Letters: Horrible bosses and getting rich
Tess Vigeland: Well we’ve addressed your questions, but now let’s get to some your thoughts and comments about the show. Here with me is our bag lady.
Deborah Clark: Hey…
Vigeland: I mean, our mail bag lady, Deb Clark, our senior producer. Hey Deb.
Clark: Hi Tess.
Vigeland: Alright, mail bag lady and boss, I should probably mention.
Clark: Well, yes, that’s only relevant because it relates to a segment we did last week about bad bosses.
Vigeland: Of which I know nothing.
Clark: Hm… That’s good. Let’s just keep moving here, this got a lot of reaction from people. We were talking about horrible bosses, because of the release of the movie of the same name, not one I have seen.
Vigeland: Nor I.
Clark: Well, yes. William Kone of North Olmstead, Ohio wrote in about his own experience with a lousy employer. One day at work he was so sick he nearly passed out. His boss’s thoughtful response?
William Kone: When you finish your shift, you can go to the hospital. He taught me a lot about how not to be a boss. and showed me the best way to deal with a jerk boss — to quit.
Vigeland: Sounds like a great solution.
Clark: Yes, indeed. He did also say, by the way, that he’s had some great bosses over the years and had even been willing to get paid less to stay working for them. So other people who wrote in about this segment made note to the fact that our guest, Alison Green, kept referring to bad bosses as “she.” Tracey Powling from Indianapolis, Ind. that was an unfair association.
Tracey Powling: There are plenty of bad male bosses out there. I recently worked for one who would write me up for his mistakes. What makes it worse, this boss owned the company.
Vigeland: Couldn’t agree more and in fact, I did ask about that during the interview. It ended up on the cutting room floor, but I did point out to Alison that she kept talking about women bosses. And so I asked if there was a difference in how you should deal with a male or female boss.
Green: I don’t know that there’s a dramatic gender difference. I always try to be sort of gender neutral when I’m in the workplace and forget that I’m a woman. Because I don’t want people dealing with me as a woman first.
[Note: Alison Green wrote a follow-up blog post about her use of “she” when referring to bosses]
Vigeland: Yup, amen.
Clark: Amen sister. OK, another item from last week that got much reaction. Ramit Sehti offered his thoughts on how to build up savings.
Vigeland: Yes, he said it’s all fine and good to be frugal… but the only way you’ll truly change your financial situation is to earn more money.
Clark: Yes, find something you’re good at — teach music, or doing a little IT consulting. He says consultants can make a hundred bucks an hour. Leonard Daly, who is an internet consultant from Sherman Oaks, Calif. wrote in to splash a little reality on that suggestion.
Leonard Daly: It would be great if picking up the extra $1000 per month for 20 hours work were easy. If I charged $100+ per hour, I would have very few clients. Most corporations needing IT work want you available during normal business hours, not nights and weekends.
Clark: A couple of other folks wrote in to say that just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you make a good teacher.
Vigeland: Ok, so what else?
Clark: Well, finally, I guess a note of caution.
Vigeland: Uh oh.
Clark: Chris Furner posted on our Facebook page about a recent caller we talked to with Kathy Kristoff of CBS Moneywatch. Kathy mentioned fastweb.com as a good place to find scholarships. Fumer’s wife’s getting a degree in accounting, so they signed up.
Seems that after registering they were inundated with ads and spam messages.
Vigeland: Yikes, sorry about that.
Clark: Yeah, and thanks for the heads up.
Vigeland: Indeed. And keep those coming Go to our Facebook page, you can tweet me @radiotess, and of course, there’s old-fashioned e-mail. Thanks Deb.
Clark: Thank you Tess.
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