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113 Times Bosses Did Something So Stupid It Instantly Made Their Workers Quit Or Lose Will To Work
If you have seen the movie 'Horrible Bosses' you know there is only so much an employee is willing to endure from a bad employer. Sure, most people aren't resorting to murder plots, but they will walk out of the door.
For those of you who don't know the pain of bad management, consider yourself extremely lucky, because it is an experience almost all of us go through at least once. The moments where you sit and think, "I don't get paid enough to put up with this shit." It's so common in fact there is even a Reddit thread asking the question "What's something your employer did that instantly killed employee morale?"
Perhaps you've had the boss who made fake wage and promotion promises only to screw everyone over or the boss who destroyed and source of workplace morale (come on let the people have their snacks!). Well the people in the stories below know exactly how you feel, some even decided enough was enough and quit. Scroll down below for some outrageous boss horror stories and don't forget to upvote your favs!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
My wife was let go after she announced her pregnancy to her manager, and approximately when she would need maternity leave. She was told that they'd rather replace her than deal with a pregnant employee and all that goes with that.
A well worded letter from out attorney got her one year's severance, and two years medical coverage for her and the baby.
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#2
A manager once explained it to me...."everything needs to be organized, labeled, and free of clutter. That way if you're replaced the next person can take over without missing a step."
She was replaced the next day. The irony wasn't lost on me.
#3
Banned smart phones in the break room to force us to talk to one another and build camaraderie.
Ends up we didn't like each other that much.
#4
Boss Pitched a sales incentive trip to Cancun if the team hit the goal. My team exceeded the goal, and then they cancelled the trip. 2 people quit, I accepted a position with their main competitor, and less than a year later, they closed in bankruptcy. Karmas a beach.
#5
New principal came in. It was like he forgot what being a teacher is like... he made us sub constantly on our plan periods instead of getting around to calling a sub. If we weren't subbing, he would come into our rooms as we worked on plan time things and go over ridiculous things that could have better been sent in an email. He fired the lunch supervisor and made us supervise lunch. Then he started giving us a hard time about using the bathroom between classes because if we were in the bathroom, who is supervising the halls?
It boiled down to us working before and past contract hours with zero breaks. No bathroom. No lunch time (you can't eat and supervise). I went off on him one day because he accosted me for going to the bathroom. I went to the bathroom to change my tampon. I waved a spare tampon around in the hallway in front of God and students and told him I'd had enough of this and if he had time to drive to McDonalds for lunch (he had a fry box in his hands) I could be spared two minutes of supervision to change a tampon.
To add insult to injury, the staff banded together and we documented these things to get him fired. The next person comes in and decides that action of creating unity with the staff needed to be dismantled so she changed where all our rooms were and in most cases what we taught (regardless of our certification). I quit. I couldn't take it anymore. Kids are my number one in teaching and when a school dissolves into politics and bull sh*t nonsense it just isn't worth it to me. I could get treated like sh*t in any profession and probably get paid more.
Sheila Robinson 6 years ago
Similar story here, I quit too. Teaching skills are transferable and attrition rates for teachers in many countries is shocking. If you have children or are still in school/college then you should consider how this affects their/your standard of education.
#6
I work in a very quiet dull office with no vending machines or drink machines. We have a water cooler and the branch manager's old coffee maker from the 90's as the coffee for the entire office (30+ people).
My friend and coworker "Sue" took it upon herself to stock a filing cabinet with treats for when people forgot breakfast or lunch. Sue did this on her own money and included items such as oatmeal, nuts, crackers, soups, all great stuff. She just asked you put a quarter in a cup when you took something. Remember, we have no vending machine. To buy food you'd have to drive to buy it as we're in the suburbs.
Our branch manager decided that too many people were distracted by going to her filing cabinet and getting snacks so he told her to remove all of it. We still do not have a vending machine.
:'(
#7
Small business. 20 employees +/-. Boss made a big speech about austerity measures and no raises this year. A week and a half later he drives up in a brand new Silverado with all the bells and whistles. Expensed to the business of course. He would hate to have to pay taxes on those profits. One of the less subtle members of the staff took a literal sh*t in front of his office door.
#8
During the 2016 election cycle my boss told us if we didn’t vote for (a particular candidate) we would be fired. I’m still lying about how I filled out that ballot. It’s not that I didn’t already know the kind of person she is but it reaffirmed my belief that the biggest danger I personally face is the forceful nature of extremists.
PS - It doesn’t matter what side she or I was on. Threatening someone’s livelihood over personal beliefs is appalling.
#9
I worked at a family owned market that was well known and loved by locals. The owners were a lovely couple that took care of their employees and would bend over backwards for their customers. They were very active in the community and highly respected. They had a few core employees and would hire on temp staff during the summer and holidays. The temps were mostly highschoolers and college kids that were home on break. They would bring back the same people as long as they could and the kids would try to stay as long as they could. The pay was well above market for those positions, we could shop the and get a 75% discount, after six months you got two weeks paid vacation, and the owners would close the store a couple days a year and host a party for all of the employees. It was the best job any highschooler in the area could get. I lived right next to the store and my parents were friends with the owners so I was given a job there. All my friends were jealous.
After working there for a few years, the couple decided they wanted to retire to spend time with their daughter and her children in another state. Many tears were shed and they had a huge retirement party where they introduced their son to everyone and told us he was taking over. They gushed about his prestigious business education and background.
As soon as they were gone, the son decided he was going to remake the store in his image. He fired basically all the staff, most of whom that had been there for 10 to 15+ years. He then staffed the whole place with homeschool kids and junkies. He cut the discounts and vacations. He hired some old highschool friends to manage the place so he could take the profits to go party and get coked out.
The shop went from having the same staff for years to having to retrain an entirely new staff every other month. No one wanted to stay. Managers were reporting perfectly good product as damaged and taking it home. Shelves sat empty. Locals stopped shopping there. The place became a corpse of what it had been. The original owners had enough of their friends complain to them about their son that they came back for a short time and tried to make it right, but it was too late. Their original staff had all moved on and vendors had stopped doing business with the store. They decided to close the store, sell the property, and move away permanently. Last I heard, the son was in trouble with the IRS and his wife divorced him when she found him banging a stripper.
Carol Emory 6 years ago
As much as I feel sorry for this couple, I can't help but think they created their own nightmare. After all...they raised him.
#10
Former teacher. The administrators at my school were usually pretty chill, but had a habit of randomly coming up with minor rules that they would enforce for us (male teachers had to wear ties even on jeans day, etc.). Overall it wasn't bad, except for the time an administrator made a crucial mistake... they banned staff from drinking coffee in front of students.
Now if you've never worked in a school, you'd think this isn't a big deal. When you spend nearly 100% of your day in front of students, it definitely is a big deal.
First we tried to find any loophole we could. Energy drinks? Banned the next week. Tea? Banned two days later. It was chaos.
Eventually, we realized they couldn't fire an entire school's worth of teachers and aides, so we ended up doing the one thing that private schools fear most: we formed a union.
Realistically, it was more of a weird pseudo-union focused specifically on civil disobedience regarding the coffee issue, but it ruffled feathers nonetheless. The administrators caved to our "demands", allowed us to drink coffee again, and even bought each of us a reusable coffee mug as a gesture of goodwill.
And that's the story of how a handful of school administrators almost accidentally created a teachers union over a complete non-issue.
#11
I was one of a large number of programmers working on a project at CSC. We had a deadline coming up in a couple months and they over-promised to the client and then asked us all to work extra hard to meet the deadline, and asked us to work 50+ hour weeks. Which we did - and then some: some of us put in 70-80 hour weeks to meet this deadline.
But once that deadline was met, suddenly there was another deadline they needed to meet. And another. People got tired, had lives to lead, and scaled back on their hours. Most of us were still working 50-60 hours a week, but not a lot more than that.
Once they realised we weren't killing ourselves on their project any longer, there was an All Hands meeting where the managers told us that they were incredibly disappointed in our lack of professionalism because so comparatively few employees were now working more than fifty hours a week.
One of our harder workers stood up and said, "Look, I have three kids. I'm driving an hour into and out of work every day, I'm taking care of my family, I'm trying to get presents for Christmas, write out Christmas cards, decorate and clean the house for everyone we're having over for the holidays - I'm having a really hard time just getting to fifty."
And the manager looked at her and sneered, "If it wasn't Christmas, it'd be because it's Easter, or Memorial Day, or because it's summer and it's nice out. You'd always have some excuse."
There was dead silence in the room.
When we left that meeting, we didn't talk to each other, but every single worker on that project put in exactly fifty hours a week after that.
Then came Christmas - raise and bonus time! Every worker on the project got a 1/2 percent raise; the managers got a five-figure bonus. We were pissed.
For management, the pain came after Christmas. First week off the year, four programmers had better jobs lined up and quit. Three more the following week. Five the next. We hemorrhaged 3-5 programmers every single week for over three months. It got to the point where the managers had to schedule a meeting every Monday at eleven to discuss that week's resignations and rearrange the surviving staff.
F*ck CSC
Caroline Allnutt 6 years ago
These were programmer treated like this?? What arrogant bastards the bosses are! Don't they know programmers are in high demand? Nitwits!
#12
She actively tried to ban friendships. If co-workers became friendly she would schedule them so they would NEVER see each other. "You're here to work! Not to socialise!"
She also banned everyone from coming into the workplace when they were not working.
It was a pub. She banned socialising in a pub.
She became insanely paranoid when she learned four people were in a WhatsApp group. She said the only reason people who work together set up group chats is because they wanted to talk trash about her. She was actually kind of right
#13
Fired the girl who was in her third trimester of pregnancy three days before her maternity leave was to start.
Random Panda 6 years ago
How is this even possible? In most countries that is against the law.
#14
Company consisted of something like 1,200 employees at the time, and rented out a big conference center for a Christmas party. At the opening of the party, the CFO was giving opening remarks, and asked - expecting cheers - if everyone liked their Christmas bonuses.
He got booed.
See, of that 1,200 people, a bit over a thousand were in customer service. No one in customer service got bonuses, only people in the 'corporate' departments got bonuses. And our awesome CFO decided to rub everyone's noses in it, because clearly the Chief Financial Officer of a company would have no idea that 80%+ of his company didn't get bonuses.
At the same party, the CEO made an announcement that the company would be closed on friday (Christmas that year was on a Thursday), and everyone got a day off. Now, he had literally just finished making a speech about how everyone was important, and everyone was part of the company, no matter the department. He had shoveled sh*t hard, trying to make CS happier.
The next day, we all got a memo that Customer Service still had to work on that Friday. We apparently didn't count as 'everyone,' and the CEO just hadn't realized that the announcement wouldn't apply to anyone.
January saw a 60% attrition rate.
Sarah Hoskovec 6 years ago
I was going to guess that this was my former employer in telecom, but they would have never paid for a Christmas party in the first place.
#15
Had a boss everyone loved, then she got transferred to another store and the new guy that replaced her decided the schedule that we'd all gotten used to needed to be "shaken up". He posted the next week schedule that was completely different than it had been under the previous manager, got a bunch of complaints from people saying they can't work x days or y times and it SEEMED he was receptive since he took that schedule down. Then suddenly BAM, he just reposted the same exact schedule and said f*ck everyone.
Oh, we had some people calling in sick from time to time under the old manager, but this new manager has pretty much half his crew every single day calling out because of his sh*tty tactics.
Here's the first thing to learn about being a good manager...you don't need to "shake things up" for people to be better workers. You don't need to "put your mark" on anything if it's working just fine the way it was.
#16
One of our CAD drafters had to get brain surgery last year. He got through it with no issues and has been working since with the occasional doctor meeting. He's not necessarily the fastest worker, but he gets the job done and I haven't noticed a difference before and after.
Last week, during a meeting, our boss said to him, "...ever since your surgery you haven't been as capable, I can't trust this project to you." I have wanted to quit for a while, and this pushed me overboard.
#17
Try working in IT. That attitude is just the standard state of being.
It's a job where if you work absolutely perfectly, you're totally invisible and only appear on the radar when something f*cks up.
Just a few weeks ago we did a major office move. My department worked back to back 12-18 hour days to get everything moved over, which we managed with less half a day's down time (and we were moving the company's main data center).
By the end of the final weekend after carrying 30+ servers (plus cabs) up four stories, re-cabling 200+ desks and literally moving trucks worth of gear I got home and my legs just wouldn't work any more. I still have the blisters on my feet from walking about 30 miles in two days...and I was still at my desk at 7am the next day to run around the office fixing teething issues.
Then, a few days ago the country chief got the whole office together to thank everyone for their hard work. He had a stack of envelopes with 'thank you' card £50 vouchers in them. Everyone who volunteered to help with the move got one...including the people who 'volunteered' to have an early snoop around the new office, spent 30 minutes on site and did precisely f*ck all.
You know who didn't get a mention, or an envelope? Anyone in IT. The people who were there working unpaid overtime until 2am for weeks.
Katinka Min 6 years ago
Why would anybody in IT do this is beyond me. There is a ton of jobs out there for IT people, you can pick and choose!
#18
My boss is looking to retire in the next 3-4 years. He told everyone that he wanted us to come up our visions for the company and it's future over the next 5, 10, 20 years.
We're a small office of about a half dozen people but we've been growing and so everyone brought up growth projections and succession planning once he retires, etc.
His son is the heir apparent and has a precocious 8 year old so in my 20 year version I even included the grandson joining the business and grooming it to become a legacy company.
My boss went last and we were expecting something acknowledging some of our thoughts or at least an expression of appreciation that the company he founded would live on well past his retirement, be in good hands, etc.
Instead it was brutal and short. It was something along the lines of "I do everything around here anyway so I should just sell the company to fund my retirement and you can all find other companies to work for in a few years."
Mood killed. Meeting ended.
#19
I work in a big corporate building. The same older lady came by everyone's desk towards the end of the day to collect the trash. Just the sweetest lady ever and every time she'd walk to my desk she'd give me a big smile and ask me how my day was and chat for a minute as she got my trash (usually I'd dump it in for her). I had some rough days but she has a way to cheer me up and send me home on a higher note. I know I'm not the only one either.
So then a few weeks back our work implemented a new policy to 'cut down on trash usage'. It's no longer allowed to have a trash bin at our desk and we have to walk across the room and use the community trash to throw anything away. Not a huge deal but the real reason they did it is so they can cut down on cost... ie the cleaning crew.
Sad to say that I haven't seen Sharon since.
#20
This school wanted to switch to Chromebooks. So what did they do? One summer while teachers weren't working, they removed every single Windows station and replaced them with Chromebooks to be issued to teachers. They were told to "figure it out".
When teachers came up and asked how they could teach Photoshop, programming, AutoCAD 3d modeling, etc., admin basically googled their program name plus "Chromebook extension" and told them "see? There's an extension for it and it works!" I don't think I have to add that it did not work.
They ended up bringing back the desktops for most teachers.
#21
Business had been running for three years and many of the employees had been there from the beginning without getting a pay rise.
After some requests the company announced that there would be a review of everyone's pay. Called in each worker to discuss.
Basically they had decided to pay every employee the same amount. This meant that a few got a raise, most stayed the same, and some (who had negotiated better at hiring) had their wages reduced.
Needless to say most employees were unhappy.
Two weeks later the three brothers who owned the business bought themselves two new cars and a second hand Rolls Royce.
That was a real slap in the face.
Zenozenobee 6 years ago
I love when everyone have to make effort for the sake of the enterprise/country... except the ones that take the decisions for the collective effort.
#22
I found keylogging spyware on my computer. My bosses had installed it and we're tracking/reading everything I did.
#23
Put up a poster that said "Complaining is like vomitting. You feel better but everyone around you feels sick.". The morale was already bad but it was just a sh*tty way to take a hit at upset employees rather than do anything positive.
BlackestDawn 6 years ago
And if almost everyone is "vomiting" then perhaps there is a "bug" going around that needs to be "fixed".
#24
They banned phones, electronics, puzzles, books, etc. from being used at your desk. I work at a call center. We were expected to just sit and wait for the next call to come in "distraction-free", even if it was a super slow day.
#25
In a very short span of time, they changed everyone's 401K plan (for worse) and then implemented an office wide cleanliness policy. No eating at your desk. Only 3 personal items on your desk. Everything labeled. No items other than your keyboard, mouse, and monitors on your desk at the end of the day.
Talk about pissed off. You could feel the gloom when you walked in. Everyone's give-a-sh*tter broke at once.
#26
Was “told off” for not sitting straight forward enough at my desk as it looked like from afar I was tilted to the side slightly and managers would think I was talking to my colleagues next to me instead of waiting for the phone to ring. I’m 5ft 10, sitting forward at all times is uncomfortable I like to cross my legs..
We used to work as a team to make sure we had enough cover that allowed us to go on our 15 minute break with a colleague, this was banned and we had to go alone at all times even when there were 8-12 people covering on the phones and we haven’t had a call for 20 minutes.
Our “team” came 2nd in a award ceremony for customer service, this award was for excellent feed back in regards to the service our team provided on the phones and on site. The managers and supervisors are never on the phones and mainly do “reporting and auditing “ The managers and supervisors were all taken for an all expenses paid dinner, drinks and hotel stay to celebrate, this was kept a secret from the actual staff who had done the work! I only found out when I saw some pictures on a managers desk.
We were awarded with 6 pizzas to spilt between us..
#27
Told a bunch of people they were going to be promoted to get us to do extra work, no one got promoted. I basically did her job for a month. Me and three of my co-workers quit and she got fired a few months later.
Anthony Talak 6 years ago
Been here. Got the promotion speech 3 performance reviews in a row. And then I decided enough BS was enough.
#28
I worked for a small environmental consulting business a few years ago. We relied heavily on the work utes to function well so we could do our jobs (driving around rough terrain and such). The utes were old and tired, and broke down a lot. More than once I was stuck in the middle of nowhere trying to spontaneously learn to become a mechanic to get myself home. I understood it was a small business, and the boss was just trying to make ends meet and it didn't make sense for us to have all the latest and greatest equipment and vehicles, but when his wife drove into work one morning with a brand new BMW when our tools of trade were falling apart, that kinda killed it for me.
#29
While working at a sporting goods store, I had a supervisor offer me a managerial position. He talked it up by saying I'd have new responsibilities and tasks. That I'd be able to delegate jobs to other employees while I focused on my new work.
Me: "Cool...What's the pay?" Him: "Well, we wouldn't be able to give you a salary increase." Me: So I'd be doing a lot more with the same pay? Him: Yeah, you'd have more responsibilities! Me: "No."
mrreeow 6 years ago
Sounds about right. I use to work at a small clothing boutique and the owner said the exact same thing to me. When I confronted him about it he said I wasn't "proving" myself enough to actually become manager and the "attitude" I was giving him was the reason why he hasn't promoted me. EVEN THOUGH I WAS ALREADY DOING ALL THE WORK WITHOUT A PAY RAISE. ugh I quit and sent him a letter stating how much he owed me for unpaid overtime hours and all these legal papers stating how it was illegal to not pay your employees for overtime.. lalala whatever he paid and I moved on THANK GOD.
#30
held a super positive, pep rally style company wide meeting about how they were going to start combining our sick days with our vacation days and now just call them 'PTO.' This was presented to us as a great thing, since we could all now use our PTO days fully as vacation days if we wanted to. Once the system was implemented, everyone realized that instead of getting 10 vacation days and 10 sick days per year, we now all had 15 PTO days. Everyone was pissed.
Magdalina777 6 years ago
Here the law says 28 vacation days per year and sick days are...well, sick days. They aren't paid in full though I think there's some minimal wage % rate for those and then it depends on employee - so you can have them if you need them but due to lower pay people still try to get back to work quickly. My current job is perfect in that regard 'cuz they can just let us work from home for a few days if we're sick rather than have us come in and infect everyone(we can communicate via Skype and stuff just fine, just perhaps some things take slightly longer to figure out); is not official but we do it anyway and everyone's happy. <3 this place
#31
Once upon a time I worked for a media investment group. One year we all got Christmas cards in the mail. Problem was, they weren't addressed to us by name, but by employee number.
Employee 273051
44 West Main Street
Corporatedeathville, US 11111
BlackestDawn 6 years ago
Ohh for effs sake, if you can get the adress then you can get the name.
#32
Large factory(Not Unionized). Each department clocks in at a different place, mainly that department's breakroom. My department clocked in across the facility from the main entrance, which meant it took about 15 minutes to walk from the front door to where you clocked in and out at, and another 5 to walk from that entrance to the parking lot. There was a side exit that we would use, however, that literally cut that walk down from 20 minutes to 3, since our department was right next to the parking lot.
Management decided that ALL employees must enter and exit through the SAME DOOR. Which meant we had to walk all the way down to the main entrance and then back around to our cars.
There was so much rebellion from the employees in our department that they had to bar the door shut with 2 x 4's. Jokes on them, even unionized employees can be a pain in the ass. We contacted the fire marshall, who upon seeing a fire exit barricaded, fined the company 8,000$
We still were not "allowed" to enter through this door, but they stopped trying to stop us.
Zenozenobee 6 years ago
Wait... barricading a fire exit??? Who in Hell could think it was a brillant idea?
#33
Old folks home kitchen. Maybe 20 staff members. Boss declared we were too happy and made a new set of rules:
° there was to be absolutely no talking, laughing or jokes. The kitchen was to be silent because we were "distracting ourselves from work"
°anyone working less then 9 or 10 hour shifts were forbidden bathroom breaks. Going to the bathroom on a shift with less then 9 or 10 hours was a fireable offense. Permitted Bathroom breaks could not be on the clock. Your lunch must be used to use the bathroom. Lunch breaks were 15 minutes long.
°any communication with management was seen as inappropriate. Staff and management were to be kept separate at all times. (A manager f*cked a staff member and it made a big deal. That's why this was made)
°you will not be paid overtime but will be expected to work. If you are to clock out by 8pm but are still needed you must clock out then return to work. Complaints to HR or labor board are fireable offenses. Yes people complained. Yes the place was investigated.
Ex boss was sued. Lost. Morale dropped. They have a hard time keeping employees now and from what I heard most of the new employees are high school students. Ex boss announced a sudden retirement for the end of the year and the kitchen will be taken over by all new people.
I jumped ship early on. Do NOT miss the place.
Katinka Min 6 years ago
Stuff like this is just plain crazy. And how can it be legal to forbid your employers to go to the bathroom or to stop talking???
#34
My department banned earbuds/ headphones. Now that we can hear how loud the rest of the office is, productivity AND morale have tanked.
#35
In a company of 6 people, owner said in a meeting with everyone that his 2 sales guys are irreplaceable and that the rest of us are "just paper pushers
Caroline Allnutt 6 years ago
I was told by a boss that my work was just "loss leader" to get work funneled to more expensive services.
#36
Firing half the staff for no reason other than to "clean house" when new management caused the other half to leave as well. You wouldn't think it possible for a hotel to go out of business in less than 2 months but lo and behold it did just that.
#37
It was a one two punch.
The company wide meeting announced the promotion of several high level management and executives (mostly title and responsibility changes). Lots of smiles and handshakes, not unlike a college graduation ceremony.
After these promotion announcements, they declared that due to the stagnant economy and poor sales, the entire company would be experiencing a pay freeze as a result. So, no raises for anyone.
They then concluded the meeting by discontinuing "Casual Fridays." So, no more jeans on Friday.
It almost felt like it was designed to make people want to quit and leave. It worked though, I and many others moved on to greener pastures within the year.
Emme Garcia 6 years ago
I wonder if that is a tactic to avoid paying unemployment or severance packages
#38
Installing solar for a really sketchy northern irish dude who turned out to be a local drug manufacturer. Boss ran away with £25000 of the clients money and left us on site completely unaware of what just happened, still on the roofs. We only found out about the clusterf*ck when said scary irish guy brings all his goons in to threaten us and our families unless we recovered the money, trapped us there for hours before we defused the situation.
#39
Had a worker that worked herself silly for the job. Really loved the venue, loved the clients, loved the work so she would work after clocking off, take work home, go in on weekends. Really just go above and beyond always. We always got incredible feedback from clients and suppliers about her. In our contract it says we’re entitled to a 5k raise after being employed for 3 years. At our yearly renewal (having been there for 3.5 years) she asked for the raise. She was flat out told there was no room in the budget. She could have taken them to fair work commission but instead she just started looking for jobs. She left (got a great position in a great company and is loving it!). The guy they hired to replace her had a quarter of the experience, no love for the job and his annual salary was 10k higher. Most of us have since left and the place is falling to sh*t.
Katinka Min 6 years ago
His annual salary was 10k higher - the gender pay gap in a perfect example.
#40
My current job we had a kid out of a very prestigious Ivy League school. He was extremely bright but a complete asshole. He would talk back to managers and ask them where we went to school and say he could do their jobs in his sleep. He proceeded to tell HR after eight months that unless he could do only FP and A and pick his own schedule- he would quit. He also demanded to make 70k as a first year...
Management bought it. He works for the CFO now and while he is extremely bright this f*cker walks out of busy season coming in at 10 am leaving at 4. While we work 12 hour days- I like my company but that makes me mad. Eat a d*ck Brian
#41
One of our senior employees asked for a raise because it had been a few years since he had had one and he was doing a great job. Management reviewed his file, realized they could pay one of the new guys half of the salary of experienced guy, fired senior guy, promoted junior dude. They weren't aware of the warehouse dynamic and soon found out that no one liked or wanted to work for or with junior guy, morale dropped a lot. A week later, senior guy committed suicide. Once the warehouse was informed/invited to the funeral, morale reaaalllly dropped and eventually junior guy became so ineffective trying to run the shop that he was fired and the next senior guy just kind of took over without management doing anything about it everything began to run as it had before senior guy was fired.
#42
Gave a regular customer a $2 discount off his usual order (he was moving & this would be his last time dinning there, this was the first time he's ever gotten a discount) My boss proceeds to flip out on me, said I was self-righteous, stealing from her, and I was "the reason her business was failing" and took the money out of my paycheck. Nobody used coupons/gave a discount for the next few days. They were all scared.
I grabbed my paycheck & put in my two weeks the day after.
BlackestDawn 6 years ago
While technically it would be stealing if you didn't have the authority to make such decisions your boss certainly didn't need to flip her lid about it. Minor discounts here and there are usually not a problem since, unless it only goes to self-entitled people, it will build a loyal customer base.
#43
I told the hiring manager that I was disappointed in one of his hires because he knew literally NOTHING about our job and asked him "doesn't that cheapen my knowledge and expertise?"
His response: "Well, let's be honest, you job doesn't really need all that, does it?"
There were four other people my level, with varying fields of expertise, at that meeting, and it got real quiet after that.
#44
I worked at a club in Miami and the owner was out of his f*cking mind (years of drug abuse).. when the housing market crashed obviously people were spending far less going out but he insisted we were all stealing. We had meetings once a week with all kinds of threats. Finally he put in an automatic pouring system for 50k+, it basically looks like you're pouring drinks from a soda gun, super boring. The fun vibe and flair we had was totally gone which made sales drop even more. He ripped the system out two weeks later.
Gerry Higgins 6 years ago
People go to favorite clubs because of the PEOPLE there. No one returns to a club where the staff are all b****y
#45
To cut costs, they started a policy that only certain departments had internet access - it basically started a class system that bred resentment across departments, and caused an exodus from the non-internet teams.
Catherine Spencer-Mills 6 years ago
This makes no sense. I worked in a health district, and the manager wanted to put in nanny ware to prevent inappropriate surfing. So how are the public health nurses supposed to look up breast cancer and other sexually transmitted disease info? Fortunately, it didn't get implemented when one of the nurses pointed out that STI info included images of the affected parts.
#46
Sh*t like that kills me.
I was an engineering intern at a factory owned by a German company, but located in the US South. It happened to be the summer of the World Cup and US-Germany were playing on like a Thursday.
The factory had engineers, fabricators, and line workers. The engineers worked on long term timelines, but the fabricators and the line workers had weekly quotas. In general the line out performed quota (they were based on orders and the line could out pace the orders if needed). So normally the line reached the weekly quota by sometime late Thursday or early Friday.
The engineering interns brought up that we wanted to watch part of the game during our lunch break on the big projector in one of the conference rooms. The HR guy in charge of scheduling the room ran with the idea and ordered pizza for the entire factory to sit and watch the game.
Thursday comes and the line is on pace to finish quota that afternoon (so had Friday to work extra/cut off early). The whole factory staff shows up to watch the game, eat food, and relax for a bit. Morale is high as a bunch of East Tennessee folk are hooting and hollering over a soccer match of all things.
Out of nowhere the plant manager strolls by and says “I thought we were here to work”. Room was empty in about 100 seconds. The interns were all pissed and hid in the warehouse watching the second half on one of our phones. F*ck that guy
Gareth Graham 6 years ago
In England, if their is an international match during a work day, every boss I've ever had has allowed us to bring in a tv or radio to enjoy the match. It's morale boosting as not all debilitating to output
#47
Started firing people by lining two up at a time and seeing which one they prefer to keep on. Didn't matter if you were there for 20 years or 2. Also hiring management from outside and not promoting within which means the new managers have no knowledge of anything that company does in terms of ethics, procedures, or employee status. It has turned this 'clique' type environment into every person for themselves. Very toxic.
#48
I was working in a restaurant that switched from fast food to half full service, so I would refill water, bus dishes, etc, but customers would order food at the counter and carry the tray to their table. Once we switched, customers would occasionally leave tips out on the tables for us which was awesome since we were doing twice as much work with no pay raise, but then the manager put signs on all the tables saying "no tipping". Maybe it had something to do with taxes or payroll, I don't know, but at the time it just felt like huge d*ck move...
Alexandra Smith 6 years ago
Probably because only the people clearing table got tips, not the people working registers, cooking, etc. Should have probably instituted tip sharing instead
#49
Worked as a cleaner for dentist offices as a second job. Boss sent her boyfriend to come pick up her check and then the very next day (pay day) she apparently 'went on vacation for a week' and didn't bother to pay any of her employees. She lost a lot of workers when she came back from vacation.
#50
Restructuring bonuses every month because employees were hitting the bonuses...despite the company making near a million in revenue a month.
BlackestDawn 6 years ago
While technically just because they make a million in revenue doesn't mean they have the money to give out as bonus (that would come from profits) restructuring bonuses so you don't have to pay them at all is a really s****y thing to do.
#51
My company stopped giving bonuses, lowered the Christmas bonus and doesn't give raises. Yet somehow our company can afford to have TWO private jets, yet always talking about how broke we are.
Cherry Warr 6 years ago
MY company requires us to give them $5 a week to put into the bonus fund...and at the end of the year we get a bonus. so basically we pay for our OWN bonuses while they collect interest on it
#52
I worked at a restaurant with a sh*t tipped minimum-- $2.63 an hour. We'd be penalized for being even 5 minutes late so lots of us showed up 20-30 min early to make sure we'd avoid the penalty (this is Boston, so that was an appropriate gamble, I've gotten stuck on the T for 10-20 min on NUMEROUS occasions), and we'd just get right to work-- and there's plenty to do when opening a big restaurant. So we'd clock in and start working-- no one was clocking in and failing to work. In fact I liked getting there early because the kitchen would get up to 113, most of the morning prep occurred in the kitchen and was fairly rigorous, we didn't really air condition and had to wear long sleeved shirts and pants. So I could knock everything out in a tank and shorts, change into my uniform, and not start my shift a sweaty mess.
The manager gave us a big lecture about how it adds up, even if it IS only $2.63 an hour. She made a new rule that we couldn't clock in more than 10 minutes before our shift began, EVEN IF WE WERE WORKING. By the way, that's a 15-minute window of appropriate clocking in time, in Boston, with a notoriously unreliably public transportation system, crazy weather, and over-clogged roads.
F*ck Grafton Street and f*ck you, Ashley.
EvilDinosaur 6 years ago
What do they mean by ‘s**t tipped minimum——’? It sounds like it’s set by the restaurant but that’s not minimum wage? Minimum wage is set by the government? Also that’s super low. Minimum wage here is practically double that for under 16s let alone living adults.
#53
At a company wide meeting (45 people) called the employees an expense, did not go over well at all. Two people actually stood up and threatened to quit on the spot if the boss didn't reevaluate his statement and could explain what was wrong with it.
And he made it pretty clear by tone of voice and overall feel that he only thought of the employees as an expense and not at resource, that yes costs money, but also is the reason the company actually earns money as well. And if he could he would do it all by himself to save on the expenses of having employees. We are talking about engineers with years, some cases decades, of experience, and he thought he could replace them if only he had the time. That's what the b*tching was about.
Katinka Min 6 years ago
Well, yes, employes are listed under expenses. But without them you have no f*cking company!!
#54
I was a hard worker, like an extremely hard worker. One day a supervisor asked why I wasn’t working at my usual pace, so I told him I was facing homelessness if I couldn’t find somewhere to live.
He said "Heyyy well I really need my superstar out here! I depend on you getting a lot done for me." He couldn’t care any less about my problem...I was an employee who made him look good because I got results, and not a human being.
I never worked hard again, and personally undermined the work ethic of everyone I came in contact with. I didn’t have to learn that particular lesson a second time.
Gerry Higgins 6 years ago
I work because I prefer to be busy not bored. What the boss expects doesn't enter into it. By coincidence, I'm one of the top producers, but it's for my benefit, not theirs.
#55
Me personally, I'm a security guard at a library. My boss said she wanted me moving around a lot, which is cool. I would get up every 15 minutes, patrol the entire building, then sit back down for another 15 minutes. It's not the busiest place so it seems to work out fine, especially since my coworkers always know how to get a hold of me. However, apparently a coworker told my supervisor I was slacking off (and this coworker's known for micromanaging people she has no control over) and wasn't doing my job properly. But instead of talking to me about it, my boss just says, "Oh I meant CONSTANTLY. CONSTANTLY walking, 4 to 8 hours straight, no sitting down AT ALL. Also we fired the only other security guard so you gotta take his shifts too." So other than a legally obliged 15 minute break, I'm supposed to be hiking all day long and "assert my presence" to the dozen or so patrons we have.
I'm turning in my 2 week notice on Wednesday, and in the meantime I just take VERY long bathroom breaks....
#56
New general manager came in, fired all the best people (I was really good but had only been there for 3 years so I wasn't making a lot) because they were "making too much money" and replaced them with base pay workers who didn't give a sh*t. Then that increased the workload on everyone else that wasn't fired so they all quit. Then the hotel was stuck with half a sh*tty staff. Funny thing is that we made in the ballpark of 20 million dollars the year before my original GM left and the year the new GM took over I heard from one of the few people that still worked there (there were 2 originals out of a 60 person staff) that they were projected to barely clear 2 mil. We were in the top 5 Hiltons in the entire Midwest for years and there were only a handful of nights like Christmas when we wouldn't sell all 140 rooms. Why that dumb sh*t tried to change everything when the place ran itself and was kicking serious ass I will never know, but he's out of a job now. My old GM would literally leave halfway through the day if he wanted (rarely) because our managers were so good and everyone actually cared about the place.
#57
Worked at a Insurance company that focused on processing applications and underwriting. Less than a few months into them having mass hiring and site opening they implemented "quiet hours". Twice a day (once in morning and other in afternoon) for 3 hour blocks you were not allowed to talk to other coworkers. You couldn't even message them on the internal instant messenger and had to switch your status to "Busy". If your manager saw your status was not in "busy" they would message you about it. Also you were highly discouraged from asking necessary work related questions during this period. If you were observed talking to a fellow coworker for assistance with something you would get weird stares from management and sometimes have to explain that we are not having casual conversation. All this for the sake of "productivity" the morale killing word of every business. People went from initially thinking this company and job were so great to hating the place. As you would suspect other changes further contributed to the shift.
BlackestDawn 6 years ago
Yeah, increase "productivity" by denying people necessary information for them to continue with what they are doing.
#58
Plumbing shop. Newer owners came in. They were a married couple who had worked there for years and bought out the original owner. A few months later has we are heading into Christmas, they called each employee in one at a time to explain how they (the employee) weren’t getting a holiday bonus because the employee had messed something up earlier in the year. My reason was that I had broke a mirror in a customers bathroom and it had cost $200 to replace. And they just couldn’t afford to pay any bonuses. (I brought in over $500,000 worth of business that year. ) Next week they drove up in a new sports car. Someone asked what it was and another plumber said it was a 2007 Christmas Bonus. They’ve had a huge turnover in employees now. No one from when I worked there ( ‘94-08) is still there.
#59
I used to work at a gas station/convenience store. Our manager was definitely cheap, but he brought it to a whole new level after he bought another gas station over 50 miles away.
He started scheduling his pre-existing staff from my store to work in his other store, over 50 miles away. Some of us were still in high school, but he didn't give a sh*t. He refused to hire more people.
#60
Head of department realised that we weren’t about to meet our targets for the financial year. Completely banned annual leave for 3 months, forced anyone who didn’t fill in their timesheet on time to attend disciplinary meeting (despite problems with the system meaning that some didn’t get filled in) and generally had lower management terrified, causing a massive blame culture and several people to be signed off with mental health issues.
In the end, the employee survey which went to his bosses was hilariously bad, and he’s now somewhere else making some other people’s lives a misery. The best part was when his replacement came in and fired his right hand man who was also a d*ck.
#61
I knew someone who worked at a factory (in West Virginia or Ohio) that was purchased by a Japanese firm. On day one, they took away everyone's stools and said everyone had to stand for their entire work day. What a stupid way to get every person to hate you on day 1, with no benefit! Of course, many of the employees had back problems and other health issues that made it painful or impossible to continue in their jobs.
Magdalina777 6 years ago
Ooo that sounds oddly familiar. Except I don't think we had a japanese guy, just a bunch of idiots up there XD
#62
I worked for a 'natural health' company that was basically a pyramid scheme. I was a well liked phone/bill monkey as I did chat with the most important money spenders for some time [something we were told to do BTW].
However for some reason, the receipts that I needed to get when someone called went missing a lot once in the hands of accounts. Something that really stopped my work and it was a little suspicious as it happened too often.
None of my business, instead I did something clever and photo copied every receipt, putting them in my drawer in case they went missing and it worked a treat. I was so proud I even told everyone and they said it was a really good idea.
I must have been onto something though as one day I got called into the boss and she said that they found the missing receipts in my drawer!!!!!!!!!!!
I was so gobsmacked, I laughed. I told them that they were clearly photo copies [all the same size, some a bit wonky, all black and white etc]. I still got the sack. The only thing I can come up with is that there was dodgy stuff going on in accounts and my 'evidence' was getting in their way.
Final score:
19points
#63
Telling employees that they are going to fire you if you don't make more sales. Then when someone quits tell them naww that was just motivation. We were never going to fire you.
BlackestDawn 6 years ago
I hope they mean "motivation to seek other employment" because otherwise that is so demotivational.
#64
I had a boss who would pick pairs of people he thought should get to know each other better and strongly suggest that we go out to lunch together.
For some reason he matched me with one of our younger and more opinionated engineers, who spent the entire lunch ranting about how all taxation is theft and how our support for Israel was stupid, that if the Jews wanted to run around in the desert we should just give them Arizona.
It was certainly a learning experience for me, though not in the way my boss was hoping. I stayed as far away from that guy as I could for the rest of his (thankfully brief) employment with is.
#65
I worked at a dog daycare center as the assistant manager for a few months. We just started a training class so you would tell us what commands you would like us to teach your dog and we would pull them aside for 1 hour and teach that command with a certified trainer. The service usually cost an extra $45+ on top of your day care visit. Well our trainer quit unexpectedly and the owner asked myself and the other manager to step in as the trainers. We informed him that we did not have the proper certifications and our program promised the customers a certified trainer. He then told us to bring them in for an hour and have the dog hang out with us in the office and he would tell the parents what they worked on for the day. Needless to say we refused to do so and we were blamed for being non-loyal good for nothing millennials. Well he received six two week notices within one week after I revealed this conversation with the employees. This place only had 10 employees in total.
#66
My company had an (anonymous) employee suvey this past year and when the results (which reflected negatively on the GM/Manager) were revealed, everyone had to sit through a four hour meeting where, line by line, our GM asked "why do 50% of you feel this way" or "60% of you not like this"? No one really spoke up (it was supposed to be anonymous) so we just got told how if we felt that way, this is why our feelings were wrong. By the end of the four hours most of us were like "was that supposed to deter us from rating negatively next year... So we don't have to sit through a 4 hour meeting about how we're not right in feeling the way we did"
Zenozenobee 6 years ago
I guess the managers totally understand what an employee suvey is made for and how to use the result to improve things
#67
I once had a retail manager who sent out a memo that we worked so hard and did such a great job this month that she gets a bonus. That went over like a lead balloon.
#68
Bought a manufacturing plant.
Fired everyone.
Tried to hire them back for $2 less
#69
Changed up the metrics that determined people's bonuses. And included things that were important for the business to know, but completely beyond the control of the people who's bonuses were impacted.
For example, we had a "right party contact" rate -- how many times you actually got the person you were calling vs the number of calls you actually made. The problem was the phone number list came from elsewhere, and the people making the calls were just given a list of numbers, and you had to call them all. No leeway.
So you're calling blind from a list you don't control... and get penalized if the list is sh*t.
Oddly enough, the people in charge of making the phone number lists, their bonuses were not influenced by right party contact rate.
#70
Was working for EB Games when GameStop bought them. 20% of any warranty, and $1 for every subscription sold went into your paycheck as commission. And you'd never feel dirty selling the things, because Edge Magazine (EB's answer to Game Informer) and their extended warranties were legit, and fairly priced.
GameStop buys the company. First thing they do? Nix the commissions. You still have to sell the stuff, of course. I'll never forget the first meeting I had with GameStop as a manager. They really drilled how profitable those things are to the company. Soon after came the threats of reduced hours if you didn't hit quotas, mandated by corporate.
Yeah. F*ck Gamestop.
Jace 6 years ago
That's exactly what corporate buyouts are all about: take over a competitor, force it to be run like the buyer company (robbing it of any actual value it might have had other than being a competitor to be killed off), p**s off the existing employees so that they leave and cheap replacements can be hired for much less (and they don't know what was changed, so they're a lot less likely to resist anything), then run those locations into the f*****g ground, while collecting all the profits (without investing anything back into the business itself) and getting whatever extra value they can get from the Wall Street befuckery.
#71
Being given a list of websites to write positive reviews for the restaurant on our own time or get fired.
#72
There was going to be a $1,500 bonus if the company landed a certain client.
I'd been working there about 6 weeks. They had replaced 4 full time software testers with me, a 20 hours/week student who wrote automated tests and was well on my way to run more tests than the 4 full time employees could do.
I didn't get the bonus because I was just a part-time employee.
From then on I felt like if I wasn't important enough to get a $1,500 bonus, my job must not be important enough to care about too much.
#73
I used to work for Microsoft. When Google was first growing really rapidly, they were becoming famous for their perks including free food.
At a company meeting, someone asked Steve Ballmer (CEO at the time) if we were going to get free food too. Ballmer famously answered something like "would you rather have free food, or get paid $10,000/year more?" That argument might have held water if Microsoft paid more, but in addition to not having free food they actually paid a fair bit less.
#74
Casually said the best employee was X and everyone, including X, knew that X was among those who did the least amount of work.
#75
I worked at a grocery store and booked a day off 3 months prior, because it was my high school grad. I was told that "graduations can't be on a Tuesday and if I didn't show up to work, I would be fired."
The same guy also texted me after I called in sick the first time saying "Nice try faking being sick. I better see a doctor's note on Monday". I got a doctor's note and had to spend $20 on it.
Shana 6 years ago
Worked a grocery store too, boss lady (horrible person) didn't trust anyone if they called in sick and would call work-doctor to check in on us. She even sent one to me on a saturday, which is even more expensive, so joke was on her. (I couldn't even talk that day, so doctor came in, asked how I was doing and went "oh you're clearly ill, stay home for the next few days" :P .)
#76
Layoffs. 73 people lost their jobs because a huge project lost money instead of making money. Another 73 or so lost their jobs because the company was moving in a different direction and didn't need as many people with their skill set. These were by and large very talented people, as opposed to deadwood or shiftless morons. You get rid of deadwood and morons, and it gets the rest of the deadwood and morons to work harder. You get rid of talented people, and everyone else gets angry, fears for their own job, and/or starts looking for a new job.
#77
Worked at a trading shop where up to 80% of yearly comp was in the form of an end-of-year bonus. One year they decided that before the bonus was paid out, every employee had to sign a draconian non-compete agreement banning employment for 12 months at any competing firm. Oh - and you had to sign blind. Some folks signed and then were told they didn't get a bonus.
Ryan Paigey 6 years ago
I was offered a job recently, and I had accepted until I saw their non-compete said that I couldn’t work in the field for two years after leaving their firm. I didn’t take the job almost solely because of that clause, and I can’t imagine why anyone would voluntarily agree to two years unemployment if they were ever laid off or wanted to quit and move on. It was an insane power grab.
#78
Fired the three most likable/productive people in the department to bring in there own people under the guise of down sizing and restructuring. The entire department quit with in a month.
#79
I work part time at a university library while I attend school. I sit at the checkout desk/information desk. My boss, after one of us not saying goodbye to her one night, decided that us college students don't know how to sit at a desk and answer basic library questions. So now she sits down there every other hour and criticizes our every move. When it's the middle of summer and only 7 people are in the library, sh*t like this makes me want to quit my f*cking job. We can't even read a f*cking book at the desk AT THE LIBRARY! It made me realize that she takes this sh*t way too seriously, and that has made me care even less.
#80
A grocery store I worked at for just about 4 weeks or so in 2000 did that. The manager, who primary employed high school seniors like myself, would state "your employer is your number one priority. You work for them, not the other way around. I don't care about whatever teenager/highschool things you have going on. If you can't work the shifts i want you to, I don't want you to work for me." Only job I straight up walked out on after he told me I couldn't get off for my own graduation.
#81
We were once in the middle of a very stressful period of work, and everyone was feeling it. However, one afternoon, an off-hand comment turned into a conversation that we all got involved with and led to a few laughs. My manager, returning from a meeting, piped up "Oh we've finished tomorrow's work, have we? What's all this about (insert subject matter)". Entire team instantly deflated.
Unnecessary. Every employee needs time to blow off a little steam.
#82
They got rid of their night cleaning crew the week after I started and we had to learn how to clean the whole department on our own before close. I work in a meat department so this meant taking apart and cleaning 2 meat grinders and a band saw that were covered with meat goop. Almost the whole department quit because of this, but I stuck around and got the hang of it. After about 3 months though they hired the cleaning crew back. Now closing is a breeze.
#83
I, along with 9 other coworkers, did a Kaizen project where we cut customer complaints from over 100/month to single digits due to streamlining our process. The plant manager sent out a company wide e-mail essentially taking credit for the whole thing. He noted how he put together this team and under his direct supervision he got the project done without even mentioning our names. That pissed all of us off until the Continuous Improvement manager sent a reply thanking all of us in a big f*ck you to the plant manager. I was just happy that the CI manager was a no bullsh*t guy. I left that job a few months after we completed it and still use it on my resume.
Jace 6 years ago
I had an employer lay me off of an exempt design specialist position, offer me a job in the call center working hourly, at a rate that equaled my eliminated position... and then HR asked me to keep doing design work every few weeks (you know, the job they didn't need, because they laid me off from it). I played along for a while. Then I realized I was being abused because treatment of hourly employees was WAY different (for many reasons) and they had basically lied about eliminating my position. I asked them why they eliminated my position but kept needing me to do that work. I got the usual victim-blaming b******t about not being a team player, yadda yadda... The call center manager went to HR and said "What you're doing is unethical. Leave him alone or give him his design specialist job." Things were reliable for a while then. But this call center manager left the company. A few weeks (or a month later, they trumped up some b******t reason to fire me.
#84
My best friend and I worked at a "gourmet" grocery store with a coked up boss and owner. My friend was the donut fryer for their bakery and would often come in at 4 in the morning to find the owner and the bakery manager having sex on top of the bakery table. Both were married to other people.
Final score:
13points
#85
I told her that my arm gets pain from husking corn and that all the other managers don't make me do it because they know it gives me pain. And she proceeded to tell me that she's a different person. Meaning, she could careless if I was in pain, the corn needed to be done. And I was refusing to do as they said. She kept telling me they don't need me repeatedly. And she clearly knew it was one week from my last day but originally she wanted it to be my last day. So, after being forced by her repeating that If I stay I need to do the corn or I have to leave, I left. But then called HR on her and my store manager because she apparently asked him if she could do so, but actually didn't. Got my full day's pay and never have to go back there again.
#86
I worked at an out-bound call center. The center was paid by the company per head they hired, so they did a massive hiring spree to the point where there weren't enough calls to go around. Those who had good call times and ran out of calls were lectured, saying they needed to slow down to avoid running out of work. Shortly after, they made a rule where we couldn't have ANY personal items in our cubicles. Just the blank cubicle wall. Nothing to distract us from the mind numbing work that we now had to complete at a strategically slow pace. My friend was written up because she put a sticker of a cat on her binder, as it constituted a 'personal' item.
#87
I worked in telesales for a little bit (don't do it) and each morning we would have a "pep talk" where the very obnoxious manger would complain about sales because he wanted more money in his pocket that week. One pep talk, 3, weeks before Christmas he ended it by saying
" You all need to step up your game, I don't care about firing you, I dont care if your Christmas is ruined, that's on you for not getting enough sales"
Safe to say I stopped giving a sh*t after that and I was let go a week before Christmas. Telesales is the devil.
#88
An executive stated in writing that, "Engineers are like paper clips. I'm going to buy them for the cheapest possible price."
#89
I used to work at a sports clothing store. This store has several branches in the country. I heard that the management asked an employee to go to one of the sports stores during her free time and try to steal an item while the employees on their shift weren’t looking.
This girl succeeded to steal a gym towel. The sales girls working that day got into so much sh*t. That is just low. I can’t believe management resorted to that. Everyone was super pissed off after that.
#90
Electrical contractor of 35 (27 of which are out in the field), we earn PTO hours based upon the number of hours worked in a given week. Full time employees earn what is equal to about 6 extra paid days off in a year., which is typically used for errands, sick days, taking care of children and so on. One of the field employees is a known (to all other field techs) alcoholic, word makes it to office personnel that this individual was using his PTO because he had tipped too many back the night before and couldn’t make it to work on time. Owner denied his PTO claim and he drove into the office to have a shouting match with the owner.
Very next day a company wide email is sent stating that PTO will be indefinitely suspended because it is being abused. Not even sure if what they did is legal. But instead of dealing with this one employee, they decided to use it as a way to save paying out around 180 earned days off throughout the entire company. This happened about a week ago, morale dropped instantly. Most field techs started showing up late playing around on their phones and leaving early. Couple guys have already jumped ship and sounds like a large number of others are about to follow. I’m going to wait it out a couple months as I’m owed a yeti cooler and vacation time on my anniversary.
Jace 6 years ago
Makes me wonder what legal loophole the drunk guy presented that "forced" them to penalize everyone (to the management's benefit), instead of dealing with the one problem person. Maybe it was a situation where they hated dealing with employees so much that even ONE problem person made them hateful of ALL employees. Businesses act like employees were the worst thing to happen to capitalism and money-making...
#91
Worked in a deli years ago and the manager promised us a no-holds-barred BBQ at his place if he got his bonus for the deli performing well.
He got his bonus and, surprise surprise, we got nothing. Apparently the wife wanted the bonus for their kids private school fees.
Doug - you suck.
#92
Employers can ban their employees from anything— I got fired from a factory for violating their smoke-free workplace policy, which extended to tobacco use at home. To aid in enforcement, employees were also banned from off-site lunch breaks. This was in Illinois in 2014/15
Carol Emory 6 years ago
I was actually forced to sign a document that said I would not smoke while employed at a cardiac clinic because they wanted to refrain from upsetting patients that were told to quit smoking for health reasons. I was told if I smoked on my own personal time at home, I could be fired as well. Yet this same cardiac clinic had weekly lunch parties in which the food was usually fried chicken, burgers, pizza...did I mention the weekly birthday cakes? And the nurses would load up plates to be paraded trough the clinic in front of the patients. Hey..aren't you telling them to reduce their fat and cholesterol intake too? Hypocrites.
#93
Used to work as a part time waiter in college, most of the other waiters were also college students
Boss decided that it took to much effort to ask us all individually when we were available to do shifts and started scheduling all our shifts randomly without consulting us first
Then got super annoyed when 10 people were complaining to him that they couldn't do the shifts he had arranged.
He was so stubborn that he wouldn't organise the shifts and eventually just told us that we could either come at the times he had decided or we would be fired
A bunch of people quit
Carol Emory 6 years ago
I hate employers that think that no one has a life outside of work..like family, college or personal goals. I think it's probably because they can't relate because all they have is their job and nothing else. It's quite sad really.
#94
Removed COLA raises each year for all employees and implemented a “raise when promoted or take on more responsibility” model. However promotions are very rare and raises are never approved. So everyone is losing money to inflation each year and they tried to sell it As a big ‘win’ for the employees.
We aren’t stupid people.
Isabel Care 6 years ago
What's a pay rise? Never had one. Had bosses turn up with a Daimler (with everything) and a Jeep Grand Cherokee after trying to not pay overtime. They were upset when everyone clocked out on time even though there was work waiting to be done. Christmas bonuses are fictional too
#95
Regular wage theft, lies to employees about their expected hours, illegal conduct like forcing us to sign contracts under duress, general crap attitude and rampant gossip. I used to love my job, now I'm debating legal action.
#96
Had a big fight with his wife in front of everybody. I don't think you should run a restaurant with your family members unless you're really solid with each other.
#97
Used to work at panera. Usually managers would help in the kitchen/register/ dining room if there was a need. One of the managers would sit outside by the trash cans and smoke his cigs. People were not happy with it. How do you expect you employee to do good work if ur being lazy?
#98
She stole tips to par the safe since she sucked at math. Only reason it was noticed because the shift supervisors starting a secret tip notebook behind her back
#99
Making performance reviews monthly, and insanely hard. I’m talking at least half the staff at any given moment are in “developing”
They have a spreadsheet you have to fill out. It automatically calculates your score. For each category you have the options of developing, good and very good. You could tick very good for each category in any section but if you get one developing you are marked as developing overall.
Working in a warehouse we are marked on safety. While this is important, the way they have gone about it is stupid. We were all encouraged to watch each other’s manual handling and coach each other if we see someone doing something incorrectly. This worked great and we now have a warehouse of people who use great manual handling skills.
The issue? They added this coaching to review. You have to get two people a month, one each fortnight. If you don’t, you are in developing. If you get coached you are in developing. But you now have a warehouse full of people being very safe. So it’s hard to genuinely get anyone. So people are lying, doing “swaps” etc to get good. And the people doing the right thing are being put in developing.
Some of the questions are downright stupid. For teamwork, you cannot get a very good unless you have gone “above and beyond to repair and mend relationships” you cannot get this if you get along well with everyone. So you HAVE to have had a falling out and “repair” it to do well.
Another question marks you on having unplanned leave. You get a developing if you have a genuine sick day, despite calling in sick, despite having a doctors note.
Last question marks you down or up 8% for consistency. If you have previously been in developing for 2 months or more, you have to mark no. Even if say you started at 40% and have gone up to 60%. Doesn’t matter.
The worst part? They took our pictures and put them up on the wall according to how “well” we are doing. So everyone can see how sh*t you are.
Used to be a great place to work. Not so much anymore.
BlackestDawn 6 years ago
Asinine judgement criteria combined with public "shaming", yeah no wonder it's not longer a great place to work at.
#100
My current manager didn't particularly "instantly" kill morale, but he swears. A lot. At the employees, at me, at the customers. So often that I'm too scared to ask him questions, or come to him with an update on the work he assigned, and even some of my co-workers don't even look in his direction anymore. They'll hand me their work and tell me to talk to the manager because they're too scared. Not to mention the workplace is extremely segregated. They pretty much ban any socializing, and you're not allowed to help each other out. No matter how slow it is.
I work in an automotive shop. There have been days where there were only 2 people working, me and another co-worker. The shop is clean, I have no work, want to help my co-worker, get yelled at.
Carol Emory 6 years ago
I lived in an apartment complex for 8 years. The manager was not approachable, she was constantly whining and bitching if anyone asked her to do anything beyond regular daily duties, including maintenance. It would take weeks to get problems fixed. I started asking other tenants if they had issues with their apartments. The answers were very similar.."Yeah..we had 'X' problem, but we were afraid to tell the manager..she seems angry a lot." When, during our last yelling match, she says.."You complain more than any other tenant." I responded with "Because I'm not afraid of you. They are afraid because they said you seem angry constantly." She got quiet. After that, she was the perfect manager and let stuff roll. She apologized to me later for not listening. We were good friends after that.
#101
Our contract was up for bid at the end of it's cycle. The company was afraid of losing the contract, and other related contracts, to a lower bid. They underbid their current price by around 30%, at which point said contract was deep in the red. They tried to minimized the loss by doing performance evaluations and cutting individual pay according to the results. Everyone got cut to some extent and I happen to know one employee had about 15k taken off his salary. People steadily took up positions in other companies or just retired. For the last year, we have had the bare minimum amount of people, and are chronically understaffed and overtasked, on top of being paid significantly less than the industry standard.
#102
Huge layoff.
Went from 4-10's to 5-8's. Options to stay and take your chances or take a severance package and get more money for longer.
After the layoffs we got so overwhelmed with work that we needed so much OT to make up for the loss of bodies. Then new people were hired about 6 months after the layoffs. About a year later and we're on a hiring freeze. With little work to go around for a solid 5 days straight.
Some areas are so busy though, we're backlogged over 48hrs on some of the work and they still ask people to go home early. It's awful.
#103
Moved us to a sh*tty office in the boonies and took away free coffee.
Carol Emory 6 years ago
We had a company that was sold to new owners and moved 40 miles away from where all of the employees lived. The owner then hired temps to come in to beef up how good the company was doing so he could have promotional pictures takes to be placed in all the business magazines. The only problem is, he never cleared it with the employees. One of the employees was an actor doing professional commercials. Another was in hiding from an abusive ex that was also worked in business and marketing. When these issues were brought up to management, they at first said that we had no choice but to participate or be fired. When I told them that, by law, they could not force us to participate because it was a private business that required key card access and, if they fired me, I'd sue for wrongful termination. I even presented them with the links to prove I was right. Suddenly they announced that anyone who did not want to be in the picture was on break and should leave the office. LOL
#104
My manager forced us to stay behind because people slacked off, I did a 10 hour night shift at McDonald's and the day shift never cleaned up or restocked before we came in so the first hours of the shift was running around serving people while cleaning up, then after 10 hours we would clean up a 2nd time and re stock, one time the day crew came on early and the night Manager who was going home orded them to clean half the kitchen since we the night shift were understaffed and he said we could all go home early once our side was done as we had a really brutal understaffed night, he told the day Manager this to her face when she came in Infront of us and the day shift, then he left.
The day shift looked at the day Manager, then they got coffee and went to the break room, then we got screamed at for being lazy and not doing the side they were ordered to, she hasld been told what was going on, watched the day crew ingore a direct order, then attack us for it not doing there job, we had to stay an extra hour meaning most people missed important busses, oh and when we got done we asked if it was cool if we got some breakfast (we always free breakfast because night shifts are hell), she said no, and that we should think about that before slacking off, we got breakfast anyway and I quit two weeks later.
We also made sure to put our food through the tills so the they couldn't attack us for stealing.
#105
The last job I had was great except the boss felt entitled to pour out her bad mood on the four of us. Her favourite strategy was to say that everything is great when you're 1-on-1, but once someone else joins the meeting, suddenly you could find out that 'you never did anything good, you're a waste of money, we're going to fire you tomorrow' (obviously, nothing ever happened). The last such meeting was 45 min of her disparaging everything I ever did and then suddenly she... bursts into tears and says that it's all my fault as she doesn't want to say these things because all she wants is to be a good MOTHER. Literally, the only thought running through my mind was WTF; I mentally checked out from the meeting and I started composing my resignation letter. My current boss (and boss' boss) is a woman but I can't even imagine her doing this thing.
Final score:
5points
#106
Worked at a wing stop last year. There were Bluetooth speakers that employees brought in so we could blast music in the back while we were making orders.
Then there was a change in ownership and the new rules forbade music. On top of that, more things changed. All the cool people quit within a couple of months. I dipped out too (for personal reasons).
Stina Kolling 6 years ago
Look, I know different things mean different things to different people, but not being able to have a speaker at your job pales mightily compared to some of the other stories on here.
#107
I had a boss who threw a glass across the back room in a reasturant. Oh then another day it was a knife. Because she was a spaz and stressed too easy. ... So I mean ... That wasn't great for the environment
#108
I was a hard worker, like an extremely hard worker. One day a supervisor asked why I wasn’t working at my usual pace, so I told him I was facing homelessness if I couldn’t find somewhere to live.
He said "Heyyy well I really need my superstar out here! I depend on you getting a lot done for me." He couldn’t care any less about my problem...I was an employee who made him look good because I got results, and not a human being.
I never worked hard again, and personally undermined the work ethic of everyone I came in contact with. I didn’t have to learn that particular lesson a second time.
#109
I worked for a 'natural health' company that was basically a pyramid scheme. I was a well liked phone/bill monkey as I did chat with the most important money spenders for some time [something we were told to do BTW].
However for some reason, the receipts that I needed to get when someone called went missing a lot once in the hands of accounts. Something that really stopped my work and it was a little suspicious as it happened too often.
None of my business, instead I did something clever and photo copied every receipt, putting them in my drawer in case they went missing and it worked a treat. I was so proud I even told everyone and they said it was a really good idea.
I must have been onto something though as one day I got called into the boss and she said that they found the missing receipts in my drawer!!!!!!!!!!!
I was so gobsmacked, I laughed. I told them that they were clearly photo copies [all the same size, some a bit wonky, all black and white etc]. I still got the sack. The only thing I can come up with is that there was dodgy stuff going on in accounts and my 'evidence' was getting in their way.
Final score:
-4points
Little Menace (Submission author) 6 years ago
I love how I got downvoted for being mistreated at work. Ah well.
What do you think ?
Katinka Min 6 years ago
God, I am SO GLAD that I live in Europe where most of this sh*t would be totally illegal!!!
Magpie 6 years ago
And in Australia. Thank god for Unions that made it so.
Load More Replies...
diane a 6 years ago
Made my Father -inl-Law redundant 3 months before he would have made 50 years working for them and retired - he did get a good pay-out though - but that wasnt the point - he had worked there since age 14
Jean-luc Picard 6 years ago
Didn't Trump do this to one of those people he sacked? Guy only had days or a couple of weeks until retirement?
Load More Replies...
Night Owl 6 years ago
So many cruel or bad managements. At least some of the stories got a (relatively) happy endings involving karma.
diane a 6 years ago
think i traumatised a custmen one - when i worked for TASCO - he complained every week that his met was short dated - - to get the refund - I made the call informing him that the driver would be coming with fresher meat to replace the meat that wous spoil - he refused the offer - saying he haad already frozen it = and liked the refund
Load More Replies... Katinka Min 6 years ago
God, I am SO GLAD that I live in Europe where most of this sh*t would be totally illegal!!!
Magpie 6 years ago
And in Australia. Thank god for Unions that made it so.
Load More Replies... diane a 6 years ago
Made my Father -inl-Law redundant 3 months before he would have made 50 years working for them and retired - he did get a good pay-out though - but that wasnt the point - he had worked there since age 14
Jean-luc Picard 6 years ago
Didn't Trump do this to one of those people he sacked? Guy only had days or a couple of weeks until retirement?
Load More Replies... Night Owl 6 years ago
So many cruel or bad managements. At least some of the stories got a (relatively) happy endings involving karma.
diane a 6 years ago
think i traumatised a custmen one - when i worked for TASCO - he complained every week that his met was short dated - - to get the refund - I made the call informing him that the driver would be coming with fresher meat to replace the meat that wous spoil - he refused the offer - saying he haad already frozen it = and liked the refund
Load More Replies...
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