No matter how long you’ve been working at a company, it’s important to be on your best behavior around your boss. You might feel comfortable cracking jokes after a while or sprinkling in small details about your personal life. But it’s always wise to be careful what you reveal, just in case.
However, if your boss doesn’t seem to prioritize acting professionally around their employees, it might be time to call them out. Redditors have recently been opening up about times they managed to put toxic supervisors in their place without getting fired, so we’ve gathered the juiciest stories below. Keep reading to find conversations with the Reddit user who started this thread and Dr. Liane Davey, author of The Good Fight, and be sure to upvote the things you wish you could say to your boss!
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Had a boss who repeatedly stripped my name off reports and emails I'd written, then submitted them as her own to our VP. I started bcc'ing the VP, with whom I had a good relationship. He called her into his office to ask her questions about the work and to compliment 'her' efforts. She claimed all the credit and lied to his face. He called her on it. She was fired the next day.
To find out how this conversation started in the first place, we reached out to Reddit user Relevant_Grape_4106, who invited readers to share stories of how they stood up to their bosses without getting fired. First, we wanted to know what inspired them to start this thread.
"I have a friend that was confiding in me about their workplace and how stressful it was due to their boss being toxic by being manipulative and gaslighting," they shared. "There was nothing that I could suggest for them that my friend could do, as they have a completely different job to me, so I wouldn’t know how to handle their situation."
So the author reached out to Reddit to find out if anyone else was facing a similar situation. "I had no idea that the question would have that many people contributing to my post to tell their story, which is quite sad in a sense, since it appears to be such a common thing for people who are only just trying to get by in some cases, as well as considering those who work a 9-5 job where most of their waking hours, they’re having to put their emotional and mental health in jeopardy for it," they told Bored Panda.
Starbucks. Manager was talking to the DM, kissing a*s and lying about her performance and the store's performance.
The phone rang. It was an irate customer whom she had just called the N word.
I said "Hey, Michelle, that woman whom you referred to as a ghetto a*s N word is on the phone. She wants to talk to you. She has Corporate on the line."
She turned so many different colors! She was gone by the end of my shift. Of course, it was all my fault in her eyes. 🤣.
The OP also shared that, luckily, they've never had to stand up to a toxic boss like this. "I’m very fortunate to have a job where I’m surrounded by a wonderful team and people to work with," they shared. "So thankfully, it hasn’t been the case where I had to confront a superior. The colleagues I work with are very supportive with each other and in any way they can be."
The author also noted that they didn't think this was such a common issue until they made this post. "Looking at the number of responses I got, I appear to be wrong, sadly. I just think those who are in superior management need to realize that when their employees are working well under their management and care, there’s less of a chance of employees leaving the workplace and more of a chance of the workplace flourishing because everyone contributes to that, especially those that are working at the very foundation of the job, as well as what I mentioned prior about the mental and emotional health aspect of it all," they shared.
I had a manager who thought it was part of his job to manage people's personal lives too. I (female) was stuck with him and another manager (also female) in a car en route to an offsite meeting. He took this opportunity to ask me about my recent slew of "so-called" doctor appointments I had had. They had been legitimate appointments and I could have even provided doctors' notes if he had asked, but he didn't go that route. I simply asked him if he wanted to continue the conversation when we got back to the office and HR could be present or if I should arrange for a consultation with my attorney. He shut up really quickly.
And as far as what the OP thought of the replies to their post, they thought they were very insightful. "I particularly appreciated the replies where people were able to stand their ground and not lose their integrity for something that a superior had a personal issue with, for example," they shared. "As well as the few that were smart enough to play the UNO-reverse card onto their superiors to realize the consequences of their actions!"
Had a manager insist that I am reachable while on holiday. I said no. He kept insisting. I said ok, I will give you my wifes number. If you feel something comes up during my absence that can not wait or be done by someone else, you call her and explain why you absolutely need to talk to me. If she hands me the phone I will talk to you.
Guess what, he never called.
To gain more insight on this topic, we reached out to Dr. Liane Davey, author of The Good Fight. She was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and discuss the issue of toxic bosses.
"Many employees report having a toxic boss, but the situations fall into three categories," Dr. Davey shared. "The first category includes the horrible managers out there who are doing considerable damage. Some of them are unskilled or incapable of doing their job effectively. Their disorganization, lack of planning, or inability to provide coaching make it incredibly difficult for you to be successful."
"Other toxic bosses lack self-awareness of how their behaviors (such as yelling or criticizing) affect you," she continued. "Sadly, the more intimidating the boss, the less likely you will tell them what harm they’re doing. On the other end of the spectrum, let’s not forget the risk of a toxicly positive boss. Those managers will not allow negative comments and insist on pretending that everything is great even when it’s not."
I had been groomed for a management position for 6 months. At that point my boss announced his retirement and that I'd be stepping into his role. One of my colleagues took exception to this and accused my boss of playing favorites because we were friends. We had become friends over the course of him training me for his job.
Anyway, she went to my bosses boss, and her boss, and got herself an interview. After that she threatened to make a discrimination complaint if they didn't give her the job. So they gave her the job and begged me not to quit. I said I wouldn't quit but I'm looking to advance my career and if I can't do it here I'd find somewhere I could.
I worked for 3 months under her. She made my life hell and tanked the department. Meanwhile, the bosses created a whole new position for me, with more money, more autonomy, my own office, and I'd report directly to a VP.
And a few months after that she(the one that took my job) was fired.
I was lab manager of an extremely small quality control lab in an industrial electro-plating company. The floor manager, let's call him Collin, was one of those men who likes to believe he knows everything. He'd take credit for other people's work, and push the blame for his mistakes onto anyone but himself. Technically we were equivalent grade, but I was younger, newer, and my team was 3 including myself, where his was 20+, also, I am female. So he acted like my superior.
One day we needed to make up an acid bath, but because of the volumes involved, there was no safe way (from a manual handling perspective) to add the acid to the water, so we had to add the water to the acid.
There's a rule in chemistry to always add acid to water when diluting concentrated acid, as it creates a *LOT* of heat, and can cause an explosion. Literally one of the first things you learn in high school chemistry lessons, it's *that* important.
As we couldn't physically follow this rule, the lab staff and I were taking turns overseeing the *exceptionally* slow adding of water to the acid, constantly monitoring the temperature, stopping to let it cool whenever it got too high.
Along comes Collin, complaining that we're taking too long. I explain that we're trying not to allow the temperature to get dangerously high. Didn't think I'd need to explain *why* the temperature was rising in the first place, as this was literally an industry based on chemistry, and he was manager of the shop floor!
I move off to check something, I can't remember what, come back to find Colin instructing one of the floor lads to drag another water hose in to fill up the bath faster.
Of course I stop them, and ask what he's doing. He says he's going to add more water using the second hose, so it'll go faster, and the "water will cool down the acid".
I swear I stared at him for a full 10 seconds in shock, before I said "Well, if you're going to do that, can you wait until I'm back upstairs in the lab, with 2 closed doors between me and this acid bath."
He asks why. I explain that adding water to acid creates an *extremely* exothermic reaction. He looks blank, and asks what that means. I tell him the faster he adds the water, the quicker the heat will build up, and at the volumes we were working with (hundreds of litres) that would create an explosion, and everyone in the room would be sprayed with boiling hot acid.
Because this conversation took place in the middle of the shop floor, literally *all* of Collin's staff just watched him get schooled by a diminutive woman about basic chemistry, and a fundamental aspect of his own job. There was no way he could push the blame for that level of ignorance onto anyone else.
The look on his face in that moment is still one of the highlights of my time in that job!
"A second category includes managers who are unfairly labeled toxic. Sure, they might be annoying, micro-managing, demanding, or dismissive, but they aren’t hazardous to your health," Dr. Davey explained.
"A third category I would refer to as toxic managerial relationships. Often, I hear employees complaining about their managers and how the manager doesn’t like them or how they are disrespectful, but when I watch them interact, it’s clear to me that the employee has created an unhealthy and inaccurate narrative about the boss’ behavior or attitudes," the expert says. "You should be careful about the labels you use because not all toxic bosses are created equal."
One time, I confronted my toxic superior calmly and professionally about their behavior in a one-on-one meeting. I made sure to cite specific examples and how their actions were affecting the team. I also emphasized that I wanted to have a positive working relationship moving forward. Surprisingly, they were receptive to my feedback and actually apologized for their behavior. Since then, our dynamic has improved significantly. It just goes to show that sometimes addressing the issue head-on can lead to a positive outcome without putting your job at risk.
Oh! I got one!
The setup isn't all the special. He wasn't good at his job. He blamed me for mistakes. I just kind of stood my ground and didn't give in to any of his increasingly insane demands. Finally, he yells at me his last words on the subject, turns to stomp away his victory march and walks straight into a wall, having lost his sense of place in the room. Like, wasn't even close to making an exit. Full body, flat into the wall.
I like to think he also still relives that moment regularly.
One supervisor yelled at me for eating candy in front of her. I’m a T1D and needed the sugar or else I’d faint. She got strike 2 of 3 and was removed as my supervisor. A new one was assigned to my sector.
I should’ve just fainted and got worker comp. and her a*s fired.
We also asked Dr. Davey if she had ever worked in an unhealthy environment. "Early in my career, I had a boss whom I experienced as toxic. I tried to stand up to her, but I didn’t do a good job of it," she shared. "I told her my team was burning out and we needed to do things differently, but nothing I tried seemed to work."
"Our relationship got so unhealthy for me that I ended up quitting. Looking back now, I realize how I owned some of what went wrong, and if I’d done a better job of expressing my concerns, it might have played out differently," the expert told Bored Panda. "Fortunately, I haven’t had a toxic boss since then, partly because I was careful which jobs I took, and partly because I got more skilled at managing up."
Not an interaction with a superior, but with a colleague.
I work in IT, I do tech support over the phone for a financial institution. User calls and asks about an issue he's having, so I remote into his computer and start asking questions to understand the nature of the problem. I eventually ask him if he can inquire with his colleagues, to see if they're experiencing the same problem.
So he opens up our chat messaging app, asks someone to check, and follows it up with "I'm with tech support right now, not the brightest guy", which I can very clearly see because I'm still connected. So I immediately remind him that I can still see his screen and that I find what he just said very disrespectful. He gets defensive, tells me I'm asking too many questions and "shouldn't you know how to fix my problem", to which I tell him that's exactly what I'm in the process of doing. Didn't take long for him to realize he's being a douche for no reason.
In almost 10 years of doing this job at different levels, this was the first time someone apologized to me for acting out of line, and didn't just ask to speak to a manager or hang up on me. I accepted his apology, and then proceeded to not only solve the issue, but end the call on a good note.
This happened 2 weeks ago.
My first job was at McDonald’s. One of the managers had worked for my mom a few years before and hated my mom. She was a dogshit employee and my mom fired her because of it. When she realized who I was she started treating me like s**t and making me do all the s****y stuff, cutting my hours when possible and giving me bad shifts like overnights on the weekend then lunch shifts during the week just to f**k with me.
One day she yelled at me because my hair was too long. I literally shave my head to 1/4” every other week so it was at most 1/2” long maybe. My response was “my head is shaved you f*****g a*****e” and took my hat off to show her. The main store manager was there. Luckily I had been reporting all of the mistreatment and the store manager agreed that my hair has never been too long. I got talked to about cussing at her. She got fired.
I am 100% sure she hates my entire family at this point.
While I worked for one of the big IT contractors, I got assigned to a customer project where the project management (our people) had the habit to organise "pizza nights", namely us developers would stay after hours to work and they would order pizza (under false pretenses the pizzas were never delivered before 10pm).
When I got my first notice of such, I replied, copy my deployment manager (and, oops, everybody in the project😈), that I would happily comply, but this making me work more than 11 hours in a single day, I was legally entitled to half a day of rest that I would take the next day.
That pizza night was cancelled, and they never did it again.
The same project manager wanted me to a have a professional phone so that she could call me. Of course the day I got it she called me during lunch. The re-enacting by a colleague of her discovering that my phone was ringing in my desk drawer became a staple of our after hours drinks.
Being a grey beard with some hard-to-find skills has its perks 😇.
We also asked Dr. Davey for advice on how employees can stand up to toxic bosses without losing their jobs. "You need to be very careful and willing and ready at any moment to back down if that’s what’s required to save your job," she noted. "But when you’re ready, ask for a private meeting when you have time to share your concerns."
Had an RN supervisor who had it out for me due to her insecurities (was about to graduate nursing school and I would often point out things she was doing egregiously wrong) and her ignorance regarding union rules (she used to think I was leaving 15 minutes early every day when in reality I wasn't taking my last break until the end of my shift so I could ensure my assignment was completed in full). She never spoke to me about these issues formally, but would make constant passive-aggressive remarks and try to find other ways to get me in trouble.
One evening she entered a 4-bedded patient room in the middle of me getting all of the men into bed for the night with a write-up. She says one of the patients I put in bed before I left the night before ended up falling out of bed and that the bed wasn't left in the lowest position. The problems here were as follows:
1. I couldn't be held responsible for an event that transpired when I was off the clock and out of the building. Another aide had assumed responsibility for my patients when my shift was over.
2. She was trying to write me up without a union delegate present. Not allowed.
3. She was trying to write me up inside a room filled with alert patients who overheard everything and were able to attest to the fact that she tried to write me up without a delegate present. Extremely inappropriate.
4. The bed was an older model that didn't go all the way to the floor, and she couldn't prove that the bed was raised or that I was responsible for the bed being raised.
So I refused to sign the write-up, to which she threatened further recourse for refusing. I told her I'd talk to the director about it in the morning and if she felt the write-up was warranted I'd sign it with a union delegate present.
The next morning I went to the director of nursing and told her what transpired. By the end of the discussion she was seeing red. I wasn't there for it, but apparently she ripped that supervisor a new a*****e and shredded the write-up in front of her. The supervisor never messed with me ever again and quit as soon as I graduated from nursing school. I am now assistant director of nursing at this job.
I had a manager that tried to steal credit for a excel spreadsheet I created that would make reviewing and submitting expense reports 100x easier. After I showed it to her, I overheard her telling her supervisor about it, but said, "I created", not "my employee created". So I immediately changed the spreadsheet with locked cells that were password protected, with a glaring and bolded "Created by: (My name)" and resaved a copy on my drive. Then it came time to present it at the managers meeting and I copied my file over the original and when she opened it, she couldn't do anything with it and of course my name was on it. She ended up calling me into the meeting, giving me credit and I unlocked the cells and then began to explain how it worked. She was red faced the rest of the meeting with her boss glaring daggers at her.
*edit - I'm shocked this blew up and some people asked about the fallout afterwards. Well there was a closed office meeting in between my manager and the Controller who hired her. The CFO didn't really like this hire, so the Controller's rep was hurt here a little when the Accounting Manager (My manager) was forced to admit this wasn't actually her creation, but someone on her team (me). My manager afterwards pulled me into a small room and said, "I'm a little confused as to why you locked the spreadsheet and changed it, I had planned to present it at this meeting and got a little embarrassed in there when I couldn't access it. It didn't make me look good." I said to her, "Well you didn't tell me about this meeting, I would have been happy to tell you about the changes I made, I added the security to it so that sales guys couldn't change the formula's and since this file is the original, I wanted to make sure the integrity of it was maintained." She couldn't really say anything and I didn't let on that I knew she tried to steal credit for my work. She definitely took a big hit in reputation and anything I did after that I password protected and made sure to copy in the Controller.
Principal told me I would have a class of 45 students in a classroom that did not have proper air conditioning (one freestanding unit in the corner that kept the room at about 85 degrees). I told her she could not cram 45 kids into an 85-degree room, she told me she could do whatever she wanted because she was the principal.
That night I called the parents of all 45 kids and explained the situation. The next morning a handful of them were waiting by the front door to meet with the principal, many of them had emailed the superintendent directly. By lunch time the class had been split into two groups of 22 and 23 and been relocated to a fully air conditioned room.
That principal left before the first semester was over, not sure whose decision it was.
"Rather than giving your superior feedback, which might cause defensiveness, try sharing candidly with them what you’re experiencing, show how you’ve taken accountability, and ask for what you think would make things better," Dr. Davey recommends. "For example, you might say, 'I am finding that I can’t accomplish my workload within the week. I have implemented some new time management strategies, and I am still finding that I have to work for an additional 2-4 hours in the evenings or on weekends. Could you prioritize my tasks so I know what can wait until the following week?'"
We were in different cities, and he wasn’t answering his phone. So I began emailing things I needed, and copying in his supervisor. He responded back that he expected me to keep calling, as he didn’t always check emails during his shift, and his supervisor took great exception to that.
Not me but a co-worker.
She had worked for the company for years and made it to a middle management position in a division of the company that was known for its turnover.
Almost immediately, the VP over the division starts giving her hell. She put up with this abusive behavior for several years because her husband had medical issues, and their younger children were still in school. Recently, she finally had enough, and took a job with a former co-worker that moved to another company.
She scheduled what ended up being an epic exit interview. Apparently the VP had been doing some creative maneuvering within the company to hide her poor decision making in regard to product cost. It all came out. Firing people who were close to discovering what she had been doing, kickbacks to vendors via gifts, gifts to the VP including Super Bowl tickets (our company is VERY strict about gifts, and the Super Bowl is even used as an example of an impermissible gift), and just general fuckery and abuse of power.
Less than a week after that exit interview, the VP and a couple of her cronies were out the door, which triggered a chain reaction of other people leaving their positions as they had apparently been abusing their lower-level power and didn’t have cover anymore.
The entire division was re-formed over several months, and my old co-worker is doing fine.
More than four letters, the censors can't read big words.
Load More Replies...I worked in IT consulting. I asked for a pay increase and my manager (one of three partner/owners) said I wasn't worth it. I said okay and thought challenge accepted. It took me 3 days to find a new job and put in my notice. One of the other partners called me up and asked what happened. I told him. Apparently the asshat partner was doing other crappy stuff and they bought him out a year later.
"If asking your boss to change doesn’t work, you can ask for help from others in positions of power in your organization," the expert continued. "Be sure not to complain about your manager, but it’s okay to share objectively what you’re experiencing and to ask for advice or coaching about what you might do to improve your relationship. It’s essential to keep a toxic boss situation in perspective. So, while you’re working to improve the situation, seek support from colleagues and friends who can remind you of your talents and worth as a person."
I told him in no uncertain terms that he could _not_ speak to me the way he was and that if he did it again I'd leave. I made it clear that I could walk into any restaurant on our block and get a job on the spot (true), but _he_ had no other options - there was no one who could take my 40 hrs/week and all my responsibilities (I was essentially running half the restaurant at that point) and it would take weeks to find and train somebody to do half of what I do. Betting my job on an ultimatum was terrifying, but it worked. He never spoke to me that way again.
Collective feedback from training on an IT job. When asked didn’t we learn this in training, we all said the instructor spend most of his time calling us stupid and how much better he was then the rest is. He demoted back to the same job we all had, tech support.
There really wasn’t any spite or revenge in it. We were just giving honest feedback about what happened.
Wow, so many times...
The district manager was cheating on his wife with our manager. I don't really care, but when they left the busy store to have sex, it became our issue.
We documented everything at the store level from empty condom wrappers in the bathroom to the days and times they left the office with a line out the door. We submitted to HR and they were left with a warning.... Well, it continued to happen and we eventually got a photo of their two company vehicles at her house. We submitted to HR again, and they were both fired. There were tears as they could not believe me and my co-workers could "do this to them".
I was called a number of names from the area manager and after he was fired, he dumped a bunch of dog poop in our mail slot. We diddnt even mind. The real s**t had taken itself out.
Finally, Dr. Davey noted, "You may have a toxic boss, and you deserve support to deal with that situation. But before you jump to clever ways to retaliate against your toxic manager, it’s worth asking yourself whether the label fits."
They kept having loud parties that would way into the night. I didn't care about the drinking, which wasn't allowed on base in Iraq, but I also worked 16 hour days and they would go into like 2am some days.
So after several times of me asking them and getting ignored I called the MPs. They were on a flight out the next day.
Lol. In a meeting he demanded we do something completely illegal. I emailed him “as per our conversation” and he actually said yes. Immediately forwarded to his supervisor. Gone in three days. His replacement wasn’t much better.
I quit with no notice, I emailed my resignation letter to him and copied his boss and the bosses boss basically telling him all the reasons I thought he was a terrible boss and why I quit. I was second person to quit after he was hired. He was let go like 3 months later. .
I had a horrible team lead who tried to sabotage me when she found out I was being considered for a promotion that would have jumped over her.
We both had our own offices so I called her into mine, moved my chair up so I sat higher and pretended like I was her boss and asked her things like "did you think that behavior was appropriate?" and "what would you have done differently if given the chance to try again?". I was nervous doing this because I'd literally never spoken to any adult like that ever before in my life.
I found a new job shortly after that was a 30% pay bump and had a solid career trajectory but let management know why I was leaving and it was 80% because of that lead. Found out she was let go soon after I left because other people gave the same reason for leaving. I didn't exactly want her fired but I improved my situation and she got what was kinda coming to her I guess.
I sat calmly in a meeting with the top dawg and his little buddy, smiling and staying calm while they were yelling at me.
I stayed calm as they continued to yell. I asked them to please calm down and stop yelling. The response was I'm NOT YELLING! At that point, I laughed.
That was the end of their intimidation.
I brought him homemade cookies every day until his clothes didnt fit right and he looked ridiculous.
Worked in a supermarket bakery for years and worked my way up to manager. Decided to leave my full time job and go to college. Was lucky enough to get a transfer of my job to the town/city I was going to college amd work a couple days a week in the same supermarket chain as a baker but no longer managing, which I was happy with. Within a few days the staff obviously realised I knew my job well given my experience but I was happy just doing my bit a couple days a week as one of the team. The assistant manager however seemed to take exception to staff asking me for any advice and would undermine any and every thing I said regardless if ot was correct. I advised the manager of this and he was silently watching as this continued. I then had enough and called him out big time and also advised the manager was aware and that I was sick of his childish behaviour. He never challenged me again and actually left the job shortly after. The rest of my time there was one of the most fun jobs I’ve had.
Got tired of the managers, but not direct one, telling to do things for them. So I started carrying a sheet with my job description on it from when I was hired and every time after that if I was told by those managers to do an extra for them, I just pull out that paper and say " Sorry, it's not in my job description" and then walk away.
Not exactly my boss but she acted like she was so I’ll say it counts. She was a peer but would try to give me action items, etc.
Anyway, nothing too crazy. She looked down on what I did (site building) so I took another job and then she had to do my job after I left. She learned very quickly how much work it actually was and had it all dumped on her while I moved onto better things (and got a significant raise shortly after).
Previous job one of my duties relied on monthly reports sent to me by the business manager. Routinely, these reports were not sent to me in time for me to efficiently meet my deadlines. I started sending her reminders and requests which mostly went ignored. Well, after about 6 months of my work being late due to her, I got "talked to" and was threatened with an EIP. I kept my mouth shut. The next time her reports were due and late and I couldn't do my job in time, I sent an email to her in which I detailed our communication issues and attached email chains. I specifically stated, "Your inability to communicate effectively is detrimental to the operation of this company. I need these reports by EOB today in order not to take heat again for your continued neglect in this process". I cc'd my boss and his boss and her boss. My reports from her were never late again.
I've been retired since 2011 after a career in corrections. I've had around 11 part time jobs since retirement and different issues come up where I let managers know, "I work because I want to, not because I have to." One of the managers I told that to was a corporate big wig that was reduced in position because of a merger within the after market auto parts retail industry. Apparently no one ever talked to him that way until he faced me.
My previous boss at my current workplace was a nightmare. Imagine dealing with the government (I work in HR - foreign workers and expatriate matters to be precise) all by yourself without any help or back-up, literally preparing and submitting paperwork which I've never heard of prior, literally being forced to assist every Tom, D*ck and Mary in the office while generally handling my own work alone as well etc. You name it, I had to go through it. Worst still was when my immediate supervisor just let it happen and figuratively told me to just do it and keep my mouth shut, even calling me on my vacation days for verbal assistance rather than actually learning when I was trying to teach them what to do in my absence (She tried to request that I be available to assist on my vacation days but I shut that idea down harshly with a threat of going to the Labour Dept). After 8 years, I was about a breath away from just dumping my resignation without a back-up plan when I heard my supervisor
cont: would be leaving at the end of the year (management was reshuffled that year and most departments had new Heads/Leads/Managers). A week before she was due to leave (just before Christmas-New Year week and I had the whole week off), I just wished her luck in the vaguest of tones and left before she could even answer (she had tried to reduce my workload in the months leading up to her last day as some form of a peace-making attempt but good luck trying to fix 8 years of cr*p in 2 months). A year later, she came back to visit and I just basically gave her a civil greeting i.e. just "Hey, how're you doing?" and walked away before she could even answer, in front of all our common colleagues and the newer hires. Yes, it was petty of me but vindication via snubbing felt nothing but liberating. Things are currently fair under new management but I think I've been here for too long and am looking for a way out (obviously new management, new sets of problems but nothing as bad as the previous supervisor).
Load More Replies...Going back a great number of years. My Dad was born in 1912 so started his working life in 1928. Things were a lot different. His boss would stand outside the office with his watch in hand and look at the town hall clock. If you weren't sat at your desk by the first strike, you were late. He would also ask you how someone else was doing and trying to support them, if you answered very well would reply well I'd better give them more work to do then. He made one employee catch an earlier train as he arrived only 5 mins before work started . The train station was just across the road
Why is it that the Big Boss always thinks it's a great idea to fire the employee who's keeping the business going to put his giggly bimbo in her place.. Then Wonders Why The Whole Business Goes South Faster Than A Rickety House Of Cards? Why not keep the competent worker in place & let the money roll in to keep your 'Flavor of the Month'?
Working in an expo toxic environment where they *loved training*, which were mostly generic "Ted Talks" us trying to stay awake. One, however, was really into learning, and growing, and was wholly interactive. It was about healthy communication and collaboration. There were fake scenarios where each team would make suggestions under categories included to improve our comm/collab. On 1 of the categories I couldn't complete my thought, and the teammate who had to vocalize/explain our suggestions stumbled over mine. I quickly raised my hand and said that is probably my fault for not completing my thought. The instructor asked me to stand up and stated that my actions were truly the first on the list of this learning module - to be able to admit when there's a mistake, and thanked me for good team communication and fixing any speed bumps in continuity. Later.....I got bawled out by executive management for making a "fake" mistake and owning up to it. I stayed there wayyyy too long.
Previous job one of my duties relied on monthly reports sent to me by the business manager. Routinely, these reports were not sent to me in time for me to efficiently meet my deadlines. I started sending her reminders and requests which mostly went ignored. Well, after about 6 months of my work being late due to her, I got "talked to" and was threatened with an EIP. I kept my mouth shut. The next time her reports were due and late and I couldn't do my job in time, I sent an email to her in which I detailed our communication issues and attached email chains. I specifically stated, "Your inability to communicate effectively is detrimental to the operation of this company. I need these reports by EOB today in order not to take heat again for your continued neglect in this process". I cc'd my boss and his boss and her boss. My reports from her were never late again.
I've been retired since 2011 after a career in corrections. I've had around 11 part time jobs since retirement and different issues come up where I let managers know, "I work because I want to, not because I have to." One of the managers I told that to was a corporate big wig that was reduced in position because of a merger within the after market auto parts retail industry. Apparently no one ever talked to him that way until he faced me.
My previous boss at my current workplace was a nightmare. Imagine dealing with the government (I work in HR - foreign workers and expatriate matters to be precise) all by yourself without any help or back-up, literally preparing and submitting paperwork which I've never heard of prior, literally being forced to assist every Tom, D*ck and Mary in the office while generally handling my own work alone as well etc. You name it, I had to go through it. Worst still was when my immediate supervisor just let it happen and figuratively told me to just do it and keep my mouth shut, even calling me on my vacation days for verbal assistance rather than actually learning when I was trying to teach them what to do in my absence (She tried to request that I be available to assist on my vacation days but I shut that idea down harshly with a threat of going to the Labour Dept). After 8 years, I was about a breath away from just dumping my resignation without a back-up plan when I heard my supervisor
cont: would be leaving at the end of the year (management was reshuffled that year and most departments had new Heads/Leads/Managers). A week before she was due to leave (just before Christmas-New Year week and I had the whole week off), I just wished her luck in the vaguest of tones and left before she could even answer (she had tried to reduce my workload in the months leading up to her last day as some form of a peace-making attempt but good luck trying to fix 8 years of cr*p in 2 months). A year later, she came back to visit and I just basically gave her a civil greeting i.e. just "Hey, how're you doing?" and walked away before she could even answer, in front of all our common colleagues and the newer hires. Yes, it was petty of me but vindication via snubbing felt nothing but liberating. Things are currently fair under new management but I think I've been here for too long and am looking for a way out (obviously new management, new sets of problems but nothing as bad as the previous supervisor).
Load More Replies...Going back a great number of years. My Dad was born in 1912 so started his working life in 1928. Things were a lot different. His boss would stand outside the office with his watch in hand and look at the town hall clock. If you weren't sat at your desk by the first strike, you were late. He would also ask you how someone else was doing and trying to support them, if you answered very well would reply well I'd better give them more work to do then. He made one employee catch an earlier train as he arrived only 5 mins before work started . The train station was just across the road
Why is it that the Big Boss always thinks it's a great idea to fire the employee who's keeping the business going to put his giggly bimbo in her place.. Then Wonders Why The Whole Business Goes South Faster Than A Rickety House Of Cards? Why not keep the competent worker in place & let the money roll in to keep your 'Flavor of the Month'?
Working in an expo toxic environment where they *loved training*, which were mostly generic "Ted Talks" us trying to stay awake. One, however, was really into learning, and growing, and was wholly interactive. It was about healthy communication and collaboration. There were fake scenarios where each team would make suggestions under categories included to improve our comm/collab. On 1 of the categories I couldn't complete my thought, and the teammate who had to vocalize/explain our suggestions stumbled over mine. I quickly raised my hand and said that is probably my fault for not completing my thought. The instructor asked me to stand up and stated that my actions were truly the first on the list of this learning module - to be able to admit when there's a mistake, and thanked me for good team communication and fixing any speed bumps in continuity. Later.....I got bawled out by executive management for making a "fake" mistake and owning up to it. I stayed there wayyyy too long.