Boss chews out employee for buying $10 soap despite buying $100k luxury car for himself: ‘How do you think I got so rich?’

JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor

May 28, 2024 4:00 PM EDT

Hypocrisy is a common disease in the contemporary workplace. And we all fall victim to its wiles every now and then. Like when I tell my cat, who is whining to be fed at midnight that "food is over for the day," when I'm jauntily cracking open a bag of fresh potato chips. Or when I'm driving, complaining about jaywalking pedestrians, even though I gleefully jaywalk every time I get the chance. Or best yet, when I give my friends relationship advice that I have no business using myself. It's human to be a hypocrite. We can't help it sometimes. We're flawed, we're complicated, and we're a little bit stupid sometimes.

But this example goes beyond regular hypocrisy and enters into the realm of toxicity. When you're a boss with a lot of power, you have to be mindful of your behaviors and attitudes, and how they might come across to your underlings. Below is an example of how NOT to do that.