People Are Sharing The Most Hilariously Awful Thing Their Boss Has Said To Them, And I’m Actually Speechless
If you’ve ever worked a job — or, more specifically, for a manager — that made you question your entire life, you’re not alone. Recently, u/gargoyle_dream asked, “What’s the most hilariously awful thing an employer has ever said to you?” The responses were equal parts unhinged, infuriating, and, honestly, horrible to the point of hilarity. So, here are some of the most jaw-dropping things people have actually heard from their bosses:
1.“We were working at 2 a.m. on a Saturday night on some big project. I sighed, and was met with, ‘God, you are a whiny c*nt.'”
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2.“‘I’m really disappointed in you.’ After telling her — who had laid me off a couple of weeks prior — that I couldn’t cover her vacation because I had a new job.”
“It was a family business; I was the only non-family member, so I got to hit her back with, ‘I didn’t have a boss to pay my bills in the meantime.’ For everyone else, boss meant parent.”
3.“I was waiting to get a physical check three jobs ago. The employer didn’t have cash to cover payroll and didn’t even bother to issue checks that week. When asked how he was supposed to pay his mortgage, the operations manager told the guy in front of me, ‘You should budget better. Your finances are not my problem.’ He almost punched her in the face. I saw him close his fist and pull it back before he gained control.”
4.“I was in charge of getting a doctor’s son a passport in less than 72 hours. That’s my Devil Wears Prada moment. He gave me his Rolodex of A-listers and said, ‘No one is off the table to call.’ It included personal phone numbers for a lot of politicians. I’m pretty sure I called a senator, and he hooked it up with the Department of State.”
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“It was eye-opening that literally anything is possible if you’re rich or powerful enough.”
5.“Complaining about not being able to travel abroad during COVID: ‘Hawaii is so boring. You can only eat macadamia Mahi Mahi so many times before it gets old.’ She was paying me $15 an hour at the time…not exactly vacation-in-Hawaii money.”
6.“My boss came back from a weeklong vacation in Hawaii with his family and then sat us all down to give us our ‘Christmas bonuses.’ The bonus that year was an announcement that he could no longer afford to give us the bonuses most of us were counting on, but instead he got us little hula girl dusters so we could ‘have fun cleaning the shop.'”
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7.“I was working part-time at a ‘fruit’ store and going to my manager to find out what I could do to get to full-time. He said, ‘Well, Amazon is hiring.’ You’re supposed to help me develop, not throw me away. Forget you, Robert.”
8.“‘Well, I see why you left. We were never going to promote you here.’ That was after I did a ton of work and sent over a business proposal for the promotion I wanted. They also used my ideas and hired someone else to do them.”
“And people wonder why I cannot stand corporate.”
9.“‘You might as well put a bullet in your brain,’ said when I would not come in on my day off.”
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“It was at a grocery chain well known in upstate New York.”
10.“‘It’s a shame that happened, but when can I expect his replacement to be on-site?’ This was from a client about 30 minutes after finding out my superintendent just died in a car crash.”
11.“‘Employees tend to overvalue themselves.'”
12.“‘I just think anyone in subsidized (government-paid) housing is lazy.’ ‘I grew up in subsidized housing.’ ‘Well, obviously you’re OK. Everyone else there is shit.'”
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“Extra gem from a coworker: ‘You are so handsome, it’s a waste you’re gay.'”
13.“I told my boss I was going to be out a few hours for my child’s medical visit. Her response was, ‘Don’t you have someone at home to take care of that?’ ‘No…that would be my wife, I’m assuming? She’s upstairs making three times what either of us makes.'”
14.“I heard my old GameStop district manager tell a store manager, ‘A miscarriage is not an excuse to miss work.'”
15.“The head of the department at the hospital I worked at told me that she wished I would die so her granddaughter could get the position.”
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16.“‘The only reason I hired you was because you’re tall and cute.’ I was 14, and he was in his late 30s. I’m a guy, for reference.”
17.“A manager told me not to get upset at an employee who kept breaking the group’s only printer because she had big boobs. To this day, I question why I didn’t take him to HR!”
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18.“‘Your beard makes you look like a liberal.'”
19.“I was told, ‘I’m not going to miss you.’ Two months later, they tried to rehire me. Three months after that, they shut down the shift I managed due to large losses.”
20.“Instead of referring to me as ‘First Name Last Name’ in an email, my boss’s boss once addressed me as ‘First Name Moron.’ My real last name starts with an M, but does not remotely sound like the word moron. Felt really awesome to know I was appreciated.”
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21.“And I quote: ‘I want to have you by the balls. When I say jump, you say how high.'”
22.“I’m Asian and worked remotely for a company based in Utah. We were in a weekly meeting after Orange Head’s speech, and my boss asked me, ‘How did the cats taste?'”
Have you ever had a boss say something so awful it made you question reality? Share your own stories in the comments.
Note: Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
