Infuriating Text From Boss Sparks Discussion About Bad Managers

Mel Dawn

Apr 7, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

Unfortunately, there is no shortage of incompetent managers who seem to be totally incapable of doing their one job (adequately managing a team of employees). Sure, part of a manager's job is to make sure their team is performing effectively, but treating employees like shit is never going to inspire efficiency, and sadly, many supervisors out there seem to believe otherwise. Bosses mistreating their underlings is a tale as old as time, but now that everything is infinitely screenshottable in the digital age, terrible managers keep exposing themselves (in writing!) and the receipts often go viral.

One such screenshot of a text message exchange between an employee and their boss was recently shared on Twitter, where it rapidly amassed 2.5 million views, 2,656 retweets, and 48K likes. In the text message, the worker calls in sick and the boss refuses to accept it. "There is no one to cover the shift" says Deb. Hey, here's an idea—how about you cover the shift, Deb? Oh, but I guess that would mean you'd have to actually work for once.

The tweet sparked a discussion full of people who strongly related to situation exhibited in the text message. We've collected some of the best replies from the thread.