Every workplace has one. That one employee who is so terrible, so insufferable, they make going to work torturous. These Redditors shared their stories of the absolute worst coworkers they have ever encountered. From arrogant jerks to thieving liars, these people are so bad they make getting fired a truly happy occasion.
1. Taking Credit Where Credit Isn’t Due
In my old job, I used to take care of tough tasks that came from difficult customers. I had to sign off on each part. But, when I finished something, my boss would change my sign-off to hers in our system. Then, she'd show it to her own boss, say she did all the work, and take all the good comments.
When I worked out what she was doing, I knew I had to get even. Instead of telling my boss when I finished a task, I began to send my work straight to her boss. He liked my quick and smooth work style and that got me a promotion.
2. Hostile Takeover
Matt, who just became the VP of Operations, thought our company needed a total change. He began with my department, reducing my role, taking over my team, and using very detailed processes that really slowed us down. Unfairly, he said it was all my fault.
Next, he moved up our least experienced team member to be the team leader, which made me even more angry. It seemed like he was trying to get me to leave. In the end, I guess it worked, because I quit.
3. Trapped In The Twilight Zone
For two tough years, I had to deal with a tricky coworker. She was mean to me when we were alone, and then acted like nothing happened in front of our bosses. This coworker often set me up in weird situations that made me look bad, and she consistently tried to turn my teammates against me.
When we were in larger groups, even with customers, she publicly made fun of me. She said it was because I'm a man and supposedly "overly sensitive". She dared me to put up with her rude behavior, which messed with my head and left me unsure of what to do.
Even though I had already fought through issues with alcohol and a difficult upbringing, I was not ready for this challenge. It was so strange that it felt like I was in a weird TV show. This coworker somehow convinced our bosses that I was causing the problems, which left me feeling really stuck and sad. I eventually couldn't take it anymore.
At last, I let the higher-ups know that if they didn't step in, I would have to go to court. A person was brought in to help sort things out, but they never told me anything. Still, I was a bit relieved when the company's lawyers came to investigate, because it showed they took my concerns seriously.
The inquiry took half a year and multiple employees under her (since we were both team leaders) supported my side of the story. The lawyers warned my employer about potential legal trouble. My female coworkers spoke up about me being nice and respectful. Some even said they liked working with me, and a few acknowledged they'd seen some of the problematic incidents.
During this whole process, they didn't keep me updated on what was happening. But finally, on a special Friday, fairness prevailed. The bosses got rid of her, which was a huge weight off my shoulders. I ended up crying from relief, but also from wondering why any of this had to happen in the first place. I might never know why she went after me. However, I can definitely feel the stress has lowered significantly, and I'm thankful for this outcome.
4. Attitude Is Everything
A man in his 60s often bullied others in his workplace, behaving as if it was a boys’ locker room in high school. He used to insult and belittle people often, expressing his disapproval with an eye-roll, like a routine habit. One time, he was complaining because his grandson likes Star Wars, worried that it might make his grandson a "nerd."
Funny enough, this same guy loved baseball and had an impressive record of team stats from the 1950s, and owned five gloves used by Mickey Mantle in actual games. He proudly said, "I can tell you anything you want to know about baseball." But then, who's the actual nerd here?
At the office, they held a ceremony to celebrate his 40 years of work, and his boss gave him a special award. But he didn’t seem impressed at all, sighing and rolling his eyes as if he didn't want to be there. It was embarrassing to see a grown man be so dismissive about such a kind gesture.
5. Two Bosses, No Brains
The two people I work for right now don't seem to really know what they're doing. Often, they ask me to do simple things like checking numbers or writing responses to clients - stuff they should know how to do given their positions. I think maybe they're scared to ask the people above them because they don't want to seem like they don't know what they're doing. But it's not their lack of knowledge that really bugs me.
What's really difficult is when they give me loads and loads of work, like something five people should be doing, and then they're not happy with how I do it. Funny enough, I was always able to do my job well and even more under my old boss. This current situation doesn't show what I'm really capable of.
But here's what they don't know: If they fire me because of this, I'm ready to go to court for being fired unfairly. To help my case, I've been saving necessary proof, like screenshots that are important.
6. Bungling Bonuses
Once upon a time, I had a job where they paid me for using my own car to travel for work. But, they found out that someone was lying about how many hours they were working every week just to get more money. I didn't do a similar thing, but I did make a mistake when I kept track of my own hours. I made a mistake with the last two numbers and ended up recording 11 miles less than the actual amount. My boss found out about my mistake and sent all the information about it to the big office.
Sadly, the company didn't fix the mistake or pay me back for the lost miles. At the same time, I was getting extra money each month because I was the best at selling stuff. But then, something unexpected happened: my boss fired all the other people who were selling stuff. Then, he told the big office that I didn't deserve my extra money because I was the only one left selling stuff. Funny thing is, this same boss was getting extra money each month for not working a lot.
7. This Alpha Male Was No Myth
At work, I was usually the only girl surrounded by boys. I had a team member who thought of himself as a 'leader.' One day, he annoyed me, and I responded with harsh words. He asked my boyfriend, who was there with us, "Can't you manage her?" This made me hate him even more! But, the good thing that came out of this was that no one at work tried to bother me anymore after that event.
Roman Samborskyi, Shutterstock
8. He Boggled The Imagination
I once worked at Starbucks for a year where I met an interesting fellow named Eric. He caught my attention when he submitted his resume mentioning himself as the "Architect of Imagination". It was obvious that he fancied himself a writer, though he often struggled with words.
Eric found our work challenging; every aspect of it, to be precise. Operating the coffee machine was difficult for him and he didn't understand how to make our drinks. He was incapable of fulfilling a support role as he couldn't figure out what the team needed or follow their directions. He even had tough time with the cash register, unable to figure out how to mark the cups, causing problems with our most patient customers.
There were moments where Eric seemed on the verge of crying, and I felt both irritated and compassionate towards him. His inability did increase the complexity of the job, but it was puzzling why he found everything so confusing. Despite being a tough case to understand, Eric was different from anyone I'd ever met.
One night, I found myself pondering about Eric’s life outside of our workplace. Did the world confuse him? Was life moving too fast that it felt like an irresistible force for him? I imagined him sitting in his car, stuck in traffic, puzzled and unsure of how he found himself there. Intrigued by this, I checked out his Facebook profile. I couldn't belive what I found.
The Eric I saw on Facebook was completely different from the man I knew from our Starbucks. He was fashionable and charismatic on his Facebook, alongside his good-looking friends in trendy clothes. Scrolling through his wall, I noticed posts about memorable times spent with Eric at gatherings called "writing sesh". This didn’t at all match the person I knew from work.
The burning question on my mind was, “Who is the real Eric?” Most of us at work speculated that he might be an actor deeply engaged in a role for a book or screenplay. I wanted to ask him about this several times, but was afraid it might sound offensive. Could it be possible that Eric was pretending to be clueless? I kept imagining how such a conversation might unfold, but the potential uncomfortable situation made me hesitate. I decided it was a chance I couldn’t take.
9. A Matter Of Importance
Whenever anyone walked into David's room, he would make them wait before they could start talking to him. The amount of time they had to wait was based on who they were. Like, his boss didn't have to wait at all. But his coworkers or his assistant had to wait until he was done speaking. As a new person on the job, there were times when I had to wait up to ten minutes. Trying to walk out during this waiting period only made him increase the wait time.
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10. State Farm Was Never There
We called Jake "State Farm". He was kind of lazy and had a bad attitude, so he wasn't a great team member. In his first week during training, he told his trainer that he needed to get something from his car. This would have been okay, but he didn't come back for 20 minutes and we found him in the break room instead.
Another time, he was supposed to be doing his job, but we found him hiding in the training room with the lights off. We sent him home that day and he wasn't happy about it. Jake was always talking about his past jobs and said he never kept a job for more than a month, claiming that people didn't like him because of his sexual orientation.
Everybody in our team didn't care that he was gay. He wasn't the only one on the team who identified as gay. But, just as he said, he left our team after a month, so he had to add one more short job to his long list of jobs.
Krakenimages.com, Shutterstock
11. Joey, The Mean-Spirited Tool
When I first started in the steelwork industry, I had a great mentor. Even though I don't see myself as the top person in the field, a lot of people around me appreciate and admire my skills and knowledge. My mentor learned his craft at a family business where, unfortunately, people weren't treated very well.
In time, he became good enough to start his own successful business, even with his old boss trying to bring him down with hurtful comments and threats. Later, he sold his business for a lot of money and changed to a different job.
Now, I'm working at a company that worked with my mentor before. They hired me without hesitation when they knew I was looking for a job. This is where I met Joey, who is the son of my mentor's old boss. Despite Joey's older age, I tried my best to have a friendly relationship with him. Sadly, Joey would often talk badly about me to others at work.
Luckily, my coworkers and bosses didn't believe his unkind words. Even when I proposed a simple plan like, "Let's start at this side," Joey would call others just to say mean things about me. I had fights with him but also showed him kindness. For instance, I helped him with papers when I noticed he had difficulty reading, and I didn't want him to feel embarrassed about it.
There were times when Joey was really nice, and I enjoyed those moments. However, his mood changed a lot, and he could suddenly become mean. I thought his anger mainly came from his strong love for his family business, and he saw me as a threat. Once, he thought mistakenly that we all got free six-packs of beer for finishing a job. His reaction was WAY crazier than I expected. He called me a liar and quit his job.
Some time later, I found out Joey had a health scare with cancer. It's a disease I had also fought before I joined the company. Thinking about our history, Joey showed some regret towards me and wanted to talk. We tried to fix our relationship, it didn't take, and Joey quickly went back to his old ways of being mean. I stopped trying to be friends with him. I always believed that being kind could change anyone, but Joey didn't change -- he just stayed awful.
12. The Gaslighting Genius
In a surprising turn of events, I ended up as the assistant to my former boss. I had worked really hard and come up with a lot of good ideas when I used to work under him. He was extremely self-centered, and he had a strange ability to twist people's thoughts without them realizing at first.
He was very charming and he could easily get under your skin. Because of this, I often doubted myself when I was working for him. He loved to read The 48 Laws of Power, which looking back, I should have read too, so I could keep up with him. He loved self-help books a lot and used them as tools to control others.
Working for him was like riding a roller coaster. His unpredictable moods during work were really frustrating. I put up with this for a year before I understood that I couldn't take it anymore. He often made big promises that he couldn't keep, and would react really poorly when questioned about it later. This made a lot of employees leave. I was always trying to keep my team's spirits up and convince them to stay.
Towards the end of my time working for him, I finally decided that I had had enough. I told him directly that the many pointless meetings were a waste of time and were just to make himself feel important. I also mentioned that it was a bad decision to promote his close friend to a top managerial position because it was harmful for the team. I tried to discuss these issues with him as professionally as I could.
In response, he accused me of using my academic qualifications to confuse him and destroy his confidence. After that meeting, he put me on administrative leave, saying it was to give me a "mental break". But before it was time for me to return, he had already sacked me. Even so, this experience taught me key things about how to manage and lead.
13. The Big-Talking Braggart
There's a guy at work who really likes to show off. He loves telling people about how much money he spends on things like a $90K truck, a $130K swimming pool, or $30K in medical bills. He doesn't care about the costs because he just uses them as tax deductions.
There might be a couple of people at work who actually like to hear his non-stop stories, but most people try to ignore him. I remember one time he was thinking about what kind of car to buy for his son's first car. He was thinking about getting a fancy new sports car.
14. Being Competent Was Foreign To Her
There was a teacher for second grade in a regular school who didn't interact correctly with students who were still learning English. Even if these students knew English well, she still didn't acknowledge them and didn't make any attempt to help or explain things to their parents using simpler words. This happened even though I tried to show her how to easily use Google Translate. Little did I realize, she was just getting started.
Things got even more difficult when this teacher didn't follow the special grading instructions we had for students who had just moved to this country and didn't know English very well. Because she didn't follow these instructions, it actually made things harder for these students. To make matters worse, she wouldn't say these students' names correctly. Instead, she would change them to English versions. For example, she started calling 'Juan' as 'John'.
When we came back to school after spring break, this teacher didn't come back to teach. When you think about how she didn't care about what her English learning students needed, her not being there didn't really change the quality of education the students were getting.
15. Great Expectations
For about six years, I had a boss who hardly ever noticed when I did a good job. No matter how hard I tried or how much I was willing to take advice to get better, he seemed to always want more. He never graded me higher than 'good' on the yearly evaluations.
But I liked my job and the people I work with, so that hard situation didn't shake me. When he left, things got better. After he left, all my evaluations have been better than what was expected, even though I didn't change the way I work or how I act. My new boss seems to value my work more and notices the work I put into the team.
16. Sunshine Brought On The Storm Clouds
Sunshine, despite her bright name, was a challenging boss who loved to micro-manage. As a tech worker, I was asked to work at the busy office of a client. For some reason, I was required to remain on a video call with Sunshine for the whole workday.
Whenever an employee of the client came up to me and I had to step away from my desk, Sunshine would be upset if I didn't tell her first. I would always get a message saying, "Where were you? I needed you, and you weren't there". Because of this situation, I ended up having to share every small detail of my movements with Sunshine. I would say, "Sunshine, I'm going to use the bathroom. I hope that's okay. I'll be back in about two minutes if the hand-dryer in the restroom is working slowly”.
17. Keep Your Germs To Yourself!
A coworker fell ill with pneumonia. His continuous coughing at work made it clear that his health was seriously affected. What was confusing is that he had an enormous 400 hours of sick leave, but didn't use any. It must be pointed out his constant coughing and the possible spread of germs was something his pregnant coworker sitting nearby didn't want to deal with. But, what was even more infuriating?
Our bosses said they couldn't make him stay at home, putting all of us at risk.
18. Mindless Or Mean?
Once, I worked with a girl who kept telling our boss that I didn't like some of our co-workers. This got me in trouble even though I had never said those things. I think she probably had problems with these folks and was using my supposed dislike as a reason to make them look bad to our boss. I don't know if she was just too dumb to realize she could get me in trouble, or if she was just trying to cause problems.
19. The Know-It-All Nuisance
Once, I worked with an annoying coworker who thought she knew everything. She often repeated herself in the same sentence, constantly insisting she was right even when she wasn't. She believed she could do all tasks perfectly, blaming any mistakes on others.
Besides that, she frequently showed off her money as she didn't need her job to live – her husband had a well-paying job. She often bought new stuff because she got "bored" with the old things. Honestly, people didn't like her attitude much at work. Even the janitors asked her to leave because they had enough of her self-importance.
20. Leave Politics At The Door!
On his first day of joining us, Bill said "I don't get into politics at work, I don't run behind gossip or leadership positions". But, he did the exact opposite on that very day. He was very traditional in his views and always made it everyone's problem.
I honestly don't mind working with traditional-minded folks as long as they are nice. I've worked with hardcore traditionalists who were great teammates, but Bill was different. He would get loud and mad when someone even hinted about something progressive. I can't forget when he flipped out just hearing about Kamala Harris at our workplace.
Bill would even pick fights over politics with our clients – like a homeowner who hired us for a paint job. He was always trying to start arguments with me. Despite his three decades of painting experience, Bill's work was subpar. In our line of work, which is mainly high-end residential projects, we're proud of our excellent finish. But, this was missing in Bill’s work.
Bill would apply sealant and instantly paint over it, which never lasted. Straight lines were a challenge for him, either because he was not capable or just didn't care. There was a time when I had to spend almost four days repainting and resealing tall windows and touching up baseboards that he had messed up with the wrong paint. To add to that, he was quite famous for only putting on one layer of paint, but saying he did two, to show how fast he was. But, he went a step further.
One day, Bill almost started a house fire by accidentally dropping his cigarette ash in dry leaves when we were working outdoors. We went out for lunch and came back to find the cedar fence on fire. Had it been a few more minutes, we could not have controlled it. He was eventually fired. It's safe to say that working with him was one of the most testing times in my work life.
21. Gretchen The Snack Swindler
In the tiny office where I worked, along with just four others, I created a plan to save money. I kept sandwich stuff – bread, cheese, and the like – in a fridge drawer that I set aside just for this reason. However, after some time, I noticed that these things started to disappear even though I wasn't the one eating them. After a while, I figured out it was Gretchen – my coworker – because I found an empty packet in her trash. So, I confronted her.
Things got pretty heated. Gretchen was really upset about what I said and told our boss, meaning we needed to have an official sit-down meeting. In the meeting, the boss told me about Gretchen's complaint: she was very hurt by my claims of her stealing food, which made me say sorry to her right then and there. It came out during our talk that the reason she was so mad was that my claims reminded her of her younger days when she was often accused of being a thief. What annoyed me though was that, it looked like there was some truth to those old claims about Gretchen stealing!
22. Coming In At All Costs
John was my boss at work. He was always working, never took any days off and wanted everyone else to also do the same. Even when he got sick, he would still come to work, take little rest at his desk instead of taking a sick leave. He was so committed that he walked all the way to work during a big snowstorm, even though it took him an hour.
However, because he always wanted to be at work, it was difficult to get along with him. Once, I told him about how my car slipped downhill on a snowy day, he was more annoyed than concerned. Despite the fact I was able to re-control the car and got home safely, he thought I didn't try hard enough to come to work.
His lack of understanding towards the employees was one of the reasons why he was not a good leader. He didn't understand why he was not promoted, even when his lack of kindness was obvious. Therefore, it was good for us when he finally decided to leave our company.
23. Why Wasn’t It Barry?
Barry became the boss of his father's company, but he didn't do a good job and the company failed. As a result, he owed a lot of money to the company where I was working, and so he started working with us. Everyone found it hard to work with Barry because he didn't care much about his job and often annoyed our customers. During the colder months, he liked to stay in the warm areas, and he wasn't happy if someone used the small forklift.
His actions made it very hard for people to work with him because he caused problems. Because of this, we always had to check on the tasks he was given since he often made mistakes. Every time a person was let go from our team, the first thing everyone wondered was why it wasn't Barry who was fired.
24. Power Was His Mistress
I had a boss who always wanted to be the big shot. You could see this when we had a Fantasy Football game. Someone made a funny comment about using 'Quarinteam' as a team name. He quickly chose it for his team and only changed it when people started making fun of him.
He absolutely freak out whenever I talked to other people at work or asked them questions - even if it was just a friendly chat. He got really upset when other people, like the CEO, asked for my ideas, saying I should have asked him first. But when I started asking him lots of questions, as he had asked me to, he sent me an email with my job description and asked me to check if I was doing the right thing! And the funny thing? He sent me the wrong job description.
25. The Chanel Bandit
In the place I used to work, we made a rule that people couldn't use perfume because some employees were allergic. But, one coworker didn't like this rule. To protest, she started secretly bringing her own collection of perfumes. She would spray them around the empty offices and desks when nobody saw her, usually before we got to work.
She did this secretly for about one or two months. We didn't know who was doing it. My work friends and I gave this mystery person the nickname "Chanel Bandit". We found out who she was when we saw her doing it on the new security cameras. We got those cameras after someone broke into the office, and she didn't know about them because she was on vacation for three weeks.
A lot of us already thought she might be doing it, especially when the 'Chanel Bandit' stopped doing it while she was on vacation. When she got caught, she quit her job right away, which made us happy. Nobody was sad to say goodbye to this coworker who really liked perfume.
26. Java Jerk
My work history includes working at a Texan restaurant called Austin Java. It was a fun place with good food and great friends until the owner gave control of the business to his nephew. Things quickly changed at the restaurant. Shortly afterward, everyone quit which ended up closing the restaurant. Everyone really didn't like the way the nephew ran things.
He acted like he had something big to prove - a Napoleon complex. He tried so hard to act like famous chef Gordon Ramsay that he'd get really angry. He'd even openly yell at workers without caring if there were families or young kids around. I hope his family sees how wrong his actions were. I also hope he realizes his mistakes and deals with what comes next.
ShotPrime Studio, Shutterstock
27. Cheaters Never Prosper
I had a former boss named Marty who was constantly bragging about cheating on his wife. Every time he went on a business trip, he would cheat. Not surprisingly, his wife eventually left him. Marty was devastated for many months. We tried to make him understand that he couldn't claim to care about his wife while also chasing every other woman he met.
After his marriage ended, Marty decided to make some changes in his life. He wanted to exercise, eat healthier, and behave better. But, he mostly ended up harassing our female coworkers while bragging about his new fitness routine. Eventually, he got into a relationship with another woman. I wish I'd had the chance to warn her.
Marty and his new partner eventually got married. However, he quickly returned to his old ways, and she cheated on him in return. His behavior eventually cost him his job when he harassed a coworker. In a bizarre turn of events, Marty complained to Human Resources that he wouldn't have been fired if his coworker had given in to his advances, just like the others presumably had.
ShotPrime Studio, Shutterstock
28. The Hungry Life
When I was in my early twenties, I used to work for a company that rented out big items for events, like large tents. Most of my coworkers were about my age, except for one guy who was maybe in his thirties. We called him "Hungry" because he was always eating or drinking something, whether it was a pastry, a hot dog, or a can of soda. Because of this, he often had to work using only one hand and was noticeably slow at his job.
Because he wasn't very good at his work, any team he was on had to work harder to make up for how slow he was. He also always insisted on having lunch at exactly twelve o'clock, no matter what was going on. Even if we were just a few minutes from finishing a job and going back to our workplace, where there was food waiting for us, he wouldn't wait. He would start his lunch at twelve, even if it meant sitting on his cooler in the middle of a job.
Hungry's family owned the local gas station in our town. This was the first time he had worked anywhere other than his family's business, and it was obvious that he didn't know how to behave professionally. By the end of the season, he was let go from the job. For those of us who had to work with him, it seemed like a fair decision.
29. The Silent Treatment
The person I worked with at the hotel front desk was very difficult. She would suddenly get angry at the team for small things, and then just ignore you completely. She didn't share important work details, and would act as if you were invisible. At the same time, she'd make a big show of talking and laughing with everyone else, just to show she was ignoring you on purpose.
This was really hard to deal with because there was no way to know what would set her off. One time, a bunch of magazines got delivered before I came to work. She didn't tell me anything about it, so I had no idea why they were there. Later, a manager from a different department asked about the magazines, and I had to go ask her.
In the end, she took over everything. What's even worse is that she complained to our boss, saying that I didn't handle the situation and made her do all the work. This was after I had asked her about the magazines and told her I was ready to manage them as long as she gave me the information I needed. These kind of things happened a lot because of her unpredictable silent treatments.
30. Tired Of Teenage Scare Tactics
My old boss, Joe, was a nightmare to work with. As a single man in his 60s, Joe was going bald and didn't eat well. His health got so bad that he had to take a full month off. I felt bad for him because of his situation, but sadly, he wasn't easy to get on with. He ran things in a harsh way, often scolding our young team members.
One event that really stays in my memory is when a customer wrongly blamed me and Joe took their side. He called me into his office and yelled at me for a long time. When I tried to tell him my side of the story, he threatened me and said my job was at risk if I argued with him. Even though I was one of the better workers, always doing more than most of the team, he was very scary. I'm truly glad I don't work there anymore.
Willyam Bradberry, Shutterstock
31. Spy Tracking
I once worked with a bossy project lead. He constantly spied on everyone, telling our real bosses if we were not doing our jobs or if we had stepped away from our desks for just a bit too long. Every time he'd leave his desk, he'd walk down each row, checking each workspace to see who was there and who wasn't. This was his usual routine.
He loved to make everyone irritated and frustrated by doing this. So to cope with this, I started marking down every time he'd pass by my workspace on a whiteboard. Every month, I'd move this data from the whiteboard and input it into a spreadsheet on my cell phone. This went on for four years. My teammates always laughed about this. I used all the data I gathered to make various types of charts. Even ten years later, I still have this data saved on a spreadsheet on my phone.
32. Poor Little Rich Boy
Despite his claims of superiority, my rich boy co-worker never really faced any financial hardship. His parents have handled all of his expenses, from his tuition fees to his vehicle costs, leaving him debt-free. I wouldn't be shocked to discover they also cover his rent.
His attitude of superiority, based solely on his financially privileged upbringing in the city, irks me. Especially given his actual lack of understanding and experience in the real world.
33. Stuff It, Mikey!
Let me introduce you to a guy I know. I call him "Food Mike". He loves anything and everything to do with food. He used to be a salesperson who was good at talking but sometimes twisted the truth. He could occasionally get big clients but often messed up because he didn't really understand what he was selling. And whenever things went wrong, he would blame it on someone else. And boy, did things go wrong.
Mike was an expert at pretending to work. He would walk into the office, show up briefly, leave his business card, and then leave. Afterward, he would claim reimbursement for his mileage and time. He was quite proud of all the miles he claimed. Because we didn't have company cars or tracking devices, it was easy for him to get away with this. When it came to meals, Mike always wanted to eat out. But he never liked eating alone.
He would often try to pressure you to join him for lunch or dinner. If you said no, he would make you feel guilty. I haven't worked with Mike in about five years. During that time, he has changed jobs five or six times. I'm not sure if he was fired or if he left each job before getting caught doing something wrong. Every once in a while, he reaches out to me when he's looking for a new job opportunity.
34. Overstaying His Welcome
Jean-Marie was a challenging individual, who loved to disagree with everyone else. It didn't matter what you stated, he'd always dispute it. A lack of motivation made him picky about his jobs, often brazenly contradicting his coworkers or boss. People at work found his behavior annoying. I'm employed at a government organization where the staff are safeguarded by a contract that can't be terminated, which they secure through a competitive hiring system.
Regrettably, Jean-Marie had such an agreement and was about to retire when he joined my team. Following official punishment, he was moved from his fieldwork duties. Because his contract prohibited termination, he was instead transferred to the office as "director's assistant". His coworkers were so glad about his departure from the field that they hosted a goodbye party he wasn't even invited to.
Later, Jean-Marie ended up in the archives and land registry departments. His role necessitated working with the supervisor of the land registry, but he kept his difficult behavior and attempted to check her work. Despite the uneasiness he brought, he vowed to stay till the final allowable moment before retirement, stating proudly, "I'll remain here as long as I can, just to cause troubles". Unfortunately, our nightmare did not stop there.
After retiring, Jean-Marie carried on coming into the office nearly a year to use our printer for an organization that opposed our interests, and to illegally copy confidential documents. His invasions continued until we got a new director who warned him with legal consequences.
35. Dictating Dictator
In a small family business where I used to be employed, one of the brothers worked as the sales manager. He constantly yelled, thought highly of himself, and made everyone around him feel anxious. He would tell me exactly what to write in emails to their clients and then expected me to jot everything down. Then I had to type these notes and wait for his approval.
He acted awful towards me. If he didn't like the drafts I typed up, calling them "low quality", he would demand that I do them again. Then, he would tell me word by word how to change them. This tough and repetitive routine would be used for many drafts, and he often blamed me if he didn't like what he had said himself. If I tried to make the drafts better, he would get angry because I had decided to change things.
I need to clarify that I was not his personal secretary. After a few months, I couldn't handle his behavior anymore, so I chose to leave the job. Many people leaving their job became a regular thing for the company, and it wasn't hard to figure out why.
36. This Boomer Pushed My Buttons
There was a boss who was a lot older than me and it seemed like all he did was just pass work along. He would say "yes" to anything without really thinking about it and whenever someone asked a question, he would just forward it to me. Basically, it was as if he wasn't there at all - everything would just go right through him.
This boss didn't contribute anything to our team, which made him more of a roadblock than a helper to our company. Unfortunately, his own boss didn't seem to notice this. So, I was the one who got blamed for any problems or delays, and I didn't get any credit when things went well. It drove me up a wall, and I knew I had to do something.
After putting up with this for a year, I decided to quit. I just couldn't handle doing his job anymore.
37. The Nonprofit Nightmare
My last boss at a small charity was in charge of both human resources and financial areas. Even though she worked for around 60-70 hours a week, it didn't show her as being dedicated or hardworking. Instead, she seemed to be unorganized and made poor decisions. I could only stay in such a place for three months. Not getting the right sort of education in the job was one of the main reasons why I left. She only gave old, written instructions.
They said my job was to help her and make her job less tiring, but she didn't want to share the work. To be honest, I spent a lot of my time doing nothing, and just looking at a wall. The way she treated other people, especially the other women, was sad and not respectful. Most of the people we worked with were women. But if anyone was younger than fifty years old, she would call them a "little girl". It was not comfortable to see her talk to skilled colleagues, a lot of whom had gotten master's degrees in things like policy and business, in such a negative way.
The feeling at the workplace wasn't what it should have been. It was sad and heavy because everyone was scared of her mean comments. When I had the chance to get a job in a warehouse, even if the salary was a little lower, I picked that without giving them any warning.
38. Stuck In Misery
When I was a teenager, I was pregnant and working temporarily at a factory that made plastic products. I was placed in a small separate area away from harmful chemicals and machines. My job was pretty boring and probably the least liked one - I had to make sure that each set of small blinds had the correct number of slats.
Things got worse when I was given a really tough job headed by a man named Don. He supervised us as we put tiny orange stickers on lock parts for Honda cars - there were thousands of them. There was a problem with the sticky stuff on the stickers, so each one had to be manually checked to make sure it was stuck on right. Don had a strange habit of drinking several big thermoses of coffee during the day. I even thought he might be going out to his car to put some alcohol in his coffee.
Often, he seemed like he had too much caffeine or alcohol or both. He would watch us closely while we worked and could be there for hours. He also had a bad temper and would shout at us if we talked or seemed to not be working fast enough. It was like he was always about to have a heart attack.
Working with Don made a hard job even harder. But it got even worse when I was 27 weeks pregnant. I had to go to the hospital because I had a bad kidney infection. When I had to get urgent medical leave, Don got angry in a way that was unreasonable and over the top. He was very upset that I needed to take time off.
39. Bad Things Come In Threes
Let's discuss three people I've met in my job. The first is Laura, a super eager person with a strong personality. She's not shy about outdoing others to get ahead. Laura is emotional and speaks her mind. She takes any disapproval to heart, which made work tough. Luckily, she moved to a different part of the same company. What a sigh of relief!
The second person is Angela. She wants everything to be perfect, which can make work stressful if things are not done her way. She was good at acting friendly in front of bosses, but she was often rude and tough with her coworkers and those she was in charge of. She would often make harsh remarks. Good thing I don't work directly with her anymore. She wasn't fun to work with.
The last person is Christina, the worst of them all. Christina was a boss who put a lot of pressure on us, but she called it "helping us grow in our roles." This led to a lot more work and stress, but not more pay! If you sent an email she didn't like, you might end up in her office getting a lecture for "not acting professionally."
Luckily, her stern behavior made the higher-ups not like her much. After a bunch of people quit because of her and some honest talk was given during exit interviews, HR got involved. Christina was here on a visa for work, and the company decided not to renew it. Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief. Though I have met some other tough coworkers, these three are the most memorable.
40. The Sierra Chronicles
Sierra always seemed to have a response for every question. Her ideas were usually better and she seemed to have done more things than anyone else. If you had an idea, she had already tried it. If you had a problem, she had already solved it. In other words, she was a very bossy person who acted like a know-it-all. She was certain that her way was the only right way, and she didn't care if it was really not needed. You could clearly see her tendency to be overly controlling. It was a great relief when she finally moved to a different job.
41. Pretty Doesn’t Cut It
I collaborated with a young lady who loved to be the centre of attention. She would sing loudly and join any conversation, whether she was part of it or not. Her work involved office duties, and her performance was just average. However, she seemed to think her looks made up for her lack of professional skills.
In time, my colleagues started sharing odd stories about her. That's when I realized how nuts she really was. She apparently partook in extreme drinking, created unnecessary feuds, and would aimlessly wander in pajamas at 2 in the morning. That's when it clicked - she reminded me of Andy Bernard's character from The Office. To this day, I cringe at his role, as it was quite taxing to spend about 40 hours a week with a similar character in real life.
Cast Of Thousands, Shutterstock
42. Cut Off At The Start
My coworker likes to talk a lot. He often doesn't give you a chance to answer and interrupts when you try to speak. He's basically having complete talks by himself. He also has a thing about changing my documents before we send them. Unfortunately, he usually makes spelling mistakes as he tries to sound smarter in what he's written. The good news is, all changes are tracked automatically so it is recorded who made them.
43. Some Old Timer Suffering
Charlotte had been working at our place for a long time and would always treat new people pretty harshly. I had to deal with her unfriendly attitude until other new people joined after me. During lunch, she would often cook fish in the microwave, filling up the break room with a strong smell. She also made fun of my choice to eat only plant-based foods all the time.
In the cold winter mornings, she would come to our meetings coughing non-stop, blowing her nose, and making a lot of gross noises. Even though she was clearly unwell, she didn't want to take a day off from work. She seemed to think that taking rest would show she was weak. This was really worrying because where we worked was a place where people came to get their kidneys cleaned, so her being around could put those patients at risk.
She also used to tease me about the way I talked to the patients with my hands placed on my hips. She also made fun of my work pants that were a little short. All in all, she was a person who was pretty hard to tolerate.
44. This Manager Was Pure Trash
My boss randomly dumped a bag of garbage on my desk the morning of my first day. I was confused and angry—but I didn’t even realize WHY he did it. Apparently, this was his way of telling me that taking out the garbage was part of my job. What?? I’m a mortgage broker!
Kaspars Grinvalds, Shutterstock
45. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
We once held an internet meeting for all the workers to teach them about the newest rules about honesty at work. I recall it was a very busy day. A few customers came in, and in that busy time, my insufferable supervisor asked an older coworker if he could help move a piece of furniture from a storage area to his car. The supervisor said that he could leave work early if he cleaned the furniture first.
My coworker was excited about finishing work early. He agreed to do it—without realizing what was going to happen next. Jumping ahead to the following week, and he was suddenly let go. He didn't know that he had failed the supervisor's surprise "check" and was labeled as a dishonest worker. The poor guy had worked at the company for almost eight years, only for him to be fired in such a rough way.
46. Fit-ing Time Frustration
I remember a time when I was working with a pal of mine in a place where we make cupboards. One night, we got done with our work a half hour earlier than we were meant to. My buddy didn't like that at all. He got mad and said that going home early would make it hard for him to pay his bills. Funny thing is, we had to stay 45 minutes longer than usual just two nights after that. Would you believe it, he got mad again! He moaned about having to work more than he was supposed to.
Aleksey Kurguzov, Shutterstock
47. Sweet As Sunshine, Dumb As Rocks
Lisa was a friendly lady from Alabama. She was middle-aged and her thick Southern accent was very noticeable. We hired her to join our IT support team as other trained team members had left looking for better pay or chances to grow. Sadly, Lisa wasn't really great at IT.
Lisa often used her people skills and always shifted her work onto the team, keeping herself busy by jumping from one job to the next, hardly resolving anything. Even after working with us for a few years, she always needed help for every task she did, unable to recall or learn from past experiences.
It got to the point where we just started guiding her to her old questions where we had already given solutions for the same problems she was asking help for again. Surprisingly, these could be questions she asked just three, six, or nine months before.
48. His Operating System Was Not For Me
Josh owned a small computer shop that not only sold computers but also helped local businesses with their tech needs. It's funny because many of his customers were also people he saw at church. But the way Josh ran his business was not so good. He often charged his customers too much for old and not-so-good computer parts. He also wasn't scared to tell his employees to give customers false information. I didn't like that, so I quit my job there after half a year. Still, one employee who has been with him for 15 years, keeps working for him, even though he only makes $11 an hour.
49. Tired Of Dealing With Perry
When I used to sell cars, a coworker named Perry called me on my day off wanting to sell the car I was using for demonstration. But, I didn't have a demo car then. Two weeks later, Perry said I had the keys to a car he wanted to sell. This was also wrong. So, I had to go to the car dealership just to show that I didn't have any keys.
Perry surprised me next - he wanted me to get a car ready for him, do a full presentation, set up a test drive for his clients, and even do his paperwork. All while he was busy with another client.
Inside Creative House, Shutterstock
50. Not The Norm
We all know someone like Norm from our workplace. From his very first day, he was upfront about his ambitious nature, ready to rise to the top without any delay. He was incredibly snooty and selective with his assignments, sticking only to tasks he liked or those that would make him look good. This meant the rest of us were left with cleaning up his messes. The most irritating thing about him? He never stopped boasting about his fun love life and what he proudly referred to as his 'magic member'.
When female contractors were around, his behavior was downright out of line. He'd tower over them while they were seated, getting too close for their comfort, trying to disguise his inappropriate acts as playfulness. It was obvious they were uneasy. Norm always had this annoying tendency to try to one-up everyone around him. Whatever you did, he always had a supposedly 'better' story to share. Though we made it clear that we weren't his fans, his overconfidence made him interpret our disdain as friendly teasing.
An opportunity arose when some appealing job vacancies appeared in a different team which offered better salaries and more compelling work - we both applied. He was even bold enough to let me know that he planned on bargaining for a higher salary just to outearn me. But he was in for a brutal surprise. I had worked with the manager of the new team before and we had always shared a good rapport. He valued my advice.
As anticipated, he asked for my feedback on Norm especially his fit for the team. I provided an honest and balanced evaluation about him. As per expectation, Norm didn't get the job. I was more than relieved to move on without him.
Sources: Reddit,
