Better than a Lump of Coal

By LISA GIRION

Jan. 7, 2001 12 AM PT

If you think your boss is a jerk, take heart in the gripes reported by some of the winners of Netscape’s “Office Grinch/Boss from Hell” holiday season contest:

A department store stock boy retrieving a television from a top shelf lost his balance on a stepladder. He dropped the TV so he could grab the shelf and save himself from falling. An assistant manager who had been holding the ladder yelled, “. . . it Tom. If you feel you are about to fall, push the TV back. You’ll heal. The TV won’t.”

An ad man recalled working at an agency that got 23 gift certificates for free turkeys from one of its big accounts, a national grocery chain. The certificates were intended for the 23 employees, but, instead, the boss sent one “free turkey” to each of the agency’s biggest clients. “To rub salt in the wound, he made me create a ridiculously gushing card to go along with his ‘generous’ gift.”

One CEO/president gave three secretaries Victoria’s Secret catalogs and $10 gift certificates one Christmas. “We didn’t know whether to be offended by the material or insulted by the cheap” certificate, reported one of the recipients.

Oh, and for pouring their hearts out, 10 winners received Netscape fleece jackets, a Netscape 6 CD and a lump of coal for their bosses.

All the entries can be found at https://business.netscape.com.

Technology and the Internet

Lisa Girion

As an investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times, Lisa Girion produced many high-impact stories, including an investigation into alleged human rights abuses in Myanmar, which was anthologized in “Global Muckraking” (The New Press, 2014). Her investigation into the health insurance practice of dropping sick patients, known as rescission, was cited in the Affordable Care Act. She earned a bachelor’s degree at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. She left The Times in 2015.

Better than a Lump of Coal

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