For the most part I’ve been lucky with work/bosses etc, but since getting made redundant last year I’ve had to make do with various temp work which can be a bit of a lottery, so initially I was glad to be offered a temp to perm role at this debt management company. It was a small office and I was interviewed by the MD himself, who was a genuinely nice guy and seemed really interested in my experience, so when he offered me the job on the spot it seemed the answer to my prayers. He explained to me at the time that he had started up the business in 2009 and was only just beginning to expand and bring in new staff. I started 2 weeks later along with 2 guys and 2 other girls and we were introduced to the office manager. She gave us the obligatory new starter debriefing, which included the usual stuff about how we should feel free to ask any questions that needed asking, and that they were a very relaxed, chatty sort of office and basically one big happy family who accepted everybody. Warning: if any manager makes a point of telling you that, you’ll know they’re talking bullshit - a bit like David Walliams’ character in Little Britain who insists he’s a lady. Before our arrival, the staff consisted of her, the MD, two other managers below him in rank but above her (both men), the sales manager on her equivalent level (another woman) and two other women doing the entry-level customer service work. I should’ve realised it was a bad sign when I saw that all the men were based in one room, the women in another. Gender segregation ain’t ever a good thing. At first I just thought this woman was hard to please, as some people are, but if she couldn’t find anything to criticize about you or your work, she would just make something up. In the first 2 weeks she screamed abuse at one of the new guys in front of us all for the crime of franking an envelope wrongly when a quiet word would’ve sufficed; she tricked somebody else into apologizing for something she hadn’t done; and she’d slap us down for attempting to join in office conversation/chatting amongst ourselves on the grounds that we should be working, even though it was perfectly OK for her and her minions to discuss just about any topic under the sun including constipation, flatulence, sex lives, family member’s operations, etc. Oh, and when anyone rang in sick or was absent for another reason she’d discuss it with anyone who would listen. I made up my mind if she pulled any of that crap with me she’d be in for a bit of a rude awakening. Sure enough, at the end of my 2nd week she accused me of ignoring her. The conversation went a bit like this:
OM: Jan, don’t ignore me when I’m talking to you, it’s rude and ignorant!
ME: Well I wasn’t deliberately ignoring you, I just didn’t realise you were talking to me, what were you going to say?
OM: HOW DARE YOU CONTRADICT ME! I AM THE MANAGER! ARE YOU SAYING IN FRONT OF WITNESSES THAT I’M WRONG?
ME: I don’t give a damn if you’re the Pope, you still ain’t got a right to accuse me of things I haven’t done! Anyway, you just assumed the worst of me and then ignored my side of the story because you only care about being right, so if I’m ignorant what does that make you?
She then tried to get me into trouble with the big boss, who asked me for my side of the story and admitted it was more believable than hers, and she did seem to treat me with more respect after that, but I finally snapped 6 weeks later. I was double checking something with her and she called me a stupid retard in front of everyone. I pointed out that I’d only asked a reasonable question and that there was no need to be rude, to which she arrogantly replied that she was the manager and that she had a right to be rude; if I didn’t like that I shouldn’t ask stupid questions. I reminded her that she herself had specified on my start date that no question was ever too stupid if I felt it needed asking, to which she accused me of insulting her managerial skills. I pointed out that since she didn’t have any that was a bit of a stupid question in itself, and walked out, though not before telling the MD I wanted to make a formal complaint against her. He was surprisingly nice and sympathetic, telling me he’d investigate it and that he’d give me a good reference and pay me up to my official leaving date which was actually a month away - not every day you can say you stuck it to the man and got paid for doing it! Anyways, the really funny bit came 2 weeks after that when he phoned me to confirm he had looked into my complaint for me and got confirmation from everyone else who was in the room at the time that this woman had been rude and aggressive towards me and used the un-PC R word; and as a result he had given her a verbal warning. I thanked him but then he said although he could understand me feeling upset and angry, I should “appreciate the awkward situation I had caused for everyone else” because I had “put the old hands in the position of having to inform on their own friend” and “encouraged the newer people to disrespect her authority and be insubordinate”.
My response: “So, Mr MD, what you’re telling me is, my actions have in some way inspired my colleagues not to put up with bullshit from this woman any more, and I’m supposed to feel BAD about that?”
Him: “Well, everyone used to really get on well with each other until now, now there’s bad feeling on all sides! Surely you can understand how you were in the wrong?”
Me: “Dude, I ain’t gonna bore ya with stats on workplace bullying and the various reasons people don’t complain but all I did was expose the truth! If you were hoping to make me feel I’ve done something wrong in speaking up, you’ve only achieved the opposite effect! I’M GONNA BE CELEBRATING TONIGHT!”
The sound of his outraged splutters as I hung up on him will keep me warm on my deathbed.
This is totally random, but based on this post alone… I like you 
Pretend I’m buying you and your date your next round of drinks. 
Zombie and all, but this thread really needs a post by Ed Zotti talking about the ogre he works under.
I don’t have a good one. I worked seasonal (tax) and was scheduled for a specific day in early January. The manager later told me that business was slow now so I didn’t have to work. He later calls and asks me to come in. I am at a friend’s house just lounging, but I did not want to be rude and tell him off (and also didn’t want to drive all the way over there) so I told the manager sorry, but no. Keep in mind this was one of my first actual work days, but he was perturbed but later got over it so not much fallout.
My friend did this in the company I worked in late 90s.
He was production engineer in an assembly line. The new factory manager was eager to stand in the shop floor and personally monitor the output. This led my friend with little time to control the production as mostly he was answering the questions of new manager.
Then he politely told the manager, " If you stand here breathing down my neck, output will fall". " Please go sit in your cabin, and I will report to you at end of day".
Manager took it very sportingly and never bothered him again. We were all very surprised.
This thread took place right about the time I had a huge dust-up with my boss at that time. My predecessor had been a good friend of hers and died suddenly. She was in mourning and took it out on me. I took it for awhile, but when she wrote a crappy performance evaluation I figured I had nothing more to lose by confronting her. I basically told her she needed to buck up and stop expecting me to be her dead friend, that I was doing an as-good or better job than he had done, and oh-by-the-way you need to stop treating all your employees like your personal bitches. She was an intelligent person, and after a couple of days mulling things over, we had another meeting during which she acknowledged that I was right about nearly everything. We actually became pretty good friends after that and I ended up taking her job when she retired, with her whole-hearted endorsement.
In my very first job, detasseling corn in the Midwest, I had a crew boss that was a grade-A douchebag who liked to bully the teenagers working under him. One day I lost it and told him among other things, to go fuck himself. Pretty ballsy move for a 13-year-old.
Needless to say, though, I did not come in to work the next day.
I never did, although I worked for another “Napoleon complex” type and I really, really wanted to! He got in my face screaming and had to stand on his tiptoe’s to even get close to eyelevel with me. I calmly said “Lower your voice when you’re talking to me”. This set him off even more, causing him to throw a temper tantrum that HIS boss heard and HE was disciplined for.
I got the PERFECT revenge a year later when I was offered a higher paying management job right in front of him. The REAL kicker was that when I got the job and left I took all his best guys to come work for/with me! That was AWESOME!
I told my boss off (the owner of the company) when she was verbally bullying one of my reports. I told her flat out she was a bully and I wasn’t going to let her abuse the staff. She was offended but frankly I probably saved her from a lawsuit.
She couldn’t fire me for it. Perhaps we have more stringent laws in the UK for that sort of thing.
I had the Boss From Hell ™ a few years ago. I mean, this guy either had a mental problem or a drinking problem. Oh and by the way was sleeping around with at least two subordinates hal (did I mention he was married with two kids?). I tried for about 10 months to work through it, but it was just impossible. Now, I make no claim to being the World’s Greatest Employee, but I am pretty comfortable saying that in my particulary field, I happen to be one of a handful of guys that are considered specialists. This guy had been rotated in from a different part of the company, and literally didn’t know his asshole from a hole in the ground…and worse, he wouldn’t admit he didn’t know or understand something if his life depended on it.
So for six months, I put up with his complete lack of time management, utter lack of communication skills, having to work overnight and weekends to correct his numerous screw-ups, having to zig and zag around his outright lies when he’d try to place blame for his screw-ups on me or one of my subordinates. He’d ignore meeting requests. Documentation was a fairy-tale, something he never had to do. Emails were not read.
Finally one night he told my assistant to work on one of his presentation files at 9pm at night, that ‘needed to be ready by the next morning’. Turns out he had completely forgotten about a meeting request from a client made two weeks earlier, and he had already sent his assistant home. He then proceeded to head out to a strip club…which I know because when I called him on his cell phone and heard the background announcer. I informed him that the only way he was getting his file done was if he came back to the office and did it himself, because there was no damned way my assistant was doing it.
He came in absolutely livid the next morning, with screams of insubordination etc. It was awesome - his face was beet red, it looked like he was going to blow an artery in his neck, he had big sweat stains under his arms, spit bubbles were forming at the corners of his mouth. He looked like a rabid dog.
Unfortunately for him, I had already presented a Manhattan White Pages-thick folder of documentation on his massive fuck-ups over the past 10 months to our bosses’ boss - the guy that had hired me in the first place. Mr Asshole finally paused to catch his breath. I pointed to the folder on my desk, said, ‘Mr X has a copy of everything in this folder. Consider this my one-month notice, oh and since I haven’t had a day off in the past year, I’m using up my vacation days starting now. Good bye’. And walked out the door.
About three months later they fired the Asshole, and hired me back at a higher seniority and paygrade and gave me both my old team plus Asshole’s former team to manage. #RevengeIsSweet
Never had an opportunity to tell off a boss but I did put my fist through the wall of one’s office. He was actually a good guy; we were just both under a lot of pressure at that point and he said something that ticked me off.
Just today - for the first and I hope only time. My boss’ two-levels-above government lead (call him my Grandclient) has a habit of sending emails that piss people off, or just throw people under the bus. Today was my turn. I have been busting my ass on a project for several months. Actually 3 projects, all due now. Working late, working weekends, getting more done on my own than the 6 person team I have to submit my stuff to. I’ve been staying later than the cleaning crew most nights.
The crisis du jour for me concerns a document that needs to be signed by another government guy (call him Big Kahuna), who won’t sign without his minions all reviewing it. This document was due Friday, or else. OK, says Big Kahuna, take it up Monday with Minion # 1. Sure, fine, whatever, I’ll see him Monday. Big Kahuna gets what he wants.
I do that, and I and my bosses are all monitoring the situation by the minute. I send a status email to my team lead, my government client, and my grandclient.
Grandclient replied that he was concerned I was just having secretaries “route” the document from person to person on their own sweet time, and was not taking a “personal interest” in it. He wanted our entire team to stay at work until this document was signed. And some more drivel that pissed me right off in ways that would get me thrown out of The Pit.
I wrote him back, and copied all of my bosses to tell him: I PERSONALLY picked up the changes from Minion #1 (on paper, not in the Word doc). I made the edits WITH MY OWN LITTLE FINGERS into the Word doc. I PERSONALLY carried over the new doc hard copy to Minion # 2, who promised TO MY FACE that he’d take to to Minion #3. I promised to PERSONALLY check to make sure Minion # 3 got the document. I already PERSONALLY sent the Big Kahuna a soft copy for his electronic signature - which he could do at anytime, and would do once Minions 1-3 gave the nod. (And Grandclient was Cc’ed on that email.) And I do not expect my entire team to wait around for my work (NOT THEIRS) to finish. I asked Grandclient if he thought there was anything else it was PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE for me to do to expedite the process. OK, I didn’t use all caps, but I wanted to.
I felt like he had insulted my work ethic, and after all the time I put in I was furious.
Grandclient emailed back and said “OK”. The stupid doc got signed, and that project goes on to the next stupid, pointless bureaucratic roadblock. Such is life in the government.
My direct team lead said “Good job today, Typo”. That was nice - I respect him! Grandclient even sent an email with praise. That’s nice, I suppose, but not as meaningful.
No written obscenities, no fists or broken walls, nothing mean said to the Grandclient. Just a few facts, and Grandclient shut up. I’ll probably even have a job tomorrow. Not much of a pitting. But I did tell off a boss.
I had taken on a big project, even though at the time I was merely an administrative assistant, but I was expected to do every single part of the job and “not bother anybody else about it”.
I worked my butt off and actually had the thing done early, went through it page by page with the project manager (who had not helped with the project at all), had multiple copies printed in color (this was back when it took forever to print in color), when my boss (the VP of marketing) pointed out that I’d put the wrong number in a certain spot on one of the pages. So the booklets (all paper back then) had to be unbound, the page fixed and reprinted, and then all put back together again.
That completely deflated me, as I thought I’d done a pretty good job and why hadn’t the project manager seen it as we went through it together? It was a mistake I had made because I didn’t know any better, and wasn’t allowed to ask for help.
I looked away and muttered, “well, somebody should have caught that.”
Boring story, right? The bitch flew off the handle, I got written up for it and had to sign a document admitting insubordination which went into my file.
That company doesn’t exist anymore, and when I google her it appears as though she’s doing well (in business for herself, natch), but she doesn’t list that company on her resume.
When I quit my first job at KU, I was asked to write a letter of resignation. My letter was two pages long. I don’t remember most of it, but I do remember I used the line,
“I’m tired of being driven like an animal and treated like an idiot.”
I was then called into the Director of Nursing’s office. She told me I should think twice about that letter, since it would go into my “Permanant Record” in Topeka.
That was 35 years ago. I wonder if it’s still hanging over my head.
It appears that many bosses don’t like it when you talk back to them, or (god forbid) go over their head to their superiors. Having a disability like Asperger’s Syndrome, even more so. I have had the displeasure of working with three bad bosses since I turned 16, and I am now 22, so bear that in mind. Also, I’m British, so bear with me.
My first boss worked with me at a franchised KFC. It appeared that she was sexist, as she treated all the men like crap, and all the women brilliantly; such that every supervisor and manager was female. Out of around 20-25 staff, that is a little bit sexist. Anyway, at one point during my 11 month tenure there, the shop was closed for renovations, and we were working at the other shop owned by the owner, about 5 miles away. Later during the renovation period, I get told that there would be a staff meeting in the afternoon at our regular shop, and that we would need our work clothes with us.
I go to the shop, only to find that there is no members of staff there. Just the workers renovating. I decide to call the owner to see what is happening; he relays that there was NO training planned, and I ask him to call the manager to find out what she is up to. Needless to say, she wasn’t happy that a 17-year old student had not only questioned her authority, but had gone over her head to ‘complain’. I was gone a few months later.
Number two I met after I finished University last year, having done a Chemistry degree. I had been told by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) that I was to go for a ‘Work Placement’ in a small chain store, meant to last 8 weeks. The 8 weeks in question? The 8 weeks prior to Christmas. :smack:
The boss was very hands-off with the people on ‘placement’, he preferred to delegate that responsibility to a supervisor. Also, he neglected to help with the Health and Safety training, which was required by law for all new workers…
Anyway, the telling off came after I had recovered from an infection in my foot 3 weeks in. I go in to work out some shifts for the remainder of the week. He tells me that he will have someone sort some out, and verbally agrees a shift for tomorrow.
Lo and behold, when I come in, he says condescendingly that I should have been in 2 hours prior, and that I’m lazy and won’t get hired by anyone with that attitude. I argue with him, saying I am coming in and doing the exact shift he agreed a day before. He takes me into the staff room and angrily points to a name on the rota, saying that it is mine. I calmly point out that not only is that not my name, but I’m not even ON the rota! A week later I was off sick again after the initial foot infection got sizably worse.
Finally, boss number three, and the shortest period of all, (8 days!) didn’t start out on the best of terms. Remember when I mentioned a disability at the start of this post? Well, I have that exact one. It is also easily discriminated against during interview. Hence, I omitted it from my interview and only mentioned it when asked at the commencement of my contract. Well, my boss got a little bit annoyed at that.
The following day, he calls me over for a one to one discussion, which essentially boiled down to 3 things: [ol]
[li]Since I omitted something at interview, I can’t be trusted.[/li][li]If I had said at interview that I was disabled, he wouldn’t have hired me, a blatant discrimination![/li][li]He would ‘take his chances’ with an employment tribunal.[/li][/ol]
Naturally, I sat and listened, although I did get shot down multiple times when I tried to explain my reasons. He then sent me home, telling me he couldn’t babysit me. Let me reiterate: He couldn’t babysit a 22 year old with a disability. The next day, I come in to the restaurant I am working at, believing I will be walking on eggshells the entire time; surprisingly, everyone seems to be fine with me, and there is no mention of the previous day’s events.
However, as the week goes by, there was tension between me and my boss. He was frequently short with me, snapping at the slightest provocation; yet he was also congratulating me on doing a job well, and giving me encouragement. He reminded me of Jekyll and Hyde. Today however, he reprimanded me for a safety concern - where I had not been trained on a particular cleaning equipment, yet had been asked to do it. I had forgotten how to say no to people, particularly anyone in charge in almost 5 years; so I admitted my mistake and apologized.
However, not content with an apology, he then starts to insult me by asking me if I knew what PPE was or what the cleaning chemical did. Remember what my degree was in?
I told him that with all due respect, I do know what PPE stood for, (Personal Protective Equipment) and what the chemicals could do to unprotected skin.
He then proceeded to get to within an INCH of my face and roared at me, saying that I was disrespecting him and that I was one more incident away from the sack. It took all of my self control not to beat the obnoxious, self-centered hypocrite to a bloody pulp, and instead I stood calm and stoic. It didn’t last though, as by the time I made it to the guy who asked me to do the job in the first place, I was virtually in tears. A trainer came over to find out what was wrong, and I was so upset that I was taken into the dining room to calm down.
Over the course of the next hour, I was spoken to by FOUR members of the management team, who were ‘wondering’ just why I was so upset. This bunch firstly didn’t believe that he had shouted at me that close to my face, which was extremely unprofessional and could be a violation of employment law; and also didn’t believe what I told them about his discrimination statement.
The worst of it was, every one of them tried to justify what had happened this week, and turn it around to say that I had the problem with my boss, not my boss having a problem with me. One even tried to claim that he wouldn’t be discriminating, because he himself is deemed disabled, due to him having… Diabetes.
Out of all the things this was the worst, not only could I not take this higher than the GM, as the AM was part of the group I mentioned, along with the GM’s WIFE!, but they were not even going to consider investigating my claims of discrimination, as they all believe that it is something he wouldn’t say. Needless to say now that I have aired my thoughts and opinions, I highly doubt there will me no retaliation by the GM, but I will be ready for it.
As a boss, I was told off once. When I worked for Dominos Pizza, I was moved to a “trouble” shop - the manager had been fired for embezzling and had let the store and staff go to hell. In the first month, I fired 5 people - many were stealing (claiming they made a late delivery so the pizza was free, but they’d actually been paid), a couple of people simply weren’t showing up for work (no call/no shows).
The last straw for one employee is when I fired a delivery driver who came in one night and told me he wouldn’t be delivering for a few months. Turns out the heater in his car didn’t work, so he didn’t deliver once Chicago got cold. I asked how long his heat had been out - he said he discovered the problem last winter, but never fixed it. Many of his co-workers expressed the opinion he simply didn’t like the miserable weather (no one does!) and the previous manager just let him get away with this.
I told him delivering was his job, caring for his car was his responsibility, and he had a week to fix it or he would have find another job. As many had discovered, I’m handy with cars and I offered to check out the car and fix it for him - he’d just have to pay for the parts. He hemmed and hawed, and wouldn’t let me near the car - which was only 3 or 4 years old - and it was pretty clear the staff was right; there was nothing wrong with his heat, he just hated delivering in the cold. After the week was up we hit an impasse - he wouldn’t deliver, and he wouldn’t fix the car or let anyone look at it. I let him go.
A young lady named Wendy on the staff went ballistic! This was the last straw! I was letting go of all the good people and keeping just the drones (people actually doing their jobs). This place used to be fun and now it was work, work, work - she hated that they fired Mark, who’d been forced to steal because he couldn’t pay his bills on the crappy pay, and now here I was ruining what he’d achieved by dismantling his team. She’d HAD it! Who’s with her?
What followed was a sort of “what have the Romans done for us” sort of discussion. Her teammates pointed out sales were up, the pies going out were tons better, the scheduling was tighter so everyone was making more money. Basically, the new guy was good and they’d realized Mark was crap all along. So she turned in her uniform and slumped out calling them all traitors. And of course, gave me the finger. That’s pretty much de riguer.
Only one that I can remember right now.
He was a slimy creep who was having an affair with his secretary, the kind of man that you feel like you have to take a shower after they walk past you. He had had affairs with a good number of other women in the office and lied on his time sheets everyday so he got the entire month of December off each year in comp time.
He really dd believe women belonged in the bedroom or kitchen and the only jobs they should hold were secretary or data entry.
I didn’t like him and had no respect for him.
One day he told me he thought I had a problem with men and I said, "I have no problem with real men, it’s the imitations I can’t stomach’.
I don’t know which of us was happier when I got another job.
And I hate to say it but when I saw his obituary a while back, I smiled.
Double Zombie!
“I’ll have the Double-Dead Posts, please. Extra hot & spicy!”
I was working in a workshop and servicing equipment there. IT was rather simple and repetitive mechanical work.
I was getting along with everyone and doing a good job - or at least I had had no complaints. Perhaps I’d been getting too talkative with my coworkers and my efficiency had dropped, but no one had had the guts to tell me directly? Who knows, but that might explain what happened.
One day a lower manager / logistics guy comes in to give me a special assignment. This particular manager was regularly picked on by another coworker. I’m talking verbal abuse like, “You old stupid twat, what are you doing here? Can’t you see we’re busy working, shoo, get back to your office”
I’d done many favors for this particular logistics manager, and there’d never been any trouble between us. I behaved well and respected him as a coworker and fellow human being.
I also knew the work in that department as good as anyone. Then one day this same manager comes over and tells me today I’m going to be doing the shittiest task available - ALL DAY. I ask “why,” and “won’t I at least be switching roles with the people who get to stand around inside working?” No, he says. Then he tells me I better put on the appropriate wear/“PPE” so I don’t get wet. I stare in disbelief at his balding head, and consider stepping on it, but instead I just furrow my brows and let out a composed “fuck off.”
He makes a somewhat exasperated look and walks off resolutely. Later I’m confronted by the administrative devils and told they might have to ‘let me go.’ I apologized to this same person maybe 10 person by entering his office and saying sorry, but he tells me “sorry it’s out of my hands now, good luck.”
In retrospect I’m sad that I didn’t have the guts to stand my case about the matter. Anyway I actually got this job through my uncle, and he proved a strong ally. It turned out this guy I offended had some beef with my uncle and was using this case as a tool against him. The local “dung pile king” (base manager) happily got involved in thwarting my uncle and brought up arguments against my continued working there, including that there were written reports on my behavior that I was antisocial and uncooperative. Anyway, the case totally tore down my illusions of being in a happy place where people were getting along. It also made me paranoid that I was never doing a good job. Workplace intimidation is what it is - setting an example. It was like Lynch’s ants crawling in the grass, or like
Lesson learned: Don’t tell a coworker to ‘fuck off’ unless you have enough clout to get away with such behavior - for example if you’re an indispensible key knowledge holder in the company.
Hierarchical structures and vying for positions by trying to earn the favor of higherups suck. Fuck that, I’m never having a boss again if I can keep making a living with my own company.
Oh, I know my behavior was wrong, but I’d just been dumped by my GF for several years that morning, but apparently everyone were more concerned that I had uttered a slight ephitet. And I was inexperienced and stupid enough to just apologize and hang my head, and I never stood my ground and gave them my perspective, though that is what I should have done of course.
Sorry for the language but this is one of my most shitty life experiences, even if it might sound ridiculous to some of you.
Yes, once, but to put it mildly, it didn’t do me any good.
Countless times I have told my bosses off and as a boss myself I have been told off many times. If I deserved it I would usually have a sit down with the person who told me off and try and square things away. If I think someone is rude, cruel or being a bully I don’t hold back. My last boss had a habit of lying to customers or just leaving them on hold until they went away. Whenever I told him off it was always with threats that I would go over his head if he didn’t get his shit together. He would starighten up for a few months and then go right back.