Worst thing a manager has ever said

[Cosmos123]

A senior partner of one of one of the big 4 on a social evening last week.
He mentions to the new graduate recruits that he spend 3 years in Sweden.

When asked why he was there

He responded 'I wanted to live somewhere where I could blend in'.

Bearing in mind he said this to a young black recruit.
How shocking is that!

'She probably won't care about work any more when she gets back from maternity leave'

@Chinam

Years ago, we were extremely busy at work. My boss hired a guy to help us. The man was black and from Africa. This is relevant. The day he started, the boss brought him in to the office and announced that our slave had arrived. I still die a bit inside now thinking about it.

I gasped in horror at this one. That poor man

I’d worked very hard for 6 years and rcvd 4 promotions in that time. Fell pregnant, happy little accident - bit of a shock, but we were happy.

Told my boss after my 12 wk scan, and his response was “you’re fucking kidding me! I suppose you’ll want to PT now then!”

He was hardly in the office himself. Golf days (which we covered up for him as they weren’t linked to his role). He WFH a lot (nearly a decade ago) - but never seemed to get much done and we would be picking up the slack in the evening.

He was a major arsehole!!

I had a sickness review meeting and manager asked me why I was off sick for the most recent period of sickness. I told her it was because I had a miscarriage. She preceded to tell my I was incorrect, and the period of absence 6 months previously was when I had a miscarriage. Well I had one then too. Did she really think I didn't know when I lost my babies? So cold and insensitive.

I got told my manager wouldn't have offered me a job if she realised I was going to have 2 children....she has 2 children of her own.
On the same day she shouted at my colleague that she hoped she wasn't pregnant as well, as she was looking rather fat.
Public sector employer, I really didn't think stuff like that happened there.

I was struggling due to the way my boss was treating me. He'd just turned nasty for no reason. I tried to discuss it with him.

"I'm far too busy and I've got far more important things to do than listen to you"

He was a cunt.

I started a new job and, for the first week, I didn't even see my line manager. I had been recruited as one of the marketing managers, and so took the initiative to look at all the marketing collateral and get to know the product the company was selling.

On the Tuesday of my second week, my line manager asked to see me and the person I was managing, who had started on the same day as me. We got our initial thoughts together on what our most immediate priorities might be for the specific task we were hired to do.

The meeting was in a cafe and, on giving the boss the information on what we'd like to focus on, they stood up, pushed back their chair so hard it fell over, and shouted "and you'll also do what I tell you to do!". And they stormed off - didn't see them for the rest of the day.

Awful. I knew by the end of my second month that I'd made a huuuge mistake in leaving my previous firm where I'd been really happy. It took me another 4 months to get out, though.

My manager on finding out I'd got engaged (to now DH) asked if I'd be up for a shag.
I'd known him for 13yrs at that point (I started working there at 18) and he was 20+yrs older than me.
I left 4 months later. I couldn't even look at him by that point.
🤢

Aged 14 in a cafe as a Saturday girl - the (vile, 6'5", 50-something) owner threatened to rip my nipples off because I'd managed to switch a freezer off 2mins before. The switch, as it turned out, was at floor level on the front of of the ice cream freezer, and standing there to scoop ice cream meant you had to be careful not to kick them. No one had told me.

I quit 3 weeks later to go to a lovely cafe up the road and stayed there for 5 years.

Not a month after I left, a chef who had worked there (I never met him) poured a 5 gallon jerrycan of petrol through the letterbox one night and torched the joint. Can't say I blamed him 😁. The owner was absolutely awful to all his staff and customers.

I worked for an organization where paid leave to attend a funeral was given for immediate relatives (parents, siblings of child) but not grandparents. However you could apply for unpaid leave.

When my grandmother died I went into the office to inform my manager. I was about to explain that as the funeral was in the morning and I was not going to the reception I would still be coming into work, but about an hour late. It was holiday season and the entire system was short staffed.

I got as far as "My grandmother had died and the funeral is on wednesday" but before I could explain that I would still be in work the boss tittered and asked "How many grandparents is this youve buried?"

I had never before asked for time off to attend a funeral. I was so angry and disgusted that I simply walked out of the office.

Next day I rang a bigger boss and told him that I was so upset by my managers tasteless and callous remark that I was taking unpaid leave until the end of the week. The big boss told me he was granting me paid leave, and to let him know if I needed any more time off.

I later heard on the grapevine that my immediate manager got a real bollocking for his "grossly unprofessional behaviour towards a colleague". Despite this he never apologised and thereafter we barely spoke except on strictly professional matters. Every time he tried social chitchat I simply turned away and walked off or pretended I had not heard. I also asked the big boss for a transfer on personal grounds and was moved 3 months later.

My boss “what does a guy like me have to do to get a girl like you”. He’s about 30 years my senior.

'We need to get you some backbone.'
It has stayed with me for years.

Interviewing for a job aged 21 in 2012. I was asked if i was planning on having kids any time soon.
Looking back I should have said none of your business!

Sexual things. Followed by sexual assault. Repeatedly.

From a male manager when wearing a shortish skirt: "you just made me cream my pants when you bent over in that skirt". I was 16 and he was around 60. 🤢🤮 I was so innocent I didn't even understand what he meant until years later.

From a female manager on hearing my news I was pregnant in my early twenties: "have you thought about abortion? Because I've had a couple and it really wasn't a big deal. Kids are a huge responsibility you know". She really couldn't understand that I actually wanted a child at 24!

I could make my own thread with the stuff my old boss came out with. I had time off for depression and he had me hauled into the office and told me "you have no reason to be depressed. My dad just died, and here I am fine and in work".
He also had me suspended because he saw me as a risk to patients (I worked in a hospital)... I self harmed. No risk to patients or anyone else at all. He would also call me to the office and land a disciplinary on me (complete with HR present) with no warning.
This was NHS too. Complete and utter arsehole

When I went along to the Christmas meal despite being off on maternity leave, the big boss said casually, “I hired you because I thought you were done having kids and we were safe.”

I was gobsmacked. My line manager had already told me that I’d been passed over for promotion because of maternity leave. I decided not to go back. This was public sector.

"You're the worst at being pregnant. I was so ill when I was pregnant that I actually prayed for a miscarriage. I still wasn't as pathetic as you. Ha ha".

This was from a headteacher when I was so ill with HG that I was being sick in my classroom sink throughout the day.

My boss thought the Australians deserved to die in the bush fires for being idiots and living there and that richer people deserved to live before poorer..

'I know you shouldn't say this but l don't want anyone foreign ' - manager recruiting

'All Chinese people look the same!- same person

Another manager complained about 'the idiot ' who took their own life on a motorway meaning it took him 3 hours to get home

It's like being in the 1970s.

I was told by my male line manager that I had to work full time to get any further ... I was working 4 days a week after returning from adoption leave

I had an epileptic seizure at work. This had never happened to me there before.

The manager who I soon realised was very prejudiced against people with Epilepsy said afterward 'you shouldn't have seizures at work, it frightens everybody'.
Given that my workplace was an NHS hospital ward & my colleagues were qualified Staff Nurses who are supposed to know how to deal with emergencies this was a daft comment as was the assumption that I could somehow control when I had a seizure (unfortunately my meds weren't right).

She has luckily left now, my epilepsy is under control and I work on a different ward.

@PooWillyNameChange

In response to your title, when I was in my early 20s and out with my team (pre-big 4 days) one of the directors told me he was going to 'tear my arse apart', kept trying to hold my hand in the cab back to the hotel then tried to follow me into my room. It was a tiny company with no HR and it was terrifying and disgusting in equal measures.

Jesus Christ

"Sandra, an elephant has ejaculated in the warehouse"..
*spilt 4 pinter of milk episode!!

I had weekend and holiday job in a garage. Lots of random sexual comments from various mechanics and salesmen.

The worst was the foreman who announced that since I was 16, but looked about 14 I was basically "legal jailbait".

Same foreman (who had a 19yo DD himself) also suggested I wear my school uniform to work and also once threatened to put me over my desk and "loosen my arse" because I made a mistake.