Article created by: Mindaugas Balčiauskas
A solid leader is a quintessential element for any work team to prosper. Ask Michael Scott from The Office, aka “World’s Best Boss.” All jokes aside, it’s no secret that a good boss can make it or break it when it comes to the success of a business, but sadly, not every employee is lucky to have one.
Some bosses turn their employees' lives into misery that lasts over 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. It can happen for various reasons, and it often relates to the way they treat their employees: from toxic management to delusional demands, to awful things bosses dare to tell people who chose to devote a big portion of their lives to them.
Worked for a small, understaffed eye clinic with only 3 staff and the dr (we were down to 2 staff and the dr when I quit). We worked our assess off and kept it running... 6 months in the Dr finally gets around to doing my 90 day performance review. For 30 minutes she proceeds to point out all of my flaws,how she doesn't really like me and thinks I'm not doing good at my job. How sometimes when she walks in the room I have my back to her and a bunch of other stupid expectations she had that I was never told about..
When in reality I was doing the job of 2-3 people and keeping up with it. My patients loved me and I never had a single complaint from any patient or my coworkers.
I interviewed for the same position at a different clinic and when I mentioned i quit due to only having a staff of 2-3 people. He literally blurted out "How the hell does an office run like that?!". Now I have 11 coworkers and I do 1/3 of the work for more money and get treated with respect. It's amazing.
My best friend’s newborn son passed away 3 days after giving birth. She called me in tears. I told my boss I needed to leave right now. My boss looked at me in disbelief:
“So? Her son is already dead, it’s not like you can do anything for him now.”
I worked for a startup for 3.5 years. Started as an intern and worked my way up to production manager. When it came time to decide my salary, I sat down with the then COO to discuss pay. When I asked for a compensation that was fair and the average for my city, he said to me that it was too high for my role and that they could "find anyone fresh out of college or off the street" to do my job. I was floored.
Fast forward to months later when the company started laying off people and folding, I resigned because I could no longer do my job as a manager since the companies I was managing haven't been paid by us. They begged me to come and teach them all of my processes, forms, and documentation I had set up because they didn't know how to do my job. I simply told them "you don't need me for that, you can find anyone right off the street to teach you." Ahh, sweet bliss.
8 years ago early 20s I was a receptionist at a hair salon and the owner / main stylist was my boss and he would make fun of me every day. He even gave me a haircut on my second week and it was purposefully a bowl cut and I was so broke and insecure I pretended everything was fine. I caught him laughing at me more than once.
One day he looked at me, scoffed and said "My socks cost more than your shirt."
He fired me exactly the day before my third month and I cried I was so happy.
Felt ashamed to quit as I was raised never to quit but I have learned there's no shame in demanding you deserve better.
I woke up to my house being on fire, so I texted my boss and his response was “are you still coming in?”
Boss told me she didn't know what happened but that I was not the same person from the previous year. She wanted that happy, cheerful person back.
She knew what happened. She was at my father's funeral two months before.
I used to work at Walmart and they were rolling out these new scanners that were basically large Android smartphones with barcode scanners built into them. Anyway I normally worked in the back unloading trucks, but this particular day, I was sent out to the toys department to stock. I used the scanners to locate where items are supposed to go since I didn't really stock any departments besides grocery and wasn't too familiar with the layout. A customer comes up to me and asks for help looking for something. I don't remember what it was off hand. The customer was nice, thanked me for my help, so on. About 20 minutes later, the store manager comes up to me and asks me to follow him to the office. After he closed the door, he told me that lady had complained that I was "using my cellphone on the floor" and he started chewing me out over it. I explained that it was the scanner, not my phone. He said "I believe you. They do resemble phones, but I still have to coach you" (Walmart's term for write up). I asked why, and he said "well, customer complained and I have to follow up". So basically I got wrote up for doing my job. I was a good worker, barely called off the 4 years I worked there, and that was my first write up. After that incident, I noticed a huge difference in how I was treated by other managers. I didn't work there much longer
Have a guest who described what they were looking for (clothing) to me in vague terms, I managed to deduce what they were looking for, led them directly to it, asked them if they had a size and color preference, fished that exactly out of the racks, handed it to them and directed them back to the fitting rooms.
Was re-hanging clothing with my Store ASM standing right next to me, doing another z rack. Guest comes up and hands me what she didn't want, asks ASM if she's the manager, ASM says yes, obviously bracing for a complaint of some sort. Guest gushes about how I am friendly, knowledgeable, treated her wonderfully, found exactly what she needed, and that I deserve a raise.
ASM pointblank : *"She makes too much already."*
Manager called a store meeting to discuss how sick calls were costing us big time. Said, "everyone one who calls out costs our store $10,000 a day in lost sales." My man straight up told everyone how valuable their labor was to the company, in stark contrast with how much we actually made per day.
I was a week into a new job when my best friend’s mom was put into hospice. I warned my boss that I would be attending a funeral probably within the next couple weeks. On the Thursday morning of my 2nd week (before Memorial Day weekend) she passed away. I was in tears when I went to my boss to let her know. Her first comment, “Let’s hope the funeral is on the weekend.”
It was the Tuesday after Memorial Day & I took the entire day off. Quit 2 months later.
District Manager: 'Why haven't you been hitting your sale targets?"
Me: 'Sorry, I've been tired and distracted, I just found out the other day my mum has breast cancer.'
District Manager: 'Well everyone has things going on in their lives."
I’m a young Hispanic woman in the hospitality industry and while working a Mexican concert my old dusty white boss said to me “everyone is late which isn’t surprising…You know how your people are..” this was a few months after working an event where the lights were turned down low and when he came by my work area he asked me if I needed an extra light to see better..I reply “no, I’m ok thanks my eyes have adjusted” his response was “ I heard you do your best work in the dark” than walked away. I reported this to hr three years ago. He’s still my boss.
"Your dreams are over. The future you imagined no longer exists. You need to accept that"
She colluded with the head of HR to ensure that I stayed at the bottom of the salary band for my position because she was afraid that her boss would recognize that I was much more qualified to do my and her job.
She and the HR person were publicly fired. But it was after they managed to get me fired. It still hurts when I think about it =(
"You need to schedule your medical emergencies. " mind you, I went to the ER to make sure I was not in DKA again. Which I was lucky enough to survive last year, but got written up for *being admitted to the hospital* last year. Here in the USA you have a *1 in 10* chance of dying if you are admitted with DKA.
When asked for junior resources to better fill out our team, they said " *You* are our junior resource." This wouldn't have been a problem if I didn't carry 12 years of experience, which in my field is considered senior-level. As if that wasn't insult enough, they went on to say "I'm getting paid x3 your salaries to do a better job than you, so no need to worry about me or my workload". I'd have quit right then but I have an ailing parent to take care of. Actively looking out for something better though.
“We don’t allow chairs on the sales floor because if a customer walks in and see’s you sitting, they’ll view the company as lazy and won’t come back”
"You know, some things in this world are good. Like AIDS."
