Managers have the sometimes difficult of getting grown adults to do things they often really don’t want to do. At the same time, some take this tiny little sliver of power way too far and make their employees work lives absolute hell.
So we’ve gathered stories from across the internet of the worst bosses and managers people have ever had the misfortune to work under. Get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and if you’ve been unlucky enough to relate to anything here, share your tale in the comments below.
#1 The Gift That Keeps On Giving
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#2 Telling Them Not To Throw A Party, Throwing A Party, Then Getting Fired For Your Reaction
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#3 Antiwork On The Rise. The Movement Grows
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Some psychologists actually have a name for this issue before we even get to the horror stories. It’s called the accidental manager, and research from the Chartered Management Institute found that a staggering 82 percent of people who move into leadership roles do so without any formal management training at all.
Basically, someone crushes their sales targets or writes flawless code, and the company’s solution is to hand them a team of humans to be responsible for, with zero guidance on how to actually do that. It’s a bit like being really good at driving a car and then getting handed the keys to a commercial airliner because, hey, you know how wheels work.
#4 Screw You Guys, I’m Going Home
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#5 I Lost My Job Of 3 Years Because Of This
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#6 “You Are Replaceable” “Okay, Then I Quit” “No, Not Like That”
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This exact pattern even has an older, more academic name too. The Peter Principle, coined all the way back in 1969, argues that people in a hierarchy keep getting promoted based on how well they did their last job, right up until they land in a role they’re bad at, and then they just stay there. Forever. Ruining Mondays for everyone under them.
#7 And I Oop
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#8 Never Told A Boss Off Like This. And It Felt Amazing
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#9 Should I Take His Advice?
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But bad training only explains part of the horror show. Something genuinely strange also seems to happen to people’s brains once they’re handed authority over others. Psychologists Dacher Keltner and Adam Galinsky have run experiments showing that feeling powerful appears to reduce a person’s ability to read other people’s emotions and take their perspective, almost like a dimmer switch quietly turning down empathy the higher someone climbs.
#10 Thought My Boss Was Playing And April Fools Day Joke
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#11 Get This Resignation Letter Bro
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#12 How My Dad Responds To His Boss
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One version of the research even had participants primed to feel powerful draw the letter E on their own foreheads, and they were far more likely to draw it so it read correctly for themselves rather than for the person looking at them. A tiny, almost silly detail, but it says a lot about how power can shrink a person’s world down to just their own point of view. Suddenly your boss forgetting your name at the holiday party, or steamrolling every idea in a meeting that isn’t theirs, makes a strange kind of sense.
#13
And he said it wasn’t his problem. He didn’t pay attention, so I hired anyone who was qualified and then quit.
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#14 I Asked For A Raise On Tuesday And Received This Text Message Yesterday Morning…
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#15 My Mum Has Stage 4 Cancer In 5 Areas And Her Boss Has Been Pressuring Her To Come Back To Work
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Then there’s the type of boss whose bad behavior isn’t really about power at all, but about covering for their own insecurity. These are the micromanagers who need to approve the font size on your email signature, the credit stealers who show up to present your idea to their own boss as though they thought of it in the shower that morning, and the ones who throw a team member under the bus in front of a client rather than admit they themselves dropped the ball. None of that comes from confidence.
#16 My Contract Is For 25 Hours A Week Part Time And Today I Received This Week’s Schedule. Scheduled For 48 Hours With No Prior Warning And When I Tried To Gently Remind Them I’m Part Time, One Of The Supervisor Responded With This Gif
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#17 Got Fired For “Telling The Boss How To Do His Job” When All I Did Was Say “We Can’t Obstruct A Fire Escape”
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#18 Had A Personal Thing Come Up For Thursday And My Boss Is Just Ignoring My Time Off Request
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It comes from someone who is deeply unsure of their own value and has figured out that making other people feel small is a quick, if miserable, way to feel a little bigger. What ties a lot of these stories together, though, is the almost total lack of accountability that so many workplaces build in for middle management.
#19
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#20 I Like This Energy
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#21 Company Owner Decided To Stop Paying His Drivers So One Of Them Parked Their Semi On The Owners Ferrari And Just Left It
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HR exists to protect the company, not the employee, and a manager who is technically hitting their numbers can usually get away with treating their staff like garbage for years before anyone above them notices or cares. That imbalance is exactly why so many people end up quitting a perfectly fine job just to escape one person.
#22 Between A Friend And His Manager At A Small Packing Plant
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#23 I’m Still In Shock
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#24 Logical
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#25 CEO Problems
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#26 My Boss Thinks I Should Skip Seeing My Probation Officer And Go To Jail So He Can Have A Day Off. Cause My Labor Is More Important Than My Freedom. This Happened Like 20 Minutes Ago Lmaooo
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#27 How I Quit My Job At A Gas Station
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A Gallup study of over seven thousand adults found that half of them had left a job specifically to get away from a bad manager, and a separate study from leadership firm DDI put that number even higher, with 57 percent of workers saying they’d quit specifically because of their manager and another third admitting they’d seriously considered it. People rarely leave good jobs. They leave bad bosses, and take whatever job happens to be attached.
#28 This Is How My Coworker Handled This Text From My Boss
Update and context: This line cook had already previously put in his two-week notice due to moving out of state to take care of sick family and was days away from leaving anyway. Yes, he hit send and actually quit. Yes, he is leaving the industry. This isn’t our chef he is texting. It’s the owner.
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#29 Boss Wrote “Thief” On My Check
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#30 The Last Text I Sent My Boss
I was escorted out the next afternoon, hours after securing the million-dollar sale for the fiscal year. I was told the measures were temporary but they never are (but they managed to install security cameras in the year since).
I operated the store with 153 payroll hours, and this final reduction took it down to 118. This is CosmoProf, a multi-million dollar beauty company.
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So keep all of that in mind as you scroll through the stories below, because chances are the villain in each one isn’t some cartoonish evil genius. They’re probably just an underqualified, overpromoted, quietly insecure person who was never taught how to manage anyone, given a title, and then left completely unchecked.
#31 No Water For Children. I Quit Today
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#32 Boss Texts Like A Clingy Partner On My Days Off
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#33 I Quit The Day Before A Snow Day
I was going to fulfill my notice, but the ad for my job had it listed for 2 dollars an hour more than I make, so I walked out.
Two people permanently injured themselves last year coming in on icy days, while the owners sit at home cozy.
Image source: dalbpm
#34 My Toxic Ex-Boss Texted Me
This is absolutely wild… I have zero clue what she’s talking about. She’s the daughter of the owner and the general manager of a small company in my area. I used to work under her as a shift lead. I left for greener pastures about 8 months ago. I have no clue why tf she thought this was appropriate.
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#35 I Was Fired After Sending This Email To My Boss About Labor Violations
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#36 I’m Probably Going To Be Fired For This… But I Don’t Care
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#37
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#38 Owner Of Three Restaurants In The Suburbs Of Chicago Asks His Customers To Pay His Wait Staff A Better Wage
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#39
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#40 Dollar General Management With An Inspiring Message To Staff
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#41 This Was My Bosses Response To Me Calling In Sick. What Should I Do I Can’t Find A Cover?
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#42 Cassidy, Read That Again, But Slowly
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#43 I Was Admitted To The Hospital With Sepsis And My Boss Expected Me To Roll Out Of The Hospital Straight To Work. “Audrey” Is Hr. This Was After 3 Days Of Her Harassing Me Non-Stop About Work
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#44 Having A Fever And Feeling Unfit To Make It In. “Boss” Responded With This. What Do I Even Say In This Case?
I was feeling fine at work today, but as I drove home, I rapidly started sweating and having a throbbing headache, so I took a test. I sent this picture, letting him know I could not make it tomorrow. For context, the reason for the “bad timing” statement is the fact that he texted me off work hours just before I took this test and when I was already feeling unwell. Is it unreasonable of me to excuse myself so I can care for my health? I don’t feel he respects my personal needs or simply does not have the awareness, but I also honestly don’t want to let the team down if possible. I did inform both a general manager and a second-hand manager, who were both understanding.
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#45
Then they fired me for talking about it.
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#46 Boss Asked Me To Cover A Shift While I’m On Vacation
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#47
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#48 I’m Quite Annoyed And Want To Reply Accordingly, But I’m Unsure If My Words Hold Any Truth. Full Reply In Comments:
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#49
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#50 Boss Called Me In The Middle Of Fixing The Day Shifts Mistakes On Top Of Doing My Own Job To Chew Me Out For Refusing A Customer. Needless To Say, She Won’t Have To Worry About Getting Anymore Complaints About Me
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#51 Today Is The First Official Day Of My Vacation. I Barely Made It 4 Hours Before Some Trouser Stain Texted Me For Help, And Wouldn’t Take “No” For An Answer
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#52 I Got Fired And They Still Expected Me To Come In For My Shift
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#53 Is It Normal To Not Want To Discuss The Base Pay?
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#54 I Work In NY
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#55 My Dad Had A Stroke And I Took My Vacation At Work To Help Care For Him. He’s Not Doing Too Good, And My So And I Are Moving To Help Him And My Step Mom, And I Had To Give A 1 Week Notice (Not Ideal, But Better Than None Imo). Got This Text From The Owner Of The Store
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#56 Text I Received From My Boss While Sick In Bed
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#57 Boss Tries To Make Me Pay For My Mistake Which Is Illegal In NY, When I Express I Won’t Pay For A One Time Mistake, He Doubles Down And Says This;
To be fair, it was a to-go order that I just blanked on and forgot to make sure it was paid before I handed it out. Regardless, it’s illegal to try and make me pay for it in my state. I tried to give him the opportunity to correct his reaction, and he doubled down. He even said that breaking the law is a common practice
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#58 The Picture Was Taken Last Night In The Kitchen Of The Restaurant I Work At. The Temperature Inside Was 86 Degrees. This Has Been Going On For Weeks
The hood vents have not been working properly, and it’s been dreadfully hot. The cooks are constantly sweating and miserable, one even filed a complaint with OSHA because they were tired of working in that condition. They were confronted by the owner. Servers and bartenders were raising concerns in the work group chat last night about their asthma and how customers in the front of the house can smell the smoke. Rather than assuring and being helpful to employees, the manager shut down the conversation and stated that if anyone had an issue, they could speak to them and the owner privately. They stated that they were probably affected by the storm yesterday (this has been happening for weeks) and should be fixed today. I’m pretty sure they’re under the pressure of OSHA’s grace period.
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#59 My Wife’s Salary Is Made Out Of Commissions And Instead Of Getting Cash Payment For A Product She Sold Her Company Gave Her Hkd 6k ($766) In Vouchers To Spend In A “Japanese” Supermarket
My wife’s salary is made out of commissions and instead of getting cash payment for a product she sold, her company gave her 6k Hong Kong dollars ($766) in vouchers to spend in a “Japanese supermarket”.
This supermarket isn’t even located in our area and we will have to carry the groceries from far away by public transport or cab.
P.S. In Hong Kong, we don’t drive like most locals.
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#60 This Is The Thermostat In The Office. I Told My Boss That If I’m Going To Work In A Sauna I Do It In The Nude
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#61 Just Found Im The Single Lowest Paid Paramedic At My Ambulance Company, Despite Having The Most Experience By Several Years
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#62 Why Is Working While You’re Sick A Badge Of Honor? It’s Dumb
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#63
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