What is the worst thing ever said to you by a boss?

[Chocywockydodahhhhhh]

So many posts on here about bad bosses I was just wondering mine would be
I had a miscarriage on the Sunday and came into work on the Sunday and managed to get through. By Tuesday afternoon I was bleeding through my pads, pants and onto the chair and I was in a lot of pain so went home. I was off two days and when I got back my boss didn’t ask how I was or how I was coping and instead said
“why couldn’t you have worn a thicker pad and not gone home, we had some in the cuboard, you could have put two together”

Bitch

When I was 19, newly out and worked in retail, my supervisor insisted I had to stay at least five metres away from him and with an item of store furniture between us because he "didn't agree with queers" and couldn't promise to control his fists if I "tried anything funny".

Well, this queer might not have wanted his arse, but was quite happy to take it to the cleaners.

This is such a sad thread. From a woman I admired that had helped me develop in my career, when I told her I was pregnant. "How many weeks are you? Ah good you can still have an abortion" said all jokingly. It took a while for me to realise how awful it was, and it wasn't a joke. Just a horrible thought hiding behind a joke

One of my first jobs in HS was McDonald's and I actually enjoyed it but one of the managers was a total dickhead to me. Fast forward 17 years and a man walks into my office (I work security and supervisor role in public events) and he doesn't recognise me - starts mouthing off about a young woman who I'm training up and is a little shy and I litterly stand up infront if him and make myself clear on who I am and he suddenly remembers me.

1 - he was hired but different department.
2 - used him on worst assignment ever so he missed the fun of the concert he wanted to see.
3 - he quickly apologised to my trainee who is now his boss 🤣🤣

"Do you know that I think we'd have got on well socially if you weren't so difficult in work." - female boss who was the most horrendous bully I've come across. She's still at the workplace despite multiple people citing evidence of her bullying (me included). Got to love the public sector

Boss "there's nothing wrong with your work but we're firing you coz you told us are favourite employee was commiting fraud"
Work colleague. Sexual assaulted me in the back & was told by my boss to stop leading him on then

In my first job as a very naive 16 year old the middle-aged boss liked to ask me about my underwear after ensuring that I was alone with him. I was mortified and just didn't know how to deal with it. I left after six weeks because I couldn't cope with the situation.
The job was advertised on a frequent basis as no-one stayed very long.

"we need to manage people like you out of the company". People like me = women with kids. Said by chief of uk operations for major international business services firm.

That’s awful OP

I called in and explained I needed to take a day off as my DS had come down with chicken pox and I obviously couldn’t take him to nursery

My male boss told me that he didn’t think I was cut out for motherhood and working and that I needed to build a stronger group around that I could rely on for childcare

This thread makes me sad :( especially as it's reminded me of my experiences.

The first two happened whilst working at a law firm (in the Employment department )

1. Christmas party, everyone is super dressed up, a colleague and I were wearing similar outfits, the head of dept comes over to us (guy is very socially awkward normally), puts his arms around us both and tells us he is disappointed we do not dress this way in the office...

2. Female partner in the same dept, was fine with me until I went after her pet project - it just didn't do what I needed it to do as part of my job. When she questioned me, I explained why and she kept suggesting next steps, I would tell her I have followed all of them. So she wasn't happy. One day she sends me an email stating I had only managed to answer 70% of calls that came to me (my job was to answer the phone and speak to new clients) and that I need to hit at least 80-90% of calls blah blah blah...I went through my calendar and the period in which she was checking - I was signed off sick as I had broken my leg! When I explained this to her, she came back with "that's a good excuse". Lovely.

My worst boss ever, I absolutely hate her with a passion - worked in retail and needed time off from work to attend a trial (family member was the victim). I knew she would be awkward so spoke to head office who asked if I would take unpaid leave - I said yes, they went to her and she REFUSED to even entertain the idea. I was then pulled into the office with the other manager and badgered, was told that when her dad died she only took a week off - I had to point out that this wasn't a natural death!

It turns out she hadn't even bothered to ask the other managers to cover my shifts, they all told me they would have done it so that the shifts were covered. This was long ago but it still makes me angry.

Thankfully I have had wonderful bosses, my current one is amazing and is female!

‘We would never have hired you if we had known about your epilepsy’ Said at my back to work interview after a bad seizure a few years ago. My apologies for not being able to work after a 10 minute tonic clonic seizure.

Sitting in a big team meeting where my boss went on and on about people going on maternity leave being a 'huge drain on our resources' while I sat there 6 months pregnant, feeling utterly humiliated. For the record, a female boss.

So many of these posts are just shocking, loads of stuff that's flat out illegal, and it's depressing how many revolve around our sex. It'd be really interesting to see what the responses would be like on a predominantly male talk board.

16, first job part time in a hotel, manager says "I can keep all your wages in an account to stop you wasting it all, don't worry I'll give you some change each month for your fanny pads haha"
I may have only been 16 but was wise enough to turn down his amazing offer. I didn't stay there long as it was an abysmal dump but I did hear he was fired a year or so later - for fraud.

"I can't stop thinking about you and walk past your house just in case I see you."

At 16 years old I worked in a fashion store and had to wear the clothes as uniform.

One outfit my boss asked me to tuck in the tshirt. I naively said, “it makes me look fat if I took it in” to which she replied...

“Well you are fat. What did you think you’re slim?!”

I was a size 10 at the time. The comment has stayed with me my entire life.

To make matters worse the manager who said it had been huge but had lost loads of weight.

When other staff stuck up for me and she was made to apologise, she said, “I’m sorry if what I said upset you but if it bothers you that much do something about it”!!!!!
She was an utter vile bitch.

When I asked how she wanted me to change something she said wasn't right. She couldn't say why it was wrong so her reply was.

Have you ever thought that you are questioning me because and being precious because you have autism.

I don't have autism. She is actually part of a team that diagnoses autism. So using this as an insult is completely appalling.

*you are being precious

Can you keep toilet breaks to a minimum when I went once in an 8 hour shift. He stupidly put it in an email so I forwarded it on to my union who went absolutely nuts. He never mentioned it again but the next day I made sure I went 6 times, but that's cos I'm petty sometimes.

Interview for a nanny job - the mum looks me up and down carefully, sighs and says, "oh dear, you're very thin aren't you? Have you got an eating disorder? Because I really haven't got time to be dealing with any of that nonsense". Her husband looked absolutely mortified. (I didn't have an ED, and I wasn't even that 'thin' - about 9st!).

First job, aged 16. Got taken on as a sales assistant in the newly opened electrical dept of a well known department store. Interview was with HR, so didn't meet other staff until my first day. Manager was really pissy with me, despite me doing everything he asked. At the end of the day he asked me to wait behind, and once all the other (male) staff had gone, basically told me that he HATED working with women, that we had no place working in electrical retail, (we were flogging tv's and fridges ffs!), and that he'd nearly refused to take the position, "once they told me they'd hired a girl". Being 16 and shy, I just muttered 'sorry', (one of my great regrets in life!).

That story had a good ending though, I carried on working there, he was obnoxious to me, but couldn't fault my work. After a year, he moved to another store, and was then sacked for theft . I, on the other hand, was made manager of the store he'd left, (at age 17). Lol.

“Well you wouldn’t have a workload issue if you could work overtime, but you’ve got kids so it’s your own fault”

I walked out and never went back. Left him right up shit creek with workload and he did apologise when I saw him randomly about a year later.

‘I mean this gently, but you’re very detached and cold and totally devoid of emotional capability, aren’t you?’

My mother had died ten days before. We were only allowed one day of bereavement leave at that company, which I’d used the day she died, and I hadn’t been there long enough to accrue much annual leave, so I had taken the next day and the day of her funeral which was the following week.

If that manager had known what it had taken to get me up and make up, heels and suit on, they would have known that it wasn’t emotional incapacity, it was a steel mask of control.

When i was a PA my boss banned me from wearing trousers and told me I needed to wear a skirt every day.
When I got considerably more senior, I was told by the HR director of a big corporate that it would not hurt my career to wear a skirt.
Seriously guys. WTF.

Things were winding up in my role. I wasn't made redundant but it was suggested that I made a move before this occurred.

So work knew I was looking for a new job. One day, going for an interview straight from work, the company perv boss said

" don't wear a bra (under the fitted white shirt I had on) to make sure you get the job"

I was such an idiot for just laughing along with him at the time.....

“What do you mean you can’t do shorthand? You’re a woman”.

My first job out of college and my boss hauled me into his office to tell me that ‘if I needed to wear a coat and/or jumper I wasn’t working hard enough’ (this was a physical outdoor job and in the middle of winter, very cold mornings)

Although that doesn’t sound too bad it transpired that he was perving on the female staff and getting off, had tried to proposition different female staff and was fired for gross misconduct having been sexually assaulting and basically wanking off to the female t-shirt only clad women.

I cringe when I think of him watching me and getting kicks, I was only 17/18 and it pretty much set a president of future employment like being paid less that male counterparts, being treated like shit and slagged off because I didn’t fawn over a boss as I should have (he worked his way through most of the female staff and the ones he couldn’t he either found reasons to sack or made their working life so awful they left. He was sacked but it took a very long time)