -> manager -> director) started last week and seems to be more involved than previous managers. We'll have to feel out how he handles all of this though.

I've worked for two bosses like yours.  The first time I moved on.  The second time I had learnt well enough to get the boss moved on instead.

I fear this is going to be my best option. I finish a class in August that will allow me to move to a different field, or at least free the time slot to try to transfer to another job in the company.

I'm sorry if i sound defeatist, it's just that the other leads have kind of resigned themselves to working under this fussy man until one of them retires first, and the upper management doesn't seem very involved.

[Sibley]

Honestly, sometimes the best way to handle things is to find a new job. Hope you can get into a better situation soon.