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George Steinbrenner was known as "The Boss" in his time owning the Yankees. When he passed away last week, Steinbrenner took with him a complicated legacy as an owner who produced championships but a boss who could torment his employees. He was at the same time charitable (he had a saying that if more than one person knows about a good deed you've done, you've done it for the wrong reasons) and a criminal (made illegal contributions to Richard Nixon) but always interesting. Today the New York Post went through how to succeed the Steinbrenner way, but while they have praised the man and the team's success, it's also helpful to note that "The Boss" was not always the ideal boss:

BE FOCUSED From the day George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees for $10 million until he permanently stepped down last week, the former shipping executive had one all-consuming goal: to win. And he seems to have spent pretty close to every waking minute thinking about how to make it happen — just ask the minions who fielded his constant phone calls, endured his tirades and his meddling, and spoke of his obsessive attention to every corner of the organization. And his focus never let up, even in the off-season.

“Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing,” he famously said.

That was just one of the pieces of advice put forth by the post article. The others included "work tirelessly", "don't be afraid to shift gears--even if you swore you wouldn't", "fire when ready", "be a boss, not a friend", "hire top talent, and pay them well", "demand results", "set clear goals", "never always criticize your employees in public", "pay attention to the little things", "don't give your stars preferential treatment", "build your brand", "have a heart OK", and "don't rest on your laurels". All of these are good advice for someone running a business and while George M. Steinbrenner III was very good at accomplishing some of these in a way that helps an organization, some of his actions certainly hurt his organization and his employees. A good balance is certainly needed for an organization to have successful leadership.

She may be absent from the blog for a while, but the reason this blog even exists is Jennifer and it's her birthday today. So join me in wishing her a very happy birthday! She puts a smile on all of our faces so hopefully today, she's all smiles as well. And she's a great boss. In her honor, we have 4 great links for you:

First, we head out of the United States for David Duarte's best Out of Office messages (H/T Wendy). Now by "best" I don't mean best for your employees to use at work...I mean best as in funniest. Let's hope that you've never e-mailed an employee and had any of these bounce back at you in your Outlook inbox.

FoundValue has 10 jobs that they promise are better than yours. Are they right in that assumption that these are dream jobs compared to the ones you currently hold?

Yahoo! hotjobs and Forbes have the worst words to say at work. I caught myself saying to someone "I'll try to get back to you sometime soon," and quickly reversed that course of action after reading that list.

Lastly, Yahoo! News has the story of how much people will pay...to work for free! On Monday, we'll look at an article from the New York Times which debates if that's legal or not (the working for free as part of a internship part...not the ridiculous auctioning)

Saw this picture on the New York Post website today. The Post lists Anna Wintour, Dick Cheney, George Steinbrenner, Martha Stewart, Naomi Campbell, Donald Trump, Steve Phillips, Gordon Ramsay, Scott Rudin, Marge Schott, David Letterman, Lenny Dykstra, Leona Helmsley, Dov Charney, James Dolan, Bonnie Fuller, Bob Barker, Bernie Madoff, Ronald Perelman, Sumner Redstone, Ken Lewis, Ken Lay, Al Dunlap, Faith Popcorn, Sam Zell, J. Edgar Hoover, and Paul Pressler as the worst bosses.

I think you could add the fictional bosses of Michael Scott from The Office, Bill Lumberg from Office Space, Mr. Burns from The Simpsons and Don Draper from Mad Men on there as well.

Who else would you add to the list of nightmare bosses on Friday the 13th?

Since most of us don't have the luxury of punching our boss when we get mad at them, there's this from AngstCorner which allows you to virtually punch them.

Strangely enough, this was sent by my boss, Wendy. She also sent me this article from Harvard Business School on how to get fired with dignity.

So I'm not sure what to think about my job security at this point... (just kidding...I hope!)