20 Times People Realized That They Were Actually Working For A Complete Idiot Disguised As Their Boss

Some bosses are bad at leadership, and then there are the ones who make employees wonder how they ever got the job in the first place. In workplaces like that, the red flags are usually obvious, from bizarre decisions to basic misunderstandings that leave everyone else doing the real work.

That is exactly the kind of frustration behind this Reddit thread, where u/ColossusXT asked employees when they first realized their boss was a complete idiot. The responses quickly turned into a parade of awkward, funny, and painfully relatable stories about managers who were clearly in over their heads.

Here are some of the best replies from the thread.

1. "When he told me instead of taking my new higher-paying job, I should just work more hours at my current one for him."

- Lauer99

energepic.com

2. "She has no idea about basic 101 things related to our industry that a fresh intern could demonstrate on the spot."

Now, every job I do, I have to explain from the beginning what it is, why we’re doing it, and why it’s important. She nods, makes an “insightful” comment, then forgets it completely. I’m the only one on my team with actual experience in certain areas and naturally have to do all the work in those areas. When it comes time for credit, it’s a “team effort” where she led from the front. - forumdestroyer156Canva Studio

3. "I worked for a production company that never put a dollar into advertising our products."

- PokyCivi

Eleni Afiontzi

4. "Spends money on “fun events” instead of hiring people when we are severely understaffed."

- Wazards

Greyson Joralemon

That kind of logic never ends well.

5. "Once I told my boss I was 1/3 done with the work I had to do..."

He said, “Well, you better hurry; the others said they had finished 1/6 of the work.”He walked away, and I just stared at him for a few seconds.

- Queen_lucya

6. "When she told me I should have no problem with this new task because 'it's not rocket science.'"

Also, she says “pacifically.” ? - TheRealWookyMonsterGlenn Carstens-Peters

7. "The time he got really b***hy/passive-aggressive a few months after he hired me, which finally boiled over when he got mad and said, 'I HIRED YOU BECAUSE I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO RUN THIS COMPANY FOR ME!'"

I’m a graphic designer, by the way.

- Axl_Bundy

Timothy Exodus

That one probably said everything.

8. "My manager (*a woman* who’s in nursing school) thought that women were pregnant for 12 months."

- birb_in_disguisenastasiia Chepinska

9. "I told my boss that since he wouldn’t listen to me, we needed an industrial engineer to make our department/machine more efficient."

He said, “No way in hell are we bringing in an engineer.” Three weeks later, my company hired an engineer, and when they came to our department, the engineer asked him what he wanted to do differently. He froze, turned, and said, “Well, let’s go talk to Themonkeymen; he’s worked here a long time; he knows what needs to be done.” … This boss makes at least double my salary, if not more. - TheMonkeyMencottonbro

10. "I write “: )” on papers I grade for a professor..."

He accused me of writing slurs in my native language, even though it’s just a f*****g smiley face. - aRationalShillDomingo Alvarez E

Some of these stories are hard to believe until you see the pattern.

And if you think your manager’s a problem, the office lunch thief who kept taking another coworker’s prepared meals gets messy fast.

11. "When they fired the woman who did HR (she wasn’t qualified for it and had no training to do it, so whatever), and I overheard the owner/boss having this conversation with a co-worker."

Boss: “So, what is HR anyway?”Co-Worker: “Human Resources.”B: “Yeah, but, like, what do they do?”CW: “Well, they take care of employee conflicts, deal with internal complaints, stuff like that.”B: “Well, we don’t need that. Besides, you can do that.”So now we don’t have HR, and as a bonus, the co-worker they were talking to deals with conflict by telling people to “fill out a hurt feelings report.” And yes, it is a family-owned/operated business.

-davidmitchellseyes

Pablo Varela

12. "When they wanted to charge $30 for 4 items and $70 for 8."

- anon

Artem Beliaikin

13. "When I created functions for similar procedures instead of copying & pasting the exact same code & modifying it in various spots throughout the program."

“What if we hire a developer who doesn’t know how to use functions?”Then we shouldn’t have f*****g hired them.

-FoleyX90

Florian Olivo

14. "Asks me to do stuff that helps no one or makes nothing better. He has us doing things that he literally can’t explain why."

- Lufernaal

energepic.com

At that point, nobody is surprised anymore.

15. "My boss thinks he is a programmer."

(SQL) He told me he did not like that I have one table that contains both active and inactive computers with a field that indicates active/inactive and told me (demanded) that I should create two tables, one for each computer state.

-LeftChoux

16. "Oh, he straight up told me he didn’t know what he was doing and was glad I was hired so I could do all the complex stuff."

Good guy to work for; he trusted me to handle the very technical side while he took care of the simple projects and kept idiot managers off my back. -zerbeyAndrea Piacquadio

17. "Dropped a ton of cash renting art from a museum’s art bank for our (decrepit Chinatown) office."

Then didn’t have money to pay salaries. - Peregrine2976Dom J

18. "He couldn’t do basic math while pretending to have a master's degree."

Couldn’t use Excel either… - abad84

19. "My manager told me to mop the breakroom floor..."

I did. She freaked out that it was slippery (two seconds after I was done). - necrocripplePixabay

20. "I had a boss once who refused to register to vote because she didn’t want jury duty and then got jury duty because that’s not the only way they pick."

She ended up serving for a week. - adeinerElement5 Digital

It is hard not to feel for the people stuck dealing with this kind of nonsense every day.

Do you have a similar story to share? Comment down your thoughts, or share this article for all your family and friends to see!

Nobody wants to work for a boss like that.

Still feel like your “boss” is clueless, check out the potluck where homemade lasagna accidentally stole the spotlight from my boss.