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Dealing with someone on a power trip is NO FUN AT ALL.
When I got my first “real job” at a fast-food taco place when I was in high school, my manager was a total nightmare who wielded the little power she had over us kids like an iron fist. Keep in mind, this was a FAST-FOOD TACO PLACE IN KANSAS.
Yeah, she was headed for big things…the good news is, she got fired because us youngsters basically staged a mutiny and the owner liked us better anyway.
Winning!
AskReddit users shared their annoying stories dealing with this phenomenon.
1. Legit scared.
“I ran a movie theater. One guy was told to go and do a theater check, which was basically ensure the emergency exit was closed and that no one was doing anything unruly.
Dude really got off on telling people to put their feet down. He was studying to go into law enforcement. I was legit scared by how much he delighted in getting into people’s faces because he felt he had real authority in this scenario.”
2. That didn’t take long.
“I left a kid “in charge” of the classroom while I stepped outside for two minutes to consult with an administrator.
I came back and he had a list of everyone who needed to be suspended.”
3. You’re reprimanded!
“At my company of 80 people we have an “HR assistant” that is inexplicably in charge of the receptionist. She does nothing but make the receptionists life miserable, and has for the previous 4/4 receptionists.
She’ll reprimand them for: their clothes, posture, smiling too much, not enough, arrangement of workspace, cleanliness of workspace, keeping water at the desk, keeping food at the desk, using the bathroom too much, etc. It’s like she saves all her anger in her whole life and takes it out on the only person who is obligated to listen to her.”
4. Perceived power.
“I work on a team of programmers.
One of the guys is terrible, and screws up all his projects. But for some reason he’s never been fired, and he’s been with the company forever.
Somehow, he got it into his head that he had “seniority”. So whenever the boss would be out of town for a day, or call in sick, he’d immediately start walking around asking people what they’re working on and assigning them tasks, as if he were the manager.
The actual manager eventually sent the whole team an email clarifying that if somebody was going to be left in charge, she would let us know.
His tiny amount of perceived power was completely removed.”
5. Owning up to it.
“When I was the assistant manager at a pizza place. No one teenager should have all that power.”
6. Master of the library.
“Teacher here: We had a school librarian here who berated the children about the most minor infractions and even questioned kids about why they wanted a particular book. She would often yell, “this is MY library.” The kids called her Conan.”
7. A big shot.
“You’d think the guy driving the miniature car that writes tickets for meter violations in my town was Ghengis freaking Khan.”
8. This is a weird one.
“Mom had a house-cleaner that came every 2 weeks for about 3-4 hours each visit.
The cleaner would rearrange Mom’s things, including items in her “curio cabinet,” kitchen cabinets/counters, and other personal areas (like her jewelry box, figurines, and hygiene items in the bathroom).
When Mom asked her to please stop doing that, the cleaning lady said: “This is how I do things. If you don’t like it, find someone else!””
9. Little dictator.
“One guy at McDs when we were all 16/17 on the tills. He was given an extra 20p per hour and after that even Hitler would have tipped his hat
He genuinely thought he was being fast tracked to franchise owner or something. Watched us all like hawks, snitched on us for anything he didn’t like.”
10. Hahaha, this is so true.
“Pretty much any volunteer at a convention. One guy told my friends the empty hallway outside their room roughly 30 stories above the covention floor was a walkway and not a standway and they needed to move.
He couldn’t understand why everyone just started laughing. They weren’t even there that long, someone was just trying to find their badge.”
11. I want to meet this guy.
“I was in a Ren Fair group. One asshole was the assistant guildmaster–he handled the fees and membership paperwork, because the main guildmaster didn’t want to.
He lorded that over other people. Be nice to him, or maybe your paperwork suddenly went missing, or dues payment didn’t go through. He was also severely overweight and ugly as sin, so when he hit on a girl and she shot him down, he suddenly made things uncomfortable for her–which caused a few women to leave. Also, weirdly enough, her paperwork got lost, or her dues didn’t go through somehow.
I’m so glad I got out of that group.”
12. “She’s the worst.”
“This old lady who is allowed to control the traffic at my kids’ elementary school at pick-up time. She has hundreds of traffic cones and blocks off all the spots she doesn’t think people should park. Most of the places she blocks are actual legal places to park. She supposedly has permission from the PD to do this and no one questions her.
She doesn’t work for the school, she’s a volunteer. I’ve seen her get in dozens of confrontations with people, including me, because her rules are ridiculous. She’s told me straight-up that it’s the only thing in her life she has control over so she goes way over the top. She’s the worst.”
13. The final straw.
“Cub Scouts parent committee. As a young man, I was an assistant Cub leader. The parent committee was worse than the kids. I finally quit when they started a heated battle over who was going to pay for a $2 spatula.”
14. A bully for life.
“Hadn’t seen the local neighborhood bully in 30 years. Took my GF and her kids rolling skating at a place that’s been around forever (my first time there) Local bully was there and had graduated to roller “security”. He was an absolute ass.
Cruising around on his skates like he owned the place harassing and tossing people off the floor for having fun. It was embarrassing to say that even I knew his name.”
15. Just like Del Boca Vista.
“Homeowner’s associations.
When we first moved to Florida my parents bought a house in an upper-middle class subdivision. My dad decided we’d build an external garage and have a driveway perpendicular to the street in front of the house, and submitted details for approval per the HOA agreement.
They came back and disapproved, saying they insisted the driveway should instead of perpendicular make a gentle curve of around 45 degrees, longer of course than just a straight shot of pavement which would cost us more.
Another time while living at a condo complex with my then girlfriend, we decided to live together but unfortunately she owned a dog and the complex wouldn’t allow it. We gave the dog to a dear friend of hers, and I decided I’d actually run to become a board member of the condo association.
Sadly nothing came of it. I made a case for allowing small dogs, of charging dog owners extra to keep them on the property, but the board of mostly retirees and a couple of younger working people wouldn’t budge.
While these associations can be helpful for stuff like using fees you pay them for upkeep of common areas, landscaping, laundry rooms, and with the condos covering any roof maintenance, unfortunately people with way too much time on their hands tend to gravitate to these positions and some relish their wee bit of power way too much.”
Ugh, just reading about these people pisses me off.
Have you experienced something like this in your life?
If so, please share your stories with us in the comments! We’d love to hear from you!
