People Share Stories Of The Craziest Boss They Ever Worked With

Workplaces are very interesting places because of the different dynamics you get to see. Today, we are exploring the dynamic of “crazy and unhinged bosses.” Read on as people all over the world share their experiences of the craziest bosses they have had the displeasure of working with. Some of these stories will make you appreciate your own boss for sure!

1. Funds Withheld

I worked as a receptionist for a couple of months, and if one thing was out of place in the entire lobby, my boss would yell at me and for some reason say I was wasting money.

She would do this repeatedly and I never understood why. Sometimes when things were out of place in the lobby I didn't have the energy to get up and fix it, and she would just keep saying I was wasting money.

I never understood it until one week I would grab chairs and purposely mess them up, I would tip over trash cans with small amounts of garbage, and so on. That week I got paid $80 less.

I checked all my checks and realized that the more the lobby was messed up the less I got paid. Once I confronted her about and she gave me the money back, but it was still pretty messed up. She was rude as heck.

speechlesspoetry

I used to do a lot of yard, and repair work for several ranch owners before becoming an actual ranch hand. I had one woman, who although was very nice, was always attaching new conditions to the work I agreed to do for the amount of payment I received.

For instance, I would agree to repair, paint, and lacquer her barn, then also clean her gutters, and shovel dirt for her for about 350 dollars over a three-day job.

When I'm nearing completion she decides that she also wants me to clean her stalls, clean her livestock water, and help replace various hoses, and stall doors for her horses.

She didn't agree to pay me more for my extra work, and said she would only pay me half if I didn't do everything she wanted. So she tacked on a half more things for me to do that weren't agreed upon.

I sucked it up and did it anyways, and with a smile on my face. I'd rather have my reputation untarnished than my income. Can't make money if no one will hire you because your credibility is questioned. Even if it is only mouth-to-mouth.

SmashedMouthPotato

I used to work for a municipality at their landfill sites. We had a new director come on board who was one of the most vile humans I've ever had the displeasure to know.

He would transfer people from a home site that they had worked at for years to another that was as far away from their home as possible just for laughs and giggles and would come up with ridiculous excuses for doing it.

He made rules that made life at work intolerable. I.e., staff working on the site were not allowed to speak to each other. We were also not allowed to help each other.

We were not even allowed to help disabled people or seniors who came to dispose of stuff. In severe weather, i.e. heat waves, and downpours, we were not allowed to seek shelter. The list goes on.

This man is the person who I would gladly murder if I was positive to not get caught because the world would be better off without him.

Moos_Mumsy

He was in his 50s and tried to dress like a 20-year-old. His shirts were always too tight so the buttons looked like they were about to break free and fly across the room.

He never wore any kind of undershirt and always left 2-3 buttons undone at the top showing off his gold chain and chest hair. The amount of cologne he wore made it impossible to breathe if he was too close to you, and you could always tell where he had been in the office as there was a trail of stink that followed him.

He was employed at the company for 2 years, never learned how to use any of the systems, and would have to ask for help from his staff for even simple tasks.

At our weekly check-in meetings, when we had them, if anyone had a question he would request you to set up another meeting to talk about it and then never follow up. Thankfully, he has "resigned".

Wednesday862

My current boss has no experience in our field of work. He's just the biggest angriest guy on site and bullies everyone, then he's sweet as pie to the office staff.

They do love him so, if you stand up to him you will get punished for a minimum of a month. One day I decided that the job just wasn't worth him after he started screaming at me and I decided, screw it, I’m gonna punch this guy in the mouth.

I made an angry beeline for him and he immediately backed up and stared at his shoes. Now he just screams at everybody else because he actually happens to be a wuss, but he's still the biggest guy on site.

Moosecakeems

My second job in high school - I was 16 and working alone in a warehouse/office on an apple ranch. The owner was a 45-year-old divorcee who hit on me randomly by asking inappropriate questions and saying creepy things, like telling me I was in his dreams or commenting on my body.

What made him the worst boss though was how he treated me when he started dating this dumb, trashy woman (younger than him but at least 35).

He gave her a bunch of authority in his business, which she used to try and get rid of me and keep me "in my place".

She secretly installed spying software on the office computer to monitor me remotely, then when that didn't get me in trouble she became openly nasty and petty.

The worst power play was when she made my boss institute a "bathroom ban" so I had to walk out to the field to use the port-a-potty rather than the office's toilet.

I can only assume his creepiness towards me made her somehow insecure and want to punish me. It was a very toxic environment.

roadkill_burrito

When I worked at my college, I worked in dining services. I did not have many interactions with my boss but half of them were unpleasant (and there were only like 4 sooo yeah).

Dining services get people to work for them because they are a little bit better paid and they claim to be flexible. Uhh, no. they are not more flexible. I had to go home for a weekend for family stuff and I came back and still had a lot of homework to do.

So I get dressed and get ready for work early and I go in and I ask if they need me for that shift and if they did, I was ready and could do it. But, I would prefer not to since I had several hours of homework to do.

I got yelled at for not calling in 2 hours before. When I told him that I didn't have the office's number, he insisted that he write it on the back of my employee handbook, like he did with everyone else.

I replied that I distinctly remembered that he had forgotten I was starting the day I did and had to go get an extra handbook. He insisted that I had the number.

He let me go, though but said it wasn't an excuse since I had the number. Welp. I get back to my room, look at my handbook, and wow, shocker! there is no number. I was pissed.

batsman20

I worked as a sort of nanny for a family with 2 young boys with special needs. They lived with their grandmother who was and still is mental. There are so many stories I could tell.

In a nutshell, she's anti-vaccination, constantly preached at me about organic food, saying she would never feed them genetically modified food yet bought them McDonald's and Pizza Hut regularly because she couldn't be bothered to cook.

One time she spotted a tractor spraying the field behind her house. She shouted to close all the windows and doors and evacuate the house NOW. Her grandsons have autism and one has mobility issues, it wasn't easy and very confusing for them.  

We drove around for an hour whilst she told me of the dangers of pesticide and I reassured her we weren't going to die and it was probably just water.

We then went to McDonald's drive-thru. She also tried to sign a letter with a stick of fudge. She’s a piece of work, to say the least.

Goofpokes

My worst boss was a guy named Glenn at a hospital I used to work at. I was hired by this guy and he was pretty new himself. Enter the problems.

It became apparent to everyone pretty quickly that Glenn didn't really know what was going on or even what we really did there. He eventually got fired, but that is a whole other story.

Christmas comes around and although we didn't receive any kind of bonuses, Glenn gave everyone gift cards to Walmart for Christmas.

There wasn't any kind of amount on them, so we had to call the phone line on the card to find out how much they were worth. They were all for like $3.26.

MindVirusMedic

I had to shovel snow for Ms. Smith ( she was 86 years old at the time, R.I.P. now though ) as she was too old to do it herself. She caned her way into the snow and started to berate me for not shoveling fast enough.

So I picked up the pace. That wasn't good enough. She had to point out where to shovel next. So I ran around in circles, no longer being efficient, to shovel the designated spots.

After two hours ( I could have done it under 30 minutes solo ) she said it was "good as it will get" and told me to follow her to the front door. After 15 minutes or so of waiting, she comes back to the door with $2.12 exactly.

"What is this?" I questioned, as the deal was $20. "Well, I had to manage you for 2 hours, and at minimum wage that's $14.50 of my time. And, all this damned snow has ruined the rubber stomper on my cane, which will cost me $4.38 at Walgreens. So, here is your $2.12. Now get off my property." declared Ms.Smith.

JDogg_of_RS

Had a manager at a movie theater I used to work at who used to "inspire" employees by snapping orders at us and then telling us that if we didn't like what she told us to do to quit because "You need us more than we need you."

And then there was the bookstore I worked at where the assistant manager used to steal from the register by doing post voids on large cash transactions and sometimes used the backroom as places for meet-ups with one of his half dozen mistresses.

He mostly got away with it for as long as he did by being one of the "cool" bosses who didn't really care what we did. The post voids eventually sunk him if you're curious though (loss management noticed a suspicious pattern).

schnit123

Worked for a mechanic 3 months ago. The business was family-run and the boss had taken it over from his father a year before. One of the most lazy incompetent bosses I've had.

Never wanted to get in on time and always put things off til the last minute. After two months of working there, his wife who had been made redundant from her job decided she was going to come in on days I was working and take over.

She had a go at me for appearing closed off and told me I made her look foolish in front of customers. Eventually, she came in and started verbally abusing me telling me the business was going downhill, that it was my fault, and that they were paying me good money to work there.

I told her I didn't appreciate the way she talked to me and that if I was not the right person for this job then so be it but I would not be putting up with her behaviour.

She wasn't happy about this and said there were people worse than her in the world and I should deal with it. She then chucked a hissy fit and ran out of the office so I ran out after her and asked if she was ok.

She got pissed off and told me to stop sulking. I now work for a better business and don't have to put up with the emotionally manipulative crap she made me deal with.

Ramboismymother3

I worked for a private ambulance company. The manager had her Mercedes coupe totally decked out. Lights, sirens, and EMS stickers everywhere. I’ve no idea why, because we did not run emergencies, or ever need a support vehicle.

She also always looked like she squeezed into her uniform, and didn't have a problem doing whatever she pleased with company logos all over it.

In the short span of time I worked there, this woman left her husband, moved a boyfriend into her new apartment, got mad at him, and then tried to incite domestic violence so he would leave.

Then, she moved back in with her husband before leaving again. She was a mess. A complete and utter, uncontrollable mess.

funsizestar

I used to work for an old 'nam vet who had seen a lot of action. He had been awarded the silver star twice which means he had seen serious crap.

As a result, he had serious PTSD with no therapy or help aside from getting drunk regularly. He was routinely verbally abusive to his employees and would fly off the handle at any interaction.

Any issue that had to be taken to him was as likely as not to result in a pointless and unproductive confrontation and thousands of dollars were wasted needlessly.

I did not worry about getting fired there, I worried about getting shot, but this was during the recession of the first George Bush (H) presidency and I was lucky to have any job at all.

nhjuyt

I used to work at our local grocery store. Our manager was a total jerkish, bald guy, who drove a motorcycle (his wife fell off once and broke her leg and he yelled at her to get back on).

Anyway, my coworker wasn't feeling very well and told me to come over. She instantly passed out and my other coworker and I picked her up and held her limp body.

She eventually came to and my manager came over. Someone was calling an ambulance and my manager ripped the phone out of the customer's hand and hung up.

He then proceeded to take her into our online pickup room and told her to sit down. We sat there with her for a few minutes as she still didn't feel well.

She asked if she could call her parents and go home and the manager said no, that she had to stay and finish the rest of her shift, and if she couldn't go out there and ring up people, she would have to continue to sit in the room until her shift was up.

It was another 2 hours until she was done. What a jerk. I'll never go back to that store even if you paid me all the money in the world.

Tabby2036

My most recent job was with a lady supervisor who would hover over you while you were on the phone talking to clients. She would also use fear and intimidation tactics to control people and threaten that they would be fired if they didn't make more phone calls or follow her orders.

Inside sales job and I lasted only three months. Job before that making pizzas had an owner who was very weird and would physically want to be around the female employees, but they wouldn't do anything about it since they were scared.

Job before that developing photos had a manager that would constantly breathe down your back even when everything was done and nothing was going on.

I did an inventory job where a supervisor would treat me like crap but was cool and super nice to everyone else. It started on day one too.

Worked at a movie theater with a supervisor who would prey on girls but ignore the older women his age. He'd stare at their bodies and would comment on their necklace if caught.

ithinkoutloudtoo

Worked at a big multinational in Canada - I was a software protocol engineer and I got the gig because a mutual friend of this manager knew that she was after someone like myself and that I was keen to trade up my salary after being underpaid for years.

6 months of extra long hours and a horrid battle between myself and the previous engineer who couldn't do the job and I was pretty pleased at how much we'd achieved.

My boss was on holiday and came back after a week; we'd have these ridiculous long meetings - this one seemed normal for the first 5 seconds; then this manager went absolutely crazy at me for half an hour in front of a colleague who was there as well.

I was utterly confused. I called in sick for the next few days - then my wife gave birth and I took 2 weeks paternity leave. I sorted an interview at a new company via a friend and got a contract signed before my first baby was born.

I returned to work - crazy witch was all 'how's the baby' - I cut her off and said "We need to talk now " - handed in my notice and told her she was the worst person I've ever had the misfortune to work for. I kept an eye on that lunatic to ensure I would never have to work for her again.

vamposa78

I worked at a summer camp once as an instructor, teaching game engines to teenagers. My co-instructors consisted of 5 guys, and our camp director was this overweight woman (she was maybe 26?).

I think myself and the others were around 18-23 years of age, so we got along pretty well. Anyways, little did I know, that the instructors and this director had been working together for a few summers before my joining.

The guys warned me that the director didn't like me because I was skinnier than her. I was new and didn't really know how this location was run, but whenever one of the guys tried to help me out, the director would call him over.

She was jealous that the guys were talking to me, or helping me out and ALL the guys knew this. I still couldn't believe it when my co-instructors warned me - I couldn't fathom her feelings because I thought we would bond from being the only women.

But as the summer camp progressed, it was very clear she didn't want me to make friends and she was incredibly cold to me. It was a crappy summer.

DesignTC

My last casual job while trying to find a perm position. I was on the bones of my butt and NEEDED any work I could get. My ex-boss knew this.

Working as an Event Paramedic at all sorts of events: Horse Racing, Motorcross, Cheer Leading Comps, Marathons, etc. Actual lives in my hands and serious trauma injuries on most shifts, for $30 an hour.

The boss man expected me to drive all over the wilderness for hours, and stay overnight without getting paid for my time (this included week-long jobs and no meals paid for). I also had to keep a fully stocked ambulance at my house, with all the supplies and was expected to wash and maintain it for free in my own time.

I’m not quite done. I had to fill the ambulance with petrol out of my own pocket until he got around to paying my invoices, which could take anywhere up to 3 months.

I even caught him out in massive lies to his clients. One had paid for 2 paramedics to be at the event, and he told me I was working alone ( I remember because I protested), when someone got broken, the client asked me where my partner was.

He forgot to send a crew to a job that was weekly, he told the client the ambulance crashed on the way to the event. I could go on....but you get the idea. Complete jerk.

MrsSBell

I worked for a semi-famous prop renter and maker. It was my dream job, but the guy was a crazy jerk. He made me work as an independent contractor even though it was 9-5, 5 days a week (I was broke and desperate).

He fired me without notice two weeks before Christmas because he decided to take a vacation. He constantly gaslighted me (e.g. would hide work I did and reprimand me for not doing it)

When he would, very rarely, get fan mail (often from young kids) he would say it was garbage and order me to throw it away without a response.

However, one time his wife found one of those letters first and she thought it was adorable so he played along, super sweet, saying how they needed to write back and post it all over their social media.

When she showed me, he was standing behind her glaring at me. Honestly, I felt a little bad for her not knowing her husband was a psycho, but she had her own weird issues.

Sucked to get fired before a holiday like that, but overall, I'm glad for it. He is, hands down, the worst person I've ever met.

FuckoffIDontwantto

I worked in a store. In the summertime, it was up to 37 degrees Celsius (98.5 F). We didn't have air conditioning because it cost money. Instead, we had machines out back, using 5-6 kW/h. That causes a lot of heat.

When the machines broke down, causing a loss for our boss, she had aircon installed, so she could have the machines not fail and have them "make money" instead.

But in the shop, we didn't have aircon. It was still 37 degrees on the worst days. 30-35 was normal. One of the bad days our boss walks 500 meters to another store to buy Bruce Springsteen concert tickets.

The other store was a chilly 18-20 degrees as it was air-conditioned. After our boss had waited for a whole 15 minutes, she called up our store and asked for one of the new employees to bring her a bottle of cold water, because it was so hard to stand in line, in the cold air-conditioned store.

At the same time, we were standing in a shop from 09:30 to 17:30, in serious heat. Screw that, I don't miss that part of the job. Not even a little bit.

Ganthree

Worked one summer as a program assistant for a summer school. Basically took care of foreign students enrolled in the program, made sure they were transitioning to the city and the culture, etc.

My boss was the most selfish and power-hungry person I've ever met. She would treat us like crap and was generally a mega jerk, but would be the sweetest person when her boss or someone higher-up was around.

On day three of the program, this one girl from an Eastern European country goes missing. Boss refuses to file a police report and threatens any underlings who want to.

A day later the girl comes back to the dorm with bruises and is in an almost catatonic state, then locks herself in her room on the sixth floor refusing to let anyone in while talking to herself in her native language.

I called the boss, and when she arrived she turned to me and said "Can you imagine what would happen if this girl jumped out the window; I mean can you imagine what that would do to my career?"

That was ten years ago and I've had many jobs after that but that witch takes the cake. I had to find someone who spoke the girl's language as we begged her to open the door, and then I had to personally get the girl committed to psychiatric care for two days until her parents flew in. I was 18.

thunderkantasaurus

Boss I had a year ago in a local hotel. He was actually a nice guy but was clearly either inexperienced or really just not cut out to be a bar manager. He had a few scandals I remember off the top of my head;

He messed up the rota TWICE in one weekend so that I was the only person on the bar floor...... on the same day as a wedding that took place in the hotel and then another day when the restaurant was closed so that the staff there could do a night out.

At that place, understaffing in general was a serious problem. If one person went down for whatever reason, someone else would have to do lots of extra hours to cover them.

To add insult to injury, staff would regularly be sent to set up the wedding suite bar which would then leave us screwed for staff.

He outright lied to my face when he promised me that my hours would stay up when he took me off the floor because of performance issues ( Remember what I just mentioned earlier - NO ONE would be able to keep performance up with that BS. ) They didn't.

He then dared to give out to me when I called him out for this because I had the gall to do it in front of a chef ( maybe a misstep on my part but still ) and for talking about the fact I was taken off the floor with other staff. Heck, even if I didn't, the rest of the staff would have noticed I wasn't on the floor anymore!

I did leave the job on good terms ( because I knew pretty quickly things wouldn't improve ) though for something else but that one didn't work out either for different reasons.

Both experiences have put me off working in hospitality in Ireland ever again and also convinced me that said sector is in dire need of a regulator.

Misty_Chaos

Right after high school, I had a couple of jobs over the course of the summer. One was at an ice cream shop and then night shift at a gas station.

The ice cream shop was owned by a couple. And the wife was an absolute nut case. She has no problems flipping out on employees while customers were present, and then turning around and flipping out on the customers when questioned.

She would steal the tip jar at the end of the night. She was banging one of the younger guys who worked there. She constantly trash-talked employees to other employees, about personal issues often creating a lot of workplace drama and hostility. (several fist fights broke out between employees while on the clock)

She eventually fired me and then accused me of dealing substances at her store while I was working. What actually happened was a black guy I worked at the gas station with had happened to come in, I had been giving him a ride home after our shift together at the gas station and he handed me $10 for gas.

This was over 10 years ago, and since then I've heard that the franchise had actually ripped their name off her shop because of so many issues. They eventually reopened with a new name and I hear not much has changed.

dryst

About two years ago, I got my first job at a restaurant where I worked with my father, he was a chef and I was a waiter. Oh, and the boss was a jerk alright.

He used to spread rumors about his employees and rob the youngest of them by giving as least as he could (about 24$ a 12-hour shift). It was also very common that after the restaurant got completely full and stress started to pour, instead of taking the lead he'd just jump into his car and drive off to drink or get a few snorts of coke.

He was crazy for money and did all these insane wedding parties where he'd have only 4 waiters and 1 chef to serve 300 people at once.

All of these were crazy but the day me and my father finally had enough was when one of the electric ovens had a little malfunction and the whole thing had around 250 V running through it.

Well, my dad grabbed the handle and couldn't let go but somehow he managed to rip the huge oven door off before he passed out.

After I got to know that the owner very well knew the oven didn't function right I never came back. Last I heard he scammed some of his friends for party preparation money and had to sell the restaurant because nobody wanted to work there.

SupremecyCZE

I have a doozy for y'all. I work for a Chinese pharmaceutical company, which was my dream come true at first because I majored in Chinese Studies and Communications in college, so needless to say, I was pumped.

My work is mainly Chinese, with a couple of white people. Nothing out of the norm to me. I didn't see anything wrong at first because my boss (a tiny bossy Chinese lady) treated me like a princess, loved every single thing I did, and praised me constantly.

Little did I know she was treating everyone else like complete crap. She's the VP of our US location and is a crazy psycho witch btw, and she was only supposed to be the head of HR but she fired all of the HR people and "mysteriously" got promoted to VP of the whole company (cough sleeping with the CEO cough).

She constantly yells at everyone, belittling them and making them feel inferior when they're just trying to do their job. She claims to know how to do everything at the company and yells at anyone who doesn't do things exactly her way.

My supervisor has been there for over a year and she has said my boss made people cry, and we have such a high turnover rate because of my boss. She doesn't let ANYONE talk to the CEO without talking to her first (learned this the hard way numerous times as she screams at us for it).

Oh, we also don't have an HR department, because my boss claims to know all about HR and we don't need anyone in that role (hence why she gets to yell at everyone). There is so much other shady stuff going on there... I'm counting down the days until I leave that place.

denvercarolina93

My last job was seriously probably one of the worst bosses I ever had. He made the servers feel like crap, he was extremely frugal too to the point where if we accidentally toasted too much bread (worked at a breakfast joint) he would ask us to re-use the toast on someone else.

One night I had gotten a concussion from skiing and I switched shifts with my co-worker since I was still sore and she wanted to watch her daughter ski in a tournament and Saturdays were the best for money so I took it.

I GOT IN TROUBLE FOR TECHNICALLY NOT TELLING HIM WE SWITCHED despite my co-worker telling him. Because I "screwed the team over" we weren't busy, we could handle our own. I almost quit on the spot, I didn't, and I should have, but jobs aren't easy to come by in the U.P.

What finally made me quit was when I picked up a second job after my boss slashed my hours. He scheduled me on a day when I had to work at my 2nd job so I thought I was doing the right thing mentioning to him that I can't work Tuesdays.

My other job fed me free tacos, and I had to pay full price at my crap job for food, and I wasn't allowed to bring my own...) So in front of my customers, he told me that I had to figure out which job was more important.

I told him on the spot that I had chosen my other job and that I wouldn't be coming in anymore after that Monday. It felt good.

1000Vikings

I worked for a very large insurance company that is headquartered about 3 blocks away from the World Trade Center. On the morning of 9/11, we were all shaken up by what was happening up the block.

A lot of us who work in downtown Manhattan had co-workers and people we associated with regularly inside the WTC. A lot of the companies there were bank/insurance related, so we worked with and knew a lot of folks that were inside.

Anyway, one of my co-workers was having a meltdown. Her husband worked in the first tower that had just collapsed, and she hadn't heard from him.

Her supervisor came over and said, "I know that this is a tough day, but the important thing to remember is that we really need to get these transactions finalized by noon".

The supervisor was let go for the incident, and the good news - my co-worker’s husband was safe. He was able to get out of the building without injury.

biffsocko

I was promised a promotion if I kept up the good work, Then had a phenomenal 6-month review, and said "ok lets get this going." We just don't have it in the budget to give you a (then, around $7,000) raise.

We had words about my productivity, but if the money isn't there, whatever. So I interviewed at one place, and got an offer to do the same work, with less seniority.

Told my boss, and he said let me try to counter, what is the new pay?

That’s when my single favorite moment happened. I got to look him in the eye and say, “Well they're paying me $32,000 more than you are. I doubt that's in the budget.” Been working here at the new place since November. This place is the best.

TheShrinkingGiant

I work in retail. So a year and three months ago me and my wife were at the hospital. She was in labor and I was freaking out. So I want to say it was around seven in the morning when I decided to call work.

Me: "Hey boss guy this is Dr_strongbad_PhD-"

Boss: "What happened?"

Me: "I'm at the hospital and my wife is in labor."

Boss: "So?"

Me: "I'm not gonna be able to come in today."

Boss: "Why not? You have to come in."

Me: "My wife is having a baby."

Boss: "Will you be able to come in today?"

Me: "Probably not."

Boss: "But you have a lot of work that needs to be done you have to come in."

Me: "I can't come in today. Bye."

I hang up. I went in the next day and he handed me a long list of stuff to do. He walked off so I threw it away and went about my day and had an easy day of work. Then I went home to my baby girl.

Dr_strongbad_PhD

I've been suddenly and violently sick at my job in a photo studio before. I called literally every other employee whose number I had asking them to come cover me, and no one answered.

Eventually, I called the district manager asking for advice, she told me I couldn't close for the night, and to just keep a trash can nearby.

Her loss, no one bought photos from me that day seeing as how I spent the night retching in the back room, which pretty thoroughly scared off any customers.

Making me stay cost more than closing early would've. I collected my check and turned in my resignation that month. I don’t miss it.

strorberry

Last year we had 2 feet of snow on the ground during one storm... I wasn't going to make it... When I called to see if the office was open no one answered.

I then called my boss who proceeded to explain that we are open and I would need to get my "butt" to the office or I would not be paid. My car (Ford Fiesta) got stuck on my block and I left it for my father and brother to get back to my house( I love them for that).

I managed to get a friend with a jeep to get me to my office where the door was snowed shut... I dug it out and got inside to find no one else there.

2 hours later my boss called me and said it was too dangerous and he wouldn't be able to make it to the office. I then had to fight to get paid because he claimed we were closed.

ubrkifix

I work in self-storage, so I have to carry a hell of a lot of keys around, and so do my two bosses (the company owners). Well, I once left an empty storage room unlocked on a Friday night, before going home for the weekend by accident.

When I got back to work on Monday morning, I had a note taped to my computer screen saying how disgraceful it was that I left a storage unit open and unlocked, as anybody could have put their items in and put a new padlock on the door.

I went to check on the unit and discovered that my boss's keys were still in the padlock from him locking it shut. (They both work other full-time jobs with the construction company they also run)

That Monday night, we had a break-in, and three units were opened and all valuables were stolen. I'd rather leave an empty unit open than leave the keys for locked units lying around for anybody to steal from.

lordt

I was once fired from a job because I was "Insubordinate". What was the nature of my insubordination? I was new, and I was asking my manager how to do things.

I'm a bright, curious guy, so I was also asking why we did things a certain way, especially when it made no sense to me. She was happy to teach me everything she knew and said that I would be a great candidate for management after 6-12 months.

I took this encouragement at face value and continued learning everything I could about the job. Her boss thought I was gunning for his job, so he made sure to fire me as soon as he had an excuse.

His excuse? I was detained as a material witness at a crime scene, and could not make it to work. I produced an official police report of the event, but it made no difference.

The no-call-no-show was the technicality he used, but he made it clear when firing me that it was for being insubordinate.

Shagomir

I work in a restaurant in a casino. As everyone knows, servers and "font of house employees" receive grossly low wages from the employer - which I would never complain about because it's a fine dining restaurant and I receive solid gratuities.

What I find to be ridiculous is the fact that management thinks that all servers should "donate" their time to the restaurant on a day off. Coming in and cleaning for six hours for something like 2.89 per hour - while the restaurant is not open.

To not participate is unheard of - people would be written up or fired, guilted into feeling that they take no pride in their workplace. But in all actuality, the servers make all of the sales for the restaurant - their wages are made up of the gratuity of their guests.  

So, I find that management is absolutely nuts to think that I want to cut class, drive an hour, work for six hours scrubbing crap with toothbrushes, and make $12.

EveryoneCallsMeDaddy

I used to do contracting/construction work with a friend of mine. Our boss was a friend of my friend's family. Super nice guy, funny as hell. The only problem was that he was hugely addicted to prescription painkillers.

Growing up, he smoked a ton of “green” and did a ton of blow so he already had that "addictive personality". He ended up hurting his back and got hooked on the Vicodin.

Anyway, as a result of this, he would work 30 hours straight and then just crash. Every morning, we'd all meet up at his house and he'd give us our jobs for the day and he'd meet up with us later.

On one of his "crash" days, we got to his house at 6 am and he gave us a list of 15 things to do and sent us on our way. Around 2 pm, he gets to the work site pissed off asking us what the heck we'd been doing all day.

"uh Mike, we've been doing all the stuff you gave us to do this morning" We proceed to show him the list with everything crossed. "I told you to do all that? Oh, cool. I guess you guys can go home then. See you tomorrow"

Dtrain323i

I worked for a fairly nice hotel in my area as a valet parker/bellman. My fiancee at the time had sickle cell anemia and occasionally would get attacks that required a hospital trip.

3 of my 4 managers were cool with this. One was a complete jerk. So naturally, I've been there like 8 months, several guest commendations, and a raise for good service, and she has an attack mid-shift with my jerk boss there.

She needs to go to the hospital and nobody to take her but me. So I go tell my boss what's happening and that I need somebody to cover for me. He says there is nobody, and she can wait til the end of my shift. All of the guest's car keys are kept in a locked wooden box that there is only one set of keys to open.

One guy guards keys and one guy parks cars. I apologize to the car parker, explain the situation, and give him all of my tipshare for the day, and explain he's about to get royally screwed.

I then lock the guest key box, take the key off the company ring, and take it with me when I go to take her to the hospital. Nobody can leave, and nobody can drop off their cars.

It was a huge mess. A coworker called me later and told me that guests were furious, the manager ended up having to comp rooms for them, and it took 4 hours to break into the key box.

bdaniel44

Let me start by saying that my "supervisor" is, basically, an idiot. There is no one big IDIOT moment, but lots of little ones..you know, those little instances that just add up in your brain and make you crazy over the course of a few years? I could give dozens of examples, but for now, just today's example.

I run a warehouse and my supervisor is the Purchasing Agent. She came back from a meeting with the Finance Manager and said she needed to talk to me.

First issue, we really need to watch what we spend in the warehouse (although I just buy to replace what other depts buy from me, so if they buy $100,000 out of my warehouse, I have to spend $100,000 to replace it.

In the end, I get it back whether they buy $50,000 or $200,000 from me). And in the same breath, she said the generic Lysol stinks, so spend the extra money to get the name brand on "stuff like that."

WTF? She also says 'ideals' for ideas, 'golds' for goals, 'Wentzday' instead of Wednesday, adds 't' to the end of 'twice', and has the writing/grammar/spelling ability of about a 3rd grader. And this person is my 'superior'...

Hoodooz39

I was working as a beach lifeguard at a private club in the Long Island Sound. For one shift we would have to be in a kayak to watch the people a bit out in the water.

There was a public beach next to it where people walked their dogs, and all of a sudden one of the dog owners came to our beach, asking to help us. Her dog, a big goofy golden retriever, had swam into to water, and wasn't stopping.

He looked to be having a good time, but you never know what could happen in open water where boats could be going by. So one of my fellow lifeguards and I each go out in a kayak and guide the dog back to shore as the entire beach watches.  

I come back to shore (after finishing my shift) and my boss reams me out because we had no one in the water watching people, even though we still had two lifeguards watching the beach from the shore as normal. Every other lifeguard just had their "wth" face on as he yelled at me.

DerNubenfrieken

I was a contractor working for a consulting company. One day my team lead mentioned that I had been walking in late every day. I disagreed. He said that I should not only be at the office but at my desk, computer on, ready to work.

I asked "When you send me on-site, when do you start billing?" he said, "When you walk in the door." I said, "Why do you think I would bill you any differently?" He told me that I could play by his rules or work elsewhere.

And that's really the point, isn't it? Either one of you can walk away from that employment agreement at any time. You can play by their rules (showing up early, not getting paid for it) or you can find another place to work.

Sure, you can force the issue over 5 minutes and demand to be paid, but don't be surprised when they have found a reason to let you go.

dragon0196

When I was in high school I worked at a small scrapbooking business, I didn't really know much about scrapbooking but put in a real effort to learn and take it up as a job.

The business had 3 owners and this one owner in particular was known for making employees, family and friends alike cry like babies without feeling guilty.

All three of my bosses spoke Spanish as do I, but this third boss always talked crap about me in Spanish as if I didn't know and her daughter who also worked there would always explain to her that I could understand everything.

She never stopped...I didn't cry although I was tempted to. That woman has some serious issues and she is definitely not missed.

Mel_Melu

I was an intern for a really small accounting company. I was asking my boss a question about the work I was given and she yelled at me telling me that I had to figure it out on my own.

That was kind of minor, I think the worst is what my co-intern told me. Apparently, it was a Saturday and she had come in to work at 9 am and in a client's location.

When it got to be pretty late, I think like 7, my co-intern asked my boss if she could go home because it was getting late. The boss said no because everyone had to stay until the work was done.

When it got to 9 pm, my friend finally told her that it was getting way too late for her to be getting home alone. Also, all day there wasn't a place nearby to get food, so my boss brought packets of ramen for her interns to snack on. Also, nobody gets paid.

bacon_butter

I'm a Junior software developer and I've been out of school for less than a year. My boss was pregnant and went on leave recently. She was replaced by a very controlling boss.

This new boss has started looking at every change we make, which would be ok but she does not know any programming at all. She also told us to our face that programming is easy and we are wasting our time figuring problems out.

We should just be going line by line until we find the bug and then fix it. She also comes to our office to tell us of changes to do to make. We make her go back to her office and send us either a bug report or an email so that we can have written proof that she requested this, she doesn't like this.  

Every day she just makes it sound like she wants to control every minute of our work day because we are incompetent.

Dfube

I work for a production company which is owned and operated by someone one year older than me. One time, we were recording a lute quartet in a studio, and I went up on a ladder to move a light.

I used a wrench to loosen it, move it, and tighten it back up then put it in my back pocket. I then went to step down a step (on my way off of the ladder) but instead completely fell off the ladder (only about 6-8 feet up but still)

Amazingly, I had like a parkour moment and rolled out of the fall, winding up safely and uninjured on my back, wrench still in my pocket. My boss yelled at me for falling off of the ladder.

Not for being irresponsible in getting off or anything, but for the physical act of falling. Imagine having a boss like that.

ImBeingMe

When I worked at KB Toys as an Assistant manager, I used to have lunch breaks in the backroom, often with friends. One day the manager came in and scolded me for having non-employees in the back, and I blew him off.

The next day he tried to tell me an expensive RC(Radio Controlled) car was stolen from the backroom, and he tried blaming my friends for it. When I asked him which RC car got stolen, he told me it was one of the 120-dollar cars.

I laughed in his face, then pointed out he was lying, as I did truck (processing toys into the store) and we had actually got 4 RC cars instead of 3 (second store on list was shorted a car), and all 4 RC cars were accounted for.

He then just told me not to have friends back there. To this day, I still get irked thinking about it. He was such a bad boss.

Lightforge