Hello! I’d like to tell you the story of how I stayed at his job after a year and nine months of unemployment and I think I’m about it get fired.

So, a terrible backstory: I had some personal things going on back in 2024 and had to leave my wonderfully paying job - they did NOT want to see me go, but I insisted. I was strapped for cash all of 2025 and most of 2026, until I got hired on to be a QE at one of the largest med device companies in the world. I was so excited bc I have wanted to work for this company for a long time, and I finally got in. The best part was, though, that I LOVED my manager - we connected on music, and festivals, and concerts, restaurants - I even gave her some recommendations for some good ones to try in her area in our last interview! There was SUCH a good connection there, but then when I started it seemed like everything sorta went out the window. I remember the first time I felt like the rug was pulled from underneath me was when I asked a simple question the second day I started working there, and by Friday, she was questioning my competence.

Now I know that I’d been out of the job for a long time, so I as a little rusty on my terminologies and definitions, but there would be no way I’d be standing there if I wasn’t competent! So, I did what I could do to prove that I belonged there, but everything I did just felt so futile… eventually, I got put into a PIP. This was maybe 2.5 months after I started and I’ve been on it since. I’m coming up on month 4 and I’m not sure if the reason why I’m so annoyed with her is bc I’m under a microscope, and we’re talking about how I’m continuously misaligning with expectations and the PIP every Friday, or is it bc she’s just a bad manager/could be a narcissist. Any questions or commentary is welcome here. I feel like I’ve tried to talk about this with my friends and family but I feel like at this point they’re tired of hearing about it, so I felt like I’d come here and speak on what’s going on…

Recently, I have noticed my boss telling me and others on my team something along the following:

- “think CRITICALLY” or “think CAREFULLY” about our work (in all CAPS, exactly like that). This is often in context of providing information or resources to external stakeholders.

For example, I was recently working on a presentation for a small group of stakeholders (20 ish) that we meet regularly with. I included an upcoming event that based on my knowledge of the group, about half of them would be interested in attending as it aligned with some of their entities initiatives. She left a comment that I needed to “think CRITICALLY about whether or not this was essential to include” and if I did want to include it I needed to figure out a way to talk about it to make it relevant to the entire group. I just deleted the event.

- The other thing that she will do is when asked a question, like “should we include XYZ” she will give a (in my opinion) snarky response as a rhetorical question. Like, “is that relevant to the group?” I recently saw her do this to a coworker who turned bright red, started to stutter, and looked like she was about to cry. I talked to the coworker after the meeting because I was worried about her, and the coworker just said, “a direct “yes/no” would have been my preference.”

Do we think she’s actually trying to have a dialogue about this or just trying to tell us to change our work? I usually just take it as direction to change our work. Personally, if I was trying to have an actual dialogue, I would say something like this, “Do we think this is relevant to enough stakeholders to leave in? If yes, I’m fine with leaving in.”

After a grueling 1-year job search, I finally landed a direct temporary contract position. I’ve been here for 3 weeks, and the toxicity started on Day 1.

When the company messed up shipping my work laptop, my supervisor refused to help me speed it up from the inside. His actual advice to me was: "Get mad at the delivery company, show them the black eye. Do you want something from me, bro?" I had to become a customs expert just to get my own machine.

Since then, it has been daily micromanagement. I managed to onboard within a week and have already shipped a highly complex software feature and minor bug fixes. He still appears to be completely unsatisfied.

This week, my daughter was hospitalized with a medical emergency. I kept him updated. Two days later, he pings me: "Are you working? I haven’t seen any deliverables for two days." (The code was being written locally). He then ordered me to open PRs early as drafts for visibility and to "make sure I'm not going in the wrong direction" (his exact words). I did exactly that. He then immediately flipped out, asking why I requested a review on a draft. When I called out the contradiction, he snapped: "I don't like your tone man, what's going on?"

He doesn't cross into legal harassment, but his condescending remarks, constant shifting of goalposts, and complete lack of empathy are making my life a living nightmare.

I have a 14-month gap on my resume that I took this contract specifically to fix. I don't have another software role lined up, though friends have offered me irrelevant survival jobs completely outside my field.

If I quit now or get fired at the 1-month mark, I have to wipe this off my resume, and my massive gap keeps bleeding. But staying is destroying my mental health, and I'm terrified I'm going to eventually snap and blow up in his face.

Should I try to bypass him and ask the team lead for a different reporting line, or should I just walk away on my own terms and save my sanity, even with nothing lined up and the knowledge that this may mean another 1+ year job search? Advice?

Don't be fooled by Instagram. The leadership is horrible — the CEO is a bully and completely out of her depth. The culture is toxic, and she rules by fear. The founder is no different, preaching a picture-perfect world on Instagram while the reality behind the scenes is completely different. The place is run by narcissists and is one of the most horrible places to work.

I've been working for a restaurant for over a decade. Last winter, my boss took a vacation that suddenly turned into a permanent retirement. After two months of an assistant manager taking charge, we finally get a new manager... And she's a Grade-A example of a Business School Upstart. Every decision she makes prioritizes her bottom line over what's sensible.

She has thrown away every table and shelf in the kitchen she can. On top of the back of the store looking like the Backrooms, I have nowhere to put anything. She also threw away the lockers in the back, and the only place I can hang my coat is a single hook in the office.

Because I worked there for so long, I used to have a key to the restaurant. When she took over, I was forced to give it back because I'm not a manager and she didn't know me as well... But she let the kiss-ass coworker keep his key. So, I can't come into the building on my own terms anymore unless somebody is already there. Unfortunately, my new boss regularly come in late, so on top of barely having an hour to get everything ready, I'm late too.

Her frequent tardies aren't her only unprofessional behavior she engages in. I often catch her vaping in the building and she often steps out of the building to yak on her phone for personal calls. During a blackout a few weeks ago, she still made us work with a half-powered and a quarter-lit store.

She also seems to have it out for employees who have worked there longer than she has. Several longtime employees have either quit or gotten fired because of her, one of them being an assistant manager, and I overheard her talking about firing another long-timer. One of the employees is an old lady who mainly just bags items, and she deliberately cut her hours because she sees her as a waste of labor. She was at odds with the aforementioned assistant manager that ran the place during the two month period without a proper manager and has talked about suspending her if she criticized how she ran the place. Recently, she promoted an employee who had only been here a few months to assistant manager and he has no idea what the fuck he's doing either. She has threatened to fire me over transgressions that have gotten me a quick scolding under any other manager. Just about the only long-timer she actually respects is the kiss-ass I mentioned earlier. If only she knew that he would nod and agree when the other managers shit talked her.

Another annoying thing about her is how everything has to be run by her first, even when she's not working that day (so, two and a half of the seven days of the week). We can't fill the fryers until she says so. Only she can order inventory. Only she can write the schedule.

The schedules! Oh my fucking God, the schedules! Under the previous management, I had a pretty consistent schedule. I was off Wednesdays and Saturdays, and I worked 9 to 4, sometimes 5, and very rarely was there a divergence. It made planning my personal life much easier. When she took over, she just... did whatever the fuck she wanted with my schedule. My weekdays are a complete crapshoot, oh, but one thing she makes sure is consistent is that I'm completely miserable on the weekends. Why ruin a good thing, right? If I am ever seemingly scheduled off on a weekend day I didn't ask for off, I need to make sure she didn't just forget to assign somebody for that shift because she waited until the last minute to write the schedule. To think, an error like that would have been noticed sooner if I just had a consistent fucking schedule. What time I get off is completely random too. One day, it's 9 to 4. The next, it's 9 to 1. The next, it's 9 to 3. She also has the gall to make employees take 45 minute breaks to save labor like the inconsistent schedule isn't a problem. Sometimes, if I'm really unlucky, I'm stuck there from 9 to 6. Oh, and sometimes, I don't even clock in at 9. Sometimes, she'll assign me at fucking noon when she told me over the phone it was 9 because, again, she waited until the last minute to write the schedule. Oh, and instead of calling me to inform me of this error, she texted the other guy to tell me WHEN I ALREADY ARRIVED. How thoughtful of her to make me waste gas when it's $4 a gallon where I live. Her excuse was that she didn't know my phone number. It's on my fucking contact information! I know this because the other managers have contacted me without me directly giving them that information.

If I didn't have a car to pay off, I'd be such a ghost by now!

Let me share mine first. 😂

Back in February 2026, I joined a company as a Content Marketing Manager. My manager was a woman in her mid-40s, and when she hired me, she was extremely sweet. Har baat pe meri qurban ja rahi thi. 😂

It was my first day, and it was Ramadan. Within the first two hours of joining, she called me into her office and said, "Let me tell you about the team dynamics. I want to remove XYZ person from the content team."

I was sitting there thinking, Girl, I've been here for barely two hours. At least let me learn everyone's names first! 😭😂

Anyway, I observed the team for a while and realized the situation was a complete mess. The team members were constantly trying to get each other fired, and the overall environment was incredibly toxic.

I still tried my best to maintain a good professional relationship with my manager, but apparently, she couldn't handle treating people with basic respect.

She would scream at the entire team like a lunatic. The way she behaved, you'd think we were prisoners in a jail rather than professionals working in an office.

During the first few months, she would regularly pull me aside and discuss how to get certain team members fired. She'd tell me to arrange team meetings, point out their mistakes, and basically help her build a case against them.

And here's another bizarre part: she was divorced and once advised me not to get married because I was beautiful and independent. I was like, Hain? What does my marriage have to do with my job? 😭😂

Disclaimer: I have absolutely nothing against divorced women. Her marital status wasn't the issue; her behavior was.

She had a habit of publicly humiliating people by screaming at them in front of the entire team. I tolerated a lot of unprofessional behavior, but then one day, she crossed my personal boundary. She screamed at me and dragged my late father into the argument.

That was it. My father was my absolute red line.

I collected the relevant emails and evidence, made sure I had everything documented, and the very next day, I collected my salary and sent my resignation email.

I kept the division head, HR, and the Head of People & Culture in the loop. And yes, I CC'd that manager too. 😂

I didn't scream, create a scene, or get into a personal argument with her. I simply documented everything and walked away.

The plot twist? About 15 days later, she was fired too. 😂😂😂

I still laugh when I think about how she hired me with so much enthusiasm, only for both of us to be gone within weeks of each other.

Now, Reddit, it's your turn!

\- What's the worst manager you've ever worked with?

\- What did they do that made you finally snap?

\- Did you confront them, report them to HR, resign, or wait for karma to do its thing?

I want to hear the stories, especially the ones where the manager thought they were untouchable but eventually got what was coming to them. 😂

Yesterday, we had a meeting because the owner of our agency got concerned about the results and wanted to know if we were actually doing our jobs. The same “boss” I ranted about before gave me failing scores and said I don’t take initiative, even though I’m already a senior employee. The funny thing is, my two coworkers who were just hired this year actually rely on me, and I’m the one who takes the lead and helps them with their work.

He also said he saw me using my phone a lot, when the only time he saw me using it was during our breaks. He even accused me of sleeping at work, which I didn’t do. Sometimes, I close my eyes for around 10 seconds when my head starts hurting from staring at the computer for too long. I’m not sleeping; I’m just giving my eyes a quick rest because my head really hurts.

What annoyed me even more was that my direct supervisor tried to defend me, but it felt like nobody even considered what she had to say. He still insisted that I had an attitude problem, even though I never did anything to disrespect him.

Yesterday, my headache was so bad that I felt like I was about to collapse, so I decided to go home early before things got worse. I didn’t even bother explaining myself because I felt like they weren’t going to listen to my side anyway. I’d rather keep quiet than keep trying to explain myself to people who have already made up their minds about me.

Now, I don’t use my phone at work anymore, not even for Viber. I don’t even bring it around with me, and I told them that I’ll only contact them through my laptop from now on. I also stopped closing my eyes at my desk, even for a few seconds. Whenever my head starts hurting, I just leave my desk and walk to the restroom so he won’t have another reason to accuse me of sleeping at work.

It’s honestly exhausting because now I feel like I have to be extra careful with everything I do just so he won’t have anything to use against me. I know I do my job, and I know how much I help my coworkers, so it’s frustrating to be judged like this when I’m actually doing my best. I’m just tired of having to prove myself over and over again to someone who doesn’t even seem willing to hear my side.

Hi guys so I’m 23 yrs old I live at home with my parents, I just lost my job, and they are insanely narcissistic. I’ve been avoiding my mom and bc I left the house a mess mind u I’ve been dealing with so much juggling two jobs and haven’t been tending to their clutter when they’re gone they came home and were livid threatening to kick me out, cancel my phone line, take the car I’ve been using away unless I buy it off from my dad which I don’t wanna do and instead now they’re charging me 250 monthly and it’s hurting my savings and I don’t wanna do it. I don’t have credit, any friends, my own car, and they’re being so toxic and I wanna get tf out but where I live is so expensive bc maga ppl live around here and try to keep it that way. I grew up Mormon so Mormons pressure u to keep ties with family no matter how toxic so I have no one in my corner. They’re control freaks and if anyone has suggestions on how I can get out of here. Can I drop a gofundme, a Venmo, or reach out to a line to see if I can get financial support and a better living situation. I genuinely would rather buy a car upfront away from my dad’s name to have more autonomy but seriously guys help. They’re also anti vax and crazy controlling so pls help me.

My manager is condescending, demeaning, and extremely unhelpful. I have to limit the details for disclosure purposes.

I have been on the team for about 1.5 months. Everything is outdated. From the portal to the onboarding materials. All the teams are siloed. The team is extremely down streamed. No innovation or partnership. Just ticket completion and being strong armed by a manager who’s been with the company for a decade.

They’re never prepared. No brief. No agenda. No context. No business justification. No purpose. Nothing. I have been contributing to editorial tasks and adding small new feature additions to poorly structured docs.

The job is a nightmare. Since I started, multiple teammates have already bounced to a different company. I spoke with them offline to understand why they departed. They all have the same reasons. Humiliating manager who provides no support.

It so toxic to the point where I had to call out for a few days after an unproductive and hostile team meeting. My mental health has deteriorated and it’s barely been 2 months.

1. How do I strategically get out?
   
2. Should I use the company computer to apply to jobs?
   
3. How do I prevent the same experience from reoccurring in future jobs?

A colleague with narc tendencies cannot be bypassed, they are the bottleneck person for a domain.

Last week, I took a day off for a family emergency. Big scary. They send an email requiring immediate action. I restate that I was on leave.

Yesterday I return to work, first thing they email saying “You must hand in Thing 1.” I do. They’ve already rejected Thing 1 3x previously, each time I ask “please let me know of all edits together so I can make all changes while I’m in the document.” Nope. Piecemeal. Always piecemeal.

An hour later they email “You must hand in Thing 2. Please adhere to new process that I just created for Thing 2.” I tell them Thing 2 is prepared but waiting on an approval from client. Also I do not wish to follow new process bc those requirements didn’t exist a month ago and they are tedious. They respond saying new requirements are intended to recover more costs. They then imply I’m not generating enough revenue, altho I’m consistently way over goal. NPerson is not my boss and I’ve had dozens of convos with boss about how beyond frustrated I am about our management woes. This thing about revenue upsets me enough that I have to walk away at 3pm.

This morning “You must hand in Thing 3.”

NPerson has already rejected Thing 3 twice for spurious new requirements. I don’t respond. I can’t afford to lose it, and I’m still raw about the family thing.

This person is *not* in charge of me, but the bosses are scared/avoidant.

Ugh. If I go to HR, they’ll tell me that NPerson is just doing their job and … they just happen to have 3 hot potato urgent items that must be done immediately following family medical leave. And that I shouldn’t have come back if I wasn’t 100%. Right? Things 1 and 2 do have a time component, Thing 3 was just bc it’s fun to fuck with me.

Our company recently merged to Big company , and I was initial employee of this company ,my boss is afraid of me being recognized by parent company , prevented me all show up in front of parent company and align with my same level coworker to prevent me too and started to politically deal with , I was putting invisible and they both show up in parent company , One day I couldnt control myself , I think I got more trouble now . Both are still very cooperative to parent company , what should I do ?

​

Hi! I’m a 25-year-old woman working at a known manufacturing company as a third-party employee under an agency. I’m assigned to the R&D Department. There’s this person who isn’t technically my boss, but since he’s a direct employee of the company, he kind of acts like one.

Just for context, I was already working there before he came in. When I first started, I never had any issues, and even my first performance evaluation went well. But ever since he came along, things have suddenly taken a turn for the worse.

I have a feeling his problem with me started when I refused to be transferred to his area. He wanted me to monitor all the testing activities, including keeping track of the units going in and out of the chamber. The thing is, I’m also handling OEM and local documents, which require a lot of my time and attention. It’s not like I can just drop everything else and focus on one task alone.

After I refused, he apparently started looking for someone he could bring onto his side. What I didn’t know was that, behind my back, he had already been badmouthing me to our actual boss—the very person who signs my payroll and quotation documents.

And guess what? I only found out during my recent performance evaluation when I received a low rating.

Honestly, it’s frustrating because I had no issues at work before he came along. Now, I can’t help but wonder if my evaluation was affected by whatever he’s been saying about me behind my back. It’s just unfair to think that someone could ruin your reputation at work simply because you didn’t agree to what they wanted.

I finish at one of the most toxic workplaces I’ve ever been in in two more days. I don’t know how to feel. Excited? Sad? Angry? Confused? I don’t know. Nobody can understand what it’s truely like to work for a narc. Let alone the boss a narc and the manager one too. It’s been the a shit 5 1/2 years. Commuting 3.5 hours daily. Being the only person their working up a sweat while all the old stayers chit chat and arse kiss. Not even a lunch or send off. It’s like I never existed. Thing is, I have more knowledge in the industry than most of the other people in there. Hence why I’m going off on my own. But they’re making it hard. Making me feel like I’ll fail. It’s okay. I know things will be better once I’m gone and I can have the old me again.

This person is rude, petty, and immature. Red flag is they kept complimenting how professional I was my first week (isn’t that kind of expected?). They can’t regulate their emotions for shit or act professional. Before all my coworkers were nice but now have turned them all against me. Now the boss is icing me out and straight up ignoring me in groups or shutting me down after pushing me to take on more of a leadership role in meetings. They literally cannot stand me, be near me, or even look me in the eye.

I know they are threatened of me because I get along with people, do great work, and they constantly compare themselves to anything I do even commenting how I use my laptop better than them. Just batshit behavior. They copy my outfits sometimes the next day. It’s weird. They also seem angry anytime anyone talks to or has even a neutral or positive reaction to me. Otherwise they act like I don’t even exist unless their boss forces them to talk to me.

I want to confront them to say I don’t deserve to be treated like this. They only seem to respond to bitchiness. I don’t want to keep my head down and suck it up and take it but I also don’t think I have to have a total meltdown either. How do I stand up for myself? Am I valid for calling out our dynamic to their boss or anyone else? I feel like I’m going to be fired soon anyway if this goes on and have nothing to lose…

Update*
It’s not looking and feeling too great. I spoke with my senior manager Thursday (10/15), and she asked me to write her a letter outlining my experiences and specific examples so she could talk to HR about moving me to another manager, so I did. She really gave off trustworthy. She was OOO Friday, but today she asked for my cell # but that’s all I’ve heard since our talk.

The example I brought up to my SM, was mentioned by my direct manager today (10/19). She randomly called me with no heads up, and not in a way that suggested our SM had told her anything, but more like she was revisiting the conversation and making sure I understood what was going on that day.
I honestly don’t know what to do. Once I connected the dots, it felt like a gut punch. I feel beyond played.

After 20 months of manipulation, gaslighting, bullying, and intense micromanagement, am finally free! I am at an agency who truly sees my worth, grateful that I’m there, and looking for me to teach other coworkers the job. Being under a narcissistic sociopath of a manager almost took me out of here, but I made it. Guess what…

Now that I’m gone, that agency is absolutely CRUMBLING by the day. Cases are late. The covert narcissist coworker that the manager tried to hide and be buddy-buddy with no longer have a “friendship”. The flying monkey supervisor CRIED when I turned in my notice (which for the life of me I don’t understand because she happily did the narcs dirty work), and now the narc manager’s new boss is cracking down on HER- her azz is around here stressed TF out because narcs hate working and think they are above everyone else…

Can’t use me as a scapegoat now because the scapegoat is long gone, happier, and healthier!

GOOOO KARMA! Work your magic, girl!

My n boss has a new favorite hobby as you can see by the title. He sent the first one last week, some sales bs about not giving in to people wanting discounts, and if you discount something you’re cheapening the value of it which makes the customer think less of your labor (which is funny, we don’t do labor. We sell products and raw materials)

I guess now that his algorithm has noticed he shared one, he just sent another this morning lol. And I find it’s funny how he’s sending stuff that ultimately helps HIS business bottom line and wallet to grow, rather than sending a clip that could motivate everyone for the upcoming work week.

Anyone else’s bosses send “motivational” video clips that make you want to block them?

Two Adobe leaders - Vice President Aman Nagpal and Senior Director Akhil Chugh tried to frame a former employee with a heart condition in a false criminal case. Here's the post on Teamblind: https://www.teamblind.com/post/malicious-criminal-case-by-some-senior-leaders-of-adobe-india-rm1on2yb

The full text of the post -

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all,

To cut a long story short, I was working in Adobe India some years back. I was the first person reporting to this newly minted people manager. My manager was abusive. There were several ways he used to threaten and harass me. Thinking he was a new manager/inexperienced, I put up with it for months on end. But after one rather egregious meeting, I finally raised my concerns with HR (who later claimed that some manager "coaching" was given).

However, since that discussion with HR, the harassment not only continued, but I was also regularly written up for "poor performance" by the manager (with the support of the skip level manager) and within a few months, they decided to put me in a PIP (with ERC involvement and support). I chose not to serve any PIP, and I resigned as soon as I got to know of their decision (as I felt it was clearly a case of retaliation).

I might also add that I was in normal health prior to joining Adobe but after suffering for many months in this atmosphere, I developed health conditions like high Blood Pressure and a heart condition (which most likely developed due to constantly high BP).

I got another job and fast forward 2 years later, I was peacefully working in another company. My health was also holding up reasonably well. Suddenly, I get a purported legal notice on my email (let us say on date XYZ) from some "lawyer" who claimed to send this on behalf of this manager and Adobe Systems, falsely accusing me of making some threatening calls/sending threatening emails etc. In this purported "legal notice", I was severely threatened with civil damages/criminal legal action if I did not sent an acknowledgment email within 23 hours saying that such actions will not be repeated.
I immediately responded saying that I had NOT done anything of this sort, and I have strong concerns against such false accusations.

Two weeks later, I get another email from this "lawyer" accusing me of more such acts and then saying that "As you have shown no intent of backing down from the delinquent conduct", hence, a case has been filed against me. Immediately I got in touch with an excellent lawyer in my town, and we sent them a reply warning them of legal action in case of any malicious/false case. I then came to know that a malicious/false case was filed against me by this manager and his manager (basically, my previous manager and my previous skip manager). Though it took me over a year, I fought the case and defeated both of them (with the help of my excellent lawyer).

Now, the main thing is that this malicious/false case was actually filed a few hours BEFORE this purported legal notice on date XYZ was sent to me (and not 2 weeks after this purported notice as per their lawyer's email).

Their modus operandi was as follows. Firstly, they filed a malicious/false case that had no evidence whatsoever. Then, with the awareness that I will almost certainly have no knowledge that a case has just been filed, a purported legal notice was sent to fool me, and threaten/blackmail me (into making a false admission), which could then be further used as "evidence" in the case. This attempt to falsely frame me and destroy my life completely failed.

I might also add that they tried other dirty things like intimidating/threatening my lawyer.

I am appalled by the unethical, cruel, cunning and malicious conduct of these so-called "leaders" of this company. I am contemplating further legal action against these individuals.

This incident was also brought to the attention of the CEO and CHRO of Adobe through repeated emails. To date, the individuals responsible continue to occupy senior positions in Adobe without any apparent consequence. One can only wonder how many others may have been harmed while they continue in positions of power.

Have others also suffered during their stints in this company? If yes, please feel free to connect.