Villainous, Saintly Bosses Get Their Due

WASHINGTON — A Philadelphia businessman who asked his secretary to scout for good-looking women at a local pub and then call him on a beeper to tell him of his prospects is a dubious “winner” in a national bosses’ contest.

Other bad and “downright unbelievable” bosses included a New York supervisor who followed female employees to the restroom and stood outside to time them.

A boss at a brokerage firm in Cleveland was awarded a special “boss-felon” award for holding “forgery contests” among secretaries to see who could best forge clients’ signatures on stocks and bonds.

A boss in Gaylord, Minn., “won” for discriminating against pregnant women.

The contest, sponsored by a Cleveland support group for clerical workers called 9to5, National Assn. of Working Women, also honored “good” bosses.

Those included the president of a computer services firm in Birmingham, Ala., for progressive family leave policies; a department chairman at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., for advocating pay raises, and the chairman of Northwest Airlines for making company employees “feel like an asset to the airline.”

A Philadelphia secretary who nominated her boss said she was asked “to go to a ‘beef & beer’ ” to check out women before he entered.

“He told me to beep him if there was anyone good-looking in the bar so he wouldn’t waste his time,” the woman wrote.

Another bad boss was nominated by a state worker in Madison, Wis., whose mother had to be rushed to the hospital. The next day, the worker asked for the afternoon off to visit her.

“Well . . . go ahead. But next time you should plan these things better,” the boss responded.

The manager of an insurance company in Boulder, Colo., also “won” for yelling at a female worker to bring coffee and adding, “You squaw; me chief.”