37 Employees Open Up about the Worst Bosses They Have Ever Worked With

Have you ever come across a toxic boss? If not, count yourself lucky. Many people who are in employment suffer in silence because of toxic and mean bosses, and some end up quitting for the sake of their mental health.

Securing a new job is one of the best things. But many only realize it's not all rosy when they discover they are in a toxic environment. That's when anxiety and stress kicks in, and many choose their peace of mind over money.

These employees shared their worst stories on Reddit of working for toxic bosses. Some who couldn't stand them and got fired; others simply quit! Let's check out what they had to say.

Comments have been edited for grammar and clarity.

1. I Walked Away with a Better Job

A man walking on the streets. | Source: Pexels

u/invisible_23: I worked for this guy at an ice cream store. He kept cutting my hours for arbitrary reasons, so I got another job and put in my two weeks' notice.

Halfway through my two weeks' notice, I got the flu and tried to call in. The guy told me he would fire me if I didn't go to work. So I showed up, and he told me I wasn't being "cheerful enough" for the customers.

So I looked at him, said nothing, grabbed my bag, and walked out the door. At this point, he followed me and threatened to call my new job and tell them I was a terrible employee. I called my new job to give them a heads-up. They said, We don't care, you're hired. Feel better, we'll see you Monday."

2. Declining a Promotion Led to a Workplace Nightmare

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u/norcat: Back in the day, when I was still a retail employee at university, I worked in a gift shop that the owner and a manager ran. The owner was more hands-off and came in occasionally to take care of cash and paperwork, while the manager dealt more with the operation/staff side of things.

The owner loved me because I was young, quick to learn, and only talked back if something was wrong. The manager who hired me loved me, too, because even though she'd see me waste time occasionally, I still got things done in less time than other employees.

Anyway, the manager who hired me left, and the owner asked me if I wanted to take on the position. I declined because I was going to school and wouldn't make a career out of retail. So, the owner hired another manager. I think a coworker must have told her I was asked to fill the position before she got hired, so my existence threatened her.

Even after all the talk about how I had no desire to be the manager, she would do little nitpicky things to get me to look bad. It was no skin off my back. I did as told and ignored her when she berated me in front of customers, coworkers, etc.

The only time she wasn't annoying was when the owner was around. Then, she developed some inferiority complex about her lack of post-secondary education and started making snide remarks about how spoiled, entitled, and ignorant university students were.

Still no skin off my back until one day, she scheduled me for a shift when I'd booked it off for exams. I didn't show up, and she called (in the middle of my exam) to let me know I was fired for a no-show.

The owner tried to fix it and asked me to come back, and I told her that since summer was coming up anyway, it'd be best if I explored other opportunities related to my degree.

3. From an Unsupportive Workplace to a Better Paycheck

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u/ArrenPawk: My girlfriend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in January. Her maternity leave was up in April, so we were tasked with figuring out what to do regarding work schedules and babysitting.

I asked my bosses if it was possible for me to work from home two days out of the week. I was a copywriter; I could work as long as I had a computer.

They said no and offered no other alternative, assuming that letting me work from home would set a bad precedent for the rest of the company.

The graphic designer on our team worked from home full-time. And if that wasn't enough, one of the employees in sales had recently moved across the country to Wisconsin and was allowed to work remotely from there.

I quit and ended up with a job that pays $10K more, has full, paid benefits, and, more importantly, a boss who knows what she's doing.

4. My Toxic Boss Prioritized Work over My Health

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u/CrabFarts: My boss repeatedly screamed at me for over an hour. He wanted me to gather information, some online, but we had dial-up, and I wasn't allowed to tie up the only phone line.

Also, I couldn't work from home (where we had regular internet access) because the company didn't trust employees to work from home.

On my last day (though I didn't know it when I walked in that day), I had a doctor's appointment, which I had emailed him about, but he claimed never to have gotten it. He'd emailed me about having a meeting the same morning, which I never got.

So when I got there after my appointment, I could tell he was pissed, which is usually a good sign to stay out of his way. Finally, we had one last all-out argument when he apparently couldn't contain himself any longer. At the end of the argument, he fired me. I've never been happier than at my current job.

5. The Violent Boss

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u/eyesdown: My boss had a young Labrador that he kept locked in the upstairs flat above the pub for 23 hours a day, letting it walk around the garden and inside the pub after hours.

It cut its tail open badly once, and rather than call the emergency vet, he brushed white paint over the wound to stop the bleeding. He never walked or gave it any training or toys to play with.

He aggressively backed my little sister up against the wall while working there as a waitress to shout at her for giving too generous cheese portions on a cheese board he had refused to show her how to assemble.

He was in a relationship with the cook and used to be violent towards her, once breaking her wrist in a fight in the kitchen and stealing her handbag so she couldn't get home. She ultimately got back her bag and drove away with one hand, running his foot over as he tried to stop her.

6. This One Took Advantage of Young Girls

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u/calepto: I worked in retail under an awful supervisor a few years back. He would constantly hit on the young girls and treat the young guys like absolute crap when he saw them as a threat to his "game."

I remember walking back to a project from the bathroom and stopping for only two minutes to chat with a girl I was friends with. As I walked up, he shouted, "Is this the bathroom? No? I didn't think so." He proceeded to stare at me until I walked away.

7. Surviving Unfair Treatment

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u/kotaacub: First, I'd like to preface this by saying I work for a small yet well-known after-school care program. We have nine staff members total, and everyone is relaxed.

I got hired at 16, and my boss seemed super chill, except for the fact that I have autism and a seizure disorder, and I didn't like to be in places where a lot of screaming happens.

I'd worked there for two and a half years without an issue, other than this guy telling me repeatedly that I was not suited for this job and should find another one, constantly favoring his male coworkers over the females.

(There was another member of staff who had Tourette syndrome. He got to take breaks whenever he wanted, for as long as he wanted, where I had to fight for a five-minute break after I'd had a seizure)

Anyway, I got hired on for the summer to work in the lunchroom, and the guy started coming in with a megaphone and yelling into it to get the kids to scream, knowing I could not handle loud noises.

I was also required to move equipment myself; even our stronger members could only move with assistance. I got written up when I had a meltdown or asked for help moving the equipment.

Also, after he quit suddenly and we got our great new boss, we found out he refused to let someone leave. When she had come to him to hand in her two weeks' notice, he wouldn't take it and told her he would bad mouth her to everyone who called him if she left.

8. She Acted Friendly to Others and Mean to Me

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u/sowhatsoplenty: A few years ago, I got a job as a bartender for a restaurant. I started my first day and met a new guy who was also hired. I got there and was sent upstairs to be a waitress.

I've never waitressed before; I applied to be a bartender. The new guy has never worked behind a bar and has waiting experience but is told to go behind the bar.

There are two managers; the one who hired me wasn't there, so I asked the other. She tells me that the girls work as waitresses and the guys as bartenders.

I was a bit annoyed but figured the other manager would fix it when he was there (he didn't)! Anyway, I learned waitressing was not for me.

I'm terrible at it! The female manager was getting so frustrated with me, making me more flustered and worse at my job because she constantly shouted at me over my shoulder.

Meanwhile, the guy at the bar who's never poured a pint before is left alone and making mistakes, and she's also shouting at him. One night, he was left alone, and a group came in and asked for mojitos. He wasn't taught how to make them and had no drink guides, so I jumped on the bar and helped him.

As I'm helping him, the manager spots me behind the bar, loses the plot, and starts screaming at me in front of everyone; it is degrading.

What made it worse was that everybody else working there loved her, and she'd invite everyone to parties in front of me and be nicey nicey to everyone. I was fired by the manager, whom I'd never seen, because of the feedback from the female manager.

9. She Got a Taste of Her Own Medicine

A woman carrying her stuff after being fired. | Source: Pexels

u/RedditsInBed: I had a boss who hated me. After realizing she wasn't qualified for the position and had already slept with two different guys at the company.

I never paid much attention to her, and I ignored her when she'd show up at my building once every blue moon. I was busy and didn't have time to play her games.

She wrote me up for being late on three separate occasions. I lived an hour from work and had to deal with traffic. I left my house two hours early most days to account for this.

I called to let her know each time I got stuck in traffic. She still wrote me up in hopes of eventually firing me. So I started leaving the house crazy early; I'd get in early and leave early. She hated it. Finally, her behavior got her fired; it was discovered that she mistreated many of her employees.

10. The Confused and Unfit Boss

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u/[deleted]: I had a boss who constantly gave wildly conflicting instructions. We'd all do something the first way; then, she would get angry and tell us to do it differently.

She'd insist we ask questions if we had any, and then she would get angry when we did ask questions. Then, we would get instructions from managers above her on how to do something new, and she would instruct us to do the exact opposite.

That lasted until her managers would tell her to tell us we were doing it wrong, so she'd yell at us for messing up and ask us to do it the original way again.

Then, every Friday, she would give us an hour-long speech about what a horrible job we were all doing, and then she'd keep firing people until she found the team she wanted.

She would follow that up with how much she loved and respected us. The following Monday, we'd find that she fired ten people over the weekend.

This lasted for two months before she was removed from the project by her superiors, who realized she was not suitable for the position.

11. Unsympathetic Supervisor

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u/[deleted]: One of many was when I informed my supervisor that I had received news that my grandfather passed away that morning. For months, I had told my supervisor of my grandfather's health conditions.

So, news of him passing away shouldn't have been that big of a surprise. I asked for the next few days off to help with arrangements and to be with my family. My supervisor says, "Why? They're not burying him tomorrow. "

I responded, "It doesn't matter if he is buried tomorrow or not; my family needs me." Thankfully, I'm no longer at that job. I've had other terrible supervisors from various jobs, but that still sticks out.

12. Battling Bias with a Hostile Boss

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u/[deleted]: I worked at a Scout Camp a few years back, and I had a director who, from day one, had it out for me. The first day, he told me to put my stuff in a cabin that didn't exist, then yelled at me when I wasn't unpacked an hour later.

Then, later in the summer, he decided that he was unsatisfied with my ability to run, so he woke me up before the crack of dawn, sent me out to the mile-long parking lot, and told me to start running laps and only stop when he told me to.

He stuck around for about twenty minutes, told me that if I stopped while he was gone, I would get a write-up, and then left for breakfast.

I kept struggling up and down that hill for three hours and was only relieved of my dangerous punishment after one of my other directors pulled up in his truck and asked why I wasn't at my program area.

Then, later in the summer, he wrote me up for being groggy and unenthusiastic at breakfast, then wrote me up again a week later for "leaving the camp without signing out" even though I had been in my cabin all night.

And then, at the end of summer, he decided that he never wanted to see my face ever again and tried to blacklist me for allegedly smoking pot on the reservation, even though I had spent my entire night in my cabin reading a book.

When they sent him to direct another camp, and my blacklisting mysteriously was reneged. The guy never got a word of reprimand for it, and I swear that if I ever see him out in public, I will punch him in the back of the head.

13. The Doctor Who Couldn’t Keep the Clock in Check

A female doctor wearing a pink facemask. | Source: Pexels

u/Myfeelingsarehurt: I was a practice manager at a doctor's office. The owner was one of the doctors. She was a terrible person who thought she was a good person. She would show up to work 30-45 mins after her first scheduled appointment, five days a week.

I started moving appointments to allow for this and was admonished for doing so as she HAD to see so many patients a day, and clinic hours didn't allow us to schedule patients after five to make up for the change.

I pointed out how frustrating it can be for a patient who schedules the first appointment so they can make it to work on time. She answered, "My time is more important than their time." She would send employees to a nearby McDonald's daily to get her a big and tasty lunch, regardless of their lunch plans.

I watched her try to intimidate a young new doctor into writing narcotic prescriptions for her partner, who was a long-term opioid user, and she was outraged when the young doctor demanded a patient visit with the partner before prescribing.

After threatening to quit, I got her to arrive close to on time or at least call if she was going to be late, but it didn't last. Finally, one day, I had it. She showed up 30 minutes late, didn't answer her phone when I called her after not showing up, and had wet hair when she arrived.

The first words out of her mouth were I'm only late because I had to wait for a train. I asked her if it had splashed her as it passed by. I gave her my two-week notice and have never looked back.

14. Education vs Employment

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u/pandadaisypanda: Last year, I started working at a particular company. During the interview, I informed them I am a part-time university student and will take leave for my exams.

While I was on probation, one month after joining, I had a fever for five days. So I couldn't go to work in the office. On the 6th day, I went to the hospital, and after some tests, they found I had internal bleeding, and I had to go for surgery immediately.

I informed my manager, who told me I could still work while waiting for my surgery scheduled for 7 p.m. So, the following day, I was still dizzy from the anesthesia.

At 8:30 a.m., my manager kept calling me why I was not on a Zoom call yet. I was like, I'm still groggy from my surgery. The doctor granted me a ten-day hospital leave after surgery for an open wound. Daily visits to the polyclinic for dressing changes were necessary.

On the 10th day, the polyclinic extended my medical certificate (MC) for another ten days, totaling three extensions due to recurring infections after stopping antibiotics.

During my recovery, my manager scolded me for still being on MC, prompting me to return to work prematurely. However, halfway through, my wound bled through the dressing, leading to a doctor's scolding for attempting to work.

Despite applying for leave for exams, it was rejected, and my manager insisted I either resign to attend exams or return to work. When I inquired about the rejected leave, the management said I hadn't informed them of any leaves, including hospitalization leave, before joining, leading to a challenging and unjust situation.

15. The Petty and Inconsiderate Boss

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u/briarbeauty: I worked at a small bakery when I was younger, and the boss was the worst. She would get in your face for how many avocado slices you put on sandwiches or ridiculous things.

Everything had to be as minimal as possible. I once called in sick because I had the flu and could barely stand, let alone drive. I was one of only two openers; she told me I had to come in. I explained it wasn't possible, and she hung up on me.

On another occasion, I had traveled home for my brother's graduation and told her I could only come back on a particular day because flights weren't available. After the trip, she pulled me into her office and had me explain why I lied to her about it and why she shouldn't fire me.

I was so confused as it was the only flight we found, to which she pulled up other flights available for the time she wanted me to return. They were all costly, so I explained that the flight we found was the only one in our price range. She let me off with a warning!

16. Jerome the Backstabber

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u/NicNoletree: Jerome, an Attorney who knew I was underpaid but acted friendly to me. Whenever I interviewed somewhere else, and they called for references, Jerome lied and said I had anger issues when dealing with others.

Luckily, I had given my next interviewer written copies of the annual performance reviews that Jerome had written, praising me. I learned about the lies a year after being gone from under Jerome.

17. The Spoiled Daddy's Little Girl

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u/hideable: I was assistant to a spoiled princess-wanna-be. The dad wanted her to take over the business (he was an insurance agent), and she wanted to "save kids from cancer."

So, my job was to call people to remind them of their monthly payments and convince them to donate to the cause. But she would sit next to me all day, "observing" how I worked, telling me off for not saying what she wanted me to say, but not telling me what she wanted me to say.

She would drone on about her rich friends while I was trying to make the calls, and at the end of the day, she'd tell me off for making so few calls. Also, her idea to save the kids from cancer was to paint the hospital wall full of Disney characters.

When I quit because I was sick of her, she got up, pushed my chair out of the office and into the lobby, and got in the way so I wouldn't grab my purse until I told her I would call the police.

18. I Typed and Signed My Own Warning Letter, Courtesy of My Boss

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u/knockinbootz: I worked nine years for a real winner. I used to sing my praises in the morning, then keep me two hours after work to tear me down until I was in tears, over and over again.

She would ask me to call her by her first name and then yell at me for not using her proper title and surname. She was the epitome of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. " She was an actual doctor. I fell behind on my filing, so she dictated a threatening letter, made me type it, and then signed it.

19. Surviving Late-Night Calls and Unethical Practices

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u/WickedHello: I worked as an account manager for a lighting/electrical company several years ago. My primary job function was to take service calls from our clients and dispatch technicians to fix the problem.

The owner/president was cheap and immoral, which trickled down to the rest of us. Due to bad corporate mismanagement, one of our branch offices was forced to shut down.

My boss, who was manipulative and controlling, informed me and everyone in my position that we were then required to be on call after hours with a company cell phone and a binder of subcontractors on a rotating weekly basis.

When I objected, she shamelessly said, "It's part of your job," despite no stipulation in my offer letter. Several times, I woke up at 3:00 a.m. to call half a dozen contractors to dispatch an electrician or a lighting technician on an emergency service call.

Also, the president was using money from a side company he owned to pay the debts from our company, which I'm pretty sure was illegal. I'm amazed they're still in business.

20. Our Friendship Turned Frosty after a Promotion

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u/Matopus: I worked in a kitchen at a retirement home. I was the morning cook and became good friends with the evening cook(before he got promoted). Fast forward two months, our head chef retires, and he gets promoted to head chef.

I was happy for him. Shortly after he got his promotion, he started to get more and more lazy. I would have to stay late in the day to ensure all the orders were put away and the rest of the staff had everything they needed for their shift.

It got to the point where he would sit outside and smoke. I found out he was sleeping with the building manager's daughter. When the building manager tried to discipline him, her daughter stepped in, told her not to bother him if she wanted to see her grandchildren anymore, and even demanded he get a raise.

So, I put up with it for a few months. When I told the guy that my partner was pregnant and my son was due in July, all he said was. "Oh man, that better not interfere with my birthday weekend.” Fast forward to when my partner goes into labor (at 430 a.m.)

I called him and told him that I wouldn't make it to work as my son was going to be born. He called me back at 5:30 a.m. asking if he was born yet, and when I told him no, he asked if I could come in for a few hours while we waited.

He had a hissy fit over the phone when I told him no and hung up. On my first day back, he brought me into my office and wrote me up for missing shifts. I quit and thankfully got a new job straight away.

21. My Encounter with Bad Bosses Including a Murderer

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u/diegojones4: Pretty good boss, but he did beat and stab his wife to death and ditched the evidence at the dumpster at work. The boss fired three of us for refusing to make an improper entry so he could get his bonus for the quarter.

Another micromanager boss announced at 2 a.m. before going live that morning that all the reports needed changing because she wanted a period after something that wasn't a sentence. She also made me work through a fire alarm. I think she got in trouble for that.

My boss changed my job description and duties 100% with no training to try and make me quit so they could deny unemployment. That one made me cry every day before work. It was brutal.

22. Silent Dictatorship Got Him Fired

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u/Positive-Ratio472: I had a store manager who wouldn't talk to you but talked at you. He once asked me why the store wasn't open the night before. I reminded him I was off, and he told me to shut up.

He then ranted for 20 minutes about how I must ensure it's done even if I'm off. He lost his job a few days later when every non-manager walked out and told the district manager we wouldn't return to work till he was gone.

23. The Micromanager

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u/Aperture_T: My current boss is a micromanager, but worse, he micromanages us into doing stupid stuff. He'll look over your shoulder and ask you how your task is going, and you'll say, "Well, I can do it this way, which is more efficient, cheaper, faster to implement, and easier to read."

Then he'll say, "No, do it this less efficient, slower, messier way that gives baby seals cancer." I exaggerate a bit, but he always chooses the worst of two options, and if you don't give him a second option, he makes up his own, and it's worse than whatever you could think of.

24. The Boss Turned Pyramid Scheme Promoter

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u/MartinB75: There have been so many, but I will go with the boss who started selling Amway from his office. He was pressuring his employees to buy stuff and implying that people buying from him and joining him on the pyramid would benefit (raises, extra vacation, etc.).

He also tried to get the company to purchase through his side business. I reported him, and when HR asked him if it was true, he said, "Sure is! Do you want in?" Bam, escorted out the door.

25. Navigating Unwanted Hugs from a Sweaty Boss

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u/[deleted]: When I was 17, I worked at our local Chipotle. My manager was a lesbian. She was cool sometimes, but when we got busy she would sweat a ton, which is fine.

I know you obviously can't control that, but she smelled terrible, and her idea of encouraging people would be to go up to them and give you a big hug and say, "Here, have some of my sweat."

Now Chipotle is a very open restaurant, as in you can see almost every employee while getting your food, so customers saw her doing this. I saw customers leave on multiple occasions.

26. The One Who Dismissed a Potentially Dangerous Gas Leak

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u/obeyyourbrain: The one who insisted I was imagining things when I told him there was a gas leak and told me to keep working when I told him I was getting lightheaded.

When it turned out the next day that there WAS a gas leak (I reported it since he wouldn't), and I confronted him about it, he told me that I should've just walked out on my job if I knew there was a problem.

27. Picking Her Kids and Laundry Was Not Part of the Job

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u/Ariadne11: My manager during my six-month stint in a franchise sandwich shop. I didn't have high expectations of working fast food, but she was super incompetent.

She continually scheduled me for 30 hours a week or more despite being hired for 15 hours only. I was responsible for finding people to cover my hours.

I was sometimes scheduled for only 2 hours at a time ( illegal), and most of the time, paychecks were short pay for entire shifts. He regularly didn't schedule enough people and we were reprimanded for not being fast enough.

We have a single sandwich maker who's also on cash, serving a line of 15 people. The shop had no discount on food or drink. Also, there was no training for new employees.

She just put them on the sandwich line and yelled at them if they didn't know how much cheese to add. She Required employees to pick up her kids from school, watch them, pick up her dry cleaning, etc.

28. She Played Me Dirty

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u/madeofstarlight: I was a financial analyst excited about my job, the pay, and the benefits. I was by no means rich but would make $30,000-$40,000 a year, which would pay all my bills with a little left to save, get any extras for my child, and do my nails once a month or go out with friends. I was so happy.

My boss had the most personable girl in the department train me. And she did it incorrectly. I discovered the same thing had happened with two other people in my department. I had no idea I had errors until she had my two supervisors pull me aside.

I asked if they could train me instead. I requested retraining SOPs and asked questions when I had them. I was improving, which is what the boss asked for. She gave no benchmark, no percentage. She wrote me up because I had errors after two weeks. But everyone else did as well.

One morning, I caught the girl who trained me poorly, going through the work I hadn't corrected or submitted and making copies to give to my boss. I knew right then that she would eventually fire me, and there was nothing I could do. It was awful.

She admitted a training issue when I was fired and said, "What do you want me to do about it?" I let her have it after that without yelling or anything. My position has been filled and vacated five times in four months.

29. Navigating Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

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u/tinabonina: I had two horrible bosses. My first was a manager at Pizza Hut, and she let her husband's friend grab my ass and brush up against me because she didn't want to upset her husband by firing or talking to his friend about it. I was 17, and he was 46 at the time.

My second horrible boss locked me in his office and told me that I was his employee and I needed to be obedient to his request and then told me to sit on his lap if I wanted to keep my job. He said he needed to teach me how to obey authority. This was only day five of working there.

30. From Steroids to Fake Surveillance

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u/ebimbib: I worked in a retail shop for a while, and my boss was the worst. He once mailed steroids to the store, and when they arrived, I signed for them and cut the box open, expecting the contents to be office supplies.

I was displeased to find vials of testosterone and oral dianabol in it. The guy didn't lift weights or otherwise exercise, so when he did steroids, he just grew tits.

Also, he put up fake security cameras throughout the store but insisted they were real. We put electrical tape over the fake lenses and eventually stole them when the store moved.

31. I Left and the Business Fell Apart

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u/VaultHawk: I worked for a small café, doing a manager's amount of work while being paid minimum wage, and when I contracted pink eye from caring for my sister, my boss got mad at me. After that, I applied and got hired at Starbucks. His business fell apart without me there and closed within four months of me leaving.

32. The One Who Came up with Ridiculous Rules

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u/Moos_Mumsy: I used to work for a municipality at their landfill sites. We had a new director come on board who is one of the most vile humans I've ever had the displeasure to know.

He would transfer people from a home site they had worked at for years to another as far away from their home as possible and give ridiculous excuses for doing it.

He made rules that made life at work intolerable. I.e., staff working on the site were not allowed to speak to each other. We were not allowed to help each other. We were not allowed to help disabled people or seniors who came to dispose of stuff. This man was awful!

33. I Was Punished for Not Speaking Welsh!

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u/Crudllington: I started a carpentry apprenticeship with a self-employed crazy person when I was 17. I live in Wales but, unfortunately, never learned Welsh.

Throughout the day, he'd talk Welsh to me, knowing well I didn't know what he was saying; he'd barely speak to me apart from telling me what to do. He didn't teach me anything; he just showed and expected me to do it. If I were even a minute late to meet him, he would leave and not pay me for the day. He was the worst.

34. She Was Full of Empty Promises

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u/amymariebe: I worked for a foster care agency for a short time. My boss/the owner was a housewife whose husband made good money, so she started the agency as a pet project. She had NO idea what she was doing.

There was little to no training. It felt like she expected me to be a mind reader. When I took the job, she promised me I would get 40 hours a week and that she would provide health insurance/benefits.

I was lucky if I got 20 hours a week of work, and the insurance she promised never happened.

I told her I was not getting as much work as promised, so I struggled financially. The following week, I was working with one of the foster kids, and the boss called me and let me go over the phone. After she fires me, she tells me to buy a pie for the foster child.

35. She Made Me Cry Every Morning

A businesswoman siting in a luxurious car. | Source: Pexels

u/sortashort: I worked for a non-profit, and my boss was the absolute worst who got investigated later on. She pitted us against each other and routinely blamed us for stuff out of our control. When I quit, I left easter eggs for my replacement to find and printed emails of her verbally abusing the office.

I cried every morning on the way to work, and the others in the office were on anti-depressants. She also had sex in our office once.

36. The One Who Suffered from Midlife Fashion Crisis

An elderly man holding a tote bag. | Source: Pexels

u/Wednesday862: He was in his 50s and tried to dress like a 20-year-old. His shirts were always too tight, so the buttons looked like they were about to break free and fly across the room.

He never wore any undershirt and always left 2-3 buttons undone at the top, showing off his gold chain and chest hair. The amount of cologne he wore made it impossible to breathe.

He worked at the company for two years, never learned how to use any of the systems, and would have to ask for help from his staff for even simple tasks.

We had weekly check-in meetings; if anyone had a question, he would request you to set up another meeting to discuss it and never follow up. Thankfully, he has "resigned."

37. The Perfectionist Boss

A woman in a teal green blazer paying attention during a meeting. | Source: Pexels

u/speechlesspoetry: I worked as a receptionist for a couple of months, and if one thing was out of place in the entire lobby, my boss would yell at me.

She would do this repeatedly, and I never understood why. Sometimes, when things were out of place in the lobby, I didn't have the energy to get up and fix it, and she kept saying I was wasting money.

One week, I grabbed chairs and purposely messed them up, tip over trash cans with small amounts of garbage, and so on. That week, I got paid $80 less.

I checked all my checks and realized that the more the lobby was messed up, the less I got paid. Once I confronted her about it and she gave me the money back. She was so petty and rude.

38. Karma Hits Back

Angry Boss | Shutterstock

Deleted user: So, I'm 66 and have been with this company for 30 years. Then, I got seriously sick. Boss: "Prove you're sick." I send him my diagnosis and doctor's note.

Boss: "YOU'RE LYING! Get to the office now." Me: "Can't, doc advised rest and staying home." Boss: "Then you're fired. Come in later to sign your termination papers."

Me: "But I'm just 5 months away from retirement, don't do this!" Boss: "Don't care, you're fired. Come and sign the termination letter."

Me: "Hmm.. Okay.. Wait for it.. Be ready.." 5 days later, I wake up to 30 missed calls from my boss. I call back.Boss (panicked): "TAKE IT BACK, OUR COMPANY NEVER DID THAT!!!I laughed and said, "Oops... looks like someone anonymously sent a letter to the police with all the evidence of your shady dealings..."

Boss: "TAKE IT BACK! IMMEDIATELY!!!" Me: "No way! Should've thought twice before treating me like that!" Ten days later, the boss got fired, I was reinstated, and all my colleagues kept their jobs. KARMA HITS BACK!

39. The worst boss ever

Angry Boss | Shutterstock

Deleted user: My coworker Mary always worked an extra 15-30 hours a month, making everyone's life easier. She's the kindest soul, a real angel. Her drive? Supporting her three kids after her husband left her.

Yesterday, for the first time in years, she was late to work... by a whole two hours! Her eyes were red, she looked shattered (clearly cried all night). Our entire office was comforting her, and then our boss, John, walks in.

John: "HOW COULD YOU BE TWO HOURS LATE?! I'M ISSUING YOU A WARNING! ONE MORE TIME AND YOU'RE FIRED!" The whole office was in shock! Such unfairness!

But then,Mary stands up and says to John, "HOW DARE YOU, YOU KNOW PERFECTLY WELL I WAS LATE BECAUSE YOU left me and our children and offer no help.

I have to take them to school, do the laundry, clean, and cook all by myself! I'm forced to work more just to make ends meet.(We were all shocked. Nobody had any idea that John was her ex-husband who had abandoned her.)

A man and a woman staring at the laptop. | Source: Pexels

Irrespective of our ranks, every human needs to be treated with respect. Plus, treating someone badly doesn't make you feel any better. In any case, a toxic work environment only lowers employees' productivity and performance, which equates to low revenue for the company. But a healthy workplace means a happy employee, a satisfied customer, and better business.