We’ve all been there and worked a terrible job with an even worse boss. As you’re looking for a solution, and you ask your mother she’ll probably say, “this is just a stepping stone in your life, honey” and your father, “just stick it out”.
It looks like the following AskReddit users took their parents advice, in their responses to the question, ‘What is the most unreasonable thing an employer has asked you to do?
Interested in more responses? Peep the original Reddit thread at the end of the article. And if you’re still looking for a solution for your “boss problem”, listen to your mother and father. If that doesn’t work I say… QUIT! Life’s too short.
I had a boss who expected her subordinates to refrain from using the toilet until after the deadline had passed. It was to the point that if you tried to go to the washroom she would tell you to sit back down and hold it because “that’s what I’m doing”.
Girl, if you choose to do so, good for you, but don’t expect the rest of us to suffer.
dottmatrix
When I was younger I worked for a sub-contractor who was a sloped roofer. He told me he didn’t have workers insurance if I fell off the roof. He told me if I fell off the roof, he’d drive me to the hospital and I was supposed to tell them I was hit by a car.
I tell that story to people now, and they can’t believe it.
The_UnApologist
Just this week I got told off by my boss for working 7 days in a row. If that happens the 7th day is overtime and I get paid double. But I was asked if I could come in on a day off, I agreed. No rules were broken, if I want the work then I have every right to say yes to an offered shift.
He then told me I could only work 3 days this week to avoid overtime again, but my contract has me on for 5 days and he can’t override it without breaking policy.
He also tried to avoid paying me for overtime, but another manager called him out on it. This is the second time that I’ve heard he’s tried to do something like that to me. I’m hoping I get this new job so I can nuke the bridges and tell him off.
chillyfeets
Take responsibility for $300.00 that my boss stole from the register. And lie that we had less inventory than delivered because she was drinking in the freezer during work hours. I quit two weeks later.
mermaidshowers
Over the phone with my managers’ manager:
Manager: “You’re working the weekend, right?”
Me: “No.”
Manager: “You’re working the weekend.”
Me: “No.”
Manager: “It needs doing.”
Me: “No. Ask someone who wants to.”
Manager: “The project will fall behind.”
Me: “At minimum wage, I really don’t care.”
Manager: “Would you like disciplinary then?”
Me: “Would you like me to send a recording of this call to Human Resources?”
Manager: “What? Don’t lie to ME, I’m putting you on disciplinary.”
Me: “I’ll see you in the office then.”
Go to the office, give a recording of the call to H.R and manager gets disciplinary. I was only an apprentice and it absolutely wrecked him. The project was behind anyway and lost about 20 grand.
PaulyBauls
We planned our family vacation weeks in advance and made reservations.
We were leaving Saturday morning. Thursday afternoon my boss calls me into his office. “This project is running late. You need to cancel your vacation.”
“No can do.”
“You don’t understand! This deadline is coming up, you knew it was. You’ll have to work. Take your vacation another time.”
“Sorry. I have reservations I’d lose money on, but I would take the vacation in any event. My whole family is looking forward to this, and I need it. I will return refreshed and ready to work in a week and a half.”
He kept pushing, I kept pushing back. Finally, he dismissed me.
An hour later he dragged me back to his office. This time the Vice President was there. The boss again tells me that I have to work instead of going on vacation, again I say that I will not. The VP is more polite, saying this is very important, could I put off my vacation as a favor to him, later on, you can take that much time and more.
I began to mention various parts of the company handbook on vacation policy. The VP looked uncomfortable. My boss started to say something, but the VP cut him off: “Enjoy your vacation, introspeck, see you when you get back.”
introspeck
In college, I worked at a fast food Mexican restaurant. We were required to show up ten minutes early, start work, then clock in when our shift started. We got yelled at if we forgot to clock in on time.
In addition, I was the only employee who couldn’t speak Spanish and there were three who couldn’t speak English so I was told that to keep my job I needed to learn Spanish. Not a bad idea for personal growth, but seems like a big undertaking for a job that paid $3.35 and hour.
Luckily I soon found another job that paid $4.65 an hour so I was living the high life.
SaintJohn00
I was a lifeguard at a waterpark. With slides and high metal towers and all that stuff.
As a rule, we are not allowed to leave our post unless it’s for a rescue or evacuation (due to the weather being bad). When that happens, we would get the call on our radios.
In the middle of a lightning storm, the owner of the place wouldn’t give the ok to evacuate patrons from the slides and pools. It was getting unnerving being at the top of a glorified lightning rod (the patrons who stayed despite the wind, rain, cold, and lightning seemed to care more about “getting their money’s worth” than the potential danger of lightning mixed with water…but I digress)
Anyhow, eventually the lifeguards got sick of feeling unsafe, so we evacuated the place ourselves. The owner was not happy, but what was he gonna do? Fire all of us in the middle of the season?
RosemarysFetus
I worked in a grocery store meat department and just had to clean up all the equipment and the back room. It was a lengthy job but boss insisted that I only needed 4 hours to do this. I also had to serve customers and package their meat and what not. Keep in mind, I was the only person in the department for each of those shifts. One day I had a pretty nasty cold, coughing with a runny nose so I hit him up a good 8 hours in advance (minimum is 4 hrs prior to starting the shift) saying I can’t come in because it’s just not hygienic. He says I need to find a person to cover me or I need to come in. There are only 2 other people in my position, both of which said they were busy. I told him this and he said: “well it looks like you need to come in then.” I say “fine, I’ll be sure to have a chat with the store manager before my shift”. That set him straight and he told me he will find someone. It just pissed me off that managers think they can force our hand and think we won’t do anything about it, especially since I was 18 at the time. You better believe I’m taking that nonsense to the big boss, especially when it involves germs and food.
fin_ss
I worked at Circuit City, I was asked to open a new computer, create the recovery disk, and make several copies of it to sell as a copy of Windows XP. Didn’t do it. Was fired soon after.
Talbertross
Asked me to work off the clock.
Forget you, pay me.
TheRealGunn
Get customers through the drive-thru in under a minute.
Customers didn’t want to get through the drive-thru in under a minute. Instead, they wanted to look in their bag and make sure all the food was in there and unwrap the straw and put the straw in their cup. Then put the cup in the cupholder and make sure their bag of food was settled securely and put their wallet away and check their phone and then drive away.
choixpeau
During college, I worked part-time delivering flowers for a florist.
Knowing I was a music major, the owner of the business decided to offer “singing messages” for Valentine’s Day deliveries (at an extra charge to customers).
People would compose things to be sung (many of them were corny) with the flowers to be delivered.
I told the boss that I was a keyboard major, not a voice major – he said: “It didn’t matter: either sing it or wing it.”
It worked out fine, though, because most of the women I delivered to loved my singing and personal touch (I made much more in tips, too!).
Back2Bach
Boss asked me to colorize a photo of his mother and photoshop her features to make her look more like his wife.
Rumpleshite
Had a supervisor once get one of those bells you’d ring a desk clerk for and expected me to run over every time he rang it. I was pretty young at the time and wasn’t 100% sure if he was serious (he was).
The68Guns
I work in a healthcare facility. While overall we provide great care, we have a few bad apples working there. One of those bad apples is the lady who runs the kitchen. Last week, she served spoiled milk to our patients. When I went to her to resolve the matter, she flipped out on me. She even yelled at my boss about how I was being disrespectful.
The thing is, I’m just a Certified Nursing Assistant (for now; getting my Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing) and I have zero power at work. I only make $13 an hour and that salary is soo low that I won’t EVER compromise my values for that company. I’m sorry, lady, I won’t compromise my values for $13 an hour.
On the plus side, despite expecting to get in trouble over this, I did not. In fact, management actually likes me more because I stood up for our patients against this terrible woman (that they’ve all been having to deal with, too). So I stood up for my patients, gained some allies in management, and feel good about myself!
But seriously, don’t serve spoiled milk to sick people and expect me to go along with it.
Damn_Dog_Inappropes
Worked in a shop that did sound and lighting gear. We had a “things to do” list which was busy tasks, and one was to clean the fog machines.
This is done by running distilled water through the machine as opposed to the usual fog fluid. Only, we didn’t have distilled water in the shop. I ask the owner (it was a small shop) to buy some and this goes on for weeks.
Finally, I just bought a bottle at the store when I went for lunch one day. I finish the task and then begin to pour the remainder of the bottle out off the back loading dock.
The owner FREAKS out, starts yelling “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” and I stop. He’s the cheapest person that I’ve ever come across. So, I say:
“What? I’m just dumping it”
“DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS COSTS!”…
“Ya, about $2.50”
“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS! I DIDN’T TELL YOU TO DUMP IT OUT!”
“Well, I paid for it, and I choose to dump it”
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE DOING THIS! STOP NOW! I’D PAY YOU FOR IT”
“Naw, I think I’m happier dumping this out”
This was just one of many stories like this. I strived to give this man a self-inflicted heart attack from losing his mind about wasting money.
ilovedillpickles
Boss: “You can’t take that day off to spend time with your family who flew across the Pacific to visit you for 2 days because I have to take that day off to take my dog out to a park event.”
Quit the job on that requested day and the boss missed her dog park party.
fartingbulletz
I was the marketing manager and we had a stall at a major computer exhibition and I was to host and run a bingo giveaway. I got a buddy to get a professional sound house to loan us a P.A system, mixer, and mics.
A few months later my boss told me his in-laws were visiting and he wanted to host a party for a weekend. He asked if I can get a P.A system free of charge. I got the package and installed it with his brother in his garden. He was meant to disassemble it every night and bring it indoors. I came back from Christmas vacation and he left the P.A out for a week. He insisted he did bring it in but as we loaded it into my Jeep condensation was dripping from inside the speakers and mixer. I’ve never been so angry.
I offered to pay damages but they didn’t take it. Screw my boss.
DirtySingh
One of the schools I worked for put a lot of pressure on me and other teachers to give failing seniors a ‘D’ grade so that they would pass and they wouldn’t have to deal with it.
It would be one thing if I had a student with a 59% in just my class, but we’re talking about multiple students, who had percentages in single digits in multiple classes and the principal told us, “Oh, just pass them.”
SalemScout
Use to work at a service department where we often loaned cars out to customers. Sometimes the guys at the front desk were slack and forgot to get the customer to fill in the loan vehicle paperwork. We received a speeding fine for a vehicle and couldn’t locate the paperwork to link it to a customer. Manager at the time asked if I could take responsibility for the fine, he would cover the cost but I would have to wear the demerit points for it. Told him no for obvious reasons.
monkeybananafart
Marry his cousin for citizenship.
JiveBomber