Tell us about your Worst Boss

This was a floor manager in a restaurant, he would lock himself in his office during the dinner rush.

She was also the owner of the company. We had weekly “staff meetings” which consisted of her getting wound up over an hour - she’d start out with how great the company could be, there were all these synergies between part of the business, then gradually devolving into how we were all failing her, the company was doing badly because of us.

Sometimes one or two people would come in for individual abuse. Eventually our paychecks starting bouncing - paper checks, you had to rush out as soon as you got yours to see if you could get paid before the funds ran out.

Finally she disappeared for three days - no one could find her, including her husband. After I left, I found out she had drained her kids’ college funds to keep the place afloat. That’s when her family had her involuntarily committed.

She’s not the boss who, when I was at the emergency room with a suicidal student, and called in to update her, told me she was taking the call at my desk and was in the middle of eating my lunch.

She gave the black employees Martin Luther King Day off, but everyone else had to work. I know she meant well, but it created resentment.

I worked at a law firm ten years ago as a legal assistant. I had to ask my office manager, Agnes, for a day off to take my MS stricken sister to a doctor’s appointment. Agnes granted the time off reluctantly, and suggested I put my sister in a nursing home.

Agnes had a daughter who had some form of mental retardation. Her daughter she put in a home when she turned 18 years old. The home was in a different state.

Once or twice a year Agnes would bring her daughter home for a week, to visit. In the office kitchen, Agnes sat her daughter to give her lunch. To everyone’s horror, she removed from a plastic lunch bag a can of pork and beans, opened it, and dumped its contents into a bowl before her daughter, who began eating it. I must have had quite a look on my face for Agnes offered, “This is her favorite meal!” Every day during her visit, Agnes only gave her daughter a can of cold pork and beans.

R4 that has to be in the South. That’s some What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? shit.

R4, you are correct: Charleston SC

Current: Wet Noodle.

It has its time and place, but lately he seems to have given up entirely and is just waiting for a retirement date that he has not announced. We do whatever the fuck we want, when we want. We create our own work and opportunities, but he is not propping our office up for more growth with our national leadership. I'm riding out the summer (and hopefully these current economic woes) and then looking elsewhere.

He's also as Boomer as they get. The guy used to show up in a suit and day every day, hated WFH, ass in seats type guy. Further confirmation that style of work is all for show.

I’ve always noticed that bad bosses take all the credit for anything good and never take accountability for anything bad, even when it’s their fault.

A woman who thought she was all that and a bag of potato chips. She was nuts. She’d have a different personality everyday, you never knew what you were going to get. Very impulsive. She was a master at taking credit for the work of others and deferring blame from herself, yet she always preached about “accountability”. Sociopath cunt.

South African. Charming but nasty. Abusive. Loved to play head games. The incident that sticks in my mind (and it wasn’t the worst thing he ever did to me) was at the holiday party. I was wearing a corduroy jacket when all of the other men were dressed in suits. Sorry but I’m poor. He walked over to me, rubbed his fingers on my sleeve, laughed, shook his head and walked away.

I have the absolute best and totally worse all in the same person at this very moment!

R11 tell us about them

Overzealous office manager who wanted me to pick up an expensive gift for the chairman of the company. Just an hour earlier I had collapsed on the floor from dehydration, which he knew. When I said I was not up to walking to Tiffanys, he said "do you have a doctor's note?"

[quote]I’ve always noticed that bad bosses take all the credit for anything good and never take accountability for anything bad, even when it’s their fault.

I don't know what you're talking about.

A raging cunt with a drug problem. One time she took time off to have her wisdom teeth removed. The next day a coworker saw her at the bar we would frequent buying adderall from the bartender.

Women in positions of authority in the workplace is not a good idea. They are vindictive, try to act like they think a man would in their position, are threatened by other women, use their sexuality to get ahead while condemning other women for doing the same. Histrionic, can't handle criticism but are very critical of those below them on the food chain. If they don't have children themselves, they expect those that do to still put their careers before family.

R16 the other thing with women is that the worst ones make it to the top. That’s how they get there, it’s a product of sexism I guess. But with men you have nice guys who get into power. I agree though women get so power drunk. They’re also obsessed with anyone “talking about” them, they never move past high school. Sorry but periods make women emotionally unstable, I’ve seen women make psychotic decisions in the workplace because they were on the rag.

My worst boss was a white gay male with unresolved racial issues. He spread toxic rumors about me because I kept him waiting on his date night. I contacted human resources about him and he resigned but the damage was done.

Bad Boss 1: She picked through my office garbage can and confronted me with something she found in my garbage can. (I can't even remember what it was.) She ate my food from the fridge.

Bad Boss 2: She was fucking the Big Boss and she was dumb (but I guess she was kind of smart to be fucking the Big Boss). She told me to rewrite something (some type of in-house report). I was pissed but I did rewrite it. At the end of the report. I wrote: "The End."

A CEO at a nationally known breast cancer foundation was hooked on Adderall and went around 'outlawing' anyone bringing in snacks or treats because she said everyone was too fat. She openly and proudly admitted that when problems came up in her life, she'd hop on a plane. She traveled constantly. Before she landed this job, this DOG-FACED CUNT was a top exec at CHURCH'S CHICKEN. Now she heads some arts group in Atlanta.

This happened to a young colleague of mine who worked as the secretary to an executive years ago.

The female executive noticed a run in her pantyhose so around lunchtime she took the pantyhose off, handed it to the poor young girl and instructed her to go to Saks to buy a replacement pair. Paid for by office petty cash.

Sidenote - this exec had been one of the founding members of Ms. magazine prior to coming to our company. It wasn’t Gloria Steinem.

R20 found her

Georgia has some of the shittiest schools in the country, so not surprised, R22.

Boss at a law firm asked me in late December to prepare some documents and get a cheap associate to send them out for signature. I told the associate to the send the documents by FedEx overnight and include pre-addressed return overnight envelopes so people could return them ASAP. 3 days pass and the boss asks why no one has returned the documents. I email the associate who says "it takes a week for mail to get somewhere by US postal mail". I get the email on my blackberry while I'm driving in blizzard to Boston, and I send it to boss. Boss calls me, tells me the client will leave our firm, and that I'm the worst attorney he's ever worked with. I pull over to the closest hotel and spend the next 8 hours sorting everything out.

At 4 a.m., the client finally calls me and says "your boss is really pissed at you! But I don't know why. I asked him to get those documents signed in August".

^Same boss the next year. In September, he asks me to do some work for his client for the end of the year. I email the client and tell him I'm going to help. Client emails back "I told your boss we don't want that work done."

I forward that to boss who emails "don't do any work on it until I tell you". I hear nothing, so I send a follow up email in early December to boss asking if I should do anything. He says "no".

On December 31, I emailed boss and said "just to remind you we didn't do this work". Boss emails back "who told you not to do this work?" I sent him the earlier emails he sent me telling me as much. In 2 seconds, he was in my office screaming bloody murder about "how dare you countermand my orders for you to work". Apparently, boss and client had talked earlier that week, and boss thought everything was done (forgetting that he told me to do nothing).

A Don Draper antic I've had from several male bosses, never a female boss - he made me stay late so I'd miss an engagement I had after work.

Goddamn R24 R25 sounds like some asshole who was developing Dementia

OP, was your boss Matt Lauer?

He was what I imagine Donald Trump was like working for: loud, obnoxious, stupid, rash, unthinking, a blowhard and proud of it. Even though he only owned 25% of the company, the other owners were cowed and intimidated by him and deferred to him no matter how stupid his ideas, plans and schemes were. Screaming and coercion were his favorite business tactics.

With that kind of leadership, is it any wonder the company is no longer in business?

R29 so many people like that get into power, it’s amazing. I equally hate their female counterpart: clueless, passive-aggressive, histrionic, and no personal accountability

The Devil Wears Lane Bryant.

[quote]I equally hate their female counterpart: clueless, passive-aggressive, histrionic, and no personal accountability

This describes 3 male supervisors I've had, all failed ahow-biz types.

When I was a recent high school graduate working in fast food I had some terrible, miserable bosses. The good thing about them was that I realized I had to get some job skills or I would end up a pathetic loser as well. But then this was back when you could get into a technical program in a community college your first try.

Vernon Tirey. Total narcissistic worthless piece of shit.

I had a manager/boss. Web based business.

We would have meetings where she'd say everything was fine and we were doing well but well, we weren't and numbers were down.

I asked what topics on our site got more hits. Well, that changes. Ok. Who is getting more hits today. Or what is.

I can't really say. It keeps changing.

She left and I've never been happier or productive.

More!!!

I had a boss who was such a control freak that one day she called me into her office to tell me she had a seen a member of my staff talking to a senior executive and she didn't like it and would I tell that person not to talk to senior staff in future. I told her no, I would not do that and if she wanted that to happen, she could. It was crazy shit like that all the time. I quit the job within ten months of starting (and found out from the senior executive in question so had the previous occupant - ten months, exactly.) I was so psyched out by her the day I quit I spent the entire morning steeling myself to go in. She was insane.

The one who told staff members to use assigned breaktimes to use the toilet.

A manager can monitor the production of the staff, not the amount of time people need to piss or shit.

2. The boss who informed staff one of our team members tested positive for covid then put his hands on his hips to lecture the staff about how much time we spent socializing off hours during the pandemic.

The infection could very well have spread in the office, so why he made that conclusion is evidence of the mans lack of critical thinking skills

The manager who spread a vicious rumor about me after we butted heads.

The rumor was so bad, no one dared tell me what he said.

I spoke with human resources about the conflict and homeboi decided to find another job after HR popped him. His friends soon followed him out the door but the damage was done and my reputation suffered.

I realize now, I was supposed to quit and sue him and the company for harassment.

R15, oh shit, lol. What a messy ho.

The best bosses are always lipstick lesbians. Always. Love them.

R41 disagree, I had a LL boss and she was a huge bitch. Now a Diesel Dyke boss is cool, the butcher the better.

Women bosses tend to be obsessed by following all the company rules to a T. They watch the clock as if your coming in on time has anything to do with your being a productive worker.

Men bosses give much more freedom to their employees.

I have had my share of both types and it's always the same depending on the gender.

I have two women bosses who report directly to a man.

They’re all fucking twats who manage up.

Two worst bosses were narcissistic ugly women. I don't need to recount the horrors, do I? The best boss was a happily married beautiful Park Avenue lady, with very successful children. She didn't work very hard, nor did she have to, and she was gracious about everything and always polite, upbeat and pleasant.

Women bosses are mostly the worst. I have a good one now, but I had some early on in my career and they were horrible.

Women are too power hungry. Men just want to get the job done RIGHT, make money and go home. I agree with R43 that women in leadership turn into librarians, if you get your job done correctly in half the time, they don’t care… but they want to track you to control you. It’s so fucking annoying and women have ruined the workplace, not to mention any man who stares for 7 seconds might be up-to-bat for a sexual harassment charge. They’re also clique-y as fuck and play Queen Bee, you have to be BFF and suck up, most men aren’t like that.

I am many people’s worst boss

What I have found is that women bosses are bean-counters. I am talking about corporate level. Not pink collar or blue collar work. Women bosses maybe good or bad managers of subordinates, but they basically DO NOT CARE about subordinates and everything is about how they present themselves up the chain. They are bean-counters and present good stats upwards. I've never had a cheap wad for a male boss. They throw money around because they don't consider it their money, it's corporate money. They want results and aren't too interested in how they are produced, and they reward results. Women can't make this leap.

I think part of the problem for women in the workplace is they think they're acting like men would act. But it goes off the rails. I have recently retired. I would far rather work for men than women. That said, when a woman is self confident and has her act together, they're terrific. Sadly, there aren't a lot of them.

R49 if you’re in sales, nothing will kill the new accounts flowing in and cause attrition like a woman stepping in as the boss.

R50 they act like caricature of what they think a man would do, but they just seem like cunts.

R52, regrettably, yes.

I was a delivery driver for a local pizza place, owned by two chaldean brother-in-laws. The first one (let's call him Mike) was insane, aggressive, abusive, and frankly ruined a couple years of my life. The other one was depressed and really incompetent but a nice enough guy. Mike was a LOT like Sammy from the Amy's Baking Company ep of Kitchen Nightmares. I don't even know where to start with him. He threw empty plastic buckets at my head like a dozen times at least, regularly screamed in peoples faces calling us retarded, accused us constantly of stealing, went on psychotic rants against customers if they asked for parmesan or plates calling them freeloaders, threw a bucket of cheese on the ground and kicked me out of the restaurant for the day because i asked him if there was anything in particular he wanted me to clean as i had just finished some other task (he explained later that he exploded because he knows I faked a car accident to get out of work "to do whatever I want" when I begged for more hours every day, I just had to take two days off to sort out getting a rental), told a female coworker that he could do anything he wants and no one would know when they were both in the walk-in, stole more than 12k from the cash registers over time (he had some kind of dirt on the brother because he still got bought out after this was discovered), never let any of us take breaks because "our jobs are a break", fell asleep drooling with his gut hanging out in the front chair next to the entrance disgusting customers, flipped out and got angry if any of us did too much cleaning at night because he was anxious to leave asap but would randomly blow up and scream at us about how these huge cleaning tasks aren't finished (stuff that's impossible to do when you're open), i'm sure a lot more will come to me but I'd rather bury all these memories down deep again. Even on a day when he didn't get angry about something, it was hell going through the nonstop internal pressure of trying to avoid his unpredictable explosions and because all I could think about was not making him mad it was hard to focus which would make him mad. It was one of the worst things I ever went through to be honest.

Miss Monkey

She was really jealous of my extraordinary skill set and pissed on a sandwich I brought for my lunch.

I'm sorry to hear you had to work in those conditions R54.

I was a summer blue collar job during college in a food plant, my boss was a former Marine Corp drill instructor and he acted like he was still in the Marines. If he could have made us do pushups I am sure he would have.

In the dark ages, around 1985, I worked for the most tight fisted, misogynistic, racist bastard. He was German and I think a secret Nazi. He would ask for a doctor's note if I called in sick. When I got back to work, he'd stare me down looking for post-flu signs. I had an ear infection, he asked for my prescription bottle and he inspected it thoroughly. The only thing he did well was procrastinate which resulted in my having to stay late many times and miss class to prepare his reports which were due that day. He would stand so close to me (I'm female), I could smell his stale breath. I finally wised up and used a file folder when he got near me to create a barrier. I was the only minority but he hired another one he mistook for white cuz she was light complected and had a white, via marriage, last name but she was a barrio as I was. I didn't make many personal phone calls but the few I did (calling home or the garage for updates on my continuously broke down car), he heard them and chastised me about it. I finally told the bastard that Tina, the hussy in the next cubicle, was on the phone way more than I was. He didn't like that. He berated me for not heating up his shitty potluck dish during Xmas party, in front of his wife who looked like she stepped out of 1950 suburban hell hole and the whole office. He was overlooked for a promotion and demoted so he had to move into the cubicle farm w/the rest of us puds where we could smell his tuna fish sandwiches and hear him clipping his toenails.

Working for female bosses was no walk in the park. They thrive in clique type, mean girl atmospheres. Still, the nazi was the worst.

I had a boss who NEVER let me leave on time but once dragged me into her office to dress me down for being consistently 2 or 3 minutes late (minimum wage food service). I don't consider myself a bigot but sometimes I wonder if her horrendous, entitled, hitler-esque management style had anything to do with her being a butch lesbian.

I once worked in a hotel where the boss was a 40 something, totally insecure woman. She was dressed in a "please tell me I'm still fuckable" way, had always a forced smile on her face and somehow felt looked down by the nobody that I was . She also thought that I wasn't corporate enough and that I wouldn't stand for my coworkers in front of the clients. Though the hotel owner liked me and wanted to keep me, she finally had her way and obtained my sacking. I hate those horrible women who play strong but go crying in the toilets when just a little something goes against them.

Her name was Muriel. After I stalked and catfished young gay guys to publicly humiliate them to satiate my own self-loathing and got caught up with law enforcement she made me promise not to do it anymore or I might get this site shut down. Now I shit on her all day and all night.

[quote]Men just want to get the job done RIGHT, make money and go home.

What planet are you dialing in from?

I'm not saying women do not have power complexes in trying to prove themselves but I suspect many of you with consistently bad experiences with female bosses are creating your own problems. You are nit respecting them in a way you would male leaders so the relationships start off to a bad start. Women demand the same respect men get just naturally because of society's internalized patriarchy.

Also I notice a tendency of gay men to get too comfortable with other gay men and females. You do not divulge personal info too early in a working relationship; info that you would never reveal to male supervisors. In turn the women bosses are not respecting you the same, and all your flaws are heightened. That's just my 2 cents.

R63 female bosses will put themselves in that position with gay men.

I can't imagine divulging a bunch of personal info to some female coworker I barely knew. Life isn't an episode of SATC, r63

You don’t divulge personal info to coworkers, period. Coworkers are not your friends.

I worked for a slimy white Jewish homophobic boss. He was the third guy in 1 year to get this position from outside the company because of who he knew. The moment he took power he started gaslighting people he didn't like. Firing people left and right escorting them out without even letting them get their things. But more often he would do things like take away their work so all they could do is show up and he could point to how they were not needed. He put black dots by people names he didn't like on an employee list. He fucked with my schedule giving me the shittiest hours so I would quit. Plotted against me and painted a really negative picture with the CEO to justify his actions. Pushed me into 4 hours short of full work week so that I would loose all my health benefits yet publicly say how valuable I was to the company. He would give me a really positive review in person, including a raise but on paper the marks were really low to create a paper trail.

I found out later through a legal deposition he was calling me a fag behind my back and everything I was thinking I was paranoid about he was doing only much more. He was very careful to cover his tracks so whenever he spoke to me it was in person never in an email. When I tried to pin him down that way, like "per our discussion on ......Date, you said....." He would not respond through email and instead pop his head into my space and say "can I talk to you for a minute in the hallway" to avoid others from hearing what he said and to avoid anything being in digital record.

R67 avoiding anything in email is a huge red flag

He sounds like a total loser, r67. Hopefully he's rotting away in a South American prison right now.

None of that ridiculous antisemitic story is believable.

Go Kanye yourself somewhere else.

I wish R69. Unfortunately corporate America reworded him with an even better paying job from what I heard. The only good news is I heard he had to move to another city Sacramento CA to get the position and from the few times I have been there, kind of a shit hole of a city. I hope he's stuck there.

"Corporate America"? Is that out The Deplorable Troll Handbook?

Grow up R70, not every Jewish person is god's gift to the world. Besides it's not about his religion. My boss was just a major tool.

Deplorables dont work in white collar corprate jobs R72. Have you ever seen a Trump rally?

"Corporate America" is a deplorable's magical fantasy world where Jews and "Fraus" have "all the power". Insufferable troll.

And haven't you been reading all the "Women in the workplace" and the endless "frau" and "What's the point of women having sex?" threads that you write? They're all the same. ALWAYS.

I absolutely detested my current boss for the first year,

Then I realized she was a narcissist so fed into that—complimenting her management style and her hobbies. Now she loves me

Fuck em

Agreed.

I am a lot of peoples worst boss

Oh, I had a boss that would eat food she claimed she was allergic to so she could leave early. One day a Cosmic Brownie was the cause. She also said she had shingles and passed out due to pain, but showed up the next day absolutely fine. What a mental case. Honestly, it was easier when she was gone. Didn’t add anything to the workload.

Another dumb bitch was the big boss bitch of the company. An employee was threatening others. My immediate manager brushed off complaints. When I went over his head, boss bitch started crying, saying this was disrupting the “family atmosphere.” When I got in the next day, there was no note about the guy being fired. After 25+ years of bs, I was done and put in my 2 weeks and had a great summer.

Not worst, have been lucky there, but had one woman, an adoptee, who never got over not being wanted. Poor thin, every work day had to be her success to be validated.

Former female Marine.

I had a few poor ones, one pathetic one, and two really great ones. I never had a really terrible boss.

My first boss had been promoted from my position, and spent the rest of her time doing everything she could to undercut me because she thought I'd be after her higher position. Eventually enough was enough and I just upped and quit one day without giving notice so that she could have the pleasure of doing her old job again while they were looking for a replacement for me.

My second boss, recently divorced, tried, disgustingly, to seduce me when I was a new hiree, and when I didn't go for that she used me as her whipping boy, would invoke my name as being the person who nixed things (that she didn't want to take "credit" for having torpedoed them), and other such delights. But I had a good position which I enjoyed and was good at, so remained there for nearly forty years . . . [italic]with her as my supervisor for thirty-eight of them[/italic]. Oy.

[quote]But I had a good position which I enjoyed and was good at, so remained there for nearly forty years . . . with her as my supervisor for thirty-eight of them.

WTF R85?

All my worst bosses have had a habit of having their brakes fail.

Funny.

[quote] An employee was threatening others. My immediate manager brushed off complaints. When I went over his head, boss bitch started crying, saying this was disrupting the “family atmosphere.” When I got in the next day, there was no note about the guy being fired. After 25+ years of bs, I was done and put in my 2 weeks and had a great summer.

Huh? Did the threatening guy get fired or not? You expected him to get fired after one complaint from you - and then he didn't get fired?

She had red hair and a temper to match. Used to yell and throw stuff. Luckily she left the company before I did.

Worst boss was also Jewish. Rumours about vendors and carriers being owed shit tons of money Company went bankrupt. Physically and verbally abusive. Was let go about a month before people stopped receiving their cheques because I became fed up with everyone and would just clocked in and sit there. They were homophobic as well so there was no way I’d get a good reference out of them anyway. Have a much better job now working from home, far, far away from other people thank fucking Christ.

Clock watcher. It didn’t matter if you were the greatest employee ever who did the most work and had phenomenal outcomes. If you came in 1 minute late, you’d get written up.

I left after about a year. I was too old to be treated like a baby. Hilarious, that the company she was loyal to let her go in a downsizing

All my bad bosses have been women. Never again

Mine have all been men.

I had to stop reading. Endless women bashing . Who the fuck are you DL ers with the 1950 mindset? Get over it.

Remember : people hate us because we are gay , just like you hate in women because they are women . We didn’t choose to be gay; women didn’t choose to be women

In my experience, mostly, if you deliver good work to a male boss they’re pleased with your performance and appreciate the valuable contribution you’re making. Generally.

If you deliver the same good work and job performance to a female superior, they think you’re going to outshine them and set about sabotaging you and never acknowledge your value no matter how high your KPIs are, etc. It’s particularly noticeable because of all the subpar employees who are allowed to just float on. They’re not intimidated by them and can always blame them for her team’s lesser performance, etc.

It’s generally true. A woman with even the smallest amount of power in the workplace is intimidated by those under her.

^^ They think making other people look bad, makes them look good.

A long way from my worst, because she gave us a good laugh, but I did have a manager who was very senior in the company. Every few weeks she would tell us she was going to a meeting, and come back with her hair shorter and often a different color. It never seemed to occur to her we might see through her cunning ruse.

None of my male bosses cared about the company “rules.” In return, and in appreciation, we worked our asses off for great outcomes. There was office comraderie and respect.

All the women bosses I’ve had stuck to the letter of the company law—-come it by a certain time, eat lunch at a certain time, don’t leave even a second earlier than allowed, even if your child is sick at home…

Shut up for, women have given gay men hell most of their lives, fuck your slimy cunt to hell, you are on of those women, STOP FUCKING SCOLDING AND JUDGING GAY MEN, stupid cunt bitch, gay men don't like your nasty meddling stupid cuntTwat.

Just one, the one who was outvoted by the Board of Directors and I got the job she wanted a woman to have (I'm male and this was the time of lesbian separatism). She let me rot on the vine with no assistance whatsoever until she was able to fire me for not doing what I didn't know I was supposed to be doing.

I've had terrific luck with great bosses in my long career, and they have been of multiple genders and color. Then again I made all of them look good and made great results. Except for the one above, I have no complaints. And I very thankfully retired young(ish).

Women are the worst bosses, too emotional, zero accountability, constantly projecting blame, and clique driven.

2nd worst are men who are being manipulated by sluts on staff. These female whores will get a man in power into vulnerable position then have him do their bidding.

Mine was a really nasty, aggressive jerk who would form snap judgments of employees.

He decided he hated one good employee who reported to me because she once (very constructively) raised legit concerns about a project that were informed by her experience with the product. He was so furious that he would tell me how he couldn’t stand to look at her and wanted to punch her fucking face because she was “the most negative person I’ve ever met.” He couldn’t let it go.

He hated another guy, who was def on the spectrum, because once in a big meeting the guy was staring up at the ceiling. Who the fuck cares, I said, he does great work! Boss wanted to punch him, too,

And his boss was at least as much of a jerk so HR wasn’t going to do anything.

My worst boss was a single Jewish guy that did absolutely no work. He made sure I did all HIS WORK AND WOULD SIT ON THE CORNER OF MY DESK FOR HOURS while I talked to clients and would interrupt me when he didn’t like the way I said something. He also had dried spit constantly on the end he of his mouth….I hung around for a year and then left…he was fired shortly after that…..karma

I worked for a woman who ran a small agency out of the back of her house providing sub-contracted marketing services to a large corporate brand that she used to work for. Basically she was doing more or less the same thing that she did for them in a salaried position but now managing those services to them as an independent contractor. It wasn't much of a business because she never got another contract providing marketing services for any other company but, oh well.

I was referred by a friend and worked with this woman for about 18 months - the corporate client LOVED me and were always asking me to act as a representative for them, etc. It was retail-oriented. The brand asked me to audition for QVC to be their on-air brand ambassador - something the woman I worked with supported - and QVC hired me on the spot (while another rep the woman had put forward crashed and burned). Everyone was happy. I started to do the gigs. But the woman couldn't take that I'd superseded her and advanced to a level that she herself had never accomplished as a rep, in fact, no one from her agency had ever achieved this and she just couldn't take it. She completely defamed me and caused all this trouble telling the brand that I had "embezzled" money from her which was ridiculous because I wasn't her CFO and had no access to her accounts at all; she went behind my back and bad-mouthed me to all of the people I was contracting with and then very publicly fired me from her agency, on the retail floor I was working. She and her co-hort just showed up without notice and frog marched me out of the store in front of everyone. And it didn't have anything to do with a non-compete clause, which she didn't have anyway, because the work I was doing had never been contracted through her agency, I was providing services outside of her brief of managing brand reps, etc. and she couldn't act or negotiate on my behalf as an agent because her interests were with her client as a priority. So there was nothing like that.

I was so shocked, I was hospitalised 4 days later with appendicitis and had surgery, of course. Not only did QVC drop me immediately but my contracts and bookings with showrooms were all cancelled. I actually don't know the extent of what she said but no one would even talk to me. Within about 10 days I was served with a civil suit that she'd filed online accusing me of embezzling money from her - again, ridiculous - but as most will know, once someone brings suit against you, you either settle or defend yourself. You have to engage.

While I was recovering from surgery, I did a lot of research - I couldn't afford a lawyer - and wrote an 8 or 9 page defense which I submitted to the court including a countersuit for immediate damages for travel that I'd already booked to fulfill the most recent bookings, etc. I don't think she expected that and her handling of the legal process from then on was terrible, so I kept writing to the court and pointing out how she was showing contempt for the process, etc. I understood the court and how to service it and used different instruments of the court to demand settlement in my favour, given her missed deadlines, failure to serve me with copies of her submissions and so-called evidence, etc., etc. I brought all the receipts and within a month or so filed suit against her and her company in the Employment Tribunal (UK) which started rounds and rounds of legal deadlines and responsibilities that she failed to meet. Initially she tried to have some part-time admin person handle the servicing but once their name was quoted in my documents, they backed away and the woman got a lawyer and then another lawyer with a different film - by the time it was all over, a friend and I determined just based on the exchange of letters, that it probably cost her over £12,000 in lawyer's fees to resolve what she stupidly started.

(cont.)

About 7 months later, we eventually had our day in the civil court and for 40 minutes the very cantankerous judge just ripped her filing to SHREDS. She actually hired a barrister to come to the civil court to argue her case - that's the person who usually wears a wig in a criminal proceeding in the UK and she must've paid a pretty penny for him to show up. The judge knew him and made fun of him for coming to his civil court room so that was embarrassing.

Like 2 days before the hearing, her lawyers (there were about 3 of them from what I could tell on the correspondence - they multiplied and escalated in importance as I started replying to them over the course of things), like 2 days before they finally provided like 700 pages of documents that they'd previously referenced in their case or whatever. I learned it was a very old trick: do like a document dump at the last minute to distract and cause anxiety, etc. and make the documentation useless to the defendant. Ha! I went through it, I knew what I was looking at - most of it was irrelevant - but in the civil hearing, the barrister made some reference citing a document and the judge asked, "And where would that be...?" expecting a page number.

There were several minutes when the barrister tried to find it and conferred with his client while steam was coming out of the judge's ears and I just sat there, on my own on my side, just kind of neutral while they searched and searched for it. And then I opened the binder I had, flipped through a few pages and informed the judge that what they were looking for was on Page xxx and then provided the additional context that invalidated whatever use they were trying to make of it. The judge just GLOWERED at the barrister's side and they all seemed shocked that I pulled that out, pretty effortlessly. It was my Erin Brockovich moment (which was really the only thing I could watch all those months when I wasn't working on the cases, it sort of hit me right where I idled). I really humiliated that barrister for hire, all of them on the other side. The judge threw out their case and my countersuit was settled in my favour.

The tribunal was a different court and there was an issue of standing that was beyond my knowledge. What I learned there is you can never assume the relevance or impact of something is understood in court. If you're claiming an injury, don't expect the court to take that at face value. You need to come in on crutches with a wheelchair with a medical team standing by. But the tribunal judge's decision, which didn't go my way at that point but could've been appealed, was so complimentary to me that I could probably use it as a personal or professional reference. I met some other people in the waiting rooms there who had been pursuing their cases for like 4 years and I was like, fuck this. I was tired of seeing that old bitch's face and just wanted to get on with my own life, free of her bullshit. I did look at bringing a defamation suit against her but was advised that only the very rich can afford to do that sort of thing.

Btw, the only entity that stood by me was the corporate brand, which was a different division than the one she was contracting with so they didn’t care anything about her. Much to her chagrin I continued to work for them for about 7 months after she herself had fired me, until I decided I just wanted to out of that space altogether.

Sometimes I still google her name to see if her obituary has been published yet.

Get a blog.

Same INCEL, R76.

OMG, R105. You win.

R88 multiple complaints and two HR write ups. I thought saying something about what I experienced- as a senior employee- would get through to these idiots. It didn’t, but the guy causing problems eventually quit when he was demoted to work weekends.

He was a big, fat, inept idiot who thought he knew exactly what he was doing, but whenever he tried, it would blow up in his face. He also put on so much cologne you could smell him from about 20 feet away -- the office manager had to pull him aside and tell him to tone it down after so many people complained. Most of the people who worked under him abruptly quit, because they didn't want to deal with him any longer. Working under him sent me into a deep depression I only realized years later.

He somehow managed to get promoted to another position, which started a new round of abrupt resignations and a general decline in the area he managed.

The day his position was eliminated, and he was laid off, is still one of the greatest days of my life. It's been more than 10 years since all this happened, but I still to this day hate him with every fiber of my being. I've sometimes wished I would somehow run into him in public so I could tell him exactly how I (still) feel about him to his stupid, ugly face.

There is another 'worst boss' thread on DL started in the past week that is just as misogynist and antisemitic as this one. I can't imagine who is behind them.

R111 half the posts on this scolding site are just like this with a laundry list of accusations of different alleged phobias. This place use to be fun

My first real boss as an adult was a lovely little Midwestern dyke while at NYU. It’s when I realized lesbians make the best bosses, especially lipstick lesbians. I said what I said.

^The infection has returned. Muriel, more penecillin pls.

Retail.

My boss was so loud and obnoxious that I had customers express their condolences when they found out she was our manager.

She was always trying to hook up with the hot salespeople. She even licked a guys neck while he was struggling to get out of her embrace.

She never communicated when there were contests so if anybody won something she would keep the prize for herself.

And, worst of all, she made Red Velvet cupcakes without cocoa. Unforgivable.

(Sigh)

I had a boss who had never been in a leadership position before. She had been a trophy wife/mom for 20 years and was now an empty nester, so she somehow weaseled her way into the nonprofit I worked at and was given a director position with zero experience.

She was a control freak and micromanager to the extreme. She worked remote while I worked on location and she would constantly call and email me asking me about my whereabouts. If I didn’t respond to email in .5 seconds she was calling my office phone demanding to know where I was.

I made the mistake of giving her my personal cell number and she began calling/texting me at all hours even on nights and weekends.

Things got worse for me when I applied for another job within the company. I ended up not getting the role and she made my life even more hell. She worked me to the ground before deciding to disable my access to the building, without ever informing HR.

She told my staff that I no longer worked there. That was news to me. HR told me I could continue working there but I decided to leave without giving 2 weeks notice.

Badly or unfucked women who are homely are always the worst bosses.

--- truth fairy

Bonus horribleness if they are intelligent narcissists.

That said, some of the very best bosses are rich women, content in their marriages, pretty, with a couple kids attending or graduated from Ivy League schools, as did these boss women. Not over workers, no axes to grind.

Then we have fat men with easy going demeanors, comfortable in their own skin, advanced degrees and little ambition, happy and comfortable in their mid-level academic or corporate careers. These can be very generous bosses who reward your hard work for them.