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BTQ profile picture

BTQ

Account Manager

Politicker
Catalyst
Valued Contributor
+7

Who was your worst boss and why?

Figured this would be a fun topic to visit. Let's dig up old trauma and vent about awful bosses.


Fortunately for me, my VP of sales is pretty cool and I haven't had any issues so I don't have anything to share sales related.


Anyone got a story they wanna get off their chest?


Edit: fixed title so grammar nazis won't get a stroke

🐱 Off-Topic
🏰 War Stories
22

38 comments

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antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
8
Bravado's Resident Asshole
Idk if I have had a super bad boss, but a quality that I absolutely HATE is MICROMANAGEMENT
BTQ
Politicker
4
Account Manager
Yeah man that shit drove me up a WALL at my last gig. I was a social media manager for a news site and everytime I posted something I would get told "it's wrong" and delete it. Then I was told I'm taking to long to post....drove me nuts.
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
3
Bravado's Resident Asshole
well they don't have any power over you now. so fuckem
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
2
Bravado's Resident Asshole
on the other hand.. I'm 100% positive that I would fall under the category of asshole managers/bosses for my former employees. I just didn't let shit slide, but I still didn't micromanage.
BTQ
Politicker
1
Account Manager
Anything come to mind you wanna confess your sins for lol?
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
2
Bravado's Resident Asshole
I made people cry because I pointed out their laziness and then they would wonder why their hours got cut. This is all during my restaurant days btw.

I would then continue to show them that 1 person could do the job of 4 people in less time, just to show them what real effort/work looked like.

Please keep in mind, this isn't the initial approach I had either as I would come from an empathetic angle first to walk them through training and whatnot.
BTQ
Politicker
1
Account Manager
Oh dude. I get that 100%. I actually help a restaurant out with some dishwashing shifts here and there. Lazy ass mfers, we've been saying it for centuries but people really don't want to work anymore.
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
1
Bravado's Resident Asshole
Man, I would absolutely crush it in the kitchen. Back when I worked at Panda Express, I would be the only person in the kitchen(a big no-no but I was short staffed) and I would run that kitchen like no one's business.
jefe
Arsonist
2
🍁
100%. The worst 2 I've had were toxic micromanagers - such a winning combination.
HappyGilmore
Politicker
4
Account Executive
First boss right out of college. Didn't have much of a grip around not only getting new reps trained, but also on how to manage their day to day. That probably explained why in my fourth month, he transitioned to a different department.
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
4
Sales Rep
I had one really bad micromanager, will do a Teams Video Call between 730am-7pm without messaging me. Would suggest working on Saturdays if not tracking prez club, would jump on all client calls and discount the deal away. She would also lie to clients to get them to sign, then I would have to deal with them being angry.
Would have been there for awhile if it wasnt for her
SalesBeast
Politicker
4
Sales Leader
Had a chair thrown in my direction towards me with one boss.
Another would tell me my emails were bad (read every email) then they would edit them to say exact same thing I had wrote.
One made me work awful hrs doing regular 4am calls 10pm,11pm calls. Then fired me for no reason as top producer.
One told us that replying fast to prospects was a bad look and to pretend to be busy and wait a day to reply to prospects asking questions.

Last one, on Xmas eve, made me and the coworkers that had left 10 minutes early drive back into the office and sit in our desks for 10 minutes to prove a point then leave.
BTQ
Politicker
3
Account Manager
What a grinch
Mclovin
Opinionated
3
Sales Manager
When your boss doesn't know how to actually sell?
In my last org where we grew fast, we had an AE who was only senior due to his age. The guy walked in the door and got promoted in 2 months. to lead sales in EU. It was usual that the guy would only small talk, keep us updated on UK football, and blabber non-stop.

snakeoil salemen only know how to elevate their own status
HVACexpert
Politicker
2
sales engineer
My thing has been how many I’ve had. I had 8 managers over about 10 years and 2 companies. And those don’t count interim managers that covered while a manager was being replaced .
BTQ
Politicker
2
Account Manager
Damn that's quite a lot for only two companies.
HVACexpert
Politicker
2
sales engineer
I did change jobs at the first company so if you go by jobs/divisions it was;

First division: two jobs, three managers over 4 years
Second division: one job, two managers over 3 years

Second company, same job and division: 3 managers over 3.5 years.
js2458
Politicker
2
Enterprise SDR
First job I had out of college. Made the mistake of joining a super small startup with little/no backing in the market.

CEO was out of his mind. Bipolar, yelled and screamed at you one day, then super pleasant another day. So many stories about this job; my family thought the office was a front for the CIA (my CEOs family had been part of the CIA for awhile)

Highlights included:
- Trip to Sweden despite company miserably failing and having to run a 70 person conference with two other college students while the CEO went and slept in his room
- CEO called me and another coworker in at 3am on a Saturday because we left on time the day before and weren’t motivated enough
- Three proclaimed investors, all of whom “mysteriously” disappeared right as we were about to receive funding. My favorite excuse was: the investors cousin jumped off a building and he needs to take care of that first
- CEO and Head of HR were married
- Missed payrolls multiple times. Thankfully, I was fully paid eventually but not without my CEO threatening to sue me for stolen property (I refused to give back the company computer until I was paid)
- Currently, there is a lawsuit on him by former employees as he has yet to pay about 100k worth in salary

Lesson learned: check Glassdoor before you apply to a job. It’s at 1.8 stars rn with 31 reviews for the company so I should have known better.
BTQ
Politicker
4
Account Manager
>CEO married to Head of HR
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Well, since it's expected of either me or @Fenderbaum , it's going to be either: "Who was your worst BOSS and why?" or "Who WERE your worst bosses and why?", not some unholy combination of the two.
BTQ
Politicker
2
Account Manager
Yeah the grammar was half assed between cold calls this afternoon. But since you're here... who was your worst boss and why?
Sunbunny31
Politicker
3
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Brought in his "my way or the highway" approach to our company after being at a company famous for absolute garbage management. So rolled out the tech "oversaturation" strategy that ensured reps would never get a whiff of their quota, had no idea of the market we were working in so couldn't understand exactly how badly we'd been set up to fail, and never once went to bat for one of his reps with management up the line.
Coming off the best year I'd ever had, it was a culture shock as well as an overall shock. Single worst year I've ever had in sales due to poor decisions all the way along the line from an entire sales management org that didn't give a single crap about their sales team.
Fenderbaum
Politicker
2
Retired Choirboy🪕
Yeah Bunny, the WR has been slipping lately. 🧐
wolfofmiami
Opinionated
2
🐺
I had one founder who was the worst. if it wasn't his way, it was no way. He asked me if I could have any car in the world what would it be and I said an Aston Martin DB11 he said no you wouldnt you'd have a Tesla, I said no I dont like electric cars he proceeded to argue with me abt the car I want over the next 30 minutes. He asked me questions like this every meeting I had with him which was roughly 3 times a week. I was only there for a month bc they went bankrupt. I wonder why
lowhangersalesbanger
Executive
2
Director of Sales
I had this manager at the last job I quit who micromanaged the shit out of me. But just me. Because I was griping to some team members about it and they were like "she doesn't do that to us". It was a throwaway sdr job I took just for some additional income in the short term so I wasn't super attached to it. After I quit one of my team members figured out she had some inferiority issues and didn't like that my peers came to me for advice instead of her.
Her Resume:
SDR
SDR Trainer
My Resume:
SDR
SDR Manager
AE
Sales Manager
DOS
Entrepeneur
Apparently I was in a "d" measuring contest and didn't know it until after I left. But I left directly because of the micromanagement.
BTQ
Politicker
1
Account Manager
Ahhh the SDR "trainer" title. Lemme guess was her advice of the effect of: "send more emails make more calls" lol?
snacks
Opinionated
2
AE
I once had a boss (who I actually really respected and admired) fire me and tell me I would be better suited for a non client facing role, something where I could work by myself. I guess I rubbed some people the wrong way at that company.

It was early in my career and it was like a catalyst for a mental breakdown. I took that feedback to heart..and felt worthless because even while I disagreed with them, they were far more experienced so maybe they were right?

Fast forward to pivoting industries: overachieving quota, working in a client facing role, and proving them wrong. I remember I had an interview once where they asked, "why'd you get into sales" and after I told them the story said, "love a sales rep with a chip on their shoulder" lol.

Sometimes your worst boss just shows you the kind of person you never want to become.
GDO
Politicker
1
BDM
First time manager who was an extreme micromanager.
Coffeesforclosers
Notable Contributor
1
Director Sales and Market Development
Assumptive in plural bosses not boss, what makes you think that i would end up in same bad situation twice (ps i did, lol). Micromanagement and scorboard pointing vs figuring out the business challenges and coming off their high horse to actually fix shit.
BTQ
Politicker
2
Account Manager
Yeah I really screwed the grammar up on this one but hey people got the message lol.
Coffeesforclosers
Notable Contributor
1
Director Sales and Market Development
totally busting chops, i have had several, you nailed it lol
Phillip_J_Fry
Opinionated
1
Director of Revenue
You're unlocking some PTSD for me here lol.
Worked as a sales manager for 6 years, reporting to the same guy, when we had a reorg happen, and I get a new district manager overnight.

Dude was weird from the get-go and had not just drank the corporate kool-aid, but beer bong chugged it.

This guy would drive 4 hours every day to get to my store. 8 hours of commute every single day. Would leave his house at 3am to get to my store by 7. Would work till 5 and then not get home until 9pm. When I asked why he drove in his personal truck instead of the company vehicles they gave us, he said it was because that would take away from profit for the district.

The guy was an insomniac, sometimes not sleeping for days. And what did he do with all this free time during the night you ask? Well, that time was for combing through inventory reports and invoices, etc.

The worst part is that he would email/text all the sales managers about these reports all night long. You'd get texts every night at 9pm, 11pm, 1am, 230am, 3am, 4am, 6am and then he'd start calling you at 7 am asking why you hadn't responded to the previous messages.
Made it only another 2 months before I quit. Didn't even have another job lined up, that how BAD I wanted out.
BTQ
Politicker
1
Account Manager
See this is the horror story I was looking for.
Diablo
Politicker
1
Sr. AE
My boss when I worked for a small company where he was the owner. He was a shit guy who wanted to know everything every minute of my life in the office hours. Quite killing.
LambyCorn
Arsonist
1
A mfkn E
this mf who told us we are payed to do as he says not to get results. he ltierally said he rathers under performing reps who do as they are told than killers that do what works... insecure little man, david was his name
BTQ
Politicker
3
Account Manager
Fucking david
Beans
Big Shot
0
Enterprise Account Executive
I hated reporting to my old Founder/CEO while scaling a small startups sales team - he just did not get the process.
0
Looking for Enterprise AE roles
Everybody who I didn't learn anything from. Those who led with a mentor/coach mentality were by far the best.
A lot of people say micromanagement, but if you're learning and growing you can get past that BS IMO.

Servant Leadership always wins for me though.

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