Here’s a new and improved list of 10 stupid things our bad bosses have done. Compiled from the true life submissions of readers, and from my own personal bad boss horror stories, the list is a Monday morning must read, if only to help you feel better about your own bad boss…
- As CEO, give your annual state of the company address loaded. Fully loaded. The following two quarters, do it again; include staggering and slurred speech for effect. As if that weren’t enough, stumble into the lap of your assistant in front of a room full of employees. Good times.
- Completely revamp the company’s sales structure. Give it three months to work, then revamp it again. Repeat every quarter for three years. Then when, as a direct result of your restructuring, half the sales force quits, systematically get rid of everyone who reports to you, blaming the company’s abysmal state on them.
- When morale is at an all time low, throw weekly potluck luncheons, blindly believing that employees will be so busy binge eating they won’t realize the CEO is drunk, the VP is insane and the HR manager is off her meds. Oh yes, send intimate gifts to your male subordinate and promote him shortly after. No one will suspect a thing.
- Call the marketing manager on a Friday night to ask her about warehouse inventory levels and why product hasn’t shipped. When she reminds you that she’s marketing and not purchasing/warehouse/sales or anything remotely related to what you’re asking, insist loudly and repeatedly that she should “know everything that’s going on with the company!”
- Insist that female employees where pantyhose, even in 100 degree weather. Conduct unannounced pantyhose checks and clandestine trashcan searches just because you can.
- While you’re at work, have the police come looking for you to investigate your passing of counterfeit bills. Leave abruptly through the back door, for an “appointment”, when you notice the officers entering the building. Don’t tell your staff you’re leaving so that the cops suspect them too. (Refer to Mark Sanford’s Disappearing Act for detailed disappearing instructions.)
- Use a clown nose and Dr. Seuss hat as props during your annual address to board members. Be hung-over when you give your presentation. As an added bonus, chug ice water directly from the water pitcher on the table in front of you. “Resign” the following week.
- At your first meeting with your racially diverse staff, begin the conversation with “the first time I ever met a black person was in college.” Convince yourself that there’s nothing wrong with introducing yourself with that statement because, you know, one of your best friends is black.
- Use the Jim Jones cult’s mass suicide by Kool-aid as a motivational tool. Continually encourage employees to “drink the Kool-aid” even after their eyes widen in fear, and they contemplate lodging a complaint with the EEOC.
- Do not take the time to remember the names of any of your employees. Instead, refer to them by their race/ethnic group/body type, i.e.: the black guy, the Asian, that fat chick.
Submit your true stories of stupid things your bosses have done to denised@reallybadboss.com, or leave them right here in the comment section.


It seems as though politicians are falling all over themselves to display tool-like behavior. If we could unilaterally present the award to the architects of the birther movement and the healthcare town hall showdowns, we would. But, in keeping with tradition, we’ll give the award to a single individual who’s recently displayed very tool-like behavior.
We kind of tread lightly on this one, after all she was the victim. But we had a hard time believing that this extremely intelligent, highly paid woman would be duped into living in abject poverty by her fake Rockefeller husband. Here’s how we saw it back in June…
RNC Chair Michael Steele continues to do everything in his power to attract minorities to the Republican Party. And by attract, we mean swear them off for life. He seems to be aiming for a Really Bad Boss Lifetime Achievement Award, and if he keeps it up, he’ll get several. In his seven months as RNC Chair, Steele has done the following – Suggested that hosting hip hop rallies was the key to recruiting a younger, more diverse following for the Republican party. Declares there’ll be
Nevada’s Republican Senator John Ensign is the latest publicly elected figure caught up and out engaging in an extramarital affair. It’s becoming rote. The headlines can practically write themselves.” Insert politican/public leader /CEO name here, has affair with 30ish assistant/campaign staff member/former model.” In fact, it’s so common that this “news” almost didn’t make it as a post. But then I started thinking. The fact that extramarital affairs by public leaders have become so commonplace that it’s no longer news…is news. Read our take on it back in June
the camp – We know that members only (often code for whites only) clubs still exist. But the fact that the president of one of these clubs (a club that advertises open membership) issues the following statement after members complain about black children swimming in their pool, reminds us that stupid is a club with more members than it can handle:
Don’t cry for me Argentina – Well, as
This is happening waaaay too often – These politicians are keeping me busy. Last week while I was lollygagging about up north minding my own business, yet another Senator admitted to having sexay times with someone other than his wife, practically begging me to write about him here.


