Throughout my professional life, I have been many things. I have been a stockboy, an editor, an assistant publisher – and a press secretary. While each job is different – one element seems to be the same – my boss. It appears that in almost every job I have had, my boss has been almost identical – he or she has been intent on making me hate my job and trying everything in his or her power to ruin my career and ensure that my future does not prosper.

Despite the fact that this has – and is happening to me – more than half a dozen times by different people who have never met, I to this day can not figure out why. At every job I have had, I do my job to the best of my ability, I try to help the people I work with in any way they need and I am friendly, cordial and respectful to everyone. Yet, my bosses constantly see me as “the enemy” and attempts to thwart my success both at that job and my future jobs at all costs.

Just so you know I am not making this up, how about a little history:

• I was a stockboy at Pathmark when I was in college. My general manager was a former Drill Instructor – and thought she still was. She made me work seven days a week, made me come in on my days off and even went so far as to throw my lunch away any time she saw me eat it and send me back to work. There was no such thing as sick days, time off and vacation, there was only work – the problem was that someone forgot to tell he that we were at Pathmark – not West Point.

• When I was Editor of the Marketeer, the publisher cared as much about editorial as he did about the people who worked for him, so when it came to my duties as editor, he replaced writing stories and copy editing with delivering circulars and dumping garbage. No matter how much I tried to be an editor, by attempting to attend Brooklyn press functions and make networking contacts – he didn’t care. He even went so far as to pull me out of a press breakfast with the Mayor at Gracie Mansion because he needed his circulars delivered. Not everyone would have stayed at that job – but I did. Why? I came there to be an editor and wanted to try my best to make him see the importance of editorial – but his eyes only saw green. So after putting up with that for a year – I left when I had a better opportunity.

• When I was Editor-in-Chief of The Brooklyn Baron, I was outnumbered three to one. This time, it was the publisher, the vice president and the head of the sales department that wanted me out of the editor’s chair. From secret meetings, to hiring editorial staff without my knowledge – to demoting me from Editor-in-Chief to Co-editor and not telling me until I saw the Staff Box – they tried their best to force me to quit – well, I didn’t, I stayed and tried to make the best of the situation no matter what they threw at me – and they threw a lot. Once again, people in the office saw that what they were doing was wrong – and so did the publisher of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle who offered me a job at double my salary – considering that they wanted me to leave so badly anyway – I gave them what they asked for – but once again I left when I was ready to – not when they wanted.

• My transformation from the Baron to the Eagle may have been a dream come true at first – but my luck of bosses followed me. The editor-in-chief of the Eagle, for lack of a better word – hated me. For whatever reason – to him, I was an inexperienced kid over sixty years his junior who should be in college instead of the assistant publisher of the Eagle. So he decided to make his feelings known to me every chance he got. I would say, “Good morning,” and he would reply, “Don’t talk to me!” I would wish him a good night and he would tell me to go back to college and educate myself. Why he felt this way, I still don’t know – and probably never will. One thing I do know is that he went to the publisher with his feelings and gave him the “he goes or I go” speech. The publisher had a choice – fire the new kid who had been there three months, or lose his editor-in-chief who had been with him for years – the choice was obvious. The only thing I hold against the publisher was not firing me like a gentleman. Instead, I was fired by my friend Rob – who called me at home and told me that when he called the paper and asked for me – he was told I no longer work there. At least a pink slip would have been nice.

• Now, I work at the DOB and have a boss that, unfortunately, is exhibiting the same behavior as my previous bosses. I have a tremendous amount of respect for her and think she is great at what she does – unfortunately – the feeling is not mutual. The good news is that once again my saving grace is that the other people I work with see this person’s behavior and concur with me that what she is doing is wrong.

So here I am, once again in the situation I am all too used to. Believe it or not, there is some good news in all of this. While working for these bosses have been anything but fun – they have been educational. They have taught me tolerance, discipline – and patience – because each time I have encountered a boss like this, I have left that job to go onto bigger and better things – and that boss is still there.