Tell your "bad boss" stories here....

[Papa Deuce]

I'll start.

I've had annoying overbearing bosses for about one third of my adult life.... like right now, but that isn't a bad boss. This is:

In front of clients ( we worked for an audio visual company for a convention center ), my boss "whistled" for me like a dog. We were in the process of setting up a huge project for a 2,000 person event. I walked over and said "That's it; I've had enough".

I walked out and drove to my company's main office and filed a complaint. The next day I was made the boss and he was unemployed!

BTW, while in college, my boss was a woman who hated men. Then one day she was hauled in by the police while drunk and they wouldn't release her without someone picking her up. That someone was me. ( She ran the dorm; I was an RA ).

I came and picked her up. The next day I "blackmailed" her. I told her that she needed to ease up on the men who worked for her or I would let my little story slip to her bosses. I went on to explain why I was blackmailing her.

She broke down in tears and said that she never realized that she had been that way towards men. She was about 25 years old and so was I ( I started college 3 years late ). Whe told me about all the bad relationships she had been in, and there were many.

Well, long story made a little shorter, she changed her ways, and we became fairly good friends!

 

[Kimberle]

When I had my dd, I came down with HELLP (very bad form of Pre-Eclampsia) and was put on bedrest. I had my dd 11 weeks early (emergency C-section, under general anest.). She was 1#15.5oz, 13.5" and on life support. She came down with Group Strep B twice, along with other problems.

When my 16 weeks of Family Leave was up (what CT allows), Brittany was abt 4#'s and out of the hospital less than a month. Of course, she was not allowed to be around other people, let alone start daycare. That Thursday, my boss had HR call me and tell me if I was not back in the office on Monday, I'd loose my job. My boss knew I was coming back, I'd had conversations with her all along.

I did go back. My IL's came everyday for a week. Then we flew my youngest sister in for the remainder of the summer. She was on break from college.

Crulest thing I'd ever heard of from a "boss".

 

[poochie]

Years ago when I became pregnant with my 2nd child (DS now 20). I went to tell my boss so we could plan for the future, when I went on maternity leave months down the road. He looked me straight in the eye and said "Not the smartest thing you ever done"

"What"

From that point on I actually hated the man. Would you believe he was really heavy into his religon too, what some would call a bible thumper.

And to top it off, I had complications on top of a difficult delivery (Emergency C-Section and had to take a couple of more weeks of disability. He had someone call my house every week to ask when I would be making an appearance back at work. I never called in sick prior to my maternity leave in the years I worked for him too. Some nerve huh?

 

[Snoopymom]

I was an assistant for 3 people at a small company and within the first 2 weeks, I was asked to fetch cigarrettes out of a car when the door unknowingly and automatically locked behind me, so I was locked out for about 20 minutes and then reprimanded for it, shop around for cheaper birth control pills and go to the owners house and let his dogs out who slobbered all over my skirt, oh and one of them used to snap her fingers at me. This was the only job I walked out of and later my husband won over one of their big accounts and they eventually went out of business....there is justice, lol!

 

[MouseEars4us]

I've had several "bad" bosses. The one that sticks out though...
Once, I worked for a small family owned grocery store (they owned 4 stores) they needed a new head cashier and asked me if I wanted the job. I took the offer and went to full-time with a small raise and a week of training.

I was the only head cashier. I also checked in deliveries, entered new items in the computer, made the schedule, and stocked my department...On my days off either the floor manager or the bosses husband would do my duties, but not very well and the main office was always calling to have me find and correct a mistake made by one of the guys. The day my neice got married I had to go into work, because no one knew how to close the store.

After about a year of hassle, headache and frustrations, the final straw was the morning after I had a day off... the boss called, irrate about how something had been done wrong the day before...it was always done wrong...it had been a year since I got the job, didn't I know how to do it yet?...after a little of the shock wore off (while she was yelling at me) I took a deep breath and informed her, her husband had been in charge of the office that day, it was my day off. I had tried to show the guys how to do the work, but they had other duties to perform and weren't too interested in learning the office routine. In fact, I was no longer interested in the office routine, and she needed to look for a replacement. After a few moments of silence she asked if I was sure, to which I replied "POSITIVE!" and hung up.

They promoted another girl, gave her double the raise I got, and after awhile asked me to help on her day off...They finally got it right just too late for me...

 

[Microcell]

The worst was probably when I was a waitress in college and the skanky people there started talking about my chest size and when I went to the Dining Room Manager to ask him to tell them to get to work and stop obsessing over me, he said, well, show me and I will let them know the answer. I was not really shocked by that, as he was slime too, but the District Manager was there and he heard it and said, "Go ahead and do it, I will watch to keep George honest, unless you don't want him to be..." , I went to the restaurant General manager to tell him I wanted to file a complaint, and he closed the door and decided to declare his undying love for me. I said, well, I don't think it is appropriate for me to date the boss and he said, "I could fire you... Just kidding of course. "

Can you believe I didn't walk out right then? I was broke and needed that nights tips to pay a bill! I did find another job quickly! The really funny thing was I was friendly with the Kitchen manager, who was not one to mess with physically, so I told him what was going on and he put a stop to it immediately. I wound up dating him for four years! I always joked with him that it was because he had the good taste to be the only boss there not to hit on me that night. He told me he wanted to, but thought better of it! I had a bad enough evening!

 

[sha_lyn]

Worst would have to be the one who grabbed my breast. I was working for a newspaper as "seasonal" help DS's first Xmas to make extra money. It was a small town paper that was printed by a larger paper. Therefore they had to insert their own local sales paper in by hand once they were delived to the office. Anyway I had my hands full with a stack of papers. He walked up to me infron of a room full of people and grabbed my breast. I can't remember exactly what I said or where I hit him, but lets say I made an impression. I then walked out (after getting my pay for the day)and didn't return.

 

[CinderellaIam]

I worked for a major corporation for 17 years. After 12 years, the division I worked in was shut down. Most of the empoyees were given a handsome severence package (including paid benefits), I on the other hand was transferred into another division. This division did not want me, and I was now reporting to someone who held the position I had in the now closed division. Well, this guy was clueless and since I had company loyalty I was the one making things run 98% of the time because he didn't know how. As much as he was clueless, he was also semi-harmless. It was HIS boss that was my problem. The man had no people skills whatsoever and managed by intimidation and threats.

Shortly after I had returned to work from knee surgery he called me into his office and informed me that he was taking a major project away from my boss, without him knowing about it and I was going to work on the project with him. I was not comfortable with this situation at all, and when I told him so he said "You say a word to him and I will kick you in your knee...just before I fire you!" And this was only one of 5 years worth of similar comments.

A year ago he crossed the line in a meeting and I quit. When I left the company I had an "exit interview" with a human resources representative (not that I hadn't gone to them repeatedly, but this was a new V.P.). Shortly after I left this man was demoted and shipped off to their office in Europe and is now very miserable!

Moral of the story, what goes around comes around!

 

[belleandthebeast]

I had a boss @ a fast food restuarant that belittled the employees in front of the customers ALL THE TIME. I'm talking major embarrasement. She would single one staff out and ride them all night. She made alot of them cry (mostly teenagers not sure how to handle her). She also told me I was a sinner for living w/ a man before we were married. Not that it was any of her business. The last straw was when she yelled at me in front of the customers. I came unglued and yelled right back at her and asked her how SHE felt being yelled at. She never yelled at me again.
By the way, I complained to management pretty much once a week. My head manager said that he had talked to his supervisor who stated that he would fired her (the mean manager) but he wasn't hiring anyone to replace her and we would be stuck short staffed. Huh? I don't think that was the best way to deal w/ a situation that for them could have turned disasterous. Needless to say that manager was transferred. BUT, I still here complains about her. I just had a customer complain 2 nights ago about her.

I wonder why companies keep managers like her. They really just set themselves up for major lawsuits. Oh, she also call a 16-year old girl a really bad name. The girls parents were not at all amused. Still nothing happened.

 

[Maleficent13]

My worst boss was about 10 years ago. I worked for a small single physician practice, and I ran both the front and back office. The physician was a woman, and her husband (who was unemployed) would come in daily to "check up on things". He would stand in the reception area and berate employees and make comments about patients with deliquent payments in front of a waiting room full of people. When I asked the MD to say something to him about it, he called her a "fat cow"...also in front of about 20 patients. He consistantly called her stupid and lazy, told her she would be nothing without him (again...unemployed loser here), threatened on a daily basis to take both her kids to Iran with him and never return if she didn't do exactly what he said.

The day I quit was the day I came to work and found the biohazard bins strewn on the office floor. He had said we were "wasting" sticky notes, and after we had left the night before, he had gone through the trash. When he didn't find anything, he went through the bio-haz and pulled out any paper that was in there, wanting to know what it was. Did I mention this was an OB/GYN office? Do you know what went IN the bio-haz on a daily basis??? Ugh. Then he proceeded to call me stupid for not monitoring the staff more closely on sticky note abuse.

There are so many more stories about him...I'll just stop there. Hopefully he's since been arrested on HIPAA violations and/or tax fraud (don't get me started there).

 

[PneumaticTransit]

I worked at a major fast food chain when I was 16, and I had 2 very bad managers. The store manager was a complete stress case and broke down sobbing on a daily basis. She also treated all the closing crew teens like crap, she had me working 48 hours a week even though my applicated clearly stated I only wanted 24 hours a week. I made her pull it out several times so she would change my schedule, but it always went back to the way she wanted it. We had a closing crew of 5 people one night, I was on drive thru... 2 of the others decided they didn't like their jobs and walked out leaving me, the night manager, and the dish lady who wasn't trained to cook or take orders. So I had to take the drive thru orders, take the $$, cook the food, serve it, and back to taking the next order. Of course it was a Friday night so it was very busy... I ended up getting the longest drive thru time in the history of the store. 34 minutes! And of course the next day I got chewed out by the crazy store manager. How was it my (16 years old) responsibility to call in help? Isn't that what the night manager is paid for?? Go yell at him!

And of course at the same store I had a manager that helped her boyfriend kill her 3 y/o daughter, and ended up getting arrested (while working) and hauled of to jail. But that is a whole 'nother bad manager story.

 

[ahutton]

For most of my career I've worked in the insurance industry. I've had a few bad bosses, as it seems in the claim field often the people who get promoted as managers are there because they are not able to handle the clients on the phones. Why it has not occurred to someone that if they have no people skills with clients, what makes them good managers is a whole other thread!

I had a team leader tell me the "problem" with my desk was that I was too conscientious, I was logged into our phone queue, so I got calls with new claims. DUH - we were all supposed to be except for our 2 hours per week. I had over 3 times the claim volume because others would decide they were too busy to answer their phone and just log out, leaving all the calls to roll to myself and one other person who also understood that if everyone logs in, then the calls get distributed fairly. She regularly scolded (loudly) other employees from the entrance to their cube.

I had a team leader at another company tell me the problem with working mothers is they are unable to concentate after the baby comes, their brains just shut down.

When I told my current office manager I was pregnant (baby #3) she told me I had ruined her day and put a plastic bag on her head. Real grown up, huh?

 

[arminnie]

Oh where do I start....

At the lovely EDS (Ross Perot's old company):

I was reprimanded by my boss's boss for telling my employees what a good job they had done. They had worked day and night and performed nothing short of a miracle in getting an emergency project done in 6 weeks when even IBM said it would take 4 months. He told me that it was company policy NEVER to to tell employees that they had done a good job, that they should always be left feeling like they needed to try a harder next time.

A woman who had lost two babies (at 6 and 7 months pregnant) finally had a healthy baby. She had 6 weeks of maternity leave and ASKED for an additional 2 weeks off (unpaid). She was fired for ASKING for extra time in spite of being the top rated employee in the division. Her manager was a total witch and just didn't like her. I did manage (after a lot of hard work) to hire her back for my group, and I gave her 3 months of extra leave.

One of the division managers cancelled all vacations and holidays (including Christmas) for all of his employees for a project that wasn't due for another year.

I was in the hospital with severe pneumonia (literally almost died) for two weeks, my boss called and wanted to know if I could make a meeting the next day and told me that he had NEVER taken a sick day.

I'll stop now. I could write pages and pages about that company.

 

[puggymom]

I used to woek at a Wall Street Firm and Had surgery that involved by throat, therefore I wouldn't bea ble to talke for a few days. Less than 24 hours out of surgery they called because they need to talk to me


The company I am at now there use to be a manager who was easily bored at meetings . One day he takes out nailclippers and started clipping away I stormed out of there and went right to his boss, there are many thing I will tolerate but anything hygiene and cleanliness I won't. He was gone a few months later.

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

My boss told me yesterday ( after I made a silly mistake ) that I had more silicone in my brain than anywhere else.


PS...i have NO silicon in my body..just well endowed by God!

 

[JCJRSmith]

My worst boss was the last Chief I worked for in the military, on USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was an alcoholic who had been through the alcoholism counselling program twice (we called it "dry dock") and was still drinking. When he reported to the ship he had 14 months left until he could retire at 20 years. He would show up at morning muster either still drunk from the night before or so hung over that any instructions he gave to the crew were either non-sensical or by noon he would forget what he told us. I was made the Division Leading Petty Officer when he fired the other E6 for carrying out the orders the Chief gave him at morning quarters.

The straw that broke the camel's back: First Class Petty Officer evaluations are ranked against each other on the ship, and this ranking goes a long way towards determining whether a First Class gets promoted to Chief. The day of the ranking board, our Chief did not attend the board to defend our evals because "he was too busy" (he was hung over again). It did not matter to me - I was leaving the Navy anyway, and by then, I was working for the Admiral's staff on the ship. But for the other First Class, Mike, this was a career breaker. I kicked everyone out of the workspace except for the Chief and gave him a verbal dressing-down that would have made my boot camp company commander proud. I actually told a man who out-ranked me that we could easily replace him with a full-size cardboard cut-out of himself, and it would be just as effective. He actually apologized to us the next day.

Didn't help though - he was still a knucklehead.

 

[Piglet]

I had a boss about 7 years ago tell me after I returned to work when my DD (at the time 1 yo) was at the Children's Hospital for diagnosis of a life threatening metabolic disease that he was going to send someone there to pick me up and bring me back to work because they couldn't figure out how to do something on the computer. I was 4 hours away and my DD was very sick. I told him that if he would have, I would quit right on the spot. I ended up taking a medical leave to take care of her and quit when that was up anyways.

Melinda

 

[llij]

Wow, lots of bad boss stories here. The only one I have is when my office called me while I was in labor asking me to be on a conference call. They knew I was in labor, but it didn't matter. They wanted me to discuss some research I had done with our board of trustees. "Sure, I'll be on the call if you don't mind me giving birth during the call!"

 

[tar heel]

When I worked for a small college, we had staff meetings first thing Monday mornings in the conference room next to the president's office. He always arrived first, and at exactly 8:30 a.m., he locked the door so no one could come in even one minute late.

I have lots of stories about this school -- our contracts had a "moral terpitude" clause, for example. I couldn't get away from there fast enough!

 

[swanmom]

My boss at a local bank branch (with an entirely female staff except for him) was an amateur photographer. He would regularly bring in nude shots of his wife which he called his 'art photography' (Yeah, right ) and insist that we all look at them and comment on his 'talent.' YUCK!