First off, I'd like to say that the presentations from this last week were very well done.  Not that my opinion matters all that much (and I'm sure most of you already know that you did pretty well based on the grades that you all received), but I think there's always something to be said for doing a presentation like that without being able to see how others fair first. 
 
I was actually a bit upset with myself that I didn't just jump on the first day time slots and get it over with right away.  The last time that I got the chance to use that strategy was when I gave my senior seminar in chemistry at West Chester years ago.  I've been trying to work on this perpetual procrastination issue, but I've had pretty mixed results since getting back into this academic environment.  I suppose there's something to be said about being able to perform under pressure, but I think I've got that down to the point where further practice is really unneccessary. 
 
Anyways, one of the topics that stuck with me the most was toxic management.  I'm sure, unfortunately, that it's something that we've all had to deal with at least once in our employment histories, and I guess it stuck with me a little bit more because of my last position and the industry that Jeff was speaking of in particular. 
 
I definitely don't envy Jeff when it comes to management of the industry that he's in, because I can't imagine what it would be like to have to manage, or be managed by, a bunch of Ph.D. scientists, MBA or not.  I think the only way you could manage a crowd like that would be to have a Ph.D. and an MBA yourself, and even then I think it would be extremely difficult.
 
After thinking about it this week, though, I guess you could say that about any industry.  We're learning in Dr. Rhoad's class right now how difficult it can be to deal with technology people, employees, vendors, etc., as well, and in addition to that, I've often felt like the restaurant industry has it's own cover-up for toxic management since it's traditionally a high-turnover industry.  I guess regardless of the industry, we just need to come to grips with the fact that we're going to have to deal with managers, co-workers, etc. that we could label 'toxic' and make the best of it.
 
In case you're all interested in reading more about the topic I've found a few more articles out there about it.  The first one deals with recognizing toxic management and crushing it, and the author actually puts together a top 10 list from a book on the topic.  The second one deals with how to uncover a toxic boss, and, more importantly, a few things that they recommend that you do about it.