I had a boss who seemed sane, until about 3 weeks in. Hired me as a national marketing manager, then actively prevented me from doing any marketing. Started micromanaging me, eventually down to making me log any call I made (my job was effectively making calls) including purpose and outcome of each call. He’d randomly check by calling them himself (which made the whole industry class him a nutter).
One day he decided he wanted rid of me, but the law prevented him from booting me out. He immediately set about a campaign to force me to resign, so he didn’t have to pay me out. This included company-wide memos every morning, banning random things he thought I valued. Like, he banned my model of mobile phone from the building. Only mine. And the brand of biscuits (which I brought in to share).
Oh, and he had me move from my office to the store cupboard. Yep, an actual windowless, tiny room with shelves and mops. My toilet breaks were timed, and I had to get his express permission to even go. He’d leave the office on purpose, so I couldn’t wee (except a sympathetic colleague would sneak me to the loo).
He pretended to ‘give in’, and handed me an envelope that supposedly had my money in it, and told me fuck off. I knew that if I left without the money, I’d never get back in so I checked. Empty envelope. Handed it back. Stayed on.
I withstood it for a month. I stayed cheerful, helpful and calm. Took legal advice (not UK). The whole company slowly came out of the fog of fear and servitude and started giving him grief for how he was treating me. Morale was so bad, productivity was at 0.
He finally gave up, and paid up. He could hardly speak he was so purple with rage. I was almost sorry not to see if his sad little black heart gave a final tiny ‘pop’ later that day. Worst. Boss. Ever.