Most of us have worked for an idiot boss at some point. Someone who makes your blood boil with their incompetence but is also so clueless that you can’t help but laugh at them. Just like Michael Scott from The Office.
In this AskReddit article, office workers share when their boss most reminded them of the one and only Michael Scott.
Do you have a similar story? If so, share it in the comments.
#1. That’s perfect
“I handed him an aerial image I had printed. He told me I needed to reprint it and rotate it 180. I walked to my cubicle, waited a minute, handed it back to him right side up. His reply, “Perfect.”
#2. Ridiculous
“We had mice. Boss man was terrified of mice and a total skinflint who didn’t want to pay for an exterminator. His big idea (I shit you not!) was to give me cotton to put in my ears and a blow horn. He then opened the back door, closed all other doors in the little shop, and I had to attempt to herd mice out of the store with a f****** air horn, with cotton balls sticking out of my ears.
I tried to explain why it wouldn’t work, but he essentially told me not to worry my pretty little head over it, and that was my entire afternoon. Most ridiculous s*** I’ve ever done at a job ever before, and ever since.”
#3. Let’s have cake!
“It was this guy’s last day with the company, and the managers brought in a cake for everyone to share. A very nice farewell gesture.
Except he wasn’t moving to a new city or leaving the company for a new job. He had gotten fired. The managers literally fired this guy, then called everyone into the kitchen and said “Okay, today is Steve’s last day with the company, let’s have some cake!” Most oblivious, socially awkward, tone deaf moment imaginable.”
#4. Stand back
“My boss makes me walk 2 meters behind him because I’m tall and he’s short.”
#5. Classy
“After a successful project, owner of the company invited everyone out to lunch (about 12 employees) at a nearby restaurant by the office. Little did she know, the place was very expensive, so she bounces early before the check comes, stating that she had a client call. She gives us money to pay for her meal and takes off, leaving the rest of us to figure out the check. It also turns out she didn’t give us enough money to pay for her potion of the check so someone had to throw in a few extra bucks to cover that.”
#6. I wouldn’t appreciate that…
“Mandatory Staff Appreciation Day.
It fell on my day off, and I had to come in, to participate in the team-building activities that were scheduled. It went from 7am to 7pm, which was longer than a normal shift. That was my only day off that week.”
#7. Do you feel included?
“I used to work graveyards. Once a month I was required to come in on Friday afternoon for a staff meeting at 1PM. This was essentially forcing me to come into work at 3AM for regular people, just so I “felt included in the warehouse”.
Also, since I did not work Friday/Saturday nights, it was essentially having me show up on a normal persons Saturday at 3AM. She had the gall to yell at me for showing up in my pajamas, and not proper warehouse clothing….”
#8. That’s mine now
“A few coworkers and I competed in a local Office-themed trivia contest. We came in second place, and one of the prizes was a “World’s Best Boss” mug. We brought it into work and displayed it proudly like a trophy in one of our offices. My boss–who was not involved in the contest, has never seen The Office, is not friends with or well-liked by any of us, and is a huge idiot–saw the mug in someone else’s office and just took it. None of us could figure out where it had gone until we saw her drinking out of it.”
#9. Nice move
“My boss put candles in his dishwasher to clean them and they ended up melting and distributing a thin layer of wax over everything.”
#10. Just like the show
“We legitimately had to lay off 4 people last year, and management decided to wait until the day before the Halloween office party to do it. No joke. It was like the Halloween episode in real life.”
#11. Look of defeat
“I had a boss who got a promotion to senior manager. The very next day he pulled into the parking lot with a BMW 1-Series. No one on my team even knew they made a 1 series (cheapest possible BMW/badge car). He gets out wearing a BMW polo and a white BMW hat. He offered to take me to lunch in it.
He jumps on the highway, adjusts his BMW hat and says to me, “I don’t exactly do 60 in this thing!” does a little triumphant laughter and starts going 80. There was a cop on the bridge above us. We were immediately pulled over. I will never forget the look of defeat on his face.”
#12. A big grump
“This is a story from my brother. He works at a credit union and one morning around 10 his boss walks out of his office asking if anyone wants the other half he cut off of this huge bran muffin he had for breakfast. Everyone there said they were fine and the boss went back into his office.
Later, around 12, an employee comes in for her shift with a box full of doughnuts to share with the office. Everyone came up and took one thanking the employee for bringing in the treat. The boss was visibly mad that everyone went for the doughnuts and no one wanted his half of his bran muffin. He was just a big grump for the rest of the day.”
#13. What are the chances?
“Wore a tuxedo at work lunch to give out superlative type rewards. The lunch was at a local sports bar.
He had never seen The Office.”
#14. Call me by this name
“My manager tried to get the nickname he had chosen for himself to catch on. The nickname in question was “Hollywood”. He would introduce himself to new workers/visitors/etc. as Hollywood, one of us would say “no one calls him that” and he would just be like “well…. everyone calls me that.”
#15. I got this
“As a blizzard approached, he offered to drive home anybody who needed a ride because he’d just bought a new “badass” Hummer H2 that “could drive through anything”.
And hour later, he and three of my coworkers are sitting in his new SUV in a snow drift on the side of the road, waiting for the wife of one of them to pick them up.”
