Recently, we shared a viral Reddit thread in which people shared the most insulting thing their bosses ever said to them, and there were some definite jaw-droppers in the bunch:
Well, members of the BuzzFeed Community chimed in about their own horrible bosses, and the things they said were just as bad, if not worse:
1. "I once told my supervisor I couldn't cover a shift because a close family friend had passed away and the shift was the day of his funeral. My supervisor told me I had to bring in a death certificate."
2. "One day our area manager came into my workplace, stared at my chest, and said, 'I see why you got the job.'"
—ppdd
3. "I was finishing up my shift for the day, and I asked my manager if there was anything else he wanted me to do before I left. He responded, 'Yeah — go in the bathroom and lick the toilet seat.'"
4. "I politely asked my boss for an availability change due to religious obligations, and he told me I had to choose between my job and God."
5. "I'm very allergic to nuts, and a colleague was eating trail mix near me. My cheeks became red and warm, so I took a Benadryl, and while I was waiting for it to kick in, my boss's boss said, 'You know that nobody takes you seriously when you look like a clown, right?'"
6. "My boss told me I 'dropped the ball' by going into labor on my due date."
7. "I had to quit my job as a sous chef because my father was dying and my sister and I were the only ones taking care of him in in-home hospice. When I told my boss why I was quitting, he screamed, 'Everyone dies — it's not like you can save him!' Then he lamented that he wished he could just hire robots."
8. "My boss told me that I was really pretty, but that I needed a boob job to be the 'whole package.' She then proceeded to tell me the different options and what size she thought would look best on me."
9. "I'm a Malaysian living in the UK, and I worked at a fast food place when I was a student here. During my first week, my boss asked me to leave my station to take an order from an Asian customer. 'You look alike, yes?' she asked, 'Maybe you'll understand him better.' From his accent, I could tell...he was British."
10. "I worked at a bakery for four years and loved my job. But when I mentioned to my manager that the freezer door would shut automatically behind me and my coworkers, locking us in, she stopped giving me shifts. Months later, I emailed her, and she told me that they'd given my job to someone else because I was a 'whiny bitch.' I never set foot into that store again."
11. "I went back to work after a long period off after losing my daughter, and my manager said, 'Don't worry — you're still young enough to have another.'"
12. "My former boss told me that my being a married gay man made everyone uncomfortable because he and his friends couldn't 'be guys' around me."
13. "I went to a manager to report that a coworker had made threats about raping me, saying that if he shut the door of the maintenance closet no one would have any idea what he was doing in there. My manager responded, 'This store is big enough — you can stay away from him.'"
14. "I wear a hijab, and my former boss once said that I'd look so much prettier without that towel on my head."
15. "I was made Fire Marshal of the building, which meant that during a fire drill — or real fire — I had to be the last one out to make sure everyone got out of the building. My boss told me I was selected because I didn't have kids or a family to go home to. So basically, I was selected to die because I was childfree and single."
16. "My coworker and I were both scheduled to come in late one day. Well, he beat me to work by a few minutes, and when I walked in, I joked, 'Aww, you beat me here. You're making me look bad.' My boss, who heard, responded, 'Trust me, you don't need anyone else to make you look bad.' My coworkers fell silent, and I just laughed awkwardly from pure embarrassment."
17. "I had a boss tell me once, 'We'll talk when you are less emotional.'"
18. "I had to get an emergency hysterectomy, and my boss told me that if I went through with the surgery my man would leave me because I'd be a 'useless woman.'"
19. "Once, a boss asked me if I could just tone down my confidence and bubbly personality — he said it was making other employees depressed."
20. "I was completely upfront during the interview process about being a single dad. Well, when I had to leave on time one day — after a 10-hour shift — my boss asked, 'Don't you have someone to do that for you? Send her to your ex-wife's!'"
21. "I was eating a banana at my desk, and my boss stopped by to tell me that women should never eat bananas at work, and that if we absolutely insist on eating one, we should break it into pieces instead of eating it 'banana-style.' Because penises."
Some responses have been edited for length and clarity.