What is the dumbest criticism you’ve ever received at work

I found a discovered a huge cost savings efficiency at a hospital I worked at. I went through to every stake holder involved in the process and their supervisor to ensure that I wasn’t just dreaming that this new process would save time and money and would allow us to get all hospital bills out faster to both insurance companies and patients, in turn getting us paid faster. Like MONTHS faster. When I got to the one FINAL person in line she saw all this work and said, “some problems don’t have solutions.” And then literally stood up and walked out of the room. Her boss and her boss’ boss, the head of the department that would have seen significant time savings immediately, said “oh well. If everyone isn’t on board…” and just LET IT BE. It’s been 15 years and I can’t get over “some problems don’t have solutions.” I left that whole toxic place about 6 weeks later.

Things my old boss yelled at me for during my last sit-down with him:

I dared to question his decision to downsize my staff so that I was now doing the jobs of 4 people in the same amount of time, after they'd just bragged about record profits and volume.

I couldn't literally be in two different places in the building at the same time. "But that's what I expect you to be able to do!" Not kidding.

I didn't eat something he knew I was allergic to the last time they had food brought in. First, I'm a grown ass man, and don't appreciate being told what to fucking eat. Second, I'm not going to make myself sick to pacify your ego.

Someone that I had never interacted with had complained that they "didn't like my face." Sorry for being ugly. Fuck you.

He gave me the surprised Pikachu face when I gave him my notice a couple weeks later, after 11 1/2 years of service, because I found another job. Guess no one ever told him that good workers don't quit the job, they quit the manager.

I worked overtime every week. Never called off all year. Picked up open shifts to cover coworkers calling in.

For my self evaluation (annual performance evaluation) I rated myself 10/10 on attendance. Boss said 9/10 is the highest rating he gives because there's always room for improvement.

After not getting a promotion to be a supervisor

You didn't have the experience

I was 36 and a former operations manager

Promotion went to a 24 year old kid that was 2 or 3 years out of college that couldn't manage his new beard

When I asked why I was not getting the opportunity to at least interview for a higher position. I was told that I was a do-er not a leader

Got told I was stapling things together incorrectly

I was told I was not a real operator, because my crews pounds per hour were 100 less than my opposite crews. I was at like 900, they were at 1000.

The funny part is I was doing 2 hours of PMs daily in a 12 hour shift. They were told to never stop running. When I called my plant manager out on that he called me a liar. I proved he was lying and was then told I should just be grateful for my promotion and will get what raises he sees fit. I told him that when I was promoted I warned them with out the pay I would do it for 3 months and then refuse the promotion if I didn't receive the raise.

The big raise? 1 dollar an hour. So, I went back to my old position. The plant manager came out and threatened me. I told him he was a coward and a bitch and he didn't have the balls to fire me. I was right. The ceo told me 6 months later my stunt cost the company about 2 million dollars or more. He wasn't even mad at me. He said I was right.

Today, my boss bashed me to a new client stating that I had misread the contract we had and I was wrong.

He was the one who wanted to do extra work under the same contract and not charge her. She is recently widowed and we are set to roof and side her home. We had enough money in the budget to do her detached garage and he told me to let her know.

So, I did. We were going to do her a solid after her hardship over the last month. Anyhow, he son in law called and he was a complete asshole about it and he was absolutely disgusting and mean to me about it. Since he's not on the contract, we can't talk to him. It got even worse and I gently let ended the call. And told the boss. Who got pissed at the son in law. And then proceeded to absolutely bash and throw me under the bus to the Widow.

I'm an excellent construction project manager and I rarely make even a minor mistake, and this gutted me today. I need a new place to work even though I love this position.

Walmart - They told me I was "too approachable" and that I needed to spend less time answering customer questions and more time focused on picking the orders.

BTW, its way easier to tell someone "advil is in G3" than "Im not supposed to help customers, youll need to find a department associate." and then listen to them yell at me for being rude. Put in my 2 week notice about 3 months later, but that wasnt even the reason why.

I was told I should have put the fact that I didn't know Word on my resume. I said that's the first I've heard of listing things you can't do on your resume, we're gonna be here for a decade, let's see, I don't know how to design a bridge, replace a heart valve, operate a crane, do origami, spay a cat, install cabinets, fix a carburetor, propagate orchids, fly a plane, make baked Alaska, operate Jaws of Life, sew a wedding gown, the list is endless...

(I'd previously used Word and hated it as did my previous bosses, but I brushed up, then walked out of that job without another one lined up, I hated her so much. And I haven't needed Word since and I still hate it.)

I was "too efficient" when working at a retail store that processed equipment rentals and payments for an ISP. I was supposed to have more memorable conversations, and also vary my vocal tone more.

I was once told that my sense of humor was “too dry” and managers could not tell if I was being serious or not. 🤷‍♂️

I was told I was too calm.

I had a foreman who insisted that I was writing the numeral ”4” incorrectly and had to change to the way HE wrote it, and that the way that I wrote “7” and “Z” were incorrect as well, and needed to be changed as well (I have always written them in the European fashion with a strikethrough in the center) I ignored him and kept doing it my way. Drove him nuts.

I was told how to do my job (sewerage treatment plant operation) by an engineer fresh out of university. I voiced my concerns to my immediate higher-ups about how this would affect the plant I was responsible for 15+ years. Within 2 weeks, the process at my plant was ruined, and it took me a month to get it right again. I was then grilled by management about why I was doing things my way and not the way stipulated by the engineer. When I pointed out his faults and mistakes, I was told, "I had a poor attitude towards management," and given a verbal warning. Other plants that followed the engineers' advice went downhill so badly that the EPA had to investigate the utility company.

I was told to smile more. I as not in front of clients.

My last boss refused to let me use times new Roman. Also said I had to stop using regards to end my emails lol.

One of the stupidest bosses I ever had literally reprimanded me once for telling a customer that's what my boss said. Even though the person saying it was my boss, and he did in fact just say that. 🙄

Oh yeah, I also got in trouble once for being a team player and trying to help out by doing more work. The place was quiet, so I decided to help out by bringing out a pile of clean towels from the back to refill the sauna and pool area. The other room was less than a hundred feet away. It took less than a minute. Then I got yelled at for being away from the desk for less than a minute when the place was empty (?).

I stopped being so helpful after that. 😡

I was told to work on my highlighting skills.. 😭

They didn't like my abbreviation for phone number (phone/cable/internet company). Apparently no one could under stand PH# and my supervisor called me OFF HOURS to tell me to stop using it. Twice.

Forgot about a mistake I made 9 times. I did the task exactly 9 times. I was trained wrong by the lead

I was put on a PIP over it

I went and checked the person's work that trained me, she did the task 8 times, 5 of those were wrong and not corrected (at least after I found out I corrected mine). When I brought this to get and HRs attention I was still held liable for the error

None of this cost the company a penny and took me about 15 minutes to fix

I got a PIP, that lead is now the manager of that department

So glad I got off that team

I once got reprimanded for being too happy. It was my anniversary

I was criticized for helping a customer during a staff meeting. The branch was open, but every employee was located in the back for this meeting. I noticed from the window that one of our regulars was about to come in, so I left to help her. When I had my review they brought up that I just "got up and walked out" of meeting while the manager was talking. They knew it was to help a customer, how is this criticism?!

I worked at an animal hospital. I organized the pharmacy one night on my own initiative. At the time, I was working full time nights and going to school full time. So going from work straight to school really was exhausting and my car had so much stuff in it (stuff for school). So after I organized the pharmacy, the supervising vet said to her co-workers, "I don't know why she organized the pharmacy when her car is a mess!". Not sure what she was doing looking in my car with tinted windows. She did this often and her toxicity infected other co-workers.

You must answer the phone with “how may I help you”. 95 percent of my calls are from the same 5 people….

"YOU NEED TO WRITE STUFF DOWN SO WE DONT HAVE TO TELL YOU MORE THAN ONCE." This was literally yelled at me by my acting supervisor. I had been told incorrect information by someone who sat there and stayed silent through me getting my head ripped off because I voiced the bullshit she had told me because I didn't know any better. Acting supervisor isn't a good supervisor, but she is good at acting like a bitch.

Misuse of a semicolon. 45 min harangue. #KMN

Probably when told after being given instructions for the first time to “stop writing everything down”….”why do you need to write down simple instructions? Don’t write it down.”

And in 2022 was criticized for wearing a mask when a Covid wave was hitting and safety was recommending masking. “Take off the mask, do it now”. I ignored said person. Boss didn’t say the criticism they heard someone else doing it and didn’t tell person to stop it.

One of my bosses told me I sucked at my job, then asked me what my job was a couple days later. How do you know if I suck if you don’t know what I do?

I used to work as a Travel Agent. Our clients would spend tens of thousands of $$ on our tours. I was told I spent too long talking to clients. In a service industry. Selling 5 star products. Strangely enough I was also the one people asked for when they wanted to book another tour. Because I listened, and was helpful.

My boss told me that my facial expression made me look stupid.

A person I know was asked to sit straighter at work. (They were in the top 5 high producers). That’s a pretty stupid feedback position.

I don’t care how my employees sit - get the job done

That the looks on my face were too loud.

Not my fault if your idea is so bad I can't even control my facial expressions.

We lost a staff member that handled some very important tasks. I jumped in as their manager to make sure it got done. This involved changing the process a little & skipping some steps that also left out some admins...basically I temporarily took work off everyone's plate in the name of efficiency until a replacement could be hired.

I got in trouble for this & was forced to attend a meeting and apologize to everyone it affected.

Did I mention I was the Manager and it was my department's process? Unbelievable.

"If you want to write good software, you should go work for Microsoft."

I got called up on the carpet for something I said. But they wouldn’t tell me what I said or who I offended. I am still mystified.

I was told in two different positions to quit asking for more work. Gee, I always thought initiative was supposed to be a good thing.

Dumb is a strong word, but the silliest is probably that I help out too much (one of the people that is supposed to be a team leader for his department), as I was helping him catch up on his workload he was just complaining to our manager about.

Like, what?

My boss picked up the 50 page report I'd been writing during the previous 3 months (and had ask for his comments on through out), skimmed the first page, threw in down on the desk and said "it missed the point entirely." Turned out after he read the whole thing, it was okay. And sure would have been nicer if he'd read even part of it earlier . . .

I didn't show enough enthusiasm that the company owner was coming in. The same owner who could never remember my name... Their longest running supervisor.

Good riddance.

In a review to discuss pay raises, I was told I was too chatty and needed to focus on work. I stopped chatting to my coworkers and kept our conversations completely work related, outside of our lunch hour (they were well aware of how the review went down so they took no offence). Around the same time, my floor was also told that when on phone calls or talking to someone in our offices, we needed to close the door because sound travelled.

A few months later, another review to see if I had made improvement to justify a raise. I am now anti social because I don’t talk to anyone, and am often in my office with my door closed. No raise. That’s when I realized there was no winning, but I’m ashamed to say I stayed for another year or so before being let go for more of the same bullshit.

During my first year eval I was told my hair was too red and needed to be dyed a more natural color. It was my natural color.

I just stared at my supervisor blinking. She finally said "maybe I will remove that and reprint it". I mean seriously HR would have had a field day with that.

I was told that I needed to make an effort to empathize with senior leadership more. I never went along with their petty bullshit that would inconvenience my team. Fuck those guys my team makes me successful and they would run through a wall for me if that is what I needed. I changed jobs and most of my employees applied to my current agency or reach ed out for help getting out of there.

I was blamed because a piece of equipment that my manager picked was constantly crashing & the vendor didn’t have a fix for it. I had told him that I thought it looked bad & suggested another piece of equipment. I then suggested just buying one of them to evaluate it before buying what we needed. He completely ignored me & ordered 35 of them. Then when they constantly crashed he blamed me for it.

"Your communication skills with your team members are poor." No I communicate pertinent information in email memos so their is no confusion and I know everyone gets the information equally.

"Yes, but you need to do better leading your team." Our unit has a measured 98.2% completion rate and that has been consistent for the last four quarters. We are more than 10% better than the next closest team.

"Do better."

Mutters under his breath 'fuck you A hole.'

Funny thing was, his issue was he hated reading stuff (verbal type perso) and a month after this, a client emailed a proposal that he didn't read and the client complained to senior management that he was being ignored.

I still have my job, no idea where he is today.

I am French living in the US. About 15 years ago, I was told that I wasn’t being promoted because I was too French. Well then!

Boss: “This is stuff you really should know after being here for a year.”

Me: “Great. Come see me in 7 months and I bet I’ll know it.”

I had been there just over 5 months.

Not me, but my husband.

"You remember yesterday, when I went to you team's office, asking for help and you were the only one that offered to help me? Yeah, we don't want that".

That was his top boss, while firing him.

Fuck him. Fuck him to hell and back.

A co-worker was passive aggressive and would not talk to me from day one - I was told I was the problem and had to fix it.

I quit and she behaved the same to other co-workers, her boss etc.

That I was too nice to the clients

Was so bizarre in not sure I will be able to portray it with words, but here goes...

My job was admin/sales, so I was to answer phones and emails, but also serve customers as they came into the showroom. We had some ends of products with their measurements written high on some tape that we were encouraged to clear.

Customer comes in, interested in the product end. I step onto a sturdy stack of foam to read the measurement from the tape in order to sell it to customer, and say what the price would be. Office window (overlooking showroom) opens, and 2IC (who trained me) yells at me out of it, saying I should stop and get one of "the boys" to help. What did I do wrong? This is literally my job. Maybe because I (safely) stood on something to get the necessary info? That's all I could think of (even though that workplace provided no safe-T-step, the stack was boxed in so it had nowhere to go anyway, and it was literal foam so couldn't be damaged, and would cushion me if I fell; which wasn't going to happen because I actually value myself too much to put myself in danger when at work).

Whatever. I step back, curious, and watch to play spot-the-difference when one of "the boys" (family member) comes to serve customer instead. What will he do different? Turns out, nothing. And I don't fault the guy, he was respectful and eager to help. Found out what product customer wanted, stood on same stack to read same measurements, and gave same price.
Customer also seemed confused by the reaction of 2IC. Customer asks me "are you new?" I said "no, I've been working here for five years."

Anyway, I've long since left that place. Feel like I'm treated like an adult in current role, so that's a win. Still can't think what I could have done on that occasion too upset 2IC, oh well.

Someone said i walk away too much. I actually had a runny nose i was trying to blow way from ppl

"You aren't at your desk enough! I never know where to find you." I have an cellphone that phones, text and email, a smartwatch, we have a company intercom. The plant has walkies! I'm not at my desk because I'm staying at zero ticket load FIXING SHIT! Turns out he was just a fucking massive asshole. Got on his good side (while applying for other jobs over 3 months), asked for a raise or a title change when I found one, he said no and I put in my 2 weeks.

I was told I typed too fast and was too fast with the mouse. They were worried I’d accidentally delete their files. She was younger than me too, and didn’t seem to understand how computers worked.

For my job with BigBox store as a teen, I was written up because I told a customer that the credit card machines weren't working, which they weren't for about 3 hours due to a vendor outage. Thus, we couldn't take credit cards during that time. Apparently telling customers the machines weren't working was "violating security by revealing company vulnerability." I asked what I should have done instead, and they said, "Take cash." What if they didn't have cash? And that doesn't address why we couldn't take credit cards. What should I have told the customer? "No, we are not taking your card, and I won't tell you why?"

"That's why you'll never be a manager; you think only of problems and not solutions."

I was told during a review that I was a poor team player because I relied on other people for help in a job with no training manuals and in the era before Google. "You need to be a better team player and stop depending on others. You need to learn to be your own resource." I asked her to define what she thought a "team player" meant and her definition of "resource." She changed the subject and said, "don't feel bad, nobody got a good review." I asked her to elaborate why that should make me feel any better, and how that affects a team if we all did poorly under her leadership.

That made her pretty mad. She said, "there you go, asking questions again! This is why nobody likes you. You're always asking things." I said I was not aware that people didn't like me, as everyone had treated me kindly, and that made me a little sad.

"Just sign that I gave you a review. I am not feeling well."

I quit that job a few months later.

Always demand an exact example. What did I do that was so gullible? If the boss can’t answer, say I’d appreciate the details, could you follow up with the client on details.

I was told in a review that my boss couldn't always tell when I was joking.

I told him if that's the worst he could come up with, I could cope.

At the same company, my best friend told me that she was told by her boss in a review that she was too honest. What exactly does that mean?

She found out a few years later when they let her go because she would not sign fraudulent documents.p

"Too much of a free thinker." 

Now at another job, another career. Have won awards for innovation. 🤷😂

I got told that I had exceeded expectations in every way but they wouldn't give me that classification on my performance review because I need to smile more. I work a desk job.

I'm not using enough exclamation marks in my communications (!!!!) 🙄

This girl is a daydreamer.... Always stays in her head.... I work as a teacher.

That my thoroughly documenting, step by step, and providing training for something previously undocumented (and extremely useful and valuable to be able to do for prospective customers) was "intimidating" to coworkers and made them "not even want to try."

I had a pretty young girl, who was looking to take over the team I worked for, tell me my contract wouldn’t be extended because she wanted some who “kicked ass at his job!”.

In hindsight I should have told her to pound sand. She didn’t like my gray hair and just wanted to get rid of me…

I was told by my supervisor that I didn’t say hello loud enough to a higher up and it made them feel bad. Now I’m practically yelling hello towards them.

I got a call from the agency's flunky asking me to take down a post on social media. I asked her who all were on the call & before she could answer, I told her there were at least 2 other people & I would like to know who they were.

There was a long pause & the DIRECTOR & another flunky identified themselves!!! 😳🥴🙄 I then asked what post they were talking about??? They couldn't answer, even though I knew which one they asked about. It was about a gun incident at the job. They lied to the police & media about it & the person they had do the interview, was the person the gunman was looking for!!! So, I posted the truth!!!

I played dumb when they asked me & I asked them if they wanted me to remove the posts where they asked for donations 🤣🤣🤣

I was told I was too perky for the job!! Huh?

I was told the report I wrote missed the whole point and would never work.

Point 1. I never wrote it Point 2. When it was written I was in a coma in ICU.

Point 3. The person who wrote it was the wife of the executive who said it was crap

A new office assistant was assigned to me for training, etc. I was to review her work before it was finalized, and typically it would have several errors. She did not like me reviewing her documents or discussing any errors with her. The last time I tried to do that, she said, "Oh, you are just too picky." And walked away. I think this was her third day of employment. I went to my supervisor and begged off the assignment.

That the account managers are surprised when I finish my tasks on the due date because I didn’t give them a heads up that I was going to have it done by the due date 🤣

Pretty mild compared to most of these, but it sticks with me… I was given feedback that I should reply to acknowledge emails, and then send a follow up when the request was done. A different manager in our department complained that I was replying to emails right away instead of just sending confirmation that said task was completed. Can’t win em all.

What stands out among many stupid criticisms was someone who complained that they sometimes have to say my name a second time to get my attention. In the busiest oil change joint in town. And this I got from a coworker I really liked, so it stung some.

In a small company, I was working on a project that was a big deal and quite stressful. My supervisor had a "talk" with me about a complaint she got that I wasn't saying hi back to coworkers. No, I'm not kidding.

I worked as a cashier at a grocery store. You were not allowed to turn away customers to go on your break, so I went on my 30 minute break 15 minutes late, whatever my shift seems shorter when I take a later break anyway. I realize when I get to the back of the store to the break room that I had forgotten my phone in the drawer at my register in my purse. Whatever, we don't have issues with theft, I eat my food in fifteen minutes, grab my phone, and hide out in the bathroom. Five minutes later my manager paged me back to my register. I complied, miffed but resigned to taking another break later if they were having a crazy rush. NOPE my manager walked up to me and said if I was going to take extended time in the bathroom, it needed to be during my break. I asked if she was present when I left for my break. She was not, her "break was just scheduled for the same time as yours."

“We’ve had complaints about you.” That’s all. Not the source, nature, remedy, nothing. A special meeting to tell me that.

“You didn’t say yes enthusiastically enough.”

There is product in various stages of completion at your station; At the time i was employed on a factory floor making said product

I had a customer complaint about me taking a drink while presenting a training course. Also, and separately soneone complaining that it was unprofessional for me to open the window and stop the session because I said it was too warm.

I went from parking in the front to parking in the back where I had a better spot. I got the comment “I don’t even know what hours you keep anymore”. I’m a school secretary. Guess what hours I keep? Are you mad you can’t keep tabs on my car?

Saw this and had to share.

r/Lawyertalk u/LegallyBroad 57m Got yelled at for writing client's childs name wrong. The client wrote their kid's name wrong on their new client form. Tlove my clients Client responds to a draft sent really upset that included their child's name with a slight misspelling and asks what are they paying us so much for if cant even get that right. showed my boss their new client form and sure enough, they fucked up their own kid's name but my boss still had to call the client and apologize for my negligence...

On the most busiest time of the year, i got the worst fever ever and went to work every morning feeling like sh*t but knowing that if i couldn't go, there wasn't nobody to cover because it is a every specific role that is done by me and another dude that was on vacation. You could see in my face that i was sick as hell, barely feeling my body, and did my boss say thank you? No, instead he jokes about me going to work sick every meeting we have and says that if i worked sick it was my fault.

I got reprimanded 25 years ago for not going to lunch with coworkers and instead bringing my lunch from home and eating at my desk everyday. 

Like,  I was a full-time college student with a full-time job and lunchtime was study time.  Plus, again,  I was a college student and too poor to eat out for lunch everyday. 

Probably that I was taking too long to find spare parts in the storeroom during each maintenance job. For context, there was literally no coherent system of organising or cataloguing the contents of said room, so if you ever wanted to find anything, you had to rummage everywhere, in every drawer and on every shelf, every fucking time.

In the end, my shitty, narcissistic boss decided to punish me (for daring to defend myself against his rage in the resultant disciplinary meeting by perfectly reasonably pointing out the total lack of any organisation in the stores whatsoever, which had been the case long before I even arrived on the scene) by ordering me to spend days sorting and cataloguing the entire contents of the room all by myself, especially all the countless different ball bearings in identical-looking packages with faded labels. Granted, it needed doing, but he made it very clear in his attitude that he didn't give a shit about its necessity, he was just trying to give me a shitty job as punishment for daring to stick up for myself when he wanted a whipping boy.

Joke's on him, my spergy brain fucking loved the solitude and simple, repetitive task, it was as relaxing as if I were raking a Zen garden, plus it was satisfying to know that neither I, nor anyone else, would have to waste hours rummaging in vain again. He might as well have just given me the week off. Admittedly, he still ultimately succeeded in torpedoing my career and getting me fired by wantonly abusing the performance evaluation and disciplinary systems, but I still look back on that particular incident and laugh at how fucking stupid he was to think that sorting the storeroom was an effective way of lashing out at me.

I had a pair of sunglasses resting on the wide ledge of my cubicle. Boss comes over talking with his hands, sends them flying and breaking them. Throws $20 at me and tells me not to keep them on a ledge…that no one else managed to bother in six years.

I got in shit one time for telling a customer wrong information "last week or the week before". I asked what the information was that was incorrect so I'd know in the future. He said he couldn't remember what it was that I said, but to do better next time......oh ok... 🙄

My site got a big, fancy new building and decided to do open office instead of cubicles. The wings were long and skinny with a wide walkway cutting through the middle of each department that you had to walk through to get to the end. The desks were little groupings of 3 inward-facing desks scattered haphazardly on both sides of the walkways.

My desk was right on the walkway, against the only entry to the wing, facing the walkway. It was INCREDIBLY distracting. Very loud and every time a person walked by it caught my eye and broke my concentration. I just needed like 2 inches of something to block my view of the walkway and allow me to concentrate.

So I put a small line of purple sticky notes (that I purchased) across the top of my monitors. Problem solved.

Well one of the military folks who sat in my desk group was giving a briefing to some officer while I had my headphones on and was working. He stopped her briefing, made me take off my headphones, and then proceeded to try and dress me down for the "very distracting" post-its on my monitor because they were an eyesore and a waste of government resources.

Thankfully the site commander came over and told him to kick rocks.

My boss (attorney) didn't like my signature and chewed me out about it.

I followed and completed my supervisor's instructions verbatim. My supervisor then walked up to and said that I should have followed their instructions. When I replied that I literally followed their instructions and proved that I had, my supervisor then said that I should have known what they meant and done that, not what they said to do. DUMB

I'm too thorough. In reference to cleaning and prepping a cafe at closing time.

Same store, we used to leave used coffee grounds out so customers could use it for their gardens. We stopped because customers used the bin as a trash can. There was an actual trash can no more than 3 feet away. A regular asked about the grounds and brought her own bucket, the manager happened to be on vacation at the time but I was a supervisor and said it was OK. He came back and went on a power trip about it, I just responded I didn't think it was a big deal to let one of our regular customers do this especially since they provide their own container. He legit looked me dead in the eye and said "just because I want to fuck a 16 year old doesn't mean I get to."

I once got written up because a supervisor timed me cleaning an area and I took less time than he said I should. He double checked the area and admitted he couldn't fine anything I missed but still wrote me up for not following proper procedure and made me redo the entire area. I put in my 2 weeks notice that same day.

I once had a bewildering appraisal with my boss that made me leave the company.

He told me that, as he did with each new member of the management team, he had been watching me. And he didn’t like what he saw. I thought “oh! Okay!” He then went on to explain why.

He said that he had witnessed me “saying please and thank you” to members of my team, as if I was “sucking up to them”. He said that he heard me asking after the health and wellbeing of those under me, when I should “have zero interest in that-other than the strict letter of Health and Safety law”. And he was disgusted in the “soft” way I allotted tasks in my department.

I “didn’t have” to be “thoughtful” about how people felt about what tasks they were given. If they “didn’t want to shut up and just get on with what they’re given, they can go and join the back of the dole queue”.

I asked him if he knew that my results were better than the other managers. And THAT was when he said the thing that took my breath away and ultimately caused me to leave. He actually said:

“I don’t care what your results are. I don’t care if your department has the best performance in the whole place! I don’t want to see this kind of WEAK management style in my store!”

My previous job was as a winery director, which includes planning, organizing and staffing events. Organization is key, and I used Google sheets to keep track of costs, ticket sales, food, wine, staff, volunteers etc. This was a casual (and dysfunctional) winery and this info was only for me to keep track, not a report. There was no protocol for what program to use to organize an event there.
There was never a mention of needing to be very familiar with excel, but my previous boss was an excel spreadsheet guy and saw me working on my spreadsheet. Got instantly irritated and wanted me to transfer the data to an excel spreadsheet. Stood over me, breathing on me and making irritated noises every single click I made because I wasn’t doing it with any shortcuts- or adding my new info fast enough.
He was getting very angry huffing and puffing and I was baffled by this bizarre fixation. It was so uncomfortable and he was so hyper focused on my keystrokes it was unnerving. He kept grabbing my mouse and leaning in to take over my keyboard.
When I asked why I needed to use excel or if I needed to become more adept with Microsoft for my position, he said:

“I’m just trying to make you better.”

When my Mom died before my shift at the medical clinic started, think shift starts at 9AM, and I called in to let them know that she had passed before 7:45 AM. This was my only call in during the nearly 5 years that I worked there. When my yearly evaluation was given to me three months later, it literally said that I "had too many unexcused call-ins during the year." I wrote on my comments that this was wrong, I never considered one call-in for a death in my immediate family was too many and unexcused. I NEVER did get an apology or my grief acknowledged at all.

I was told that I did not smile enough.

Smile more (from a older man manager to young female)

Boss would tell me to do a task. Yelled at me for not doing the task how he wanted it done. I was like it got done. So when he would tell me something to do i would write down word for word his instructions. He got pissed. Say i dont need to write it down. I would say no dont want any misunderstanding. So then later he would yell saying i didnt do x. I would yell back no you said do it this way and would read my notes. We would yell back and forth. He was toxic leader. Was so happy to leave.

Not me, my friend: during an annual review at an office job, her boss criticized her for making ‘almost transposurers’. Almost making errors entirely too often.

complaint from a former boss that I "was wasting time" and "seemed confused about what to do". I was was working without a direct supervisor for months and would pause to think for a few seconds to decide which task would be more important with the limited time I was given. she meanwhile didn't know how to do a basic search on company software and had been harassing the IT guy with dumb questions.

point is I realized that this boss was an idiot and I completely disregarded their opinions and kept my style of working. yours sounds like an idiot too. lol

My "best" was a boss who gave me an annual review stating I was meeting all expectations. Then, he proceeded to tell me he needed to demote me.

Back in 2006/2007, I was criticized for not working OT on weekends. My workplace was a 3 hour round trip from my home and I wouldn’t be able to do chores if I worked 7 days a week. My boss told me to work OT and pay someone to do my chores. I told him it was pointless to spend my entire life at work and just pay someone else to do my laundry and housework. Never got promoted and left after a few years.

“We are behind on orders how dare you guys let us become so behind”

also management earlier that day “whoopsie we forgot about these Black Friday orders pretty please get these 100+ orders of at least 200+ done by next week? K thx bbyyeeee”

that means orders that were placed on 24/11/2023 were not done (still aren’t) it’s now 10/02/2024. Fuck whoever deals with the ordering system

My child Criticized for not having enough passion doing dishes at a restaurant

I drink too much water (I have a rare form of neuropathy that leaves me dehydrated). Had to get a doctor's note to prove it.

I was told that my facial expressions were off putting and I should smile more....I had a broken jaw...

I was told that I was both "good in a crisis" and "too laid back" in the same meeting with the same supervisor.

I asked what good it did to go into a code situation (I'm a nurse) freaking the fuck out and running around like a chicken without my head?

And either my being calm under pressure was good, it or wasn't, it couldn't literally be both.

Quite literally the dumbest shit I'd heard out of Joe both, and that man was an idiot, so it was pretty impressive.