10 Rotten, Terrible, No-Good Bosses

There’s something about working for The Man that just makes us mad. That’s true even when we are The Man, or The Man is a woman -- tales of misapplied authority never get old. Some of this is just human nature – an atavistic longing for freedom, an impulse toward rubbernecking at disasters – and some of it comes from genuine frustration with the obstacles that keep us from doing our best work, and a desire to learn and do better in our own managerial roles. Some of it is just whining. Honestly, many of the stories we’ve collected aren’t going to recall a Dickens novel or Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, but some of these woeful tales – whether dealing with personal hygiene, rampant corruption, or outright abusive behavior – reach a level of outrageous behavior among supervisors that would be comical if it weren’t true. Our sampling here is taken from websites including ReallyBadBoss.com, EmployeeSurveys.com, OurStressfulLives.com, WorkingAmerica.org.