If You Think Your Boss Is a Stinker, Read On

A partner in a Cleveland brokerage firm who held “forgery contests” among secretaries to see who could best trace clients’ signatures on stocks and bonds is a “bad boss” winner in a national contest.

Other dubious “winners” in a contest titled “The Good, the Bad and the Downright Unbelievable” included 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.

A New York supervisor who followed female employees to the restroom and stood outside to time them was also cited.

So was the manager of an insurance company in Boulder, Colo., who yelled at a female worker to bring coffee and added, “You squaw; me chief.”

The contest, sponsored by a Cleveland support group for clerical workers called 9 to 5, National Assn. of Working Women, also honored “good” bosses.

Those included the president of a computer services company 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.”

Identities of the unbelievable and bad bosses were not released.

“Common themes emerged in both the good and bad boss stories,” said Ellen Bravo, associate director of 9 to 5. “People want to be appreciated and to be treated like human beings--not like machines or peons. And businesses that show regard for their employees inspire loyalty and prosper as a result.”

Judges who reviewed hundreds of entries submitted by office workers nationwide included Rep. Patricia Schroeder, (D-Colo.); Washington Post columnist Bob Levey, and Roberta McKay, who heads the Labor Department’s women’s bureau.