I worked with these people a long long long time ago, just after I stopped working as a newspaper reporter and decided I needed to make enough money to live on. The guy was the owner of the construction company.

She was the office manager. She was very mean to me She would go over what I was doing and get angry when I'd change my priorities as circumstances would change - but I had to re-prioritize my work because some things would become more or less important as things came up. She was not even a little flexible.

He and she didn't get along at all. He and I got along quite well and that made her uncomfortable. She was worried about job security and started doing things like not giving anyone (even the owner) the password to print paychecks. I learned later that he had told her that he could run the company with just himself, me, and one other guy in the office. She also didn't give me a raise once and I asked her why and she said he didn't think I deserved one. So I said I'd have to talk to him about that and find out what was up, and she told me if I ever talked to him about it, she'd make sure I was fired and she'd make sure I had a hard time finding a new job. I was single and supporting myself so that scared me. I applied for a new job that day, which I got, and I started really trying to butter her up and pretend I liked her so she'd give me a good recommendation. It worked too well and, after I quit, she kept calling me wanting me to get together with her as friends. I feel guilty for using her like that but I had to get a new job.

He was not very responsible for a business owner. He worked his own timetable and wouldn't come in if he didn't have to. Though when something important was happening he was very much on task. Overall, he spent more time hunting and fishing than working I think. He also drank way too much, went to establishments where the women who worked there didn't wear clothing very very frequently, and cheated on his wife regularly. His wife ended up dumping him. Good for her. He was irresponsible but he was really nice. He kind of gently came onto me once but I made it pretty clear (but very gently) that I wasn't interested and he respected that. But he definitely had a problem with women.

Hmmm back to her. I was dating this guy who worked in the same building, and he was separated from his wife . . . well so he told me but that's another story . . . anyway she came down on me hard because she said I was committing adultery. And she thought he was separated too. But she said so long as he was still legally married it was adultery regardless of whether he was separated. She was really mean about this.

The owner would try to cut corners, including not paying overtime when he was supposed to. Neither she nor I would be a part of that, but for different reasons. She said she wouldn't do anything against the law, but I didn't want to underpay the guys who deserved overtime. They didn't make that much money in the first place and they couldn't afford to not get overtime they worked. He ended up getting investigated by the feds and he was glad at that point that we'd made him pay everyone appropriately. He didn't fight us when we said we wouldn't underpay, but he did like the idea of not having to pay it.

He was very generous with gifts. Like for secretary's day one year he gave me $1,000 and a trip to a casino. LOL. He also would buy alcohol for us to drink at work all the time. He had a bit of a drinking problem. But, uh, it made work fun.

When the feds came in investigating us, I had to go through all these old files to get info together in preparation, and I found a file of the secretary who'd worked before me. After several months, this witch had given this secretary a letter that she'd come in late to work by a minute or two often enough that she owed the company 15 minutes of work with no compensation. She'd like kept really really close track. Like she had a calendar with what time this girl had come in written down every day. Over 15 minutes.

OK I have a strong suspicion of their types but I'd like to kind of double-check my suspicions.