Watercooler Stories

Poll shows lots of bad bosses out there

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Having an abusive boss is behind more people changing jobs than unhappiness with pay, a Florida State University study published Tuesday said.

Some 700 workers in an array of jobs responded to the survey on relationships with their bosses conducted by Wayne Hochwarter, an associate professor of management in FSU's College of Business, and two graduate students.

"They say that employees don't leave their job or company, they leave their boss. We wanted to see if this is true," said Hochwarter.

The top grievance came from 39 percent of respondents who said their supervisor failed to keep promises, followed by 37 percent who said their bosses failed to give credit when due. Infuriating to 31 percent of respondents was getting "the silent treatment" from a supervisor in the last year, the study found.

The study said workers unhappy with their bosses were less likely to take on additional tasks, and "were more likely to leave if involved in an abusive relationship than if dissatisfied with pay."

The study will be published in an upcoming issue of The Leadership Quarterly journal.

Woman fined for feeding birds

NEW YORK, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- A New York woman said she received a ticket with a hefty fine from two police officers who confronted her while she fed birds.

Yvette Bavier, a 60-year-old special-education administrator, said the female officers ticketed her for "littering" when they caught her sprinkling birdseed on the ground during her lunch break, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Bavier said it took the police several minutes to find a suitable offense to write on her ticket.

"It took them so long," recalled Bavier, who said she also feeds birds near her home off Central Park West. "They were looking up things. I don't think they knew what to write."

The lifelong educator told the Post she was surprised the officers bothered ticketing her.

"My first thought was they should be doing more important things," she said.

However, Bavier said the most surprising moment of the ordeal came at the end, when one of the officers told her the case would probably be dismissed if she took it to court.

Polish woman dies at 113

WARSAW, Poland, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Benedykta Mackiello, reportedly Poland's oldest woman, died Tuesday at the age of 113, in northwestern Poland, Radio Polonia said.

Mackiello was born in May 1893 in a village near the town of Vilnus, now in Lithuania.

Radio Palonia said Mackiello set another national record when her marriage lasted for more than 80 years.

In the mid-1940s after World War II, Mackiello moved to the small town of Ostroda in the Mazury region in northwestern Poland.

The report offered no further details about Mackiello's life.

Waves fall short for Hawaii surf event

HONOLULU, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- A one-day surfing competition in memory of a Hawaiian surfer and lifeguard was postponed Tuesday because waves in Hawaii were not big enough.

The Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau is run on a single day at Waimea Bay, where he was a lifeguard. Under the rules, the waves must be at 20 feet, and they did not make the grade Tuesday, the Honolulu Advertiser said.

The event is sponsored by Quiksilver, an Australian surfing gear company.

"We should start seeing some large sets in the 15-18 foot range here this afternoon, but it won't be big enough to run the event," said contest director Glen Moncata on a Quiksilver Web site posting.

The "Eddie" is held during a three-month window which ends Feb. 28. Once the event is announced, invited surfers have 24 hours to get to Waimea.

Aikau lost his life in 1978 while trying to save the ocean-going canoe Hokule`a in 1978.

Because of the 20-foot conditions, the event has been held only seven times since the first one in 1984. The last one was in 2004.