12 Times Toxic Coworkers Crossed the Line and Sparked Office Chaos

The atmosphere of a workplace can mostly depend on your colleagues, as in a good team, even working in a stressful role can feel easier. But if you have negative, toxic coworkers, you will feel much worse, especially if this person is your manager or supervisor. We collected stories that people shared on Reddit about their bad work experiences. And some colleagues cross every line with their behavior.

• The supervisor stormed into the break room while everyone was having a 15-minute coffee break. Told everyone off for taking a break and talking too loudly.
  If that’s not bad enough, we had a part-time/casual employee who would come in to do a specific task when needed. During the freak-out, the boss singled her out, saying that everyone had so much free time to take coffee breaks, then we probably didn’t need her to come in on a casual basis, and that she should look for another job.
  Everyone went silent/dispersed from the break room. No one was upset when that supervisor got transferred. © elasticball123 / Reddit
• I worked in corporate marketing/sales. We worked on commission based on the marketing campaigns that we created.
  Last year, we got a new boss who decided to “restructure” our commission, effectively cutting our pay by about 25-30%. Morale became quite low.
  A month after this happened, she called us all into a meeting. She then showed us a chart for the past year where we had ALMOST TRIPLED PROFITS FOR THE COMPANY. This was met with stunned silence.
  “Hey guys,” she said, “Where’s the enthusiasm?! Aren’t you happy with these numbers?” Flat, tone-deaf silence. The outrage was palpable.
  I wanted to say something, as I’m sure others did, but I didn’t. I just found a different job a few months later. © Unknown author / Reddit
• One coworker’s father had had a stroke. This happened on a Thursday when we were pretty busy. The next week, another coworker asked if the father was going to have a stroke EVERY Thursday, as it was really disruptive to the workflow. © firelady1530 / Reddit

• I always thought Monica and I were on the same page at work. We sat next to each other, swapped office gossip, often joked around and hung out after work.
  But one day, when I was borrowing a stapler from her desk, a small notebook slipped out and landed on the floor. Curiosity got the better of me, and I flipped it open. What I found inside was a list of names, including mine, and next to each name, a few words like “useless,” “lazy,” and “annoying.” I was shocked.
  Monica had never shown any sign of animosity towards me. We were supposed to be friends, and yet here she was, keeping a mental note of all her grievances in secret. I couldn’t help but wonder: had she been pretending to be my friend all along? © Kate
• A guy hired to work on a trading desk at my old company started to argue with his trainer. The trainer asserted himself, and the trainee loudly blew up, stood up shouting, and pushed some papers and supplies on his desk onto the floor.
  The entire floor went silent and looked over. The guy was escorted out and fired. © InterruptingChicken1 / Reddit
• A female colleague had been messaging me to meet about something, and I had told her each time I had other tasks that I needed to prioritize first. This woman thought she was my boss, so she didn’t like that.
  She came over to my desk and slammed her papers on it, and started angrily listing off everything she wanted me to do, and then stormed away. Our coworkers were stunned and both reported her to the boss. She disappeared on leave the next day and never came back. © uarstar / Reddit

• Like ten years ago, when my grandmother wasn’t doing well, I had let my supervisor know she was likely going to pass soon. My supervisor straight up said, “Well, try to make sure it’s a weekend when you’re not working.”
  My grandmother lived a few months longer, and I had thankfully gotten a new job in that time. She passed when I was at work. I texted my then-boss and apologized if I didn’t finish all my tasks that day, as I was a little distracted.
  She said I shouldn’t worry about work now, then came in herself so I could go home. She let me have the rest of the week and the weekend off to go be with my family. © bananicoot / Reddit
• Had a new CIO start with the company. He introduced himself and said he was “a driver, and everyone in IT should know that they live to be fired.”
  So, yeah, we were a small team at the corporate level. By the end of the next month, it was a team of 0. I went back to the company after he was fired. © Dark54g / Reddit
• The first-year principal, who was not a people manager, absolutely botched the end-of-year celebration.
  Normally, you’d have a slideshow honoring those leaving and those retiring. She managed to have a basic slide, just rapid fire naming everyone leaving and said “thank you for your service.”
  Clicks to the next slide for the sole person retiring. This beloved woman had worked in the district her entire adult life. The slide was blank with just her name on it. It had other boxes like “achievements,” “plans for retirement,” “picture,” “funny memories”- all blank.
  Principal says, “Oh, whoops... anyways, thanks for your service.” Wraps up the meeting and immediately walks out to her office. The whole celebration, which normally takes 20 minutes, took maybe 3 minutes.
  You could have heard a pin drop. The first sound to be made was a teacher who started hysterically crying because she felt so bad for the retiring teacher. © SinfullySinless / Reddit

• I used to work in a bank in my mid-20s with an awful micromanager of a boss, Mary. She came in early Friday morning and said she had a mortgage to process for some clients, and we needed to stockpile cash because she couldn’t be interrupted. So I had $20,000 split between $20s/$50s/$100s in my spare drawer right before we opened for the day.
  My first customer wanted $20,000 in all $100s. No one could spare any for me. So I had to get Mary to give me more from the vault, which was in the same area where we kept the metal safe deposit boxes. Needless to say, that area echoed.
  She made me follow her in there, where she ripped me a new one for my “failure to prepare” and “now I’ll have to restart the process for my customers” and how I was “an embarrassment to the business.”
  The bank, which had been pleasantly noisy with conversations from tellers and customers, was silent throughout the rant I received from her. I locked up my area and hid in the bathroom to cry. © Interesting-Novel821 / Reddit
• Both myself and a coworker were slightly overweight. I *thought* we were on somewhat friendly terms, we had gone to get coffee a few times in the cafeteria, and such.
  I came in one day wearing a green shirt that had a slight cutout near the neck area. The coworker comes in the SAME shirt. One of our male colleagues jokes that we were twins and asked if we had gone shopping together. Now, while this wasn’t in great taste, I laughed and just said, “Great minds think alike.”
  My coworker accused me of copying her, and that I always tried to be “exactly like her” and stalked her all the time when she went to get coffee. Just yelling at my face. Everyone just... went silent.
  I sat down in my chair and cried. She did apologize like a week later with a letter and a necklace she bought for me. I never talked to her again. © Geekygreeneyes / Reddit
• Super toxic boss, she was known for her hissy fits, even in front of management. Usually, because of deadlines she decided were unfair.
  She started doing this thing where she would get herself so worked up, she would throw her own glasses. Like a child. She did it enough times, and they finally broke.
  When the whole thing finally came down, and she had burned enough bridges that she was removed from the contract, one of those same managers came to me and said he “didn’t know it was so bad.” © JEWCEY / Reddit

Luckily, work can be so much more fun when you have colleagues with a great sense of humor, as you can read in our 10 Cringe-Worthy Colleagues Whose Sense of Humor Keeps the Workplace Lively article.