100 Worst Bosses

So, I have been a wee bit neglectful of this dear old blog lately. This is not due to a lack of wanting to blog, but from an I've been spending way too much time at work lately and the last thing I want to do is get on the computer when I get home kind of thing. Work is going well, and I actually just had two people moved onto my team and had my role expanded, which I'm excited about, but I've been a little stressed as a result.

Also, we have a huge campaign that I'm managing at work right now and I've been frantically trying to answer phone calls and e-mails about it all day while trying to actually do the work of planning and implementing the thing! As part of the campaign, we're having a simulcast that will have over 230 event sites participating throughout the U.S. and Canada on May 5. I'm planning the content and marketing of the event, which could have 14,000 attendees. So I'm going a bit crazy at work right now.

This does have something to do with a book, and I'm getting to that. Last year, best-selling author Jim Stovall contacted my company to partner with him in writing his next book. Jim wrote The Ultimate Gift, which was made into a movie starring James Gardner and Abigail Breslin. He was working on a book called 100 Worst Bosses and wanted to work with my company to gather stories for the book. (Not because we have a lot of bad bosses at my company. :) I work for a staffing company, and we put over 350,000 people to work each year, so we have a lot of people to ask for stories about bad bosses they've had over the years.) So last year I led a campaign to collect those stories, and then we ended up with the book this year. And I got to be the ghostwriter on the foreword of the book for our CEO, which is fun. Jim will be speaking as part of the simulcast, and the whole thing is centered around some of the content of the book.

You can check out our website for the campaign at MyLeadershipInstinct.com. There are some really funny videos we created as part of the campaign that you can view on the site, and a quiz to determine your leadership instinct. Two of the videos will air on Fox News, CNN, CBC News (in Canada), Comedy Central (during the Daily Show), and Fox (during Fox News Sunday)! It's kind of crazy that I came up with an idea that's going to end up airing on national television.

So you can see why I'm a bit behind on my blogging. And why I'm not quite on track with my reading goals for the year. I'm hoping to catch up on blogging this weekend since I have finished several good books recently and to catch up on my reading during the 24-hour readathon, although I don't plan on reading the full 24 hours. I get real grumpy if I don't get enough sleep.



As for the 100 Worst Bosses, even if business books aren't your thing, it's a really great book. The stories are horrifying! You will be thankful for your boss after reading it. Unless your boss has ever thrown a stapler at you or pulled a gun on you. Or is completely wasted by noon every day. Then you might just get a little motivation to leave already! And if you've ever had a bad co-worker or employee, you can submit your story to WorstEmployees.com and get a chance to see your story in his next book and win an autographed book! And if you want more of an actual book review of the 100 Worst Bosses, you can check out the blog post on my company's leadership blog.

Oh, and for any Office fans out there, we got Andy Buckley, who plays David Wallace, Michael's ex-boss, to emcee our event! I have his cell phone number! And no you cannot have it. :) Isn't that crazy? I'm going to have to actually buck up and watch the show before the event since I'll meet him.