The difference a generation makes

As much as I bitch about my job (and I do), I do know how good I have it.  For the most part.  I have 2 bosses.  Big and Mini -- obviously not their real names.  Big hired me.  Mini came on board a few years later.  Father and son.  And yet so incredibly different.

Some of the good things I have:
Big assumes I make it to work on time (and I do).
I have 5 weeks of vacation every year.
Big pays for my health insurance.
Big contributes a boatload to my IRA.
I have my own office -- with a door I can close.
Big does not micromanage.
Big assumes I will get my work done.
Big gives clear instructions of what he expects.
Big is non-confrontational (which is interesting with an attorney)
Big is laid back.
If I need to run out to do an errand, Big doesn't even question it.
And he has enough life experience to know that you must roll with the flow.

Some of the not so good things I have:
Mini!
Really.  Everything bad can be summed up with one word.
It is awful.
Some of the things he says/does on a regular basis:
micromanages me...come on, I did not earn the title "oppositional employee" for no reason.
Absolutely must find at least one thing wrong with everything I write -- sometimes that means rewording a sentence without changing the meaning.
Saying, "How hard can what you do be?"
Reprimanding me in front of a client.
Attitude!
Condescending.
Asking me, "What work do you have to do?"
Refusing to speak with a client on the phone unless he knows exactly what the client is going to ask.
Upgrading and downloading new programs and causing the system to crash.  Weekly. (Last week when he upgraded a system and I couldn't figure out the new system, I did let Big know that his son's life was in danger if he kept doing it).
Paranoia -- so changes passwords on a regular basis and I can never remember them.
And he is absolutely never wrong -- even when he is.

But I have learned.  I am oppositional but not stupid.  So today, when Ladybug got kicked out of camp for tomorrow and I don't have alternate day care for her...I was smart enough to go to Big to ask if it was possible for Ladybug to sit in my office all day tomorrow.  Mini is so not happy that Big said yes.

Mean Mama