Tell me your Boss-From-Hell horror stories.

[Bertha Venation]

Someone IS out there with worse stories than mine. Tell me horror stories and tell me you survived. Please.

[noonwitch]

1. I had a supervisor threaten to write me up for talking about him

behind his back. I told him "write me up, now!". He asked why, and I told him he'd find out when he got the subpeona. He said I couldn't sue him and I said "Do you want to find out for sure? Write me up". He left me alone until I transferred away from his staff. He's now retired, bald and impotent. I credit the pins I kept sticking in the voodoo doll's crotch.

As a teenager (a very naive stupid 16 year old), I worked at an IHOP. My boss had me try on uniforms and model them for him. He picked the shortest, tightest one and told me that that was the largest they had available. The next night, the assistant manager was in, who was a female. She asked me if Bruce had given me the uniform, if he had told me it was the largest available and if he asked me to model them for him when I tried them on. I felt so stupid, but she did get me a uniform that fit me. This same Bruce made us punch out to go to the bathroom.

[Bertha Venation]

2. naive, maybe; stupid, no. what a prick

I feel for anyone who's ever had to work for a sexist pig.

So: where can I get a voodoo doll? The pins would go in her head.

[Loonman]

3. Just one

Whom I would emphatically define as a raging canine of the female persuasion, but I've suppressed most of those memories. I worked in a great company, at the time, too.

[gator_in_Ontario]

4. I work in citrus

when I am home in FL, and I once worked at a packing house (now closed) where I once came as close to violence as I have ever come.
When I started there, packing gift fruit, our boss was from Massachusetts and barely knew an orange from a grapefruit. He proceeded to order fruit from the crappiest groves (cheaper, ya know) and expect us to pack nice looking boxes of fruit, very quickly, and only paid minimum wage, for 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. Needless to say, fatigue sets in. Boxes get sloppy (and when you have crappy fruit to begin with....). Well one of our major customers was in, and dissatisfied with his packages, as well he should have been. Well this *head climbs up on the line, 11PM at night (we had been going since 7 am) and says if we can't f-ing pack the fruit right, he will f-ing hire some people who can. We threw thr fruit down and headed, en masse, for the door. He blocked the door and would not let us out. Now it is comical, but then I was ready to kill. Eventually he let us out, but the next day we were back....amazing what some people will do for a buck.
This jerk also once took the fork truck operators out for lunch, got them drunk, then proceeded to fire a guy who ran over someone's foot.
The company went bankrupt, and he ended up working for a pool cleaning service.

Hope this makes you feel better, if not I have more!:-)

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

5. I worked for 4 months for a

raging angry manipulative alchoholic cabinet maker.

It was a 2-3 person shop - yet the previous year they sent out 98 W2 forms to people who worked for him the previous year. Most of these people quit and were not fired! I had the second place record for working there the longest! (4 months).

I remember coming in from an install job and he was laughing about his most recent ex-employee (who lasted about a week.) He said the "guy was in tears" when he walked out the door.

I finally had enough. He had so beaten my self asteem to a pulp, and I was so depressed that... well - lets just say it was quit the job or quit something much more permanent.

I couldn't even face him to quit in person. I called and left a message on his machine and never went back to pick up my tools. I was actually shakinif when I made the call - that's the affect this dick had over me. HE WAS the antichrist! I say was because he has to be dead by now.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

6. I had a boss that loved to talk about employees behind their backs

to other employees. He would lie about them and pit one against the other like it was a bloodsport.
One day, we were all on break and he started talking about this new hire being gay (if he was, he wasn't open about it) and he was giggling and smirking. I had enough of it and jumped up out of my chair, got in his face and berated him in front of everyone that his behaivor was very unprofessional, divisive and I had enough. I walked out.
Several coworkers supported me on this and BOY it felt great!
About a year later, I heard he was demoted from his general manager's position because his irresponsibility had caused 2 of our stores to close.

[philosophie_en_rose]

32. My boss is the same way.

The other employees have a very turbulent history. However, we all realized that the reasons for the tension were lies from the director. Not only were they meant to pit us against each other, they were very inappropriate politically, sexually, and racially.

The boss is a useless tool, but at least the rest of us understand what she does and can work around her.

[Skittles]

7. My dad shot himself in the head and was on life support

my boss said "he's not dead yet" when I asked if my leave would be considered emergency. My dad died six days later.

[fudge stripe cookays]

13. Oh Skittles I 'm so sorry.

What a pusbag!

I'm sorry about your dad. Really.

[geniph]

18. That boss deserved a few pieces of lead in his head

he obviously already had rocks in there. THAT is a dick el supremo.

I'm sorry about your father, Susan. :-(

[Skittles]

21. thanks

my boss was more moronic than malicious or evil, just an idiot who had a penchant for saying the wrong thing.

[Wcross]

26. There is a special place in hell for that person. N/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. When I was in college

I worked in a coin shop for awhile during the time when everybody was cashing in their old silver coins since they were worth much more than the denomination value.

When the bottom fell out of the market, the owner cut my hours way back. I asked him if I couldn't work just one more day a week, so I could pay my rent. He told me that'd be fine, if I worked on the cot in the cellar of the store. So I quit.

Ugh. What an asshole.

[supernova]

9. Got laid off

by a guy who would nto talk to me. :argh:

I mean he would just not talk to me. He wouldn't answer emails, said nothing in meetings other than "hi", and was unhelpful in negotiating with other departments.

:argh: Oh, the other fun thing was I was told point blank not to attend status meetings with programmers. :wtf: That's the whole point of a job like mine. Again, :wtf: :argh:

Frankly I'd rather have an asshole so we can mutually scream at each other.

The good news is he's out of my hair. The bad news is it cost me a paycheck.

[Burma Jones]

10. My Boss said he wanted me to help him fire all the N*****s

I swear to God, it's true. I was just like, wha? kinda stunned. I was the Quality Control Manager, so he told me I could make up whatever rules I wanted. We were working on a mass transit project. I went to his boss, told HIM about it and he told me to shut up. Later, this asshole started complaining about how all the Jews in the company were keeping him down. I was let go of course, as was most of the minority staff members. One staff member went nuts and killed someone after raping one of the cleaning staff. This was in the early 90s. I still scan the obits for this scumbag's name. This man got his comeuppance though, he ended up terminally underemployed by ruining his reputation in the mass transit community.

[fudge stripe cookays]

12. Oh my God!

Any indications to where? Or could that be scary?

[Burma Jones]

15. In the DC area (n/t)

[fudge stripe cookays]

11. I have two; here's #1

One: When I worked for a record store who shall remain nameless (ok...Sound Warehouse) in the 80s, I had gotten promoted from floor clerk to warehouse clerk. (That meant that instead of working til midnight whenever they wanted me to, to days with a normal schedule to open the shipments that came in)

Only problem was, they had me opening the stuff on the floor while working a register. When I had to leave at night, they'd make me keep the stuff there, but no matter how many signs I put on it, saying "Do NOT pull stuff out of here yet!" people would. They blamed it on me.

One day I came in, went to the stock room to clock in, saw the new schedule (I'm on nights the next week) and there's a new guy checking in merchandise. In a very "WTF??!" state, I asked SUSAN (the manager in question) what was going on.

"Oh that's Matt. He came down from Dallas w/a great recommendation. We're going to use him back here for awhile. GOD I was pissed. They even let him stay in the back; of COURSE he was going to get more done!

So I watched him closely. After a month or 2 of this, I began noticing that we'd have major pricing problems (example: 3 copies of Bob Seger's "Against the Wind" on cassette, and EVERY ONE had a different price on it!)

This guy was not even looking at the packing slips! He was just arbitrarily pricing stuff what he wanted to, and each shipment that came in he'd do differently!! Oh, I fucking hated that weasel. And Susan loved him.

I'd point out his mistakes, and she'd insist it was a simple mistake, and that I was overreacting.

FINALLY one day I came in, and 1 of the other managers came up and very sweetly asked if I'd like the warehouse back. I wondered what was up. "Where's Matt?" I asked. Turned out that Matt had been accused of the ole 5 finger discount back in the stockroom; he'd taken a polygraph but they hadn't really been able to prove anything.

It took me OVER a YEAR to get that place back on an even keel from so many messed up shipments being mispriced (some shipments were only received once a year, so we did not know what the current prices were supposed to be, if there'd been a catalog change). I busted my ass.

At the end of that time, I came up for a raise, and one of the nice managers recommended me for a 50 cent (I know...big bucks!) as opposed to the usual 25 cent raise.

Turned out, the district manager would not approve me since they had recently approved 3 of our other employees for 50 cents. I told Susan to call them and demand that I get my 50 cents raise, since I had worked so hard for it. She refused.

Several weeks later, she told me not to bother clocking in, that I was late, and I was fired (She kept altering the time they wanted me in by half an hour each day, and would change the schedule after I'd written it down at the beginning of the week, trying to trip me up).

"Fine!" I said.

I took a civil service test and got a nice cushy job with the government after that. The day I was hired, I went in to pick up my last check. When I had her alone in the back room, I ripped her a new one, with the B word used happily. I didn't care about the reference by then anyway, and if she ever tried to fuck up my reference, I had copies of all my evaluations saying what a great job I did, so no one would believe her.

I still have a natural aversion to all women named Susan.

[Jade Fox]

14. I worked for a married couple...

which I would never do again, for many years.

Every unresolved problem that existed in their relationship (lots) became
something me and the other employees had to live with, but could do nothing to
resolve of course. They would have huge, screaming fights in the office in
front of everybody, complain about each other to the employees, screw things
up in the business as a passive/aggressive way to get back at each other, and
make business decisions at home without bothering to consult the rest of us.

:eyes:

[BlackVelvetElvis]

16. I have another story

I worked for this family-owned business in Fl. for awhile. The boss had a huge temper, he would scream at his wife in front of everyone. Apart from the screaming, he had a tendency to kick and throw things. One day he blew his stack, kicked a box and it hit me in the stomach. I don't think he meant to hit me and I wasn't hurt, so I blew it off. Not too long afterward, I actually did get hurt on the job and was put in the hospital for 3 days. Not only was the work environment uncomfortable and unsafe, but I found out that the jerk didn't have worker's compensation and I was going to be responsible for the $4,000+ bill. After threatening them, they finally paid the bill and I walked.

[Nay]

17. When I was 18 and at my first year at college,

I worked for 2 days for a doughnut shop in FL. I worked the graveyard shift, and the owner/manager worked behind a one-way mirror, making the morning doughnuts.

I waited on people, served them coffee and doughnuts, etc., the first day, and naturally people would leave me tips. As soon as the place was empty for a few moments, the boss came out from behind his big spy mirror and told me that I had to put all my tips in the cash register. I protested, of course, but he said that was the deal, and I fumed about it all the next day.

The second night, my first bunch of customers was a big motorcycle gang. These guys were rough and I was just a little thing. But they were very nice and polite to me, and the head dude laid down a nice tip for me. I told him that that was very nice of him, but my boss (and I pointed to the mirror) was behind there and he had told me that he would fire me if I didn't put my tips in the register, so he might as well keep the tip money for himself, as I would not be getting it. The dude told all his people to pick up their tips, and as they left, they gave the boss the finger in the mirror.

When they had gone, the boss has the nerve to come storming out to ask why they had picked up all "his" tip money! I told him that I had started telling everyone that I was not allowed to keep tips and that they would go to the boss. This jerk had the nerve to get mad! I quit that night, obviously.

[HEyHEY]

19. Paranoid and an asshole

Always asked what we needed then would do the exact opposite. Used to come in and give you an hour long lecture for a little mistake. Called me a fuckhead once...... I quit, walked out.

[geniph]

20. I've worked for plenty of run-of-the-mill psychos and assholes,

but after hearing Skittles' horror story, I'm not even going to bitch about them! Although they did have santorum for brains.

[southerngirlwriter]

22. Well, Bertha V,

I have one that is too horrible to be posted on the internet for anyone and everyone to read. Call me sometime and I'll tell you.

Suffice to say, here are the results:

1.) My best friend (who I met when he came to work for the company; we've stayed friends) is the strongest man I've ever met; he has this quiet wisdom and intelligence that enables him to handle everything and anything.

My friend refers to our old boss as "You Know Who" because her name makes him shiver. I use that nickname, too. It's easier. (Yes, we got that from Harry Potter -- we call her "You Know Who" or "She Who Must Not Be Named.")

2.) After leaving the company, I was diagnosed with PTSD based on my reactions to memories of some of the worst incidents.

3.) I had regular flashbacks for years.

4.) Another employee, who my best friend and I were never close to, got in touch with him recently. She had been fired by You Know Who/She Who Must Not Be Named. SWMNBN, it turns out, had mentioned some of the incidents when my BF and I were there. She laughed about her treatment of me and said, "I always half-expected the police to show up and say that little shit had blown her brains out." She said this in a very disappointed way.

*shiver*

[blindpig]

23. worked in a textile waste plant

as a foreman. had a crew of women who sorted, cut & flatfolded textile remnants plus male laborers. Black guy came to work for us REALLY hustled to try to get ahead. I got him some raises but then he started dating one of the white girls and the plant manager caught wind of it and persecuted both of them so badly that they quit. Fuckin rednecks!

[devilgrrl]

24. I had a boss who required that you ask to use the bathroom.

:eyes: To this day I'm sorry I didn't smack her one. :grr:

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

25. My boss from hell was fine until

he went through an ugly divorce and started doing coke as a freewheeling bachelor. Then he decided everyone over 30 was a hack, even though he was 48. He belittled people in meetings, swore at us, lied to us, and split up teams that worked well together because loyalty bred complacency, and mistrust and paranoia created better work. He literally said that to us, usually around 10pm after he had spit on all the work we had presented before sending us home to come in with fresh stuff at 8am.

Even after winning some big industry awards my ass was grass because of my age. When I couldn't get a meeting with him or the department manager, I started coming in at 10am and leaving at noon. I had my office emptied before they terminated me. Before I left I did some things I should be ashamed of but I'm not, and even better I was never caught. :D

He lured new staff from out of town because his reputation here was so bad. He'd relocate these poor saps and can them six months later. He was canned about two years later because his department was in such chaos...the GM released a company-wide memo saying he hoped the firing would help the place heal. Former employees sent the GM bouquets and thank-you notes.

I had very bad dreams for months after being let go, but they passed. The asshole no longer works in the trade. Too old. The office manager is dead. I live. Yeah!

Good luck to you, Bertha...you will prevail.

[Wcross]

27. My ex-boss held me hostage for two years!

I had been trying to move to a better position within my company. I was stuck at a relatively low wage job, I made the mistake of doing it better than anyone had before.
I started to apply for jobs at my plant and was turned down 10 times for jobs that I was qualified for. I had excellent reviews and attendance. I thought it was suspicious that I never was told I wasn't selected, I always found out when the position was filled.

It turns out that the hiring managers were told I wouldn't be available for two or three months. In other words- look for somebody else. This went on for two years until the manager was replaced.

It all worked out in the end, I start the new job a week from Monday at 63% more than I make now.

My former manager went to corporate and does audits at our South American operations. The ironic thing is he is working for a man that he forced out of our department!

Doom on you Steve!

[VOX]

28. Only one, many years ago -- but she was a doozie...

It should have been a primo job in the place where I always wanted to work, in the field I dreamed about. Everyone there was friendly, cool, and fun. Except for -- my boss, the one misfit in the whole bunch.

I received no training, my predecessor (who had just walked off the job, I later found out) left no procedures manuals, there was nothing by which to chart my course, so I was naturally finding my way and learning as I went. Well, that was just the start of it. Wasn't fast enough for bossy.

All my colleagues and other managers liked me a great deal, which just made her jealous and infuriated her. Her teen daughter ran away from home in the midst of all this, and was finally located halfway across the country. My boss was often weeping at my desk and screaming at me to "stop giving her shit." I only wish I had.

The ultimate moment of craziness came when I was supposed to find storage for four pallets of brochures that had been misprinted with incorrect event dates (her fault, it was long before I arrived), but she felt it was imperative to keep them anyway. She had gone for a low bid on the printing job (in another state, yet -- can you say "no quality control?") and these things were all torn and shredded and falling apart, just held onto the pallets with metal belts. I had to "borrow" a crew of guys from another department to help me move these brochures around and out of sight. It was something straight out of "M*A*S*H" or "Cool Hand Luke." A small fork lift actually sank into the asphalt under the weight of these things. It was at this point that I realized, with the utmost clarity, that things were absolutely overboard.

There was just no communicating with this woman, none whatsoever. I knew things weren't working, so I started looking elsewhere, and I was NOT foolish enough to say so. When I finally landed another job, my boss was hurt that I would leave. After I was gone, she sent cheery notes and even dropped in on me a couple of times. In a couple of years, she took another job elsewhere, and I was glad to be shed of her altogether.

It took me a few years to get over this whole experience. I still have a three-inch file full of documents relating to all the weirdness, which I kept in case I ever needed it.

Guess I can toss it now. :toast:

[Nikia]

29. I felt betrayed by my boss

I am the only person in my position so I do not have the usual coworkers to directly compete with. I repeatedly asked my boss if I was doing alright and if there was anything else that he wanted me to do.
He said that I was doing fine and that he would tell me if I wasn't. He said that he didn't want me to do anything else at the moment because the owners hadn't approved certain things.
I developed a close friendship with one of the male workers in the plant. Someone started nasty rumors. I asked my boss what he thought about my friendship and the rumors. He said that I should not worry about the rumors and that my friendship was fine. He would tell me if it wasn't.
Several times he asked things "as a friend" (his words) about whether I was happy on the job and where I wanted to be in a few years.
Then I didn't get a raise. At first he gave me a lame excuse which suggested that the plant manager and one of the owners had a problem with me. When I asked to appeal the decision, he tore into me with vague criticisms of not being professional, not meeting expectations, not doing enough, being too personal, etc. I ended up crying and he mentioned that I was overemotional. Then I mentioned that I had looked up to him and was rather hurt because of this. He said that if I thought that we had any kind of personal relationship that was my mistake
He mentioned something about being nervous about his performance review and I had known that he and the plant manager had some problems with one another. Basically, I think that he used me as a scapegoat to cover his mistakes although what kind of superviser was he if I was really so horrible.
The plant manager got fired. I got a decent raise this year. My boss is nicer to me now and says that I have done a really good job this year and tells me about his life and plans. I'd like to forgive him but I don't want to fall into the same trap again.

[Paranoid_Portlander]

30. I was ordered to type my boss' termination check...

... which he was not expecting. It was a pleasant moment in an otherwise unpleasant job. His wife was led away in handcuffs by the FBI (embezzlement). Looking back over the past 40 years, ALL of my former employers were petty tyrants, with one exception who paid me $1.60 per hour, which was legal minimum wage 35 years ago.

[fudge stripe cookays]

31. #2

Well, the civil service job I ended up getting was for the IRS (alright, flame me now...it was good money and benefits at the time, and I wasn't a hardcore Dem like now).

My department ended up being transferred to the service center, under this complete BAT. Typical freeper grandma, always wanting us to do this complete BULLSHIT. I hated her, and she hated me. She was the cobra, and I was the mongoose. But we did this bullshit pretending to be civil thing in front of everyone.

One of the other ladies had worked with her before, and told me that she and I would be like oil and water, because I am very outspoken and don't take crap from anyone.

She cowed her employees so that they would never speak up against her. Anyone she did not like, she gave all mediocre marks on their evaluations so they couldn't even get a transfer to another department. So if you were like me, with no degree and no other options, you'd essentially be trapped under her thumb for the rest of your days until you quit.

Fortunately, I had sweet talked the assistant district director into letting me transfer to Dallas before we got down there; the whole month or 2 I was there, I was just biding my time to see if the transfer would come through.

When it did, she had to walk me out of the building and then take my badge. The stupid old biddy insisted on hugging me! Ever seen anyone look like a mannequin when being hugged? I was stiff as a board. No way I was hugging this bitch. When I walked out of the building the last time, I felt like I'd been released from prison!