Many employees look up to their bosses for guidance.
That is if they are inspirational leaders. Not all leaders are worth looking up to if they constantly look down on employees and view them as cogs in a machine.
Sometimes, bosses cross the line when they say that one thing that determines whether or not a job is worth keeping.
Redditor vigilantee001 asked:
"What did your boss tell that got to your last nerve?"
Abuse of power is typical of bad bosses.
Endless Responsibilities
"Can't you just be late to your other job? You have responsibilities here."
"Yes, and those responsibilities end when my shift does. You have a responsibility to make sure the shift is adequately staffed, but I don't see you doing that."
– Agnol117
"This has pissed me off at a couple of places. Yes, we work at a place where phone calls come into us from field techs, but if one person out of 4 or 5 can't leave for an hour for lunch because they're afraid the call stats will suffer, then the bosses aren't doing THEIR jobs to keep us adequately staffed. Never could convince anyone, though."
– irving47
How To Sink Your Business
"Told me that my raise was not in the budget, and that 'lazy IT' are paid enough, and we play video games all day."
"He gave himself and all managers a raise a month later."
"I found a better job, left, gave my two weeks, and because he was cheap with IT, lost his website, and it took him a year to hire or keep anyone long enough. His company lost millions in online sales."
"His company never recovered and went under."
– anon
Picking Favorites
“We couldn’t have asked for anything more from you as an employee, but this jobs going to Taylor because he’s more of a go getter.”
"I told this a**hole okay, I’ll go get another job elsewhere then and quit immediately. Exceptionally satisfying and the place has been going down in flames since I left."
– Pigbenis7687
"This happened to a buddy of mine. He went in and told his supervisor’s supervisor, the head of the department, what happened and he was like 'okay so you’re gonna quit, cool. Here are some companies I recommend, I’ll put in a good word. Here are a couple I don’t recommend, steer clear of them. Also never work for Barry Lewis, guy’s an absolute prick.' ”
"When he gave notice to his supervisor, the guy that dangled the job in front of him for months, he said 'wait, have you signed anything? Don’t, I can get you that job, we’ll make a new role.' F'king guy was ready to just create a new job out of thin air to keep the same guy he passed over for promotion."
– rawker86
Are these the kinds of people you want to work for? Probably not.
Job Description
"Get hired because the complex system is all messed up. Upgrade hardware, write scripts, automate tedium, and improve availability to 100%. Keep it running with application upgrades as all the competing software companies roll out changes, deter cyber attacks, get the network restored in the middle of the night."
"Sit back and admire the efficiency of your system during the day."
"Boss: 'you don’t do anything all day.' ”
"That’s definitely a last nerve one."
– psgrue
Salary Negotiation Heads South
"I had a boss tell me that the salary adjustment I asked for was more money than he made."
"The salary adjustment was to bring me closer to the average pay for my job, adjusted to local cost of living and what was closer to what our competitors paid."
"Then told me he had to ask the VP, the VP responded with 'too high, tell him to try again.' I told my boss I'm not negotiating with myself. My boss said I had to talk to the VP."
"The VP kept messaging me to talk after the time he knew I left everyday. I finally set up a meeting and put it on our calendars. He said it would take 30 minutes, he showed up late, then he told me I was wrong about the salary, so I showed him my offer letter from our direct and local competitor (I had a non-compete, so I couldn't take the job) and all the national and local data proving I was 20-30% under paid."
"He then says there was no room in the budget, so I used our pricing system to show him that I personally produced my salary on profit alone in about 2 weeks. He then kept telling me 'no' for over an hour. He told me that even the president gets job offers that pay more, but our work is important (I worked in medical.)"
"I finally gave him a super low amount and said 'anything below this isn't even worth discussing,' he repeated there was no room in the budget. I said 'no room? Disappointing.' and hung up."
"A few months later, I got a new job paying more, and a year later, another new job paying more than I had originally asked for. Apparently, my experience and knowledge is highly sought after. My current company loves me and I love them."
– notwhoyouthinkmaybe
Irritable Manager
"My manager was off recently and left us with no cover. I forwarded something in an email because it’s something that only management can raise. Nothing urgent, so figured it could wait and be picked up when she was back."
"Got a snotty reply less than 5mins later saying 'You know that I’m not in today. Send this to [person]' ”
"I would do that. IF YOU’D ACTUALLY BOTHERED TO TELL US THAT THEY WERE COVERING FOR YOU."
– Shas_Erra
Ungrateful And Condescending
"My boss said to me several times in our last meeting 'This is [our field], not therapy', when discussing projects I've been working extremely hard on. Other co-workers were present."
"He is known for never, ever, ever being satisfied with the rate of progress in a project, which is something I've come to accept, but to imply that I'm treating my job like some kind of relaxing recreational activity is just delusional on a galactic scale."
"Still in two minds about whether to book a meeting with him soon where I can explain just how incredibly condescending and unprofessional I felt this comment was and how I never want to hear it again."
– Feline_Diabetes
False Alarm
"I'm with a non-profit. They asked me to cut next year's department budget by 5%. I confirmed the task and deliverables multiple times and gently pushed back since our expenses scale up with program delivery and we had a 4-5% growth target on top of an approved year of massive anniversary events and programs planned."
"After losing multiple nights of sleep over it, I delivered the cuts. Then they said, 'Oh great, don't worry, it was just an exercise. You manage budgets well.' Lost my trust."
– manicjazzer
Some supervisors have no excuse for being unreasonable and for lacking empathy.
The Final Straw
"Working 24 hour shifts on an ambulance. We used to get run to the ground often. On one occasion, we were running calls non stop from 8 am to midnight without a break. I called dispatch to ask for a break to get some food (there were other ambulances in service so a 20 min food break was reasonable)."
"My boss happened to be dispatching and he denied my request and said 'this is what you signed up for. Just run the calls or you’ll be written up for insubordination.' Mind you, I’ve been doing this for 5 years at that time. That’s when I realized that private ambulance sucked."
"I was also his 'Top EMT,' and for him to say that, was the final nail in the coffin. I got a job with a hospital shortly after working as a tech. Best decision I’ve ever made."
– Ok-Economy9827
"Private EMS is a nightmare in the US. Not only can they work you for 24 hour shifts without breaks or letting you sleep. They can force you to keep working after 24 hours if coverage is lacking."
"One week I worked a 10 hour shift that turned into 16 then no sleep before a 24. I had a panic attack toward the end from consuming around 8x the safe amount of caffeine instead of sleep."
– Corey307
No Time For Grief
"My dad passed away. He had been sick, but it was still unexpected. My mom and I had long before booked a 4 week holiday, which now happened to be 1,5 months after his passing. It was perfect timing, because I was taking it all pretty badly."
"When I returned, I had a pretty rough time. I still showed up to work, all my coworkers were very appreciative and understanding. Except for my boss. After my first week back, he planned a meeting in which he told me: 'I really hope all that stuff with your dad finally got sorted, so you can focus on work again.' I found another job and left 4 months later."
– ladyemippo
Some people don't have the luxury to leave a job if they work in a toxic work environment.
New jobs aren't easy to come by, and depending on that weekly paycheck is necessary for many workers trying to get by or raising a family.
However, the emotional toll of dealing with an unreasonable or even abusive boss may not be worth the psychological damage.
Would you prioritize your mental well-being over a paycheck?
