Worst boss you've ever had and why...

ebayaddict0127
ebayaddict0127 Posts: 523 Member
in Chit-Chat
I love bad boss stories. Maybe because I'm in HR.

I've had some crappy ones. But two bosses (at the same job) were chatting in an office with the door wide open. It was my duty to introduce new employees to the HR team. With the door being wide open, I didn't think they were discussing anything confidential. I went up to introduce him and just as I started to talk they slammed the door in our faces without saying a word. Great first impression for a new employee! The best part.. no apologies or explanation later. They told my coworker to tell me I was in trouble and they were talking about confidential stuff.

I quit shortly after that.. oh and the one boss was a female. She would wear skirts with pantyhose.. but didn't shave her legs. So she had huge clumps of leg hair showing through her hose. CLASSY...

Oh and they can't keep anyone in HR there for longer than a few months.. gee.. wonder why.

Replies

  • LiveLoveLift67
    LiveLoveLift67 Posts: 895 Member
    I had a job for 7 years and i really didnt have a problem with the boss....if anyone needed anything he made sure we got it etc but, after about a year on my weight loss journey and as my body got fitter he would start making remarks and comments ( sexual). I would normally brush them off or laugh but, last June he went a little too far and touched me and told me exactly what he wanted to do with me at a motel, pulled out his penis and asked for a bj to name a few things...all in the same day.

    When i turned him down and let him know exactly how i felt about all of it he got pissed and then started harrasing me in a work related manner ( what i wore, calls i got, breaks etc).

    Unfortunately i couldnt do anything because it was a small family run company ( less than 10 employees, with lots of illegals) . I had no HR dept to go to. So i gave notice and left. For the two week notice he never said one single word to me....he knew he did wrong. Once i left and made sure i got my letter of rec and my pay....now i tell anyone the truth that asks why i left.

    It was really hard not having a full time job for 6 months but, it was the best decision i ever made .
  • ebayaddict0127
    ebayaddict0127 Posts: 523 Member
    I had a job for 7 years and i really didnt have a problem with the boss....if anyone needed anything he made sure we got it etc but, after about a year on my weight loss journey and as my body got fitter he would start making remarks and comments ( sexual). I would normally brush them off or laugh but, last June he went a little too far and touched me and told me exactly what he wanted to do with me at a motel, pulled out his penis and asked for a bj to name a few things...all in the same day.

    When i turned him down and let him know exactly how i felt about all of it he got pissed and then started harrasing me in a work related manner ( what i wore, calls i got, breaks etc).

    Unfortunately i couldnt do anything because it was a small family run company ( less than 10 employees, with lots of illegals) . I had no HR dept to go to. So i gave notice and left. For the two week notice he never said one single word to me....he knew he did wrong. Once i left and made sure i got my letter of rec and my pay....now i tell anyone the truth that asks why i left.

    It was really hard not having a full time job for 6 months but, it was the best decision i ever made .

    AS an HR person this makes me CRINGE! So sorry you went through that.. yikes. You could still try to file a claim against them... just sayin'...
  • Tabitha_Faye
    Tabitha_Faye Posts: 131
    My boss at Chuck E. Cheese's when I was in high school. Just an awful manager. After all, if the rumors I heard were true, she was caught doing drugs underneath the basketball hoop game at Chuck E. Cheese's with a few of her employees. Sadly, I wouldn't be surprised...
  • GetRippedOrDieMirinBrahs
    GetRippedOrDieMirinBrahs Posts: 124
    I had a boss when I was in the military that would tell me I'm worthless and a waste of space. She used to talk about me to all my co workers and turn them against me. It was absolute emotional torture.
  • Will_Thrust_For_Candy
    Will_Thrust_For_Candy Posts: 6,109 Member
    Ugh my last boss for sure. He would lie, use company money to take out his buddies, did no work, didn't expect us to do any work, would blatantly check out women anywhere we went, made sexual comments to me (but because he was my "friend" when he did that, not my "boss"), didn't know how to run a meeting, didn't care about what happened with clients. Swore like a trucker and chewed tobacco and would spit in a Coke bottle wherever we were.

    Ugh.
  • feferighteous
    feferighteous Posts: 12 Member
    I worked at a Hampton Inn a few years ago, had one boss quit about 2 months before I left. The new boss that was hired was a 24 year old girl who couldn't even log onto the front desk. She had meetings with other employees about my personal life, but the worst was when she laughed in my face when I told her my mom had 2 weeks to live according to hospice. My mom died a couple days later.
  • liftsforchocolate
    liftsforchocolate Posts: 273
    I worked at a burger joint during a summer of high school, and had the grossest/sickest boss ever, but it was weird because he was also nice and I was 16 and was pretty clueless about what to do.

    He was 60 years old, funny old guy. To not gross anyone out, I'll shorten it to one particular experience:
    -I was making a milkshake, and swirling the whipped cream on top, and he basically told me to my face that he would love to see me lick whipped cream off his you know what and then continue on about my lips, etc (this was IN FRONT of customers sitting down eating, and 2-3 other employees)

    Before that ^ I truly thought he was an amazing person, really genuine and funny. Now I understood why he always patted me on my back, joked around etc. It took me a day or two to figure out what to do, but I ended up reporting him. Not that its even related, but I never needed the job anyway (it was basically to kill time during the summer) but was glad to be out of there as soon as possible.

    I used to model before that (did a couple of shows/shoots) and have some pretty horrible stories about the agency directors/coordinators, but nothing tops the burger story lol
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    Honestly I've never stayed at a job with a TRULY terrible boss. Life's too short and I guess I have fortunately never needed any job *that* badly. I've had some doozies but usually just for a few days or a couple of weeks 'til I said "see ya"...one guy at a higher end home goods company was pulling out his cracked teeth in the bathroom and asking if my then-husband and I would be interested in swinging with he & his wife...another was a big, tough-looking manager of a low income apartment housing project who cowered in his office all day with his McDonald's, cigarettes, and extreme halitosis while I (new assistant manager with just 2 days on the job) fended off SCARY thug-like dudes out front. Umm NO.

    The worst boss I've had in a regular type of situation where I actually stayed on the job was this supervisor "Shawna". She was straight out of a Real Housewives TV show. Shawna drove a brand new BMW and carried designer bags every single day despite a salary of probably $50-60k (she had a rich hubby). She was supposed to work every day 8-5, even her higher-ups worked those hours, but somehow she manipulated upper management and worked special hours 4 days a week...coming in around 10-11, taking a long lunch, and leaving at 1:30 or 2 to pick up her son from school. When I was hard at work on special projects and needed a green light from her she was never available. She sometimes would literally run down the hall in front of my office with her hair in front of her face so I couldn't see her (so she thought). Shawna would never send a text that said anything but 'k'. I'm so happy I don't work for her anymore!
  • Ed98043
    Ed98043 Posts: 1,333 Member
    I hate to say it , but my top two worst bosses were also my only two female bosses. The second was the worst - I still sometimes daydream about doing bodily harm to her. Her name was Marion (though I kept calling her Marilyn by accident, which I'm sure didn't help matters) and I worked in her department for about a year in an office setting. She was a 'mean girl' that never matured past high school, and participated in vicious gossip, complete with whispering, pointing and giggles with the other mean girls in the office (all of whom were her subordinates). They hung out together on weekends so they were fast pals, and they didn't like me. I was a 'keep your head down, keep quiet and just do your job' kind of person so it's not like they got to know me; I think their dislike stemmed from my unwillingness to join their coven. I was also 10-15 years younger and a hundred lbs lighter than any of them, but who knows if that had anything to do with it. Women can be so catty and petty.

    Anyway, after about a year Marilyn...er, Marion, sacrificed me in the mandated company-wide layoffs and kept her cronies. That was in 2003 and I've been self-employed and much happier ever since. My current boss is super cool! (because it's me lol)
  • PatheticNoetic
    PatheticNoetic Posts: 905 Member
    I had a boss that low balled my income when I was hired then after I got good at my job she increased the analyses that I was responsible for. When I went to ask for a raise, she said I did excellent work and all my results were great but she wouldn't give me a raise because she didn't like my attitude. It was an incredibly toxic work environment. And I'm talking more than just the stuff we tested.

    I quit on a Monday. On Tuesday they were raided by the EPA. D@mmit. I so regret missing that day.
  • lisalsd1
    lisalsd1 Posts: 1,519 Member
    I worked at a pharmacy while in college. The pharmacist/manager asked me if I was Catholic, which I am not. She asked me if I went to church, which I did not. She said she "needed to change that." I'm pretty sure I should have reported her to someone for that.
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  • Dedshot
    Dedshot Posts: 145
    Being young I haven't had too many jobs to compare, but I worked at Old Navy last year and my manager was a creep. Just a huge creep. He'd follow me and my friend (she also worked there) around the store, circling exactly like a shark. If you did anything he thought was incorrect he'd pull you aside from whatever you were doing, even if you were ringing up a customer, and lecture you without breaking eye contact the entire time. It made me wicked uncomfortable.
    I was never unprofessional or disruptive but I am very mischievous and would always find ways to have fun at work. He hated that. Probably why he called me out so much. Near the end of the summer, a month or so before I left for college, he scheduled me for THREE hours for one week. I just quit that day. Never been back to that place.
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    I hate to say it , but my top two worst bosses were also my only two female bosses. The second was the worst - I still sometimes daydream about doing bodily harm to her. Her name was Marion (though I kept calling her Marilyn by accident, which I'm sure didn't help matters) and I worked in her department for about a year in an office setting. She was a 'mean girl' that never matured past high school, and participated in vicious gossip, complete with whispering, pointing and giggles with the other mean girls in the office (all of whom were her subordinates). They hung out together on weekends so they were fast pals, and they didn't like me. I was a 'keep your head down, keep quiet and just do your job' kind of person so it's not like they got to know me; I think their dislike stemmed from my unwillingness to join their coven. I was also 10-15 years younger and a hundred lbs lighter than any of them, but who knows if that had anything to do with it. Women can be so catty and petty.

    Anyway, after about a year Marilyn...er, Marion, sacrificed me in the mandated company-wide layoffs and kept her cronies. That was in 2003 and I've been self-employed and much happier ever since. My current boss is super cool! (because it's me lol)

    I'm so glad things are good for you now!! :-)

    Marion/Marilyn sounds like a woman who managed a small credit union I briefly worked for...wretched job with a bunch of horrible women who sound just like that lot. They were all older and miserable and behaved like giggly teen girls. Everyone in my department was younger and they hated us and were unnecessarily mean to us.

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