So, I was really excited last year when I landed my first internship at a game company as an artist. It seemed fun at the beginning when I got to do artwork and listen to music all day.  My boss would take us out places and give me lots of random used stuff. Since that time, all my coworkers and our assistants slowly quit and we got all new people one at a time (save one other person). Our 3rd assistant just quit a couple weeks ago and threatened to sue for discrimination (although the first and second assistants would have had much better cases).
   
    Lately I've been feeling so stressed out that I actually feel sick just being at work. My boss totally humiliates me at work and makes me feel like total crap all the time.  She told my coworkers that she thinks my boyfriend is an alcoholic (who she's met like twice) just randomly in conversation. Just last week, after 4 hours in a meeting telling the level designers how upset she is that they are behind schedule, she told all my MALE coworkers how she was going to give me her old bras because she's pregnant and won't need them anymore (Even after I told her that I did not want to wear someone else's underwear, much less my boss!).  After we all told her how inappropriate it was, she came back from lunch and told us that her friends though it was funny how we all cringed during the conversation.  Then, she chewed me out in front of all my coworkers (later that same day) because I told my coworker(something we had talked about before) that it was my turn to get the referral fee (we weren't even arguing about it) from my apartment complex for our new coworker - which has absolutely nothing to do with my boss. She told me that she rewards people that do stuff for her and I shouldn't get it because I didn't jump up and volunteer when she asked someone to talk to the apartment people about it(which would take about 15 minutes if I had a car).  So, apparently I don't have enough "brownie points" to be treated fairly at work? On top of that, I'm still an intern after almost a year of being the main artist (and sometimes the only artist) on the project, and I'm getting paid way less than the people that started after me (also not experienced, some of the assistants were even offered more money than me!). I could go on.

    I cannot tell you how much I HATE my work environment! My coworkers are great, but I can only take so much demoralization from my boss. So, I'm currently looking for something else. Unfortunately, the economy sucks and it's already pretty hard to get a job in the game industry.
   
     Anyone else have any crazy bosses? (I'm sure there are worse ones out there).

I'm guessing she acts that way because you let her.  Some people just get a sick satisfaction of treating people like crap and getting away with it.  If you let her know you won't take it sitting down anymore, she'll probably back off.  And don't be afraid to ask for raises.  I've never heard of anyone getting fired because they asked for more money.  Most bosses will keep paying you as little as possible for as long as possible.

   Hey she treats everyone badly at my work -  and I did stand up for myself about the apartment thing - that's why I got chewed out. It didn't make any difference.  No one wants to stand up to my boss because they don't want her to black list them, when someone says something she just keeps bitching at them. Some of my coworkers even said they were sorry they didn't stand up to her with me. The game industry is pretty small and her husband is John Carmak (the owner of id software), so she definitely knows a few important people.

   I'm just ranting here guys, geez.

   Besides, I don't think it's appropriate to punch a pregnant woman.
   

   

Call Human Resources. Not your company not have Human Resources? If they have any kind of corporate branch, they must have Human Resources. Just compile evidence against her. Take pictures clandestinely. Save any hard copies of bad things she does. Assemble testimonials. Do this in secret! Then arrange a meeting with HR and bring the bitch down. This works! Human Resources doesn't want a shitstorm on their hands, especially if the owner (or district manager or whoever is above your boss) is unaware of her behavior. She sounds awful, so just skip her in the chain of command and bring the roof down on her.

Look into local labour laws. If your company doesn't have an HR department, just get proof of discrimination or harassment and contact your local labour ministry. Poof, she'll be terminated!

edit:

Once, I was standing in line at a Harvey's (which is a burger place, I'm not sure how well known it is) at my ex's university, and someone's order came up. The guy called out the order about ten times, and since the cafeteria was empty save for people in line or people already eating (there were like three people there all really close all with meals already) I told him that I would take it since several minutes had passed by and no one had claimed it. It was a pretty confusing thing to do (since I assume it was already paid for, but I wanted to skip the line and not wait for food and was willing to pay for it), but the guy seemed to be some sort of manager and understand and so I moved to the other area, where I was cashed out. Except... the guy on cash was new, and apparently someone had paid for this (which makes perfect sense) and he wasn't sure if I was supposed to pay for it again or not, since his manager didn't relay any information to him. After perhaps one minute, his manager came over and started yelling at the new guy for very little reason, since the blame fell upon my shoulders for claiming the meal in the first place the manager's shoulders for not making any attempt to rectify the situation. After a few minutes of bitching this new guy out in front of the line, what I assume was the actual manager came out and called (VERY STERNLY) the guy who had been doing all the yelling into the back after telling him (VERY STERNLY) to calm down and stop yelling. I apologized to the new guy and scurried off. Some people are just douchebags who, when given the slightest bit of power, abuse it horribly.

Call Human Resources. Not your company not have Human Resources? If they have any kind of corporate branch, they must have Human Resources. Just compile evidence against her. Take pictures clandestinely. Save any hard copies of bad things she does. Assemble testimonials. Do this in secret! Then arrange a meeting with HR and bring the bitch down. This works! Human Resources doesn't want a shitstorm on their hands, especially if the owner (or district manager or whoever is above your boss) is unaware of her behavior. She sounds awful, so just skip her in the chain of command and bring the roof down on her.

Look into local labour laws. If your company doesn't have an HR department, just get proof of discrimination or harassment and contact your local labour ministry. Poof, she'll be terminated!

She's above the human resources - her husband owns 75% of the company and still does the hard core engine programming for the games. Not to mention he's one of the most well known men in the game industry.  If I was going to do something like that, I'd have to actually sue her in court or something.  It would be pretty easy to get evidence (I certainly thought of a tape recorder), but that would be the end of my career in games (black listed like I said - I mean everyone in the game industry likes her husband - except Germany, I hear he's wanted there for his wolfenstein games).  I also I wouldn't want to cause problems for my coworkers - who could have a hard time finding another job in this economy.

Personally, I don't think she'd really even care.  She buys huge diamonds every year because she doesn't like the millions of dollars her husband spends on rockets. We're just toys to her and I doubt she feels like anyone could beat her in a court battle (like I said, our last assistant threatened her with a lawsuit) See this article about her diamonds: http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/10/anna-kang-talks.html

Anyway, I appreciate the ugly boss stories. Sometimes it's just nice to hear you're not the only one.

I've been cashier at WalMart for almost 2 months now.  Despite what you'd expect, everything about the job has been pretty tight.  I had heard things years ago about abusive management that kind of expected people to work off the clock, but it appears they've done everything possible to prevent this.  They pretty much beat it into out heads that we do NOTHING work-related until we've punched our badge in.  Our cashier rotation is all very organized, I never miss a smoke break.  What really amazed me was that I got called up to the Cust. Service desk today for an "evaluation," just a word from one of the General Managers.  Turns out I gave a customer back a check I should have kept, and cost the store some $150.  She just explained it to me and we filled out this form on the PC, that was it. 

So yeah, my bosses are pretty reasonable, and not so crazy.

This reminds me of a very amusing (tedious) anecdote that I will now go over in detail for no apparent reason.

A few years ago, I managed to land a job at a UPS store (Not to be confused with UPS itself). The joys of minimum wage, back breaking labour, and customer support multitasking all rolled into a bitter "Horrible hours" roll. If my previous, needlessly wordy simile didn't describe it well enough : it was a horrible job. I began it, simply enough going through training... Except through most of the training, my instructor sat in the corner listening to his iPod. He didn't really give a crap, he was leaving for some new job in a week anyway. After barely grasping the basics, he heads off; and its now my time to take the post of the well loved veteran of the store. After a few days, I began to get a decent handle on things but... my boss would be there, breathing over my neck; hanging over my every move, just constantly watching. Every time I stumbled, every mistake I made, I was berated for it. Many times, I was openly mocked in front of customers "I told him how to do that already but he JUST DOESNT LISTEN".

Time would pass, less mistakes would be made, and I would become a trusted but still disrespected employee. Human error would be met with yelling and humiliation. I suppose I'm a bit of a coward, because I still remember the sheer terror that gripped my being as I heard this old, tactless jack ass breathing in back of me watching my every keystroke, my every packaging, my every conversation. The boss' brother would later refer to me as "that idiot" on speaker phone and then presume to smile and shake my hand when we'd occasionally meet in person. One of my coworkers never worked saturdays, even when being directly told to come in, so I would have to be woken up at 6am to come fill in for her, and the boss would do little to reprimand her.

I would return home with only a meager pay check and a sore, exhausted body and mind. It was not a very good time in my life. About 6-7 weeks after I began working, I was told to come in one saturday to MANAGE the store. Had my boss come to trust me this much? Does he actually respect me? No; he wanted to go to some social event, and he couldn't be assed to run the store that saturday. I was to have too inept employees as my underlings that day,

1 - A guy who doesn't see fit to iron his uniform, so every day he came to work looking like a berserk hobo.
2 - The woman who never works saturdays even when told to.

I was in no way qualified to run this store, nor did I even want to go in that day... So I figured it was about time to get even with my tormentor.

I received the keys to the store and the security code. I received some instructions and the day was done. I went home... And slept in.

Every part of my "plan" fell into place that day. Two days prior, the phone number I had given to my employer changed, so he couldn't contact me.

So the store had no manager that saturday, as a matter of fact; I had the only key to the store. The owner had to leave his social event in order to handle the situation that I had created. The store that day lost a great sum of money, and had lost a few regulars to the nearby competing UPS store. I know these things because this was written in a (literally) soiled letter sent to me by the owner's wife, which also made sure to call me a low life with no morals or decency. Well, I suppose I can't argue that.

I mailed him his keys, he mailed me my check and I went about my life.


Now I work a new job, I get praised constantly for my diligence and work ethic, and my hours are much better yet, I still can't shake the feeling that I'm being patronized somehow... Paranoia, or is it justified? Sometimes, I feel like I can't trust my own judgment anymore...

Well, don't make the same mistake I did, take Kaempher's advice and take her down the right way.

how bout you stop being a fucking wimp and deal with her.

My boss is a dick but he doesn't say shit to me or I'd probably try to rip his fucking teeth out just because he's such an annoying douche.

your a fucking tool man


just so you know.