18 Bosses Who Made Their Employees Question Reality

What a joy it is to work alongside an understanding and empathetic leader! However, the heroes of this article have bosses who, to put it mildly, have their quirks.

Some demand minute-by-minute reports on working hours, while others keep pens with disappearing ink at hand. It feels like these bosses live in their slightly absurd reality. And what about their subordinates? They simply do their job and enjoy the show.

• Once, my former boss called me into his office, handed me his pen, asked me to write down a list of tasks and then complete them all. I wrote it down, went back to my place, and noticed that the ink was disappearing. Fortunately, I knew my boss had quirks, so I quickly made a copy.
  So he calls me back to his office and asks, “What did I ask you to do?” I repeat everything from the list. He interrupts, “No, you wrote it all wrong, I asked for something else!”
  I — bam! — put the photocopy on his desk. Even he was taken aback by that. © evgeniadubai

• At my previous job, they would delay our salaries for a long time. Initially, the entire department put up with it, but we couldn’t take it anymore. We went into the boss’s office and told him that we are adults and can’t keep borrowing money every month. The boss looked at us with wide eyes and then asked, “Are you saying you’re working for money?”
• My supervisor really wanted to fire me and hire her friend in my place. I remember one of her ideas: she made the secretary record in a log for how many minutes I left the office every time.
  So I would tell the secretary loudly enough everyone could hear it, “Write it down, I’m going to the bathroom.” 5 minutes later. “Write it down. I’m back from the bathroom!” For some reason, the logbook idea disappeared after a week. © bibigulaitukenova
• My apartment is near work, and I live alone. My supervisor lives far away, outside the city. She got into the habit of asking to stay overnight at my place. It got to the point where she told me not to wash the bed linen immediately, as she’d be coming over again anyway.
  Since I already let this happen, I don’t even know how to change the situation. Today, she even asked me for my key because she decided to go to work later and sleep in. © Overheard / Ideer

• I had a good job, but another company offered me better pay. Naturally, I accepted. When I told my boss I was leaving, he asked how much more they were paying. “Twice as much,” I replied.
  He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “But you don’t need that much money. What are you going to spend it on? You have no husband, no kids. I don’t get it.”
• I interned for a woman where I had to fill out a report on my work minute by minute every day. It looked something like this:
  9:00–9:10 — prepared the workspace;
  9:10–9:15 — call with a client;
  9:15–9:20 — break.
  And so on for every minute. Manually. Every day.
  And also every day I had to write “what I learned today.” © usenalieva1

• I work as a technical specialist in a small company. My salary doesn’t quite cover all my needs. I made an agreement with my boss that if I bring in a client, he’ll pay 10% of the profit from each one additionally.
  And just literally 2 days later, a client calls me on my personal phone, “Hello! You installed and configured the equipment for Ms. Smith 2 weeks ago. Can you do the same for me?”
  I say, “No problem.” I give them the address of our office and inform my boss that a client will come for equipment. The client arrives, pays the bill, and it’s a good profit.
  When I reasonably ask about my share, the boss replies, “Well, you didn’t bring them in, they called you themselves. So there won’t be any bonus.” After that, I realized that I need to look for additional income outside my company. © Sobolrzn / Pikabu
• I worked in a large hypermarket as a mid-level manager. My salary was half that of most of my subordinates. I understood that the rate was set by the head office, but I approached the manager to ask why this was the case.
  The answer was brilliant. “They work with expensive equipment and experience stress — what if they break something? And you work with people, that’s not dangerous.” © Oksana Zhuravleva / ADME

• Today, my boss congratulated me with my birthday. He gave me a gift. He put a card in an envelope inside the packaging and passed congratulations from his wife. How sweet. We even hugged.
  Then I decided to open the envelope with the card. There was a beautiful greeting... for my 40th birthday. Actually, I’m just turning 39. Not that I’m overly concerned about the number, but we had discussed many times beforehand that I was going to be 39.
  I decided not to upset the boss. He’s a bit anxious. Who knows, he might take back the gift until next year. © buba_gem
• I used to work as a designer. My boss, who really loved to call himself “the founder of the company” (with 4 employees), came to me asking to Photoshop the finished manicures of a salon where his girlfriend worked. He wanted me to adjust the length, remove smudges and hangnails, perfect the highlights, and so on.
  He offered me a free manicure at the same salon as payment for this work. He seriously thought I would go to a place where you have to Photoshop the nails after a manicure. © WhiteWhite / Pikabu

• I had an epic boss. During work hours, she would passionately and joyously share stories from her life, making it impossible to focus on work. At the end of the day, she would have us stay late to finish our reports.
  I spent a couple of hours shuffling papers and listening to her nonstop stories. I quit when I found out how the bonus was distributed. A great life lesson! © Evgenia Plavskaya / ADME
• Once, I arrived at work early — an hour before my shift started. I was sitting in the warehouse, glued to my phone. The night shift boss walked up:
  — Why aren’t you working?
  — Waiting for my shift to start! Still 40 minutes to go.
  — Do you need to wait for your shift to start to the minute to start working? You could start earlier, you know, since you’re here.
  — So, can I leave early without waiting for my shift to end to the minute?
  — No!
  — No, boss. That’s not how it works. © ZaTaS / Pikabu
• I used to have a job with one variable day off, which was canceled from time to time “due to production needs.” So, my boss loved asking, “Why do you need to rest?” It sounded like a joke, but since my days off became fewer and the phrase was repeated more often, I left that place. © Oleksandra Savchenko / ADME

• I had a boss at one of my jobs — quite the character. She was a very nice-looking woman but annoyed everyone beyond measure. She decided to monitor what employees were doing during work hours and made us write weekly reports.
  Then a woman of retirement age replaced her, who didn’t know how to work with a computer. She wrote all her letters on paper, and we had to type them up. Needless to say, her handwriting wasn’t the best. By the way, her workday began with her asking for someone to turn her computer on. © Anastasia Bakhvalova / ADME
• The principal of the school where I worked used to gather the entire staff on Saturdays, which was our day off. To build a team spirit, she organized nature hikes and various “sack races.” Attendance was mandatory.
  On Fridays, after classes, a small line would form outside her office of those who preferred to spend Saturday with their families. The principal demanded explanations! And yes, on Monday, those brave souls from Friday’s line had to provide a photo report of the time spent with their families.
  I never attended any of these activities, nor did I provide a single photo report. But I didn’t last long at that school. The principal declared that I had problems with the team and no friends. © Zaitseva ER / Dzen

• My boss loves to “save money,” so her daughter, who is a law student, works as a teacher at our language school. It wouldn’t be a problem, except the girl doesn’t know the subject well. I don’t know how to gently tell my boss that we’re losing clients because of her daughter, not because they’ve found a cheaper school. I don’t want to lose my job. © Overheard / Ideer
• Once, my boss asked me to order a mat for the office entrance — a large rubberized one. I found suppliers and showed her suitable options. She turned all of them down. She said they weren’t rubberized and didn’t resemble what she was asking for.
  That same day, she left for a business trip for a week and told me to find other samples in her absence. When my boss returned, I showed her exactly the same selection, to which she said, “Well, this is a whole other thing.” © ari.lifetale
• At my previous job, the boss was a “very demanding lady,” but then it turned into a daily circus. Once, they were painting the facade of a building where one of the stores was located.
  The boss came, inspected everything, and told the girl working there, “Wash the pavement in front of the store; the paint splashed, it’s unsightly.” Wash. The pavement. © trollkvinnan / ADME

Well, definitely not everyone who sits down in the boss’s chair is capable of leading a team. We bet almost all of us have a couple of stories about “eccentric” characters like this. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you can always share these stories in the comments to this article.

And these bosses treat boundaries like optional fine print.