Manager Horror Stories

^^ Me reading some of these stories… 

Lately, I’ve been spending time writing about managers. From the good, the bad, and the utterly checked out. 

We’ve talked about their impact, where they’re struggling, and what support they actually need. Shoutout to Jill for being a guest last week and sharing some killer tips! 

But let’s be real: not every manager is a shining beacon of leadership.

So I asked you to share your manager horror stories and wow… y’all delivered.

Let’s dive into some of the worst, weirdest, and most “I can’t believe this sh*t” stories from the front lines of management gone wrong.

The Tale of the Cold-Hearted Boss:

Our employee was about eight months pregnant with two other kids under seven at home. Both kids had Influenza A, then she got it also. Her leader was making her feel guilty about missing work to care for her children, then to care for herself as she was too sick to come to work. Not to mention not wanting to expose her coworkers and concern for how this would affect the child she was carrying. 

Not 100% sure what all he said to her, but to me he made a comment “I don’t understand what the big deal is and why she is claiming to be so stressed. Women’s bodies are made to make kids, nothing will happen.” 

Important information here – this was pre-Covid and this leader didn’t have kids, nor is he ever planning on having kids. 

However, he got an education that day when as soon as he said that, I told him to shut my door and we proceeded to have a discussion about this…

The Tale of the Professionalism Plot Twist:

One of our managers was caught in a compromised situation with another employee within our company during work hours and on property. 

The company determined that since they were both consenting adults no action would be taken. They both got a “hand slap” and one went on to be promoted within the company. Everyone knew about it of course, what a way to promote professionalism!

The Tale of the Vanishing Employee: 

A manager asked if his direct report still worked here because he didn’t see him using one of their systems. 

The direct report had quit 4 weeks prior. 

He had given notice to HR and his manager, and HR had notified the manager of offboarding processes and transfers.

The Tale of the Strategic Saboteur:

We had a senior manager who couldn’t stand the thought that someone might outcompete her in the workplace. So she set people up against each other, undermined their efforts by being unnecessarily critical, and assigned them so much busy-work that they couldn’t get their strategic work done. She assigned ugly tasks in retribution, dropped in for social time during work blocks, and encouraged emotional sharing, while using that as ammunition later.

She suggested that the CEO needed more space to be strategic, so she could handle the people management, and took over all of the CEO’s direct reports, effectively cutting off access to leadership. When things blew up, you would be carefully considering how to explain her behavior to the CEO, but she would already be in there complaining about how you caused an issue.

It took a trusted and valued person leaving to explain to the CEO what was happening, then another two years to change the culture of fear and suspicion after she left. But now our team is glorious and there are a few of us left who occasionally whisper how much better it is than the Before Times.

The Tale of the Accidental CC:

We had a VP email another VP saying they were going to let go of their employee…. 

And they had accidentally cc’ed the employee. 

That email was shared throughout the organization very quickly and was chaos to bring to resolution…

The Tale of the Corporate Stoning:

A former manager scheduled a meeting with stakeholders across our company to discuss all the ways I was doing my job wrong. 

I went in completely blindsided. 

I’ve since referred to that meeting as a biblical stoning. It was humiliating. I would have much rather had her just tell me between the two of us or at the very least let me in on what the meeting was about. 

Even our office associate was invited to the stoning, and later apologized for being there because she didn’t think it was appropriate. I put in my two weeks that same month.

Next week: 

I swear I could’ve shared like 10 more juicy stories… what do you say, do you want them?

If you say yes… I may deliver!!!

But there was a key theme in all these stories… people not being treated right. 

So next week, we’re digging into employees just want to be treated well. 

What does that mean for HR?

Oh so much.