There’s nothing worse than having to work with someone you don’t get along with. You may love your job, but their very presence is enough to send you into an all-out rage. In some instances, some may feel pressured to leave their jobs all for the sake of their sanity. Others, however, finally find the courage to stand up for themselves, not caring about the actions that are soon to follow. In these stories, fed-up workers recall the satisfying moments they stood up to their workplace bully and what happened afterward.
All stories have been edited for clarity.
Hello Mouth, Insert Foot
“About a year ago, our company’s junior partner hired a woman to be the new office manager when our faithful matron retired after thirty years with us. Apparently, the new recruit had wonderful letters of reference that proclaimed her as a gift from the heavens above to the business world.
Indeed, so lucky were we to land her as our newfound ‘guiding light.’
This all took place on a Monday morning during a week when I was off. As I walked into the main office the following Monday I heard an unfamiliar and angry female voice yelling at somebody about being totally useless and incompetent. Looking about I saw this rather tall, slim, middle-aged woman whom I didn’t recognize.
The new office manager was in a rage and yelling at our purchaser, Louise. She looked up, saw me, and went from enraged to ballistic in less than a second.
‘What the HELL do you think you’re doing walking in here at a quarter past seven?’ The new office manager shrieked.
‘Walking in here at a quarter past seven. Next stupid question…?’ I snapped back.
‘We start at 7 AM sharp, not a quarter past!’ The woman was on some sort of overzealous powertrip.
‘I start when I get here, and stay a lot longer than the others,’ I calmly informed the lunatic screaming in my face. ‘Any other questions on how this works?’
Before the new office manager could reply I continued, ‘Actually, I’ll ask the next question; Who in hell are you, and what makes you think you can come in here and scream at Louise, Lady?’
Once I said that the woman became completely unglued on me. Nearly hysterical, the new hire screamed she was the office manager.
‘I will make sure you never call me a ‘lady’ again! You’re fired! I don’t take that from anyone! You hear me?!’
Turning to Louise I asked, ‘Is this nut job always like this?’
‘All day every day, to anybody and everybody it seems,’ Louise grumbled.
Angered now, I leveled a cold glare at the new hire and asked through clenched teeth, ‘You’re that Darlene woman that Mike hired last week?’
‘Yes I am, damn it! And just who the hell are you, PRICK?’ Darlene demanded.
‘I’m the lead product designer and senior partner here, Darlene. You know, the ‘prick’ who signs your paycheck.’
Darlene’s face was priceless. I continued.
‘In fact, I’m about to sign your first and last paycheck right now.’
The silence was deafening.
Darlene suddenly became very subdued and began to explain why I should give her another chance, but I just glared to silence her as I had already made up my mind on the matter. I waved her over to my desk, checked the spelling of her full name, and wrote her up a cheque for exactly one week’s pay.
I then told the now-shaking woman that she had exactly ten minutes to collect her things and get the hell off the property. I also added that if she ever set foot on the property again I’d have her arrested for trespassing.
As a final jab, I turned to Louise and asked, ‘Would you please see to it that Miss Darlene packs up and leaves within ten minutes exactly?’
With her biggest smile, Louise nodded, saying, ‘It will be my pleasure.’
And she did just that, too.”
Sabotage
“I have experienced workplace bullying and I did not handle it well.
A coworker I used to work with started treating me poorly on my very first day at my new job. She was distant and avoided me most of the shift.
It was fine by me because I was not looking to make friends. I just wanted to do my job and go home.
One day, the manager was talking to me about the floor duties and so on. The manager explained that there were advancement opportunities and asked if I had a degree. I confirmed that I graduated from Ohio State with a bachelor’s degree.
Because of that, it put me on the fast track to management, as it was one of the requirements.
The same coworker who was treating me rather poorly was assigned to train me. She intentionally trained me to do things wrong. When the boss would call me into the office regarding my performance and the many errors I did, I would explain that the coworker training me told me to do it the way I did it.
My boss summoned my coworker for an impromptu conference to get down to the bottom of things.
After the sit-down, my coworker immediately went out of her way to sabotage my efforts. She would constantly swipe the keys, interrupt me while I was charting, run into resident rooms and activate the call lights, pull the emergency light in the bathrooms, and she spread rumors about me being inappropriate with the residents.
It all came to a tipping point for me one day when my coworker told my boss a resident fell and the fall wasn’t documented. I ended up being suspended. The boss looked into it and a few days later, I was in the clear because the resident was out of the facility with family at the time of the alleged undocumented fall.
I had reached the end of my rope.
Once I returned to work my coworker was in the breakroom laughing with her cronies when I walked through the door to clock in. She looked up and saw it was me and became apoplectic. My coworker didn’t try to hide the fact that she tried to get me fired. Her look said it all. Her mocking eyes were pressuring me to quit because she would stop at nothing to get me fired.
Incensed, I charged my coworker. I grabbed her by the throat and started violently choking her. At some point, I was lifted off the ground but I still held her by the throat, squeezing for all I was worth.
It seemed like an eternity, but it was only a couple of minutes. I slammed my coworker into the wall, still holding her by the throat. She hit the floor and I just pulled back my foot and kicked the hell out of her. I must have stomped and kicked this ignorant woman for a few minutes before the boss, who was alerted to the situation, came in and tried to assist in breaking the fight up.
I told the boss, ‘She has been trying to get me fired and I don’t know why. I don’t know, I don’t care and I don’t appreciate it. I’m sick and tired of having to deal with her nonsense. I’m fed up,” prompting my boss to pull us both into her office.
Coworker tried to play the victim, claiming I attacked her unprovoked. I was still angry and smacked her in the mouth as she was talking.
Then all that rage and anger burst forth and I started wailing on her. My boss broke it up and sent my coworker out of the room.
The boss returned and sat at her desk.
“Shannon, I’m in good mind to terminate you,” said the boss.
‘Man, do what you have to do. At this point, it doesn’t really matter. She trained me to do everything wrong. She plays all these annoying games and I’m tired of sucking it up,’ I said, angry the boss didn’t seem to acknowledge the fact that my coworker kept trying to get me fired.
I was tired of my coworker talking crap about my appearance, my car, and my weight. I was tired of my coworker spreading rumors that I had an inappropriate relationship with one of the residents.
In the end, I was suspended for a few days. My coworker, however, took a ten-day unpaid vacation.
But when I returned to work, my Coworker avoided me like the plague and didn’t say boo to a cuckoo bird. We were never assigned to work together after that and I was happy.
She eventually got fired a few weeks later.”
Chop Chop!
“The bully in this scenario was the general manager and the person being bullied was a new hire that I was friends with at the time.
Just like any new hire, the guy had zero experience running a flat-top grill and he wasn’t the fastest. The GM called out for a grilled cheese, so I stopped what I was doing to show the new guy how to do it.
Our GM at the time was a really strict person and he had very little patience with anything. As the new guy was in the middle of assembling the grilled cheese, the GM called out again that he needed the grilled cheese for the order he was working on.
As I was continuing to show the newbie how to use the grill, the GM waited thirty more seconds before he called it out again. After a few more moments passed, he started yelling the new guy’s name saying he needed the grilled cheese ‘yesterday.’
At that point, I said, ‘Alright we hear you!’
Then I told him the new guy had the grilled cheese coming right up. After I snapped back at the GM, he went silent, so I thought everything was over. I had to go get more fries from the freezer and as I stepped into the freezer, the GM stepped in behind me and aggressively slammed the door.
I was an assistant manager at the time. Without warning, the GM started yelling at me before saying I was being insubordinate to his commands in front of the entire store. He told me if I ever did it again he would fire me.
Sometimes that’s the price we pay for sticking up for others but I had to. I don’t like bullies.”
A Humbling Task
“When I was a manager of a small manufacturing plant once, I had an employee who was a real JERK. He enjoyed harassing other people, and always tried to get out of work that he was assigned to in his job description.
One day I saw this employee harassing one of the other employees yet again. Well, I decided I had enough of his antics. I marched over and told this wannabe boss to find a small broom because I had a job I wanted him to do.
The warehouse was about fifty-thousand square feet.
The warehouse needed cleaning anyway, and no one really wanted to do it.
I and the bothersome employee had a long ‘talk.’ I told him that because he had a difficult time getting along with his other workers, maybe he just needed to work by himself for a while and I just happen to have the perfect job just for that.
For five days straight he had to sweep and clean the warehouse, there was to be no talking, standing, or sitting, and he had to be moving until it was break time.
The first day went without pushback, but the second day was a little more intense. I had to watch him to make sure he was working. On the third day, I had to shadow him, prodding him to keep moving and stop talking. The fourth day was pretty ugly, he did not want to do it anymore. I pulled out his contract and read the clause I was using to enable him to do this job. He threatened to call the Union to complain.
Well, little did he know, I had already beat him to the punch and told the Union Steward what I was doing and why I was doing it.
Needless to say, the Union Steward agreed with me. When the Steward told the rogue employee that what I was doing was legal, this jerk suddenly lost his desire to harass other employees. I wanted to make sure he understood he had learned his lesson. The employee finished the week’s worth of sweeping, cleaning, and picking up trash.
Needless to say, he had a new respect and a change of attitude after that.
My plan worked. Sweeping the warehouse was a dirty job.”
Enough Is Enough!
“I used to work security. At one point I was a shift supervisor. I had two to three guys who worked with me on night shifts, and of the three guys, only one was not former military. That civilian took offense to me being his supervisor and began to bully and harass me.
It got to the point where my other two coworkers that were prior military confessed to me what the civilian was saying to me and how he was treating me. It got to the point where it started making THEM uncomfortable, and they had both been on some pretty hard deployments and were used to seeing and hearing so pretty awful things.
I corrected this man every time he said or did something inappropriate. My other two coworkers did the same and always made sure to maintain a professional tone and calm manner. No matter how hard it was, everyone did their best to keep the peace even if what he was doing made me want to puke and rage quit.
I kept a log of everything the worker said and did to me. I ended up making reports almost daily concerning his behavior to my supervisor. When the behavior didn’t stop, I then went to the company’s HR department and the CEO of the company.
I asked that the worker be reprimanded because the site supervisor did nothing to stop his behavior toward me.
In the end, I wound up sending the man home every time he became inappropriate. It didn’t matter if it made my shift short-handed or if I got nasty grams from him afterward. I warned the civilian at the beginning of every shift that, should he become inappropriate, I would immediately send him home, no matter how much of the shift there was left.
After being sent home seven shifts in a row, this individual eventually filed a harassment report against me. When I was brought into the site supervisor’s office to answer the harassment report, I brought all of the emails, notes, and witness statements from my other two coworkers about all the inappropriate behavior leading up to that day from the civilian, and informed them that if they upheld the harassment suit against me despite the evidence I had given them about his behavior, I would be taking all of the information to a legal firm and would file against all individuals involved, including the civilian, the site supervisor, the HR rep, the company owner, and the company as a whole.
Believe me, it is possible to handle bullying professionally. Bullies live to make other people fear them, or at least be uncomfortable around them. By responding professionally, you don’t give them the reaction they want, and you prove you aren’t afraid of them. Things will escalate but hold your ground nonetheless. You have every right to work and live without intimidation or harassment.
Exercise that right.”
Do Unto Others
“I have stood up to a bully at work. The person involved was a team lead. She wasn’t bullying me but would constantly disparage another staff member. Every time this woman spoke she’d roll her eyes or make a comment under her breath. The bully had a carefully selected crew of minions who would laugh appreciatively.
One day this poor woman made an innocuous comment about her career goals and the bully replied with, ‘Hmph. That’ll be the day.’
The victim looked mortified and scuttled off nearly in tears. I waited until people had dispersed and said, ‘I don’t think there’s any need for that.’
The bully spat back, ‘What?’
‘The way you treat people,’ I spoke up. ‘If you need to speak to her about her performance you can talk to her in private rather than humiliating her in front of everyone.’
The bully was very cold to me after that. She didn’t bully me because she tended to choose victims who wouldn’t stand up to her. It was just something that she did. Picking on the ‘weak.’ She did, however, stop the comments toward my colleague.
The bully later moved to another job where she repeated her rude behavior in an attempt to assert dominance. Unfortunately the staff there were a tight-knit bunch and quickly stood together and complained.
She was removed from her duties and didn’t get the opportunity to ‘lead’ again. Karma.”
McShout Fest
“When I was nineteen, I worked at a McDonald’s.
It was an awful place full of bullies, including the management. However, I needed the money badly so I put up with it.
One day, one of the managers assigned me to a position I had never worked in before in the middle of a lunch rush. I was frantically trying to keep up but she kept yelling at me in front of the customers.
Finally, I snapped. I took my headset off and threw it at her. I ended up quitting on the spot.
Well, that same manager tried verbally abusing me as I collected my belongings. Since I had always held my temper previously, she had no idea how strong and loud my voice could get. I screamed back at her. She quickly shut up and stared at me in utter shock. I told her off and then left the store with half the customers leaving too and applauding me.
My friend was in the drive-through as well and when he saw me leave, he repeated my actions. We were completely fed up with that manager and the company as a whole.
No job is worth anyone bullying you.”
The “Know-It-All”
“There was an IT administrator that was let go from his position back in October of 2021. He was notoriously rude to many employees in the company and was known for having a crappy attitude. Many of us did not like conversing with him because of how he reacted to any work-related issues.
Shortly before his termination, I was in his office attempting to help fix an issue he blamed on my supervisors. He started complaining about how a form they filled out shouldn’t be ‘that hard.’ He even went on to add that less skilled people in the facility could have filled it out just fine.
What set me off was when he started complaining about them not being competent and basically calling them stupid. The troublesome administrator took another jab and said if the supervisors couldn’t understand the form, then they needed to re-take English classes.
Both my supervisors may have been from different countries, but they are very proficient in English because they had lived in the United States for over ten years and took English classes at a college level.
I told him, ‘Knowing English is not the problem. The problem is you never give any assistance or even consider training people on how to fill out the forms you build. You understand the form because YOU built it. That doesn’t mean everyone else will. I am a native English speaker and this form was not as easy as you think. You should sit down with people and explain how to fill them out, or create work instructions they can follow.’
The final thing I told him was to stop sending emails back saying, ‘this is wrong, fix it’ without even telling them what was wrong. It made him look really stupid in front of his own boss and myself when he did that.
He literally looked off into the distance and really pondered what I said. It was at that moment, the administrator started to explain this stupid form to me. Funny how standing up for yourself and your team makes the process work smoother.”
Obey Me!
“I once had a job as a computer operator at a company that had just hired a new boss over our department. He started bullying me immediately. The new boss called me into his office the first week and told me he didn’t like the way I did my job. I calmly gave him my notepad and pen and asked him to write down how he wanted me to do it, and I said I would follow his lead.
The following week, I had car trouble and came in a little late. The new boss called me into his office again and asked me why I was late. I told him the truth. I couldn’t help the fact that my car wasn’t starting. That’s when my new boss said he didn’t believe me.
Unbothered, I asked him if was there anything else he wanted to say because I needed to get caught up on my work.
My new boss scheduled a department meeting fifteen minutes before quitting time the following week. I sat there and listened to him tell jokes that had nothing to do with work. At quitting time, I was the only person to get up to leave. He asked where I thought I was going. I told him it was the end of my shift. That’s when he aggressively told me to sit back down. I asked him if was he paying overtime for me staying over.
The boss gave me an incredulous look and said, ‘Overtime? Are you out of your mind?! Of course not.’
So, I left.
The following week he brought in his ‘girlfriend’ from another office. Without me asking, my boss gave me the news that I was to train her for my job. A week later he permanently laid me off.
Because I would not bend to his will, bow and scrape or kiss his ass, I was let go. I found out later from a friend that after some time he was permanently laid off after thirty years with the company with only two weeks left before qualifying for his pension.
I didn’t want to work there anyways.”
The Worst Boss Ever
“There was this one guy who was hired as a replacement manager who was given the task of launching the franchise.
He had NO background in our target product or markets and was a disgusting, ridiculous man with a Napoleon complex who thought he was better than everyone.
I had interviewed with him years before and found him to be totally repugnant. I also knew I’d have to get along with him or my job would become a living Hell. So, I honestly tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.
One of the first orders of business for him was to recruit the men on the team as his personal moles. He instructed them to report directly back to him if they heard anything negative being uttered in the ranks about him. The new manager loved to make people out to be mindless drones.
My passive-aggressive skills were honed really well with him around. The manager constantly played people against each other and ridiculed anyone who dared to question his intentions. He ‘motivated’ sales by making a point to ask us if we knew what our job was. If there was a particularly sensitive customer that carried a lot of weight but who had to be approached carefully, he would go into the account and make himself at home, getting into their refrigerator where they stored product and roaming the halls near the nurses’ station. Any one of those activities would have been enough for any of us to lose all visitation privileges. Then the new manager would berate us for not being aggressive enough with them.
He was an imbecile who wasn’t even smart enough to know what he didn’t know and he was unable to admit he was ever wrong. The new manager also didn’t know how to keep his hands to himself.
I finally reported the creep to HR and refused to have him alone with me in my car. I eventually found another job and get out of that malignant situation. He was eventually fired for harassing some of the women on the team and making lewd comments, among lots of other incidents of inappropriate behavior and pushing people around.”