And the award for Worst Employer of 2018 goes to …
Sure, no one’s boss is perfect, and complaining about a manager’s incompetence has always been an employee’s favorite pastime.
But some bosses set themselves apart from all the rest in their horribleness.
And to properly honor those managers that really go the extra mile, employment law attorney Jon Hyman, author of Ohio Employer Law Blog, nominated the worst employers of 2018, and voters helped him crown a winner.
The nominees are …
Before getting to the worst of the worst, here’s a recap of everyone in the running.
(Remember: It’s an honor just to be nominated)
- The Murderous Manager: A convenience store owner from Solon, OH, Bruce Arnoff, hired a handyman, Willie Fisher, to do some work for him. Arnoff was not pleased with Fisher’s work ethic, so to motivate him to work a little harder, Arnoff hired two men to threaten and harm Fisher. Something went terribly wrong, however, and the hired men ended up shooting and killing Fisher.
- The Sexist, Racist Xenophobe: Ithaca, NY-based manufacturing company Porous Materials got into some trouble with the EEOC due to a plant manager who didn’t discriminate with who he discriminated against. The manager’s tirades included racial slurs toward African-American employees, calling foreign-born employees terrorists and sexually harassing female employees as well as insulting their intelligence.
- The White Supremacist: A supervisor from a moving company in Phoenix, AZ, is facing a particularly shocking hostile work environment claim from an African-American employee. Some of the behavior the employee alleges includes the manager using racial slurs, beginning meetings with the Nazi salute and saying “white power” and telling the employee to get out because they were having a “Klan meeting.”
- The Boss with the Taser: Jason Cox, a car salesman from Marietta Motors in West Virginia, is suing the owner for constant verbal and physical abuse. Travis Westfall allegedly had a handgun at work and would often point it at Cox, telling him not to move. At one point, Westfall held a knife to Cox’s throat and tased him on multiple occasions.
And the winner is …
While these nominees are all spectacularly bad, there can only be one winner. And, by a landslide (with 62% of the vote), the winner is …
The Murderous Manager! Unsurprisingly, actually killing an employee is worse than just verbal abuse or torture.
Your own boss probably isn’t looking so bad now.
