Here’s the deal: You work for a relatively small independent federal agency. Your boss, the head of HR, is rumored to be a nudist. You know he’s married. He invites you to a party at his house.

Question: What, if anything, do you wear? If it turns out to be an au natural event, do you drive from Arlington or Silver Spring naked, or do you wait until you get to the bosses suburban Maryland home to, uh, get down to basics.

All of the above happened to a friend years ago. Her boss was indeed a practicing nudist. He had regular parties at his house. She was invited to several but due to flu, bad summer colds, sick kids, a basement flood, one lightning strike and the death of her parents (several times) she never went. But she know people who did, and, before they disrobed they signed a guest book!!!!!

Now you must admit, that’s different!

Anybody who has worked for any length of time has a boss story. Or two. Both of the super good kind of leader, the not so good kind and, like the boss described above, the let-it-all-hang-out (literally) kind.

Last week, we asked readers if they had any great/horrible boss stories. Turns out, you do. Here are a couple of them. More, we hope, to come:

• “Having put in over 32 years with Uncle Sam, I’ve had my fair share of quirky bosses. When I worked for Treasury, it was not out of the ordinary for Sergeant Slaughter, my boss at the time, to stop by your house on a Friday night, Saturday or Sunday to drop off work. Another, Mr. Busybody, was so nosey that he would spend his weekends driving around checking out his employees’ houses, personal property, etc. so that on Monday morning you got to play 20 Questions with him. He even went so far as to walk through a home under construction and report back on Monday that he thought the rooms were awfully small. If you called in sick, “The Informer” would call your home throughout the day to ensure that you were really home sick. Heaven forbid that you make a doctor’s appointment and he couldn’t reach you, if that happened, then he turned into “The Snitch” and would stir stuff up with Mr. Busybody. The Hypocrite would time you when you arrived, went on breaks, lunch, etc. but every Friday you’d spend a good 45 minutes typing up his Sunday school lesson, he’d also toss you a 10-spot so that the following morning you could stop and pick up donuts — that didn’t mean you could be late, that meant you left home 20 minutes early. All in all, I’ve been lucky throughout my career that most of those I’ve worked with have been encouraging, supportive and tried to balance home and work life especially in these lean years when we’re all doing more with less so I really can’t complain too much.” Just sign me Remember When Thanks!
• “Back in the early ’90s, we were posted in Springfield, Illinois, my wife and I both worked for the IRS. She was a member of the District Director’s staff and I was a lowly Revenue Agent, and he ‘invited’ his staff to his home for a Christmas party. All were to bring a spouse, significant other or a friend. There was one caveat, he didn’t want any bargaining unit employees in attendance. So, he told my wife that she was expected to attend and bring a date; however, I was specifically “uninvited”. Thankfully (or sometimes not) my wife can really play hard ball when needed and basically told her boss what he could do with his party and the ‘invitation.'” Terry of the Bargaining Unit

Nearly Useless Factoid by Michael O’Connell

The prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in Great Britain has a ban on garden gnomes, because organizers say they detract from the show’s garden designs.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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