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How do you explain a bad situation with your boss to a potential employer?

Asked by MerMaidBlu (426points) August 15th, 2009

I have been at my current job for almost five months now. I realize that isn’t a very long time and could cause a few questions during an interview with a potential employer. I’m looking for a different job because of the personal dynamics in my office. It’s a family run office that includes a mother (my boss), her daughter (my co-worker) and her daughter’s husband. A father and his son (a different family) works in the office as well. I have worked for family before and understand some of the pros and cons of this type of situation, however, there are many pros about this specific situation that I don’t agree with. Some examples include extra long lunches (an hour longer that the hour we’re already allowed), they don’t have to work NEAR as hard or as much as the non-family members of this company and a tremendous amount of favoritism takes place-if a mistake is made it’s no more than a slap on the wrist and that’s it…non-family gets their heads ripped off and belittled. This also brings me to my next issue…the boss is a “bulldozer”/bully. She seems to be more interested in getting in a confrontation or causing tension among her employees (especially if it’s me…) than actually resolving an issue-she automatically “points the finger” at someone and when things become evident that she’s wrong she changes the subject or comes up with another way to argue her point whether it’s relative to the context or not. To add more to this situation…I used to work with my boss’s husband and on my last week of working with him he gave me a gift bag full of lingerie, pearl earrings and perfume he also asked me to take pictures of me modeling them and send it to him via email. I didn’t do it and told him I wouldn’t say anything if he left me alone…he still has to hold up his end of the bargain and I feel that some of my issues with my boss is coming from the possibility of her knowing about the gift. I also feel like there isn’t any other resolution to this situation other than finding work elsewhere. I don’t want to get into a lot of detail with a potential employer in order to avoid a lot of questions that may divert attention away from my work ethic and potential but I also don’t want to sound like I’m just whining and complaining about a bad situation.

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