Cosmopolitan.com asked readers for horror stories about their employers, and they shared plenty of absolutely outrageous material. Prepare to be outraged.
1. "I worked at a children's clothing store at the mall in college. My boss was nuts, but I kept on working there because the hours were good. She walked in every day yelling, 'Are you fucking kidding me!' Once she came in an hour late and said it was because her boyfriend was being a 'horn dog.' Another time she asked my gay male coworker what herpes looked like, just assuming he would know. My friend was unemployed and desperate for a job, so I got her an interview. She came in and my boss was on the phone crying. She had just got a phone call from her doctor saying that she did indeed have herpes and asked my friend to come back on another day."
2. "I was the office manager for a farm. My boss was a 27-year-old woman who owned the farm. Being the office manager, you would think you would be doing office tasks. Well, I wasn't allowed to do office work without her because she didn't like my handwriting and wouldn't allow me to write on things. I would constantly have to clean horse stalls in my office clothes and take care of 2,000-pound animals. She wouldn't get out of bed until after 11 a.m. when I would start at 9 a.m. (her apartment was in the barn). Some days I would work until 2 p.m., and she wouldn't have gotten out of bed the entire day. She would make me clean her apartment and clean up after her eating breakfast and other gross tasks."
3. "I worked at an amusement park, and one man wanted his child to go on a ride despite not having any tickets. The man was screaming at me for 15 minutes when I saw my boss walking by. I told the customer he could talk to the manager and proceeded to call my boss over. My boss looks at me and says, 'Who are you? I don't work here.' He begins laughing and walks away. I had to deal with that angry customer without any management help."
4. "My previous boss had a serious temper problem, so I was always scared of her. We had a bathroom at our store that she liked to keep to herself and didn't want to share with the customers, so she always had a sign to close it off saying it was 'broken.' One day a customer shopping asked me if she could use the bathroom so I was prepared to tell her no, but then she pointed out that she was pregnant and that she had to go so bad she was about to urinate herself. My boss wasn't in yet so I let the customer use the bathroom. As soon as she walks out from the bathroom, though, my boss, with perfect timing, gets to work. She found out it was me and yelled and screamed at me in a store full of customers. I had never been so angry and embarrassed in my life [but had] to hold my tongue. Later that day, I could still feel her hostility — she 'accidentally' threw something away and had me jump in the dumpster to go get it. After crying twice at work, I'm grateful to say I quit that week."
5. "I once worked for this really crazy, micromanaging boss. My boss was also paranoid and unforgiving. Here are just a few examples of her behavior:
* Prior to any staff meeting with the VP, she would hold a pre-meeting so she could tell us all what to share and not share as well as how to share it. If something unexpected came up during the meetings, she would kick her employees under the table. I walked around with bruised ankles and shins quite often as a result.
* She would turn over a PR event for me (or another employee) to plan and coordinate; after everything was planned, she would — about a week prior to said event — without discussion, change all decisions and do it her way and if it fell flat, would blame the person she placed in charge of the event originally.
* Was so paranoid that she would complain to HR that her employees did not have her back and looked for ways to force them to leave the company, and if that did not work, her favorite ploy was to fire an employee for a single event of actual or construed wrongdoing — this worked even when the employee(s) in question had stellar performance records.
And lots, lots more — but luckily I survived her crazy manipulation and have moved on."
6. "My boss used to tell me and another coworker he hadn't showered in days, and wanted us to make sure clients [didn't] get close to him at events."
7. "Most people don't like serving, but my boss was a total jerk. His moods changed within minutes. Sometimes he was tolerable, other times he yelled at his employees in front of customers, threw plates through the kitchen window at the cooks, and barked at customers when they asked where to sit. To make matters worse, he was also really sexist, suggesting I should smile more (but never said the same to the male staff), allowed homophobic slurs to be said about a gay employee (all he said was, 'Shh,' to the person who said it, so the customers wouldn't hear), and insinuated that I look better with makeup. After a particularly vicious verbal insult, a customer pulled me aside to tell me how sorry she was and that I shouldn't let someone berate me like that. When my boss noticed what was happening, he pulled me aside and asked — and I quote — 'You know why I speak to you like that though, right? Ha, every customer who says stuff like that always comes back.' Unfortunately, he was right because two weeks later, [the customer] did and he pointed it out to me while smiling, as if we were in on some joke together. He also fired someone for taking out the garbage too early. Such an ass. Needless to say, I found another job and quit within five months."
8. "The summer after my senior year of high school, I worked at a day camp that was run by my school district. It was a very popular job for students in my high school and there were maybe a dozen employees who were in my graduating class. In mid-July, a classmate of mine passed away (he had been fighting cancer since he was in the second grade, and a number of us had been by his side the 10 years since) and the funeral was on a weekday. Our boss wouldn't let us go. He flat-out refused to allow any of us to miss work to attend the funeral. After several meetings, pleas, and finally [all of us threatening] to quit mid-summer, he agreed to allow us to go. As an apology, he rented a bus to take us all there and bring us back (also so he could make sure we weren't out too long). The hour and a half we were gone was deducted from our paychecks."
9. "I was the only female manager at an independent college bookstore. I was hired as the merchandise manager, but I was never allowed to order any merchandise for the store because the general manager would never let me have any say or take any of my suggestions of what to order. He would constantly undermine me by asking the sales associates what they thought of a product rather than consulting me, even though I was hired to do that job! I was told multiple times I wasn't very creative and even that I would never get a raise! He also told me one time that he wanted me to bring him outlandish ideas just so he could shoot them down — like that would prove I was creative or something. I would open the store five days a week and work a full eight-hour day, but still any time I would leave in the evening, it was looked on that I was leaving 'early.' During busier times of the year, I would end up working longer hours, and yet was never recognized or compensated for that. He would also try and change my set schedule at the last minute and would be angry when I couldn't change my plans suddenly. I was frequently left out of store meetings with the other managers as well. He would often treat the other female employees with disrespect as well and seemed to not understand that what he was doing and saying was out of line. He often would make cleaning and maintaining the sales floor a girl's job and never would ask the male employees to do anything like that. One time, a sales rep for a lingerie line came in and gave the female employees samples and the manager asked the girls later how they liked the samples in an email and in person! It was just very inappropriate. When I finally quit, he seemed shocked that I was leaving, even though he had been awful to me for the year I was there."
10. "When I was in college I worked as a nanny. Seemed like a nice family at first — they lived in a ritzy apartment building, had few expectations of me, and made sure I knew where everything was in the apartment. The job began with me taking the kids to school in the morning, so trying to be fair, I said they could pay me $10 an hour. Taking the kids to school in the morning turned into me waking up early to get them ready for school, picking them up in the middle of the day if they got out early, and essentially becoming a full-time nanny. My pay never went up, even though my responsibilities did. I was pretty much raising my boss's kids. I read the parent newsletter and when the early dismissals and special days would be, helped them practice their instruments — you name it, I did it. Sometimes I would come over at 7 in the morning and my boss would tell me she didn't need me that day (I had to walk to the apartment building in all types of weather), and sometimes on a day where I was expecting to work one or two hours, she would ask me to work five! She was so unpredictable and so frustrating, but I needed the money so I ended up working for them for three years."
11. "One time I walked into my boss's office to find him shirtless. When I ran back to my desk in shock, he proceeded to do a fashion show of different jeans, asking me how they made his 'goods' look — if they were too tight or too loose."
12. "My boss called me into her office one day because she wanted to 'catch up.' We started talking, and before I knew it, she was calling me an idiot and white trash. She then started [to] bring up my personal history of being adopted. She told me I had to get the fuck over it and let go of all my demons that are swirling around my head. She also told me that it was going to become mandatory that I start going to church. When I started getting upset, she told me to get over it and get out of her office and go back to work. I should also mention that my boss is my aunt."
13. "A past boss of mine used to breathe down our necks about everything. And when she used to discipline us, there wasn't one person that didn't cry. Of course, we all followed the rules, but if you didn't do it her way, it was a no go and she'd get very angry. She'd watch you to make sure that you were doing your job right, and if you didn't say, 'Would you like help outside?' or [if you said], 'Thanks for shopping with us,' instead of, 'Have a great day,' to people, she'd be on your butt. She'd ask you if you said it, and sometimes even if you did say that you said the right thing, she wouldn't believe you and would give you a weird look. When you did something wrong, she'd lay into you, start yelling, thus making a person cry. She disciplined me one time when I barely did anything wrong, and she hoped to make me cry, but she never did. Everyone was so beyond happy when she finally left. This woman was definitely the biggest control freak I've ever met."
14. "My boss seemed like a dream at first. We talked about our weekends, lives, boyfriends, etc. My first indication that something was up was I saw the previous schedules with a lot of names that were no longer there. When I asked her what happened with the previous employees, she gave me some crazy stories about why they left. I let it slide, but shortly after, she started showing up less and less, and putting her workload on me, on top of mine. My shift was usually from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and a lot of the time I was told to stay later, last minute. I got a 15-minute lunch if I was lucky and a lot of the time went without one. I ended up quitting, and months after, I got a call from the government because I had done my taxes and apparently she had not put me (or anyone else) as an employee. She ended up in quite a bit of trouble. Karma's a bitch!"
15. "I had just starting working as a waitress for restaurant, and my boss had been working there for a very long time and had a great relationship with almost all our customers. At the beginning she was very sweet and helpful, but toward the end she became everyone's nightmare. Little did I know she had a history of sleeping with many customers despite the fact she was married. She also had been stalking our coworkers' social media to find reasons why we should be fired, and she was successful with about three people she tried to get either fired or to quit. She and my other boss then got into a disagreement and she decided to quit. But before she quit she badmouthed the entire management team and company to every customer she had to chance to say it to. Safe to say we are very happy she is gone now and my workplace is much better off without her."
16. "Working at a cafe, my boss would tell me he was running to the store and would come back an hour and a half later smelling like vodka and cigarettes. Turns out he had been leaving me there to do the work of two people while he was at the bar for an hour. This was after he made the schedule on a day-by-day basis and 'forgot' to give us our tips."
17. "One of my first jobs out of college, my boss took me under her wing. It took me a long time [to] finally realize I was being used, in the weirdest ways. She made me house-sit for her for an entire week during my first month on the job, and I had to sleep there every night. It was so uncomfortable for me! She would get weirdly offensive if anyone would comment on my age or physical looks. She sucked personal information out of me in such a strategic way, then ended up using those things to 'fire' me nine months into the job."
18."I was a pattern maker for a large manufacturer. My boss was a glorified sewing manager who got promoted out of desperation. One day, she left a correction to a pattern with specific details and then a verbal explanation. She purposefully kept me out of the fitting so she could have control, although I was the one ultimately doing the changes. After more than half a day of corrections I realized the adjustments were not feasible. I investigated her notes to find the corrections were for the wrong body. I proceeded to explain my finding to her and offered to come in early the following day to redo what had been done wrong. She then grabbed me, pushing me into my chair, and got in my face, yelling, "Sit your little ass down, little girl, and don't get up till you are done!!" I took a better job that following week."
19. "I'm a lifeguard and I put my lunch with my name on it in the lifeguard station's fridge. When I went on my lunch breaks, my food would disappear. Thanks to some fellow guards and a video camera, I soon found out that the culprit was none other than my boss, who had been stealing my food for the past two weeks."
20. "I once had a boss who would lecture me if I ever looked tired and blame it on the fact that I was a vegetarian. Then [she] would spend the following hour explaining to me why she didn't agree with my lifestyle. She believed it was 'unhealthy' to be a vegetarian and was never shy about making me feel bad for my choice. Easy to say I didn't last in that job long!"
21. "I once worked for a woman who would send me to the liquor store for her doing my shift. She would give me various retail bags to put the liquor in so I could sneak in what I had bought for her. On the plus side, she offered to buy me whatever I wanted! To top it off, she would sext her boyfriend and leave her phone openly lying around. On more than one occasion I would see text or photos that would downright make me cringe!"
22. "I had work the morning after I had been assaulted, and when my boss came in, she noticed a red mark on my neck. I guess she thought it was a hickey and told me I was a slut and [to] put on a turtleneck or cover it in makeup. When I tried to speak, she shut me down, telling me how it was disgusting and I was a disgrace. I started crying and asked if I could leave for the day. She said if I left I was fired. I told her I didn't have a turtleneck and I am allergic to makeup, so she gave me a Band-Aid."
23. "Unfortunately I had to get along with crazy bosses several times in my life.
1. I had to walk past the office of my boss several times a day to get to my office. The floor was flagstone, and therefore one could hear when someone was coming. He could hear me especially, because I [wore] pumps very often. One day, when I got back to my computer, I had an email from him saying, 'Please get some "quiet" shoes [with] your next salary.'
2. Recently, there was a caller on the phone saying my boss did not appear for an appointment they had that day. My boss was right next to me, so I handed him the phone and said it's for him. He took the phone, yelled at me, smashed the phone against the wall and ran out of the office."
Follow Lori on Twitter.
Lori Fradkin is the executive editor of Cosmopolitan.com. She worked previously at the Huffington Post, AOL, and New York Magazine. She lives in New York with her husband, sons, and dog.
