Article created by: Eglė Bliabaitė

A boss can really make or break a workplace. A good boss can make a work environment fun, friendly, and positively challenging. A bad boss, however... they make going to work a nightmare every day.

The tide may be changing as more members of Generation Z are becoming managers. In 2024, Glassdoor predicted that Gen Z will make up 10% of managers in 2025.

Does that mean there won't be as many terrible bosses around? Perhaps, but toxic colleagues are a breed that's difficult to get rid of. We've got a compilation of the most toxic and entitled bosses for you here, just so you remember the level of pettiness and absurdity some employees and managers can stoop to.

To learn more about how to spot horrible bosses and how to deal with them, Bored Panda reached out to organizational psychologist, speaker, author, adjunct professor, and podcast host Dr. Laura Hambley Lovett.

With 25 years of experience, she is a thought leader on workplace psychology, career development, and the future of work. Dr. Laura founded Canada Career Counselling and other consulting practices and is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology. A Canadian Women of Inspiration Award winner, she is dedicated to helping people and organizations thrive.

Dr. Laura kindly agreed to tell us more about how people can differentiate between difficult and toxic bosses, what steps to take if you're working under a toxic manager, and how Gen Z is growing less and less tolerant of entitled bosses. Read her expert insights below!

More info: Where Work Meets Life™ podcast | Dr. Laura Hambley Lovett

• Read More: 50 Examples Of Bad Bosses Who Probably Complain That “No One Wants To Work Anymore” (New Pics)

#1 My Boss Declined My Vacation (After Having 4 Months Notice) To Hawaii To Propose To My Girlfriend Because They (Needed Me Badly) In The Office… Obviously Work/Life Balance Didn’t Mean Anything To Them. Anyways… Here’s My View (She Said Yes)

Image credits: yellowitsmelol

#2 Calling Homeless People “Animals”

Image credits: blakeeatssocks

#3 Great Thank You I Will Put You Down

Image credits: oo-de-lally-golly

#4 Eat And Get Laid Off. Snitches Get $20

Image credits: 1poundbookingfee

#5 Boss Wasn’t Paying Attention And Sat On My Desk While Talking To A Coworker

UPDATE: So I approached him about it and he tried to convince me that they were already broken before he sat there, which I know is a lie. After talking for more than 20 minutes he then finally admitted to it, saying it was an accident and apologized. When I said he’d need to buy me a replacement pair he said “we can talk more about it tomorrow.” 🙄 Wish me luck I guess...

Image credits: NeohWise

#6 The Manager Would Throw Away Cookies Every Saturday Instead Of Giving Them To The Employees

We threw away 55 cookies. The managers didn't let us take any home because they thought it might "encourage us to purposely make extra."

Image credits: Irick050

#7 This Perverse Obsession With Keeping Employees At Work For The Maximum Number Of Hours Per Day Is Sick. This CEO Doesn't So Much Need Advice As They Need Therapy

Image credits: dhh

#8 Got Fired From My Job Because I Couldn't Come To A Cleaning Party On 2 Hour Notice

Image credits: L3wdMegumin

#9 Was Sent Home And Recorded As “Refusing To Work” Because I Told My Boss This Seatbelt Was Unsafe And Illegal. Would You Have Refused To Drive?

My class A rig is down for service so I was thrown into the class B backup truck.

Image credits: MOBIUS__01

#10 Boss Didn't Like The Color Of The Chairs In The Break Room. So Now We Just Don't Have Chairs

Image credits: reddit.com

#11 Boss Telling Me To Close In -40f

Image credits: Super_Kent155

#12 Boss Says The Office Has No Roaches

So, here's the deal. I found a roach a few times inside my work laptop when I got home..it couldn't come from my house and a few other colleagues complained of the same issue. I decided to prove him wrong, bought a cheap 50c chinese sticky roach trap and left my laptop at work with this trap directly next to my laptop....this is the results after a weekend in the office. Not just roaches but the roach egg sack thingy hatched and those are the babies...

Image credits: JoMammasWitness

#13 2 Weeks Of Telling My Boss The Produce In The Warehouse Is Going Bad - Him: Don't Worry About It

Image credits: Kaxton15

#14 Been Struggling At Work Since January 3rd When They Laid Off The One Person There To Help Me. This Week I Was Told I'd Be Getting Something That I Would Love And Would Definitely Make Me Happy. That Something

Image credits: ChknShtOutfit

#15 Corporate Life - Micromanaging

I do my job well enough that I now have to be scrutinized for tiny things in order for my supervisors to look like they have an important role of “managing” people. I almost got fired last year because I racked up a total of 6 minutes of tardies over the course of 2 months because I came back from lunch 1-3 mins late a few times.
I hope I don’t get a write up and sent to the principal’s office!

Image credits: reddit.com

#16 Former Employer Wants My Password To The Computer I Used 6 Months After Terminating Me

For context:
This company sought me out to interview at their company for a management position. I ended up getting the job. Lasted 30 days until they terminated the position due to a “cart before the horse” situation. Basically what happened is I called out all the illegal marketing practices happening and offered solutions to fix them. They got rid of the problem, which was “me.” Now they want my password.

Image credits: spicyad

#17 Report Or Regret

Image credits: LiberalJewMan

#18 Am I Overreacting At My Bosses Response?

I feel like this is terrible management. I have never worked at a job where the priority is my time off and not my health????? Am I Overreacting?

Image credits: Significant-Way-7460

#19 Bosses Are Mad We Use Too Much Toilet Paper

Image credits: loreleievaann

#20 My Supervisor's Response To Me Asking For A Raise

For context, I was told three months ago that in two months I would be moved to a different area in the company to begin working at a much higher pay rate. New employees started being hired at almost 40% more than what I make. After I found out I requested a raise and I’ve been waiting ever since. I have worked here for two years and have never had any performance issues. I told her recently that I am looking for other jobs and I’m not going to wait much longer and she promised me a raise in two weeks. Those couple weeks have passed and this is what I get. I hate my workplace.

Image credits: Living_Variation316

#21 Got My Boss To Admit To Wage Theft

I work for a very well-known corporation as a server/bartender. My shift usually starts at 4:00 pm.
The time clock rounds my hours to 15-minute intervals. If I clock in at 4:01, I don't start getting paid until 4:15. If I clock in at 3:50 and start working immediately as expected, I don't get paid for those first 10 minutes. I know if I clock out at 10:40 it doesn't round to 10:45. It gets rounded down to 10:30. My general manager confirmed that over text. This means I lose up to 28 minutes in my wages every shift.
I know this is wage theft. They did not notify me that they changed the time clocks. When I was first employed, I was paid from when I clocked in to when I clocked out. I wasn’t aware that it was rounding down my hours for a few months. I believe that I'm owed a couple of hundreds of dollars in unpaid wages. I'm planning to send these screen shots to the labour board but I'm not very hopeful anything will happen.
TLDR: my employer is rounding down my hours so he can pay me less.

Image credits: Lemonloid

#22 Unprofessional Maybe?

Image credits: RevolutionaryItem487

#23 I Wasn't Necessarily Against This Until He Made Two People Flip A Coin For Their Skin Tone

Image credits: soccer--girl

#24 My Boss Only Replies 'Ok Thanks' To All Of My Texts. Even Questions

Image credits: queriesandqueries123

#25 So Unprofessional

UPDATE: I just received an email from my boss but it’s worded weirdly: “Dear, I’m so sorry you didn’t receive the text message that was sent out to the team” She then goes on to say my shift time today has changed and asks if I can come in earlier, and that we’ll discuss what happened during the shift. Sounds like she’s blaming me? Sorry YOU didn’t receive the text. Excuse me? You didn’t add me to the list of recipients. How is it my fault.

Image credits: CloudPast

#26 Boss Texts Like A Clingy Partner On My Days Off

Trying to tell myself her urgency isn’t my emergency. These notes aren’t even that important, and are actually ones SHE HERSELF is supposed to write.

Image credits: SadDadRadDad

#27 How My Boss Asks Me To Work 21 Days Straight

We have 7 routes and 11 drivers. These guys thought it was a good idea to let 3 drivers take a vacation spanning over 3 months. All 3 will be gone at the same time over the next month. So what's their plan? Try to make other drivers work for almost a month straight to pick up the slack. Needless to say, it hasn't gone over well. Now the boss and production manager get to drive a couple nights a week as well as work the day shift.

Image credits: Sm0key_Bear

#28 My Mum Has Stage 4 Cancer In 5 Areas And Her Boss Has Been Pressuring Her To Come Back To Work

This email might lot look like much but every other week there’s something, and no emotional support or kindness offered at all.

Image credits: disneydoll96

#29 Former Boss Ghosts Me After I Ask About Not Getting Paid

This is after I've been sending daily emails to finance and management since last Friday.

Image credits: sourmysoup

#30 My Boss Doesn’t Think This Needs To Be Changed And I’ve Only Swept Half The Store

Image credits: feelsonline

#31 Tried To Quit My Job And They Said No

Image credits: WorthlessFloor

#32 Just Some Important Points Before Applying For This Job

Image credits: _lakshay

#33 My Boss “Cleaned My Desk” Aka Threw Everything Out. I Had To Go Digging In The Trash To Get My Personal Items, Along With Client Files, Receipt Records, Etc

Image credits: BabyYodaTM