The average person spends about 1,820 hours a year working. And while many of us accept that we’re probably more likely to spot a unicorn in the wild than find a job we truly love, that doesn’t mean we should resign ourselves to being miserable for nearly 2,000 hours each year. There should be something redeeming about every position, whether it’s having colleagues you love or earning an excellent salary. But if your boss makes every day feel like a nightmare, it’s definitely time to get out of there.
Workers have been sharing stories online about the absolutely worst employers they’ve ever had, so we’ve gathered the most painful ones below. Keep reading to also find a conversation with Ekta Capoor, Best-Practices Evangelist and Co-founder of Amazing Workplaces. And if you’re stuck working for a toxic boss, let this be the push you need to find a fresh start somewhere new!
#1
I had my ex-boss forbid me to accompany my grandma on her deathbed. The nursing home called and was told to come quickly if I wanted to see her again. I asked my boss for two days off, to be with her. He said no and I didn’t break his ban. She died the day after the call. She died alone because I was too cowardly to contradict my boss on probation. As her wonderful heart For the last time, I was sitting at my desk doing insignificant office work for this terrible boss. I never forgive myself for that. I have learned painfully that I have to defend my priorities at all costs.
Image source: Alex Reinhardt , Francisco De Legarreta C./unsplash
#2
No, I’ve come close though. It comes to a point when you just know that it’s not good for you to stay despite your best efforts to stay positive and get along.
I had a boss once that really had it in for me. He wasn’t popular around the organisation, lost his temper with everyone, so very senior people when they needed stuff done would call me instead of him. That really pissed him off but there was nothing I could do about it, my boss was impossible to work with. He flat out refused to meet with me to discuss anything but sent long winded nasty emails and text messages every chance he got. He got himself in trouble with HR when he tried to give my coworker but not me a pay rise when our mutual boss left. When the head of HR queried him about the inconsistency he sent a two-page email telling her I was useless and cc’d me.
At this point I was over it, ready to resign, I contacted the head of HR because I was devastated about the email and said I couldn’t do this anymore, they were helpful and sympathetic, told me to take a few days off and we would work together to resolve it. I knew he was in a bunch of trouble over all kinds of stuff (like awarding a dodgy contact to his lover). A week later he has escorted out the door by security – sacked!
I got the pay rise which was back paid.
Image source: Eveline Van't Foort, Getty Images/unsplash
#3
Yes. More than once in fact.
If you don’t value me as an employee, I’ll start looking for another job.
If you treat me poorly, I will be out that door almost immediately.
Understand that as an employee, the power is with YOU. They need you, they went through time to find you, hire you, and train you, they’ve invested in you. Now if you’re a hard worker (like I am) you can always find another job and you can usually find it fairly quickly. Mind you I’m a professional with a degree and I worked in a specific field (I’ve since gone to work for myself), so replacing ME isn’t easy.
The last time I quit because of my boss was after my original boss got in a big argument with his boss and walked out the door. They had to pay him a pretty serious severance package or he would have sued (his boss was a racist AND a sexist – plus he treated people like c**p).
Well I come back from vacation to find out my boss had quit and his boss was now MY boss. I had to take over my bosses job (but he wouldn’t give me the title) and then he proceeded to talk c**p about me and undercut me constantly. Mind you I’d done jobs for the company that no one thought could be done, and done them in record time.
So on the day I was going to quit (I’d gone to HR and they refused to do anything about what was going on) I went to lunch with another boss, and talked trash about MY current boss in front of him and everyone else there for the entire hour. Shortly after getting back I get called into my boss’s office and he’s about to tear me a new one and I said ‘Oh, I’m glad you called this meeting, you saved me the time of setting it up! I quit.’
I’d never seen someone actually do a double take like that in my life before. It was epic.
Image source: John Van Stry, Getty Images/unsplash
#4
Back in the early 90s, I worked for a computer rental company as a computer technician. We often rented computers to companies who were doing training to new employees or for conferences. With only one day notice, me and another tech were sent to install 90 computers at a convention center. This included loading specific software, setup, testing, etc. On top of this, the location was 2 hours away from the office. To haul everything, it took us several trips. We ended up working 20+ hours that day. The boss (also the owner of the company) would call and check in every couple of hours to see how we were doing. He kept telling us how great we were and that he was really going to take care of us for doing this job and working all these hours. By the time we finished and made it back to the shop, he was waiting for us. Our reward for working 20+ hours was a Rally’s hamburger. The guy I was working with looked at me and we both said almost in unison… “W…T…F…”. We both threw the hamburgers in the trash and went home. He expected us back to work in a couple hours but neither of us showed up. We both took the day off and returned the following day. When we returned, the boss asked us why we didn’t come to work. We both just walked to our area, put in our 8 hours and left without saying a word to him. Nothing more was said.
Image source: CBFormula , sladnerm/reddit
#5
I was once fired from a job as a Graphic Artist because I “smiled too much”. That’s right, folks….my boss told me that he couldn’t trust anyone who was always happy. And he hated laughter. I really just didn’t know what to say to that. So I just smiled at him and left.
Image source: Steve Barr, Getty Images/unsplash
#6
Yes, I quit, without giving notice and by doing so, lost my accumulated PTO. I wanted to draw attention to that boss’s incompetence. It actually worked because shortly after I left the “boss” was demoted to a mere worker. I had two “final” warnings because I did the right thing. I went back to my old job at twice the pay and less hours. It was worth it. Note: I felt it was unprofessional to do so, but sometimes upper management only notices when extreme measures are taken.
Image source: Fred Buettner Sr , Curated Lifestyle/unsplash
#7
I had a boss who had another employee that left the company. She was in LA, we were in NYC. When she came to pick up her final paycheck, she had her husband and 3-year old with her. They were in his office for a few minutes, then I heard her yelling and the boss came out of his office and said to his brother, “Call security and tell them to ship these monkeys back to Africa!”
I was staring incredulously. He said, “What the f*** are YOU looking at?”
I said, “A huge, racist a**hole!”
He said, “F*** you, you’re…”
I interrupted him, “Walking out the door cuz I quit, you moron!”
I was responsible for allocating carpet orders. It was very time consuming because you had to optimize shipments from the same dye-lots, otherwise, you’d have color variations. I wrote a quick formula to randomize the orders so everything would need to be manually reallocated. Based on my day-to-day orders, I figured it would take DAYS to unravel what I did…. and I walked out. I got numerous thumbs up from my former coworkers. It felt great.
Image source: Aimlockbelch (Dude/His Dudeness), Ben Collins/unsplash
#8
My wife works for the government, so my stockpile of “bad boss” stories from that bureaucratic hell is extensive.
A short, but TRUE, bad boss story:
One of my wife’s best ‘work’ friends had a medical problem from birth or early childhood that made her blind in one eye (further, it was visually noticeable, so also disfiguring). She was put on the waiting list for an eye transplant and waited many months, years in fact. Then she got a fairly large amount of advance notice (several days?) that a suitable transplant would soon be forthcoming and to be ready for the procedure. When she told her boss the operation would be coming up shortly, his response was:
“we’re actually fairly busy next week, could you reschedule for later in the year? What if I need the “X” report? I can’t let you have next week off.”
… for an EYE TRANSPLANT !!!
(She actually had to risk her job by skipping work for about two weeks, knowing that if she declined the operation she’d likely never get to the top of the recipient list again. Back at work the ‘bigger boss’ was thankfully aghast at the boss’ response, so she kept her job, but shortly thereafter he didn’t!)
Image source: Anonymous, Simon Abel/unsplash
#9
Madame slapped me in the face once while I was working for her. As the lady of the house, she considered it her right to abuse me, her domestic servant, in front of her child, because I, a college-educated woman, expected her to change her unsafe behavior while I was driving her car.
Image source: Elizabeth Dupont , Julien L /unsplash
#10
Yes. I worked for a boss that was just horrible. Antsy, neurotic, a liar, unreasonable, unfocused, maybe even a sociopath. Everyone mocked him behind his back, even upper management. But he had the skill of being able to say the right things and the unfailing ability to say “yes” to any and all requests. He never rocked the boat.
It was so miserable, I discussed with my spouse finding another job as soon as I could before the stress would k**l me. Fortunately, I had a friend in another department who saw what was going on, and he convinced his boss to help get me into their group. So, while my boss was on vacation, my new boss engineered a transfer with HR. When the old boss came back to work, he was red faced furious, but could do nothing about it. I just smiled.
Image source: Tony Gojanovic, Natalia Blauth/unsplash
#11
Yes, one of my bosses favored women while despising men.
He was always high-fiving the girls, luring them aside for small talk, and subtly flirting with them. When it came to the guys, however, he was constantly making disparaging remarks and threatening our jobs for no apparent reason other than to appear “alpha.” It was quite cringe tbh. Many guys, including myself, left. Some of the girls too, as they felt uneasy.
Image source: Anthony Lam, Getty Images/unsplash
#12
Yes, I have. One of my first bosses after I graduated from college told me that my review is coming up and then begin talking about how a coworker who was getting a good review took him and his wife to Las Vegas for the weekend and picked up the tab.
I had another job where it rapidly became apparent that if you wish to progress you needed to join the church that my boss was also a pastor at. About two-thirds of the employees of the company were members of the church and it was obvious they were special.
I left both positions fairly soon.
Image source: Bob Trammell, Hrant Khachatryan/unsplash
#13
YES.
Well, today is Saturday and I can’t wait until Monday morning to attach a resignation letter , put a title stating: Important information and the hit send button. Bye! ( in 2 weeks)
Never let someone think they can rule you and ridicule you. Have an exit plan, do the right thing by putting in 2 weeks. Save, save, save before leaving. Even better; have another job lined up. Go for better pay etc. Go for your dreams. Don’t sit around idling like things will get better, you know it won’t.
Starting a new job is nerve racking but it’s way worse being sick to your stomach because you have a terrible manager.
I wanted change so I myself went after a manager position and I landed it. I am tired of egocentric jerks managing people. We need to more empathic managers in the world.
Most importantly remember you’re a bad a** that deserves nothing less than the best.
Image source: Fl Girl, Getty Images/unsplash
#14
“John“ was ex military. He treated all his employees as if we were enlisted people. For example, he once ordered us to clear out our system staging area so he could have a meeting there. He was going to save a few bucks on a conference room, but all progress would stop on the projects. We were all degreed engineers with lots of experience. We had other options than working for “John”. Half of us left in a few months. The company noticed the high attrition, and he soon had a job with no direct reports.
Image source: Larry Morgan, Brett Jordan/unsplash
#15
It was my first real job as a 16-year-old. I worked bagging groceries, collecting shopping carts in the parking lot, and eventually as a cashier for a supermarket. I was hired for minimum wage ($3.35 an hour in November 1983), and was grateful for it. My boss, Frank, was an acquaintance of the family who lived nearby, who as I would find out held it over me that I “wouldn’t have a job except for him.” This was the early 1980s recession, made worse by being in northeast Pennsylvania coal country, whose economy was shaky even in the best of times. He was likely quite correct that I would not have found a better job in town.
I was (and still am) grateful for that job, the money it gave me to pay for my first car, college, and my spending on everyday life and hobbies. But my boss loved to abuse those who worked under him, especially the kids who in a few years would probably be living somewhere better, making more than he did.
It didn’t take me long to lose my wonderment at my good fortune and just see this as “just a job.” There had been a snowstorm the night before, and I was heading to the break room for my nightly 15-minute break. As I walked into the store’s back stock room, my boss came at me aggressively and grabbed my shoulder. I didn’t see him coming, so I whirled around, ready to perhaps fight.
The verbal barrage stunned the 16-year-old me. “Do you know how much a f***ing shopping cart costs? No? They’re $110. Two were left outside in the snowstorm last night, and the snowplow wrecked both of them. Maybe I should take it out of your miserable pay? How would you like that?” This continued for about thirty seconds, during which I kept repeating, louder each time, “But Frank, but Frank!” Eventually my persistence was rewarded with him shrieking at me, “But WHAT?”
“But I didn’t work last night.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know. You make the schedule, not me.” A comment from my very wise mother’s playbook, and I was glad it came to me fast.
“Oh.” He turned and walked away.
I thought to myself, “At least now I know the rules of engagement here.” I may have been 16, but I wasn’t stupid. I later found out that he had a self-designed catwalk in the rafters above the store’s floor that he used to spy on employees. (“What were you doing in Aisle 7 at 8:45 last night when you stopped sweeping and looked at the shelf for a while?”). This guy was a textbook case of how to not successfully manage your good employees.
He had a big heart attack at about age 40, gave up smoking, and was moved by the company to “less stressful” store. I visited him in the hospital, and he talked about having had a near-death experience, and how he was going to change how he treated people. I believed him.
I ended up working for him on select days a few summers later when there wasn’t enough work in my “home” store (my new manager was a great guy who helped me any way that he could, including working for other stores in the chain that were short-handed). By then I was 20, and my time to work in the supermarket business was rapidly coming to a close. He was quite nice to me, and seemed to have developed a softer demeanor toward his employees, although the old resentment to the recently-hired, promising kids was still there, but further under the surface.
He bought this second store from the chain that owned it in 1999 and by all accounts turned it into a prospering, independent supermarket. The last time I googled him, he was running it, and had purchased part of another store in another town as well. I just looked him up for the first time in several years, and he died in November 2012, aged 66. Rest in peace, Frank. I learned a lot from you, both good and bad, and appreciate your work to become a kinder, more gentle person.
Life is short. Treat good people well. And don’t waste time on the bad ones.
Image source: Don Bonser, Krzysztof Hepner/unsplash
#16
I once had two bosses at once; what a disaster!
It was retail w/ a home delivery component. One boss was senior VP. The other was nominally his report, a Golden Boy of the company founder, a store manager. I was put in charge of inventory. There were three major, but easy-to-fix problems:
Salespeople could not finish a sale w/o filling in a delivery date. Many customers said they would have to call back w/ that info. The salespeople weren’t instructed what to do. So they put in a random date.
Customer service didn’t call customers to confirm they would be there.
The above wasted a lot of time, effort and money. 20% of deliveries were returned as nobody-at-home. Merchandise was sometimes damaged and, perhaps, stolen. Because when goods were returned to the warehouse, they were not located in inventory. Moreover, at this point, the merchandise no longer had any identifying label, so the inventory reports quickly got out of whack. All this played havoc w/ sales.
But neither boss would fix the problem. the VP would come down from HQ and yell at warehouse people; but he never seemed to yell at Golden Boy. So I began calling for weekly inventories which, otherwise, would be done twice a year. Golden Boy tried to bribe me and then threatened to fire me.
So I told him, “If you feel froggy? Jump!” So he fired me. I then called our mutual boss (the VP) and demanded severance. And then I sent a personal letter to every member of the Board of Directors explaining the problem. Soon the company fired both guys.
I was literally talking to the president of my new employer when the fired VP called her, looking for a job.
Image source: Witness, Getty Images/unsplash
#17
I worked at a museum once and there was this 87-year-old woman that was the director, when I first started she was very nice but before I hit one full year I could do nothing right. I got chewed out or scolded for my handwriting (which was 100x better than hers), putting things away, inventorying something she told me to but wasn’t the right thing, and writing on a calendar upcoming local events. I finally quit I couldn’t take her anymore.
Image source: Gene Dixson, Ahmed/unsplash
#18
I would say the worst boss I ever had was when I did hair way back in 1982. I had 2 ladies that owned a thriving salon. The one was super nice great stylist well liked and the other, well she was the Queen, no one did hair like her, she was the best. Or so she thought she was. She had a way of degrading other stylists in the salon, would gossip about everyone just had a personality not many liked. I came to realize, I’m going to listen, watch and take in all the free training I can and then find another job to where I could thrive and not be working in a tense situation. Best decision I ever made. They closed not long after. Due to the owners personality conflicts!
Image source: Pamela J Coy-Perry, Getty Images/unsplash
#19
I just did and am starting my first official day with a new company. This past Saturday 12–16–2022 was my last day with one business who got a new boss I can’t deal with. There was something about him from the start but then I went for a lead position but he gave it to someone he knew before he became our manager. Not great but what could I do. Then slowly they were expecting me to do the lead work but not the position. I was able to walk people through security and they took advantage of that always making me go. Then he blew off another worker being lazy about something simple and acted like it was no big deal when if I had done the same thing I’d hear about it for years on end. That day is when I put in for a new job.
Image source: Sari L. , Getty Images/unsplash
#20
An oral surgeon that I don’t wish to name as I’m still in the field. He was the most heartless human I’ve ever known. He made fun of his patients & threw temper tantrums over his own change of mind. He was just plain mean! I was asked by the other two employees to pitch in 1/3 twd his expensive Christmas gift. An amount I could ill afford, as a poor newlywed. I was coerced by being told he was very generous at Christmas, & I would be embarrassed if I didn’t pay up. After Christmas, I finally got the nerve to ask his office manager/girlfriend about the mentioned gift. She asked if my unused sick pay was on my last check. It was. That was the gift! money I was already owed by never calling in sick to use my days. Oh & by the way his divorce & the office manager’s were final on the same day. They denied their relationship until my coworker had an emergency that took her by his house at 3:00am, where she noted Cindy’s car happened to be. Lier too!
Image source: Vickie Burke, Mufid Majnun/unsplash
#21
Worst is hard to say. How do you quantify one bad behavior as being worse than another. I’ve worked for some doozies though.
In the Army—
I had a boss who was so technically and tactically incompetent had he not died (natural causes) himself, I’m sure he would have gotten himself and an entire team k****d in combat. No doubt in my mind. The man was an idiot.
I had one who could no kidding sleep 20+ hours a day and would take a nap while I did all the work every time we moved positions. He refused to send me to school that I needed for a promotion because “If I send you to school, you get promoted and I lose you. You make me look good.”
I had a First Sergeant who also refused to send me to required school for the same reason. A promotion would mean I would move.
At a large consultancy—
I had a VP who had exactly zero people skills whatsoever. He would throw his own people under the bus in meetings to try to make himself look good. He was the absolute master of avoiding any responsibility while taking maximum credit for other people’s work. He was unethical, amoral, and generally just a piece of s**t. He spent huge amounts of the company’s money on personal things and would order us to pick up tabs when we were out under the auspices of “if you put it on your expense report I just approve it. If I have to do it, I’ll have to answer questions about it.”
For a huge tech company (you’ve heard of them)—
I had a boss who wouldn’t attend any meetings whatsoever then swoop in at the very last minute with a million changes. We called it “pigeon management”. Fly in, poop on everything, fly away. Incredibly frustrating especially since most of the changes were useless.
My boss now, however, is awesome. I actually took this job just for the opportunity to work with him, such is his reputation. I’m glad I did.
Image source: Matthew Hendrickson, Getty Images/unsplash
#22
My very first work study job in college was in a small sub section of the University library. I took the position to have some kind of income my first year of college.
I only lasted about a month. She would come back from random meetings into the room and find something to flip out about and blame on whomever was working that shift.
“Why are these cards over here?” “You placed them there.” “Well why didn’t anyone put them back? Why did I hire you if you are going to sit there and do ‘nothing’?”
Add your own profanities to the conversation to get an idea of how these conversations really went down. These accusations included room setup, are you working on the right task of the 50 I gave you, why did I even hire you.
The final blow was when she shoved a chair across the room, slamming and collapsing a shelf, and called me every name in the book while saying I showed no respect. It was only a work study job. Only part time. Not worth this.
I later joined another office area, where I in fact met my future and current wife, so I am thankful for the strength and courage I took to just say to myself “I have no money but I am not going to try to earn any working in this environment.”
I found out later what all the grief was about. Each meeting was a chopping block discussion of what to cut to keep the University library within budget and that specialty office she ran that I worked in was always up for chopping. She would spend all meeting fighting for her job trying to be the humblest person in the room amongst the bosses and elite of the college.
This hold back is of course now released in anger on us low wage workers since we had no power over her. Many took it as just another stupid rant; I couldn’t because it reminded me too much of the drunken-high parents of mine that would always yell at me and I did not want to go through with that anymore, let alone my first year finally away from it all in college. Especially all the accusations of laziness, disrespect, and stupidity being labeled on me by her.
They eventually did get rid of that library sub-department. She had to find work elsewhere, yet no one in the university library would take her, so she went somewhere else. Those work study students who did survive to the end were thankfully given other small jobs in the main library branch to work until the end of the school year.
Image source: Jason Lewis
#23
I had a retail boss, I was the department manager of the ladies intimate apparel section. I’d go in and she’d hand me the daily “to-do” list; fixtures to set, wall displays to change, mannequins to dress and so on and so on. Well, about ten minutes into the day she’d call me up to registers, someone called in sick, so you’re working registers now.
ME-but I have to get those fixtures set, blah blah blah. HER-you can go to your dept. but just listen for assistance pages on the radio. End of the day. HER-sign this Me. What is it? HER-notice that you failed to complete your daily. ME-you moved me to the register, I got stuck there most of the day. HER-you also left your return cart at customer service full and your fitting rooms are a mess. ME-but I wasn’t in the department. HER-are you refusing to sign it? ME-yes! Because you pulled me out of my department. HER-you’ll need to sign this one as well (an already filled out form for refusing to sign a write-up. Meaning instead of one write up, I was getting two.
She only did this when she was the manager on duty, which she filed complaint with the head manager that I was blatantly not doing my job when she was in charge (bucking authority and all that)
She was also the manager to fire me for too many call ins while my mom was fighting cancer and I was waiting for my FMLA papers to go through
Image source: Christine Bozarth, Andrej Lišakov/unsplash
#24
When I was in my teens I interned at a then-Fortune 500 company doing network security. My boss wasn’t bad per se – they were pretty nice, but they clearly didn’t want me to do my job (or maybe I just had unrealistically literal job expectations).
I was supposed to audit the company’s global security infrastructure. The more flaws I discovered, the more they didn’t want to hear about it (probably out of concern for their job if I was too successful). The company also had some sadly typical hard/crunchy-outside,soft/chewy-inside ideas about security (they had me wardial for rogue modems, which is good but who even does that anymore?) and the office had some sort of weird radioreflective structure that interfered with cell phone signals.
During my time there I compromised most of their internal systems, up to and including the CEO’s email (which, from a more mature perspective, someone should have told the 18 y/o intern was off-limits). They deactivated all of my accounts at 5:00 sharp my last day, and I’m fairly certain my report got shredded (they were hacked a year or two later through a vulnerability I’d previously found. Amusingly, I ran into the hax0r online and sent them a screenshot of my EvilCorp corporate security ID. They were less amused.).
16 years later I still haven’t broken the habit of getting sucked into issues that are none of my business. I imagine this’ll come up on my life issues performance review.
Image source: Adrián Lamo , Getty Images/unsplash
#25
Yes, more than once and I got out of there. People who do not belong in positions of authority, who don’t know what they are doing, and are abusive. When you are a young woman out in the working world for the first time, you should not be objected to foul language, dirty jokes, or crude comments. Now this would be called sexual harassment. In the 70’s it was just the way it was. Hey, what’s your problem?
So you learned to deal with it. Everything was about how you looked, how you dressed, etc. Nothing about your skills or abilities. You were hired for your appearance.
I have been spoken to in a very inappropriate way, groped, propositioned. When I was very young and yes, I was married to a man overseas serving his country. I was just trying to make some money for us to build a life.
No one seemed to respect that at the time. I made lousy money and put up with a lot of c**p. Even later on, I dealt with a few bosses (men) who were of the mindset that I was somehow just a thing.
Image source: Cyndy Kellerstedt, Getty Images/unsplash
#26
Never paid well, always spoke bad about women and culture, made me work overtime and never paid me for it, sexually harassed me, abused his wife, made me work in a terrible office which had cracked walls and flooring and looked like a m****r scene.
Image source: Pink Beauty, Ngozi Ejionueme/unsplash
#27
When I was working on an associate’s in music, I took a part-time job at a piano store. I was young and naive and was willing to work under iffy conditions…below minimum wage, for a start…to have a piano store all to myself during the evenings and do my homework on a Steinway. I lasted about two years before it all came crashing down due to some management issues I won’t go into here (that’s an entirely different horrible boss story).
When all was said and done, this was what really stung me: I got married a couple of years after I left that job, and I wanted to hire one of the store’s piano teachers to play at the reception. I found his number online and gave him a call. When I finally got through to him, he mentioned that my calling had really creeped him out. Why? “Well, it was from beyond the grave, you know.” No, I didn’t know. Finally, he told me that the store’s owner, my former boss, told all of the employees that my cancer had returned and I left my job to go die. He essentially told all my coworkers I was dead. And I guess they had no reason not to believe him.
Why on earth would someone do that?
Image source: Amorette Kitsa, Getty Images/unsplash
#28
I once worked for a company, there was a client and a manager. Manager was clueless on what was happening on the client end. The client. He was the worst nightmare anyone could have. We used to have repititve tasks. So if for the first time you took 30 mins. Next time should be 15 mins then 5 mins and it goes reducing. He never believed in giving a fair amount of time in the name of productivity. He always had complaints even after me putting more than 12 hours. He always berated on the calls and said i am not doing a good job. Although I reached a point that i put 12 hours a day but nothing mattered. I always felt under threat. I used to feel burnt out at the end of the day. Here comes the manager. “I know that person has some issue but you need to adjust”. And ultimately ended up throwing me under the bus. How to identify such people. You get a negative vibe during the interview if its someone like this. So my suggestion is to avoid or leave such places to maintain your sanity. Later i came to know that many others also left within a short span due to his attitude. You will come to a point you will suspect your skills but it’s not worth it. He complained that I’m not good in one of the key skills. I switched and I’m taking training for others on that. That itself would potray the hell i have been through. I’m writing this answer because i want the awareness to be spread that this is normal and one will always get out of this. I want this answer to be an inspiration for others who are working under such sadistic bosses. Money matters but sanity and happiness even more. Also lastly remember, few people do exist in this world who will always be unsatisfied irrespective of how much efforts you take. It’s not only with you but others. They are wrong and not you. So don’t take it on you.
Image source: Indian , Getty Images/unsplash
#29
mostly “over” or “close” management was usually the biggest cause of stress when I worked.
I experienced this two or three times.
Good Manger: Give me the job, show me the objectives, teach me the “environment” and leave me alone unless I need guidance.
Bad Manager: Give me the job, don’t show me the objectives, don’t advise me of the environment, criticise negatively, and keep bothering me.
Another ..one manager “poached” me from another department causing a big rift, on the promise that he’d get me another “level” and therefore a considerable rise. After three months , I asked hm why this hadn’t yet happened. He asked me if I had his promise in writing. Naturally it was a “gentleman’s agreement” so he smiled and said that I was a **** for believing him. I could do nothing.
Sometime later, we BOTH experienced redundancy and I found myself sitting next to him in an outplacement office. I made it known to the others that he was an unprincipled lying ****. He could do nothing and became a laughing stock.
Image source: Anders Wahlberg, Getty Images/unsplash
#30
Scary Terry was probably bipolar or something like that. When she hired me, she was so nice. Other days, she could be a monster. Everyone in the warehouse was affected by this, and when she wasn’t there we all were much more relaxed and happy.
I was hired to be a receptionist/cashier at a plumbing parts warehouse. I could do that. No problem.
Then, she wanted me to learn bookkeeping. Something I never went to school for. Something I was not trained in. Something I was not particularly interested in. I shrugged and said I would try, but to remember I had no training. Her idea of training was to lean over my shoulder and scream into my ear. Sometimes she would shove me away from the computer and do it herself.
Many mornings, I would cry on my way to work. This is NOT like me. I stuck it out because if you quit your job in this state, you probably won’t qualify for Unemployment. It was such a relief when she finally fired me.
Image source: Kathy Thompson, CoWomen/unspalsh
#31
Here’s mine:
It was my first job. I was still in college. The job was an afternoon shift so I would go after my classes. It was in a very big media house. My job was to keep the live news ticker (the one that runs on the bottom of the TV screen) running all the time and keep an eye out for breaking news.
The work itself was not tedious. We were 2 members so 1 person ALWAYS had to be on the seat lest some breaking news comes.
Our department boss was a fellow with a huge ego, who loved to trample on his minions. Any mistake and he would grab the boys by their hair and shake them vigorously. With the girls, he would bang their tables loudly till they cried. He would shout, scream, curse, throw things. There were numerous complaints against him, but his behaviour was always excused by the management for being under ‘constant stress and pressure of daily news’. Real reason was that his show was the most successful and brought in the maximum moolah so nobody could touch him.
Being only 18 years old, I was aghast and believed thats how the job market is every where.
As was inevitable, my turn soon came. My partner was absent and I was dying of hunger. After delaying my lunch by 5 hours, I could bear no more. I begged someone to take my place while I ran to the pantry. When I returned, the boss was fuming. Apparently there was a breaking news in the 7 minutes that I was away. The other guy had made a spelling mistake in the ticker and the entire blame was shifted on me. He mumbled “I ll see you after the show.” Oh, was I scared. Everyone was looking at me with sympathy. I wanted to run home. I kept thinking I m only 18. I don’t deserve this. There is a lot more I could be doing with my life. But I decided to make peace with whatever was coming my way.
He came and threw my laptop. Then he tore up the pages lying on desk. I calmly looked him in the eye as he abused me and told him i went to eat. This riled him even more. He threw my bag and phone. Now he raised his hand and was coming to slap me. I didn’t flinch. He stopped midway, mumbled some abuses and went away. Next day, I complained of harassment.
The HR response was unbelievably baffling. They said he never touched me so there was no case of harassment. They said I should resolve such “petty” issues within the department and not waste their time.
Needless to say, I resigned. When I went to collect my final salary, the HR Not only withheld all my dues, but asked me to pay! For laptop repair, resigning without notice and jeopardising the programme (no kidding).
I was only a trainee so my pay was a pittance. This was the biggest shock that they would like to keep my hard earned money just out of spite.
My salary was gone but I told them I will not pay anything out of my pocket to them. I walked out and challenged them to stop me. They quietly closed the door and that was the last I saw of them.
Image source: DJ, Mohamed hamdi/unsplash
#32
I will name my worst boss “Bill.” Bill, for the most part, was a good person. Bill, in the worst way was a terrible “boss.”
I worked in a liquid and powder production company, back in the Eighties where Bill had been working since the early Seventies. In that time, he had taken jobs in every part of the production process. Most guys would find a niche and return to that part of the facility for the remainder of their time (until a forklift driving job opened up). Then they would retire. Maybe Bill had ADHD; either way, someone higher in command thought Bill would be an ideal production supervisor. Although Bill knew how to run every machine, his generational peers saw him as a production numbers buffoon. As a common production employee, he never reached his daily quotas and on the rare times he did, he sang his own praises way too loudly. He was cocky and thought he knew it all. When he got hired as a supervisor, I was told, he quickly became twice as obnoxious. That’s the way I found him when I was hired on.
Bill did not have the necessary people skills to be a successful “boss.” He didn’t know how to motivate, encourage, teach, or in any other way, ‘help’ his workers. As things like this go, they moved Bill up to Receiving Warehouse Supervisor. He would now have the privilege to oversee the duties of some of the company’s most dedicated, longtime employees.
I so enjoyed going to work every day after Bill went to the warehouse, but only for one week! Once settled in his new position, he decided the warehouse could run much more efficiently if they had a “runner” to unload the elevator after the -lift drivers loaded it. When asked which of the new hires he would prefer, he chose me. His ineptitude followed him from the production facility to the warehouse and in a matter of mere months, Bill had the docile, placidly compliant near-retirees ready to revolt.
As Bill’s bosses started breathing down his neck, he would make the next three years of (once calm) warehouse work, some of the most contentious, and dangerous days in the company’s history.
One day, Bill ordered me to dispose of a longtime quarantined product that was “just taking up space” to make room for an insignificant shipment of packaging, because he didn’t want to deal with an angry trucker. Days later, I was ordered to go with Bill to the local landfill and retrieve the load of quarantined material which had been deemed carcinogenic (cancer causing), hence the quarantine. We only found some shredded bags that once held the material. The overstuffed bags that I had thrown so easily into the dumpster had been crushed, compacted, dumped, run over innumerable times, and then plowed under and over for three long days. The company had to pay a HUGE environmental fine. I was brought before a panel of company administrators, contract company bigwigs, and an environmental lawyer to tell my side of the story. Bill didn’t last a year after that.
Bill simply should never have been promoted to a role he couldn’t handle. These type of people make the worst bosses. They are so full of self-doubt that they usually overcompensate through overconfidence and demanding. His replacement was a younger, laid back, college graduate with 10 years real world (Fortune 500) managing experience. So, life got placidly better under “Phil” in the warehouse, and that’s when I put it all in my rearview and moved on.
Image source: Ken O'Keefe, National Cancer Institute/unsplash
#33
I’ve only had one boss until now, and he was nice. So I’m going to tell you about my friend’s current boss because he fits the description(worst). Now, my friend graduated from law school but he’s working in a restaurant during his military service period. You know, in movies, when the boss keep yelling many orders at an employee at the same time, not giving him/her time to do any of them, and then gets mad at them for not doing them all at once. That’s literally what my friend’s boss does, and then when he gets mad, he starts telling him that his education(and him) doesn’t matter, he won’t get anywhere in life, etc. You see, it’s not what you are, it’s what you do that earns you respect(and defines you, thank you everyone in the dark knight trilogy for this beautiful quote :D).
Image source: Mostafa Moharram
#34
I have 2 come to mind. Boss A was a very nice guy. Good ‘ole boy attitude. I rank him amoung my worst boss’ because he was a leader who did not know how to lead. He did not know how to inspire greatness in his employees. He promoted by seniority instead of merit. Meaning that if you had been in your position for 2 years and another person at the same level had been there 3, the other guy got the next jump, regardless of how good both of you are. Boss A was incampable of deciding who was a strong contributor to the team and who was dead wood.
Boss B was just the opposite. He was a very sneaky snake in the grass. He was only looking at what he could do to get himself promoted. He would lie, cheat, steal, or do anything else to get ahead. Boss A was a very likeable guy. Boss B was not. Boss A is still a friend.
Image source: Bob Erwin
#35
A 40+ year old virgin that liked to pretend he was a tough guy while being the most reprehensible poltroon in the department. This a**hole was so malevolently stupid, and resented us so much, that he would actually hurt himself to hurt others. I helped get him demoted. Every time he stepped out of line, I’d report it by email to the big boss. The a**hole finally got hung with his own rope, knotted securely the big boss and me. When the other workers realised the t***sucker was essentially powerless to stop them, further revelations of absolute cement-headedness were revealed.
Image source: Roger Still, Getty Images/unsplash
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