To want to hear about your horrible bosses?

I’ve been so close to quitting this week. My immediate line manager spends all day micromanaging via passive aggressive emails with no clear instructions then speaks to me and other staff members like we are stupid because we can’t read her mind. She’s been having a 20 plus year affair with depute director which explains how she got to this level so pointless to try take it further.

the 5 people in 7 years who did my job before me all moved on due to her and one raised a grievance which led to her being bullied out the office. Her and the 2 seniors above her have been there since the beginning of time and are horrid.

So hard to explain it’s small ongoing little things that chip away it’s like mental torture 😒 single parent and on highest wage for non qualified admin work do feel trapped.

I’m currently stuck in a job watching my boss bully my team leader. My team leader is on a PIP for 6 months for a really poor misunderstanding, and she had just suffered two immediate family losses. Now she’s being savagely bullied in fortnightly meetings, but in the office the manager is pretending she’s lovely. It’s disgusting. People are starting to become aware of my bosses behaviour but we all know HR back her so we’re fucked if we say anything.

New office manager told the 6 ladies that from now on if we wanted to use the loo when had to raise our arm. But the 5 men didn't need to.
Final straw for me was when Fil phoned to say that they were taking DS (2) to hospital as he had a fit. Ambulance was called.
She answered the phone and told Fil she wasn't going to let me know until the end of the day. (This was before mobile phones)
Fortunately Fil wasn't someone you messed with. He had also contacted DH who went to the hospital then Fil came to my office walked in and told the receptionist that if I wasn't allowed out then he was going to get me.
I took a grievance against her and she was moved to a different place of work.

My first teaching job and the head of department clearly couldn’t stand me. Her first observation of me entailed her saying’I’m only going to say what’s wrong with your lesson’ which did not inspire me. I (probably very stupidly) did the same back to her when observing her. Wasn’t pretty! As soon as my boyfriend now DH got a promotion elsewhere l resigned.

When I first left school I got a temporary job in a council office. My boss was a woman who did very little, disappeared to the pub for 3 hours every day, came back drunk and smoked in the office. I complained about the smoking and she said If you don't like it you can f... off.
Her bosses knew but didn't do anything, probably because in those days the unions had a strong hold on the workplace and it was hard to discipline or sack anyone.
Anyway, I left to go to univ but kept in touch with a colleague who told me that the horrible boss went too far and was caught drunk and topless in someone else's office and even the union couldn't prevent her being sacked.

One awful manager was an absolute cow & bully to lots of my colleagues. I was an office junior, little confidence, very young. I asked her a work question and she replied then shouted "if you open your eyes & use your brain you might actually get somewhere!" I was very close to tears & quit that day. Massive relief

When I was 17 I worked at a clothes shop while doing my A Levels. There were lots of us young girls working there as a weekend job. The manager would openly talk about her sex life in great detail and ask whether you were a virgin in front of everyone else.

My parent died within a short time of each other and I was called in for an absence meeting to discuss my attendance levels. ( side note I literally had 2 weeks off for each parent). She asked if I had anything to say and I said yes write down I've no parents left to die. I was absolutely furious

@poetryandwine thank you. It was an awful time made even worse by managers with no common sense. I Stayed took the absence warning in disciplinary was going to put a grievance in but felt to ill to.
I still had finance to pay on my car, I stayed till that was payed and found work else where, with employers that show compassion.

I had skin cancer as a young woman and was quickly booked in for an operation to remove it.

The operation ended up being bigger than I had expected and was done under GA. It took me a long time to come round and I was kept in overnight.

I was due to work a weekend a few days after the operation and had expected to be back, so I hadn’t swapped my shifts. I ended up being off for another week afterwards as the wound had opened up.

On my return, I was soundly told off for not having swapped my weekend on the grounds that “it was perfectly obvious you wouldn’t be back”. I asked why, if it was so obvious, nobody had suggested I do it. Apparently, they considered me an adult and it wasn’t their job.

I was 23 and had just been told I had cancer. It still shocks me to think about it now.

Before I founded my own little company, my last boss thought he could pull an Elon Musk on me and get rid of me, online, in a 6-minute ambush. That didn't work. There was so much wrong about the organisation that it wasn't hard to get a good settlement but it was a truly horrible experience that did leave me pretty scarred to be honest. Especially as I'd worked bloody hard to pull something off that they hadn't been able to do in years. But once I'd served my purpose, it was an ejector seat for me.
The lesson: never feel undue loyalty to a company. God knows 99% don't care about you - and those who do care will make it pretty clear.

My ex manager was a bully. Small in stature but twisted and created division between her junior staff, lying to each, about the other. Anyone with a difference of opinion to her was bullying her..senior managers, peers, junior staff.

Because she was a small, slightly built person, people who didn't know her couldnt/wouldn't believe that she could bully us taller, bigger people.

She had issues with so many people. Management didn't do anything, despite other disciplines having to send in extra staff staff didn't have to be on their own with her as she bullied and manipulated them. She was very smart and less than subtly threatened legal action.

Every day was a mindgames, manipulations and lies. It culminated in me eventually realising I could only change things myself, so I left. It was detrimental to me to leave, although the job I found afterwards wasn't ideal I worked for another 2 years and then retired. Best thing I ever did though, was to leave.

My old boss was a micromanager.

• complained that staff were using the toilet "too much" during work time and should only go on their lunch break (this rule obviously did not apply to her)

• complained staff were using "too much" soap and water when washing their hands after the toilet breaks they were not supposed to be having

• complained staff were using "too much" toilet paper. Concluded staff must be stealing it. Tried to make staff request toilet paper from her on an individual basis prior to each toilet trip

• complained when staff brought their own toilet paper in as "outside paper" could damage the pipes

• complained staff were not team players for refusing to do work not in their contracts because "we're a family, we pitch in"

• I had to leave early due to a sudden death in the family. When I came back to work the next day I was pulled in for a telling off and given an informal warning as an incident had occured after I left and I should have been there to prevent it happening (the incident was totally outside of my control and my duties had been given to a different member of staff who had managed the incident correctly/properly but it was still somehow my fault)

• was not given proper instructions for many,any tasks and was then told off for not following the instructions that had not been given

• shouted at for not using a stapler correctly, told to re-staple everything

• told off collectively and individually for private conversation had during designated breaks in designated breaks areas. Conversation was not work related but was apparently "negative subjects" (colleague was having a grumble about car repairs). Manager was not in the room so must have been listening at the door to hear it

• complained too many people using the staff room at once so lunches were staggered, then complained that the staff room was in use by consecutive members of staff over too long of a period and we should try condense lunches

• banned staff from eating anywhere except the staff room

• complained staff were going to the staff room instead of working through lunch and eating at their desks

• collectively told off for the lack of "fun, relaxed atmosphere" in the staff room

• told I was not allowed to leave when got a phone call to say DC had been taken to hospital & needed surgery. Said I was leaving anyway. Got told I need to "ask very, very nicely" (beg, basically) and it would be "considered". I left anyway. When I came back I got told I was not allowed any further emergency leave at all

• leaving for work on day, was feeling a bit dodgy, threw up on the driveway. Rang in sick (as per policy for vomiting), got shouted at on the phone for not telling them until 830 even though it was impossible for me to have told them any earlier than that as I wasn't sick until 830

• got in trouble with the union, had to go on a course to learn how to not be a bitch

• complained someone had winged to the union instead of speaking to her like an adult

Unbelievable, @NimbleBee I am so sorry. What did you do?

Had several. All women. I seem to attract them.

Worst one was a boss who appeared wholly supportive but when she ended up sick herself she sent me a four page ‘appraisal’ by email which was basically a character assassination. I ended up hyperventilating at my desk in shock. Took years to recover my destroyed self esteem.

Oh and they also found out that he had been taking sneaky commissions on the side from third party agencies that he "suddenly found" after rigorous research but what he was really doing was setting up agency work for his friends/family and overpaying them from the company basically overcharging the company for these basic services and after these third party services were paid by the company, they would pay him separately off books because he set up the jobs for them. So he took a few thousand there from his printer friends, a few thousand in commissions from the web agency guys, a few thousand for the catering etc etc until he got caught. At the time I always questioned why we were working with such incompetent third party agencies and spending so much on them and how we can work find different options and even build our team which could help us grow for much cheaper,
He always declined any meeting with different agencies who wanted to work with us and who would send us amazing portfolios.

He only got caught because one of the third party agencies fell out and told his directors on what was happening lol

My boss is great. Days off at short notice, great pay. nice car. Downside is long hours, - 7:30 - 5:30, then messages and requests come through into the evening. I am responsible for making sure the money is there to pay suppliers and have to take the flack of poor employees and complaints from customers.
The joys of being self employed

I was at the time doing a 6 person job fighting whichever fire broke out first whilst ex manager was too busy trying to shag anything moving. A sponsorship he managed and never included me in any meetings or emails caused a huge catastrophe as he used/sent me the wrong logo to use on marketing material. All material was added and printed and displayed for an event and was checked prior by him to approve before printing which was sent to him by me. Whilst he was flirting with one of the vendors at the event, all hell broke loose.

The bastard then sent me a email to berate me that it was my responsibility and it was all my fault for what had happened copying all the directors and sponsors.

I didn't reply to that email, instead packed my stuff and went home. The next morning I went back into work and sat down and wrote a long email pointing out everything how I wasn't included in any of the meetings or email chains, the file that I was sent by HIM, the marketing materials that I designed were approved by Him and how I was doing this whilst doing a 6 person job when he should have supported me instead of smoking outside all day and chatting up everyone. His incompetence shouldn't be pinned on me and attached my resignation letter that I cannot work under these circumstances and my skills and experience and mental health was being shattered by him. I sent this email as soon as he left to attend his dental appointment so he wouldn't be able to do anything about it as he was out of office with dental tools deep down his bastard mouth.

I quit my job and went into work for a better job, better pay and with a team. But obviously I was out of work for 8 months and it wasn't easy but all worth it in the end. The reference I got was from a different manager who hated this bastards guts. When I started my new job, I heard that he was fired for misconduct and ever since then he is floating between setting up companies and failing them and now sitting house partner after being rinsed by his ex wives by him cheating. He has separated from his 4th wife (vendor) and now living and doing childcare to his step kids with the ow.

Haha yes Ingrid at an insurance company I worked for. What a bitch. Always had the young ones in tears. Would give you the stink eye in the corridor or loo and look up and down at your clothes as if you were wearing a flour sack. Cancelled casual Friday because none of us knew what what casual was. She had a massive chip on her shoulder for everyone to see.

She has issues!!!

I worked for a horrific boss once. She was going through a rough patch in her own life (divorce, young kids, obvious alcohol issues) and she just absolutely hated me.

Looking back it was nothing to do with me and everything to do with her. I did the right thing and walked.

I was 23 years old - this was a very long time ago. My mum died, I took a month off of work. I am an only child and my mum was a singe parent. The team manger enjoyed micro managing. On my return, the team had been reorganised and my tasks were to deal with mail. My inbox had been organised for me. The first five items were deaths of customers.

At my annual review, the manager said ' I know your mum died this year, but isn't an excuse for your performance.' I left the room in tears, pulled myself together and went back in after 5 minutes or so to finish the meeting. She looked at me and said ' I think we'll leave it there for today, shall we.'

Dreadful woman.

It was a her not a he. Not sure if that makes it worse or not

I find my current manager intolerable and it’s actually why I am handing my notice in next week.
The job is horrendously stressful, but she is just such hard work. We have busy workloads and in every meeting she just talks and talks and talks and talks about completely irrelevant things.
During one of these rambles, she said that she didn’t believe P.Diddy was capable of rxpe because ‘he’s hot and rich - women just want money - he can rxpe me any day’. This is the content of our Wednesday afternoon meeting as a team. We were all shell shocked.
Other things include reading out messages sent between her and her boyfriend and passing notes along tables during a whole team meeting to make fun of someone’s haircut.
I honestly cannot stand her.

Had a cardiac arrest at work. Admitted to hospital for a cardioversion. Went back to work the next day and was handed a disciplinary letter. This was my 1 and only absence. Because I had been there working for only 8 months, absence accumilated to 3 percent. Absolutely disgusting the way I was treated 😒. I left soon after.