I taught a college class once with 11 other professors. There are 360 students in the course. On Tuesdays, all 360 meet in the same room and are taught by the course administrator. On Thursdays, the students break into classes of 30 to be taught by the individual professors. I was the assistant administrator. The administrator thought of me as the "assistant TO THE administrator". You can see where this is going... The long version follows, the short version will be summarized at the end of the post.
The administrator held meetings for all of the professors at a time during which I was unavailable, and had indicated to him that I was unavailable. It was either meet with them and skip a class that I had to take to graduate, or go to the class and skip the meetings related to the job I had.
During these meetings, the administrator and the others wrote a quiz. As the assistant "to the" administrator, the administrator sent me an email and said something along the lines of "We've solidified the quiz. Please print copies and place them in the instructors mailboxes. We will need this done soon, as we have students who need to take the quiz early". When I got out of class and saw this e-mail, it occurred to me that some classes of students were to take the quiz in the morning, while others were to take classes in the afternoon. Perhaps the questions should be shuffled between the morning and afternoon classes (a technique done in semesters past -- I had had this job twice previously with no problems), so I messaged the administrator (a control freak) and asked if the quiz questions should be shuffled between the afternoon and daytime. This email was sent around 4:30 or so. He replied "I'll think about it and get back to you later". It was about 5pm or so when he replied. I am a theatre professor, and I had rehearsal from 7-10:30 for my thesis play. Not thinking I should be kept in the office until midnight printing quizzes, I began printing quizzes around 6:00, before he told me whether or not he wanted the questions shuffled, and put them in instructors mailboxes. I then printed 11 answer keys (answers in bold) and put them in my mailbox so that I could distribute them to the professors after the quiz was complete, so that they could grade them. At 10:30, when I was leaving rehearsal, I checked my e-mail to see if I had any messages from him, to see if I needed to re-print the afternoon section before going home. I arrive at home and get a message from him at 11:45pm, saying that yes, I should shuffle the questions. I informed him that it was 11:45 pm and that I had already printed the quizzes. If he wanted them shuffled, I would be sure to do so in the morning when I arrived. He replied, wondering why I hadn't shuffled the questions already, since it was my suggestion anyway. I replied that I was waiting on confirmation from him, but since he hadn't sent it, I went ahead and printed the quizzes.
He then drove back to the office to check the quizzes and collected all 360 of the quizzes from all of the instructors mailboxes, accusing me of printing all of the quizzes with the correct answers in bold, because that's what he saw in my mailbox -- without checking any of the others. He then informed me that I was correct in printing the quiz from the google doc, but that he wasn't finished "editing" it yet, and that he wanted to make a few changes. He tells me not to reply to him except through a phone call, because he didn't want to deal with e-mail at this late of an hour. I don't call him because by this point, I'm piping mad at him for telling me it was a "solidified" quiz when it wasn't, and for accusing me of printing 360 answer keys when I did not, and don't want to say something I'll regret. He then emails all of the professors and informs them that I had printed the wrong quiz (the one that was "solidified") and that if any instructors had picked up their quizzes, they were to throw them out and not use them. He then rewords about 3 questions and sends me the "finalized" quiz at 1:30am. Since I wasn't in the meetings that he set at a time at which I could not attend, I could only assume that the quizzes needed to be printed by 8am, when classes open in the morning, for students who needed to take the quiz early. Luckily, he printed about 10 quizzes out and put them in his mailbox for all of the students who needed to take the quiz early, and informed me that I was to finish printing the quizzes when I came in. Which I did, the next morning.
TL;DR - Administrator tells me to print quiz, says its "solidified". I print it. He then gets mad and says that he wasn't finished editing it. At 1:30am he sends me the finalized quiz, which, under normal circumstances, he would have wanted printed by 8am.
Story 2: same cast of characters.
Administrator says that I need to print midterms. I print midterms, and am preparing to send copies to a testing center for student athletes who need to test early. He had just (about 30 minutes prior) finished proofreading the midterm (because I didn't want to deal with the incidents above again). He then rushes into the office and tells me that "There are students trying to take the quiz at the testing center. Why hasn't this been sent over there yet?" I inform him that it was in my inbox, awaiting his proof checking, but that I had started printing the quiz before I sent it to the testing center. Also, he hadn't informed me of when the students were allowed to begin testing at the testing center, or it would have assuredly been over before then. He sends the quizzes over to the testing center, furious that I hadn't done my job, and then tells me that we need to have a meeting to discuss my priorities.
He then tells the graduate student faculty that I am not doing my job effectively, and that I am working harder on my thesis than I am on working for him.
I am summoned into the director of graduate studies's office, where he, the administrator, my past boss, and I all have a meeting discussing what the issue with my performance is. I can barely get a word in edgewise, and am accused of prizing my thesis over my job. I ask him to please be more clear in his communication; that I had done everything he asked of me in the manner he had asked of me, and that he was not being specific enough for me to do my job effectively. Further, sending me a quiz at 1:30 am and expecting it to be copied by 8am was unacceptable. The resolution is that the administrator and I would have one-on-one meetings every week for the rest of the semester to get on the same playing field.
Leaving that meeting, I gave myself an hour to cool down from the scapegoating I saw going on, and then emailed the administrator with times I was available during the week. No reply. A few days later, he asked me to do something. I replied that I would, and asked if he wanted to have a meeting to make sure that I was on the same page as him before doing it. He replied that "I'll decide when we need to meet", and still refused to comment on the times I had made available to meet with him. We never ended up scheduling the one-on-one meeting.
This all almost resolved itself for the final examination, when he was too busy working on getting tenure to deal with it, so after making the final exam, he let me handle all of the other arrangements by myself -- which went off without a hitch. Save once when he locked the final exams in his office and I had to give them to student athletes who were leaving early.
He's about to be given tenure. I have quit academia, in large part, because of him. I couldn't stand to be a part of a system that rewards him. On the positive side though, my students later told me that they absolutely loved meeting with me on Thursdays, because I made theatre fun for them to learn about, but that they hated meeting with the administrator on Tuesdays, because he was horrible and condescending to them in class. They don't even know the half of it.