r/BadBosses

When she first started I was really optimistic because I was the manager of my department while being forced to do tasks for that position too since people kept quitting. Highly toxic environment. I genuinely wanted her to make it so I didn’t have to do two jobs. So I gave her immediate support.

She made a couple mistakes in her first two weeks. No big deal, she’d literally just started and corporate “training” there was always sink or swim. But now eyes were on her. Here I am not only excelling, generally liked, making a higher salary because of my tenure, and younger. She started to target me to make me look like a problem.

I won’t go on and on with examples, just picture the boss that is bullying you, treating you like garbage, and undermining you daily.

She took off Friday-Sunday and didn’t let me know. We really needed her support and her being there was planned! A couple of minor things went wrong which my GM questioned me about.

I tell him some of it was out of my control due to vendors, which was true. Then I casually drop something like, “I really wish [name] would’ve been here, she’s so good at [blah blah]”

• What do you mean? She wasn’t here?
• No.
• Was she here Saturday?
• I didn’t see her, I sent her a text on but she never responded.
• Hm. And Sunday?
• No, I hope she’s okay. I know she’s been having a hard time lately.
• What do you mean?
• She just seems.. overwhelmed I guess? But I know a big job. I just really hope she stays here because she clearly knows what she’s doing.
• Is there anything else?
• Yes.. I don’t know if I should share this because we all have hard days but.. I knocked on her office door last week because we were so busy and we needed help…when she opened it she was crying a lot. I asked if she was okay and she slammed the door and left an hour later. I don’t know how to help her, I know she can be a strong part of the team.

Corporate had a meeting with her 2 days later. She never came back after that meeting.

Do I feel bad? Absolutely not. She was a bully and honestly, I probably did her a favor lol. I finally got out of that place 4 months later.

The only lie was the crying. The statements about randomly not showing up for days, especially the days we needed her, refusing to respond to texts and emails, and her appearing to be overwhelmed were true.

US. I work for a small family owned business in an in-home service/repair industry. (FL) My boss, the owner, is a huge MAGA Trump guy who thinks that the economy and most people’s financial situation is nothing but WINNING and as a result, he is raising the price of all of our services to the point he is pricing out our Customer base. He thinks anyone who can no longer afford Our services is a loser, and when an employee or a customer brings up inflation or gas prices, He simply shouts something about Biden. Or baby murderers. He went off on a tantrum today over Bill Gates and how we will always use Apple products because he won’t support pedophiles like Gates. 🤔 He constantly refers to things he doesn’t like as “gay”. The other day he was trying to compliment my work and told me that what I did was “mighty White of me”. I 100% try to keep politics out of my work life, this post isn’t even really a rant about politics, per se, and I like all of my coworkers and the work that I do. But I have absolutely zero respect for my boss, and it makes it difficult to listen to anything that comes out of his mouth. Every direction, every suggestion, every demand or request, and all I think is you are a fool and moron. What used to be a decent job is now nothing but stress and frustration. My once full-time job is also now part-time because we are losing so much of our customer base.

Title pretty much says it all. To put it in perspective: I'm a front desk agent at a hotel. I work 6-3:00, by myself, every single day. Most days I'm doing front desk, answering phones until/if we have people who take reservations scheduled, usually around 10. There is 2 other front desk people who work 3-11, even on low occupancy nights. Since it's getting into travel and concert season, I have anywhere from 90 to 150 check outs to deal with by myself, on top of filling in the phones, helping guests understand their bill, etc. Most days, I don't get a break or lunch because I'm doing the job of 3. On top of this, I'm always the first one to help clean rooms on sold out nights if needed, I train new hires, and always cover shifts when asked. It's also worth noting we've lost 10 people in less than a year due to mistreatment.

We take cash payments and since I'm the only morning shift, I take the till to make cash payments. Because I'm by myself, I don't count out my until 3:00 or later, then have to wait for the banker to verify my till. I don't get out until 3:45/4pm most days. I asked to leave 30 minutes for an appointment I cannot be late to or reschedule, I was told no because there was no one to watch the front. On this particular day, I happen to have coverage to make this possible but I was told no, that we had an event going that day, and there was no one to watch the front or take the till. The kicker? We've gone 6-3 without anyone to take the cash box and have basically had to tell people too bad, so sad. So how come we can go a full shift with nobody to take cash but we can't manage 30 minutes for me to make an appointment? How come it suddenly matters that it's an event when I need to leave but it doesn't matter when I'm by myself for 5+ hours with 150 check outs?

This is not the first time I've been told I couldn't leave for an appointment due to inadequate staffing. I've been told to schedule my appointments around my shift, but how can I when I don't know if I'm going to be off in time? Anyways, the TLDR of it all: I called out after having a bit of a break down and applied for new jobs. Fairly certain I'm going to get written up but at this point I can't say I care.

My boss had 1-1 with me and complained about my efficiency, told me that my efficiency is not good enough because I texted at work and he continued to tell me he knew I screenshot his messages and sent it to my friends and asked me how would I feel about it if I were him.

I sat through that conversation in silence and now I wondered why I did not quit on the spot.

Hi, just here to complain about getting told off by my boss, for my boss not listening to me…

I warned/told my boss we have multiple problems with something, she said to go ahead anyway, we are on a deadline (making it extremely clear she was not interested in continuing the conversation about the thing having problems, and not in a nice way). And one of those issues did indeed come back to bite us. So, this morning I got told off for not making her listen to me and informed we should not have gone ahead with it, and that it’s my fault.

Does that mean I’m technically doing a good or a bad job?

(I do not work with anything where stuff going wrong is a safety problem, its clothing manufacturing)

That is also the second+ time recently, atleast she remembers me telling her/ I emailed her a reminder. Although she has always been one to turn her ears off halfway into my first sentence. I’ve kinda resorted to emailing her things (also for a paper trail), but it doesn’t work for urgent things. I ofc will attempt to make our communication styles compatible, (except you know wth?!, I TOLD HER!) but I refuse to make my communication style nasty to convey severity.

Thank you for listening, yes I’m currently looking for a new job, its just hard:)

I am located in England.
On Thursday 14th May i experienced an absence seizures while talking to my boss. She is aware that I have them as I had recently told her that I need to see a neurologist soon and may need to have some time off work for that reason. For some reason she decided that I had instantly fallen into a deep sleep and began to shout at me, when this didn’t bring me round she began hitting me until I came out of the seizure. I was very confused and disoriented and she continued to shout at me, and said that I was putting people in danger. For context I care for her son who has a lot of health issues, one being epilepsy.
I was quite distressed and tried to walk away from her but she followed me around and continued t shout at me which was very intimidating. I the. Tried to leave the premises but my colleague convinced me to stay, I went and sat outside for a few minutes to calm down, my colleague came out to me and checked I was ok and was very sweet but my boss didn’t say anything. When I asked her why she assaulted me she told me I was being ridiculous and stupid. She hasn’t offered any kind of apology.
I have spent the last year working anything from 50 to 90 hour weeks caring for her son to help her out and I feel so disheartened. I also don’t want to just forget about this, has anyone got any advice for me? Thanks in advance.

Since March I have been working for a jazz band doing graphic design, social media management, website development, gig/ booking scouting (you get the picture). pay is good and I enjoy what I do. With that being said, my "boss" (the singer) can be a lot to deal with at times.

Late last night, at 11:30pm, my boss messaged me asking if I could leave a quick online 5 star review for her sister's wedding cake business because they've both been distressed after receiving 3 negative reviews. Not thinking too much of it, I agreed to do the nice gesture and began shitting out of my ass (writing sweet things about someone IDEK)

My boss then comes back and says "Thanks so very much angel heart. Thats lovely I'm so grateful. Can you edit slightly?" So l ask Why and what's wrong with it.
"Nothing my sister has OCD. She's not well.
And she's sad about not being married. Actually can we make it something other than weddings?" I kid you not, this woman literally asked me to leave a fake positive review for someone who works with wedding cakes, who is sad about not being married, and apparently wouldn't want a fake review to mention weddings.

In response I said: "I mean No offence X, but if you wanted "a perfect review" left, you could have done it yourself or provided me with exactly what you wanted to be copied and pasted. I was asked to do a quick favour and I said nice things so Im going to leave it at that. I hope your sister feels better soon!" Then I exited WhatsApp and pretended to go to sleep because it was nearly midnight.

She didn't stop there, she continued to message me until 12:40am. I was taking screenshots of all the notifications and it's a good thing I did, because when I woke up this morning she deleted all 34 messages she had sent after my last reply.
So I sent her a message this morning saying:

"Good morning (her name),
Please Correct me if I'm wrong, but Waking up to 34+ deleted messages gives me the impression you said somethings you regret?
That, along with asking a favour just before midnight and continuing to do so after l've fallen asleep is quite unusual behaviour.
I'm going to ask that you refrain from contacting me at such a late hour going forward, Its highly unprofessional.
Thank you."

She was not too happy about this. " (My name) we've often worked during late hours. I'd appreciate you show more empathy. I was explaining my current health"
4/34 messages were her explaining her health, it was mostly still trying to get me to edit the review, followed by saying my message offended her, plus asking me to work in person with her on Thursday (which she knows I can't do)

Her next message says "I'm too unwell now to have this discussion. My immediate team have it in their hands. My work week has been cancelled due to acute trauma.
It is best you hand the website over to (other workers name) as she is acutely aware of my conditions.. Following a tresspasser assaulting me and my privacy being leaked. And my drummer suddenly quitting. l've cancelled the entire week ahead. And am in a litigation battle For personal injury Sustained. So it's not personal. I've got a lot on my plate and am not in my professional head space as I am burnt out. Waiting for my therapist to call me today. I have been deleting messages as I am still traumatised my the privacy breach.
Nothing to do with you, trust is very shaky at present and I don't wish to over share my vulnerabilities via text"

Interesting contradiction she made at the end there... (she deleted that message after I sent my last reply as well)

“I understand your health and wellbeing is not in the best state at the moment, which is very unfortunate to hear.
But I trust you are currently self loving/caring in order to feel better and more like yourself again.
Note that I do not take words personally when it comes to professional relationships, which is what you and I have.
I hope your therapist is able to help.
All is forgiven. Please prioritise yourself. I do not want me setting boundaries to come across as being un empathetic at all and I apologise if it did. I can't imagine what you're going through, you heal at your own pace of course.”

And I’ve left it at that because what more can I say or do about this woman who’s clearly going through it and taking her emotions out on me unfairly.

I've been at my job for the better part of 20 years. I was hired by a great guy, "Don". Don and the ptevious owner "Will" were best friends. Sadly, Don passed away at a very young age and, before he passed, he made Will promise to take care of his wife "Ilsa". So Will trains Ilsa slowly over 10 years so she could eventually manage the business. It's not a huge business but it's about 50 people so it's not tiny. Will passed away recently and now we have Ilsa as our general manager. She's a nightmare. I don't even know if she's just stupid or if she's vindictive or a bit of both but today was the first time I snapped back at her.

Ilsa and her bffs are such a tight little clique, the office is absolutely miserable.Today was my first day back from vacation but her girlfriend Anna tried to get me to come back a day early so she could have a "beach day". I said no and I'm glad I did because Anna's "beach day" was actually an invite only work party--invites for Ilsa and her friends. I'm an auditor and Ilsa, being very fucking stupid, left a receipt in the slush fund for 1000$ for the party. It actually said "party" and was dated 5/17/2026.

So I'm livid....not being invited is one thing but asking me to come back a day early to cover for her buddy so they can have a beach party was too much. She knew I was mad. She tried to say that it was Anna's private party and not work related. I asked her why was there a receipt for it in the slush fund. She bursts into tears and starts blathering about how hard her life is and how she doesn't have any support. I was having none of it. She's 100% crying because she's caught and she's trying to manipulate the situation with tears.

I walked out, she followed me...

crying and saying that she had been planning a big party for my birthday. My birthday was 3 days ago. She did not wish me a happy birthday with a call or a text, there was no card, no gift, not even a post-it saying "Happy birthday " on my desk.... but she's ugly crying and whimpering about how she'd been planning a big birthday celebration for me.

My last words to her were "bull shit". I copied the party receipts and sent them to the new owner who is well aware of how poorly she's doing at the job. God, I hope it's the last nail in her coffin.

Dear Friends,

I have a boss who is good otherwise but he has one issue, he does not like people appear smarter than him. He has been with the company for 10-15 years and acquired knowledge tribally, I have different experince & can do the job better than his ways. It seems it is not just with me but he will appreciate people from other department, it is just that he doesnt value people who work for him other than the ones that are silent, medicore.

This one is giving me a feeling of not wanting to push quality work, strive for excellence because he doesnt care and he is anyway going to value medicore stuff. He doesnt have a problem if I didnt think outside the box, be innovative, cost effective etc. He just cares about just do the stuff he wants you to do and is not very demanding. It is just that he will get into the groove and do the things himself, email replies etc before even I had a chance to formulate my response.

The work he does is not very detailed, thought out etc He is ok if I didnt do much. Kinda of weird situation.

Okay this is to just get it off my chest since it’s so frustrating. So we had a hearing meeting with two of my regional managers and someone from HR. I had to listen to what my customer service girls said and make suggestions to them based on those comments. I told my bosses that we wanted a ‘no verbal abuse’ sign at customer service for rude and racists customers (I am the only white girl at this customer service everyone else is POC). One of our regionals responded with a story of him going into Tim Hortons and they had a ‘no verbal abuse’ sign there and he said that his first thought was ‘wow they must have bad customer service’ and then he went on to say that only places with bad customer service needs those signs and since we have amazing customer service. And I was like ‘this isn’t about how our service is it’s about customers who think that they can get away with saying heinous things to our staff and our right to be safe and comfortable at work’, also if that is what he thinks then he is apart of the problem. I was also super insulted about the Timmie’s story since I’ve worked at Tim Hortons and it’s the same there. You can be absolutely perfect at customer service and people will still yell at you for no reason. It’s like how fucking disconnected are you from your employees? One of their daughters worked at customer service and was told by a customer to go kill herself because a fridge delivery was missed.

Working in a very big OEM in Pune and honestly corporate politics is becoming mentally exhausting.

There is one guy in our department who is the biggest “boss favorite” type person I have ever seen. In front of the boss he acts extremely loyal, agrees to everything, does nonstop buttering/chaatugiri and behaves like he is the most sincere employee. But behind the boss’s back he literally abuses the same boss and talks negatively about him to others.

What’s strange is that whenever this guy is around, the boss suddenly becomes aggressive and starts shouting at other employees for small things. The environment becomes toxic instantly. Many people even joke that he has done some black magic because the entire mood of the department changes after he enters the cabin.

The worst part is his selfish nature. To achieve his own goals, he can backstab anyone, spread gossip, manipulate situations, or do back bitching without any guilt. He has already ruined the careers/jobs of around 4 people because of his ego and politics. Instead of teamwork, he creates insecurity and fights among colleagues.

Now he got promoted and moved to another department, but still he keeps coming back only to gossip about people working under the old boss. After he leaves, the boss again starts targeting people based on whatever gossip was fed to him.

Honestly asking — how do people survive around such personalities in corporate life?

Do you confront them? Ignore them? Maintain distance? Or just switch companies?

Sometimes it feels hard to believe that technical skills and hard work matter less than politics and manipulation in corporate culture.

Would genuinely like to know how others handled similar “boss favorite/backstabber” people in their offices.

My boss actually is pretty terrible. I hate that she constantly blames me for things. (I’m late 20’s) and NEVER addresses issues with my coworkers in her 50’s.

So my boss during our monthly meeting decides she’s going to start making me switch on and off every other week of my favorite job duties with someone who was literally just trained for a day and a half so that “we don’t forget”. Okay girl, stop lying to me. She also said essentially threatened me to “figure out how to get along” with a coworker who’s in their 50’s because we’re both adults and we “don’t want her stepping in”…. I have literally done nothing. I keep my responses to a minimum and give this woman a thumbs up to acknowledge I’ve read what she said. She was the one during that day and a half where i switched with the coworker for them to train her that decided to overly nit pick EVERYTHING I did. Yet the coworker that was being trained did not have that same issue….

I am sick and tired of this. I am not being paid enough for this either. Quite frankly, I am going to record every interaction with my boss moving forward. I want to go to HR but unfortunately we’re a small team of 5. They would know. I also don’t think HR would do anything.

I’m hoping that this implodes in her face and will be short lived. I really don’t like that she’s making me switch bad to old job duties I haven’t done full
time in almost 6 months. “You’ll thank me later.” Sure I will. While I’m at it I’m looking for a new job.

I am waiting for more positions to open up in my department and I’m applying like CRAZY. I don’t think I can realistically work under this supervisor anymore. She does nothing, she never helps us like our old supervisor did, and she has rules for thee but not for me kind of attitude.

A few years ago when I was still an undergraduate I joined a small rent-a-car business (husband and wife running it) as a part-time employee. It was a toxic place — no one lasted more than 3 months. I was working even below minimum wage and pushing hard because I needed the job.

After a few months the boss gave me an “option”: become his secret lover if I wanted to stay and get paid. I agreed because I felt I had no choice at the time. Whenever his wife wasn’t around he’d call me into the office. I was uncomfortable the whole time but went along with it. Some days I had uni so I wouldn’t go in. His wife eventually got suspicious.

Then one day I got blocked on every number and was completely ghosted — fired without any notice or final pay. While it was happening he gave me some money and I took it.

Now I’m doing much better, working at a proper corporate job, but the anger keeps coming back. I really want to see them suffer for what they did to me.

To people who actually took revenge on bosses who sexually exploited them or screwed them over like this — how did you do it without ruining your own life? Was it worth it? Or is the best move to just report them officially and move on?

Am I the a\*shole for still wanting them to pay for this years later?

I don’t have any proof and I don’t want to get involved in any legal stuff.

So I've been working at this call center job for 3 years now, I feel like my boss never liked me but somehow gave me a permanent contract with the company.

He is the micromanager type of manager, and he is only happy when he is pointing fingers.

So my metrics have not always been to their liking, but I implemented some automation to my work and now I'm by far the one person in my team with the best results.

The other day he sent me a message on teams but because I was stuck on a call it took me a while to reply.

I was baffled by the content of his message "why are you not replying? Scratching your nutsack?"

I was baffled and told him I didn't allow him to treat me that way and to use that language with me.

His reply?

"Oh look at him offended".

I told him again that I didnt give permission for him to use that type of language with me.

So that was that.

Then he started to make comments about...me crossings my legs while taking calls.

I told him it's my body and I'm not offending anyone by crossing my legs so I will continue to do so because that's how I am comfortable.

Sometimes he still talks about this situation with me crossing my legs, I just look at him without saying anything.

Now the real kicker of this story is that the same boss that calls me unprofessional for crossing my legs scratches his ass in the middle of the office and smells his own fingers while strutting and strolling his way on the office.

The hypocrisy kills me, the situation is so ridiculous that I'm not even upset ..I just smile at this fool.

My boss used to be great, now I'm in hell every day.
Anytime anyone else makes an error with their documentation or files, I get blamed - no matter how it happened and by who, she finds a story to say how I made the mistake, convinces herself it's true, and then tells other people the stories as if they were fact. I've gotten multiple write ups for mistakes I never made.
I had an emergency call last week, an ACTUAL emergency - and she has consistently thanked me for never being on my phone for years, there's literally days it never even leaves my bag (I have a 1099 job so technically this is at my discretion). After my emergency call, she suddenly is obsessed with telling me my phone is distracting me and I'm "getting paid to take personal calls", that I need to "stop being on my phone so much", and that I am making errors because I am getting distracted by my phone (????!!!!!).
She "shows off" to other people by shitting on me, multiple people have made me aware of this, and it's typically if someone newer is around. Like she tries to bond with these people by telling them how horrible I am at everything.
She yells at me and brings up personal things about me/my life, in front of people who have no business knowing my personal business.
She tells me very specific ways to do things, I comply, and when she changes her mind (everyone who knows her knows that she is VERY back and forth), she tells me I fucked everything up, did things wrong, misunderstood her, and "can't understand basic English"/"dont know how to use common sense".
Today's drama is I now am not allowed to laugh at work. If she hears me laugh, it means I'm not working, I'm distracted, and I'm making errors that can "cost her the company".
The list could go on forever, and I am in the process of quitting. I already quit over 50% (demoted myself and took a huge pay cut that I cannot afford), but honestly it feels so worth it. I have an interview tomorrow, I'm really hoping to be able to fully quit this place soon.

My boss used to be one of the best people I know. She was amazing and I was constantly telling other people to come work here so that they can have the "best boss in the world" - and I truly meant it. But she underwent a lot of stressful events over the last year or so, and it seems that it had drastically changed her personality, and for some reason, all of that anger and blame falls onto me. I have developed an ulcer, a heart condition, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure all within the last year as well. Whether or not it's related to this insane work stress is up for debate.

Thanks for letting me rant about all my work drama 🤣🖤

Throwaway account.

For almost a year now LDC DC has been terribly mismanaged and the employee have been used and abused by the current GM. The current management has put employees and guests at constant risk by refusing to fix clear and obvious safety issues that have been REPEATEDLY brought to their attention by both staff and guests over the past year. Some (but not all) of these issues include:

- Mold in the 4D fog machines

- Dirty and damaged mascot suits that have made multiple members of staff sick from wearing them.

- Lack of proper ride training and ensuring of competence before certifying staff on the dark ride.

- Lack of proper training on fire safety and evacuation procedures.

- Sewage water in the Hero Zone playground that the General Manager and Regional Manager forced the staff to reopen despite being improperly “cleaned” due to a corporate visit from Lego.

And this isn’t even mentioning how the General Manager has covered up thefts at this location, violated labor laws by retaliating against any employees who dare be open about their concerns (even expressly telling some employees they aren’t allowed to utilize official channels to report his misconduct), hired his personal friends into various positions to spy on his employees, and so much more.

The staff of LDC DC have tried every official, proper channel to have something done about this, but thusfar nothing has ever come of it as the members of Merlin’s HR staff (though I suppose I should say former as they are now technically Lego HR staff) are quite keen on shielding the General Manager and his friends from any accountability for the hostile, abusive, and unsafe working conditions they have brewed. So, this is my last resort. This is my last go at having something done and hoping this attraction can return to the happy place it once was. Please, internet, I know I may be screaming into the void here but I’m out of options. Please help.

EDIT: Forgot to mention how the GM has fired people he doesn’t like/think will whistleblow for comically petty reasons while covering up the fact his close, personal friend, the commercial manager, provably stole a $500 set and faced no consequences. Or the Operations Manager breaking ride evacuation protocol with no consequences. Or the Bookings Coordinator also breaking ride safety protocols with no consequences.

Worth mentioning also is how he and all the above mentioned staff cannot do a single aspect of their jobs without ChatGPT. Every email and document they write is created with it.

I’ve(27m) been a receptionist at an FQHC for a little over three and a half years now. When I started, the front office manager was super friendly, chill, and easy to get along with. I loved working for her. Well, she left back in June 2025, and was replaced with the literal devil.

She is the world’s most obnoxious, micromanaging, judgmental, arrogant woman I’ve ever met. She has made me cry multiple times because she takes my experience in the office as a threat to her superiority. She has yelled at me in front of the entire office and patients, belittling me for small mistakes. She will refuse patient’s care because she has decided that they don’t deserve it, when we legally cannot refuse care. She will hover over everyone’s shoulders nitpicking everything we do, embarrassing us in front of the patients.

I would say that I’m just bitter because I interviewed for the position and didn’t get it, but literally everyone in the office hates her. Even the clinic director is lowkey regretting hiring her. I don’t want to get a different job because I live half a mile from the clinic and my husband works across the street from me, so it’s super convenient. I also don’t want to lose my insurance. Idk, I’m just trying really hard not to crash out everyday and walk out. I dread going to work every morning.

Thanks for hearing my rant.

I had such a long, stressful day yesterday. I was on at 6:30 am until about 6:45pm. I turned my phone off and crashed at 7:45pm. This morning, I wake up to a text from boss sent last night. Check your email. I checked it this morning and he's asking me to check flights for him at 8pm, because he's not going to make his flight. I just now emailed him explaining that I was dead tired and asleep and asked him how he made out. I didn't get a response, yet. I don't understand why they feel the need to just intrude on our lives like this! After hours, be a grown up and handle it yourself. I did have one executive who actually took care of rescheduling his flights after hours without bothering me. unbelievable.