Grab The B**** By The Throat

A 21 year-old client told me he wanted to learn how to play a song on guitar. I play, so Friday I brought my guitar in to teach it to him. After the clients had eaten breakfast and finished their morning chores, my "student" and I set some chairs up in front of the staff office with our guitars. While we were fiddling around, my boss walked by and started doing a silly dance to our music. The clients smiled at him as he entered the office.

"You go Bob," I laughed as he jiggled by.

As he emerged from the office, someone requested he sing something for us. My boss, my supervisor, the guy I report to in a clinical rehabilitation center sang out....

"Grab the biiiitch byyyy the throooooat..." He smiled at the clients to see if he had gotten their approval.He had.

I am not supposed to argue with or correct other staff members in front of the clients. I have gotten very good at acting like things don't bother me. I don't think any of the clients saw the look on my face after he sang it.

Other things said by my boss to the clients:
"You should want to get out of here so you can go to Hooters and get served by waitresses with big titties!"
"Maybe you'll be lucky and you're hair stylist will have big titties all up in your face while she's cutting your hair."
"Are there any women around?" Glances. "If you get a piece of ass while on pass, that's your business."

My boss Bob was once a counselor who got bumped up because my old boss left the company. This is his first job in management and he had no management training. He hates training and complains whenever any is provided. He cannot work a computer and depends on me to fix his reports when things go wrong.

Bob Holford is fifty-something. He has Cirrhosis, Hep C, Emphysema, smokes like a chimney, and eats McDonalds everyday. He spent 10+ years in prison and is a "recovered" drug addict who used to go to 12-Step meetings. He had quit smoking but started again when he got the manager job. Bob refers to the clients as "the little darlings" with a sneer on his face.

Problems with women, Bob?
When I told him that some female staff members were uncomfortable with how our clients were looking at them, I was told by Bob that "Men will be men," and that women who dress a certain way bring that upon themselves.

Even if they follow the corporate dress code?
"Hey," says Bob, "There are days when Mandy walks by my office and even my mind starts going places!"Bob said this in front of eight other staff members, two of which were women; they disagreed, but they were under 30. The next day, he called Mandy into his office to ask her if she thought that maybe her way of dressing was inappropriate. He then told her to her face that his mind goes to places.

In a fashion not unlike a Seinfeld episode, Bob will opine the exact opposite of anything I say.

Bob (Looking at a bottle of generic Scope): Does this have alcohol in it?
Josh: Yes.
Bob: Its not listed in the active ingredients.... I don't think there is.

Josh: I found this pill in Client Z's jacket pocket. The pill belongs to Client X. Jen the nurse is letting Client X keep these on his person and he's giving them to other clients.
Bob: Have you told Kurt (the facility director) yet?
Josh: No.
Bob: Lemme ask you this. Do you really want to show this to Kurt and cause Jen all sorts of grief, or do you want to go to Jen and say, "Hey, what the fuck?"
Josh: I want to tell. I think she's dangerous, irresponsible, and inappropriate for this unit.
Bob: Well.... well, alright. Lemme... okay. I'll uh... I'll talk with her.
Josh: Do you want to tell Kurt about it or should I?
Bob: (walking away) I'll tell him.

Josh: I caught a client smoking in his bathroom. I put him on loss if privileges (LOP) for the day.
Bob: Don't you think that's a bit much? You don't want to be too heavy with them.

Josh: I found cigarette ashes all over a client's bathroom floor. I took away two outside smoke breaks.
Bob: I dunno. They need to smoke to blow off steam.

Josh: So-in-so was cussing in the milieu again. He's really pissed off.
Bob: Get his ass in here. You know what? No. Put him on LOP. Cool his ass off.

I asked Bob once if he was taking good care of himself, if he had some support system in place, he told me that he had his girlfriend and his pets.

Bob is the manager in a unit specializing in chemical dependency. He is in charge of every counselor on the unit. Bob does not see a therapist and has no one in the building that supervises his clinical practices.What would you do?