Everything started out great. I felt comfortable and happy to be in my new work environment, but that quickly changed after the boss, Beau began to have his "melt-downs." Now I understand how difficult it is to have your own business. My father has his own business so I grew up around that sort of high-stress environment and I heard my fair-share of "firm talking" when an employee made a mistake. But this guy definitely takes the cake. There were a number of instances when he screamed at employees and flat out verbally abused them. Four letter words were common place in this office whenever he got upset, and that's not to say he didn't have a right to be upset--not that I really know or understand because I was just a content writer so I was always at my desk just typing away. But there certainly has to be a better way of dealing with frustration, disappointment, and anger other than yelling at your employees.
By far the worst experience I had there was the day that someone who owed him money came by and was threatened with bodily harm by Beau. The other man, the one who owed him money, was calmly trying to talk to Beau--again, I have no idea about what, but Beau escalated the confrontation and ended up chasing the man out of the building. The only reason I know about this is because he was yelling. He made sure everyone in the office could hear him and to this day I wonder--I really wonder--if he ever took into consideration that he might have had customers in the store.
I was fortunate enough to avoid ever being yelled at but I think that's just because I kept my head down and did my work without making many waves. But any individual who tried to defend themselves was promptly yelled at, cursed at, and at times--even fired.
It was such a negative environment. Shortly after leaving, I heard that the office manager had resigned after being very badly abused by Beau and I couldn't believe it. This office manager was pure gold! He kept the office running and was incredibly receptive to the needs of customers as well as ensuring that everyone was settled in, doing their job, and working diligently. But after really thinking about it--it made perfect sense.
The work environment in this office is pure poison.
Although, as I said before, I was never the direct object of any of these fits of anger, it really affected the way I worked having to watch my peers being yelled at. I finally decided to leave and I am much happier for it.
