‘It’s not mandatory, it’s compulsory!’: Gobsmacked employees share their most ‘did-they-really-just-say-that’ moment from a manager

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Jun 3, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

Sometime, in your career path, you will encounter a boss that has so much audacity that some of the things that come out of your moth will leave you gobsmacked. You know what you have to do in those moments? Laugh. Laugh and spruce up your resume, because wat in tarnation. How do people like this make it up any corporate ladder? It's truly mind-boggling. Have you been blinded by upper management for so long that you forgot your employees need to eat and sleep? Did you forget we live in a society with laws to abide by? Do you even know the definition of the words you are saying, because it sounds like it doesn't mean what you think it means?…

 

Don't worry, you will excel from there. Those kinds of managers never last, karma usually gets them before their foot-in-mouth disease does, but still. In the meantime, let's laugh at the insane things managers have actually said to their employees before. See below! 

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  • Cheezburger Image 10511792384
    via Unsplash+ (and Eduardo Ramos)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "What’s the most hilariously clueless thing a boss has ever said to you?"

    I'll go first: "We don't do overtime here... we just stay until the work is done." (Yes sir, that's literally the definition of overtime.) "Can you work faster without rushing?" (Absolutely. I'll just enter my Zen-speed mode.)
    via DueFalcon1895
  • "Your stress shows you care. I wish more employees were like you." (Great, I'm now the office mascot for anxiety.) What's your "did-they-really-just- say-that" moment from a manager or boss? Let's hear it.
    via DueFalcon1895
  • babyblueeyes14 I was brand new and one of only two women at the company. On my second day, I let my male boss know the toilet wasn't flushing properly and seemed blocked. He called a plumber and after the plumber cleared the blockage he called me into his office to yell at me.
    via babyblueeyes14
  • He tells me the plumber pulled hundreds of tampons out of the pipes and he knew it must have been me because the pipes weren't blocked before I started. I was so gobsmacked by the complete lack of logic (or basic understanding of how the female body works from a married man!) that the only
    via babyblueeyes14
  • words I could manage were, "but, but I've only been here two days!" I told him that like 6 times. He did not understand. I tried to explain the pipes must have already been getting blocked before I started, but he didn't believe me and said I should consider myself lucky they weren't sending me the bill.
    via babyblueeyes14
  • dubbs911 I asked my supervisor what was the max amount of mandatory OT (which was new to me in 36 years of working) was allowed according to state labor law? She responded with " we are a private company, we don't follow state law".
    via dubbs911
  • babyblueeyes14 "Your only job is to make me look good." - after asking for role clarity and a list of my responsibilities, rather than just doing my boss's job for him)
    via babyblueeyes14
  • "I didn't hire you to tell me how it is. You're here to agree with me." - after I told him in private that something he claimed was a fact was not true. "If they can't read, they deserve whatever happens." -
    via babyblueeyes14
  • after I raised a concern that writing the phrase "take care of yourself and pay attention to what you're doing" at the end of every step in a work instruction wasn't going to make the work any safer if people didn't have the right equipment. He was a SAFETY MANAGER.
    via babyblueeyes14
  • "I still need you to come in today." - after me calling from OVERSEAS where I was stranded for days due to volcanic ash causing my flight to be cancelled. I can go on
    via babyblueeyes14
  • GUI_Junkie I've told this anecdote a couple of times already here, on Reddit. Here it goes. I was working at an office. The client's office. There were around 70 people in that space from my company, and more from other companies. There were people there 24/7.
    via GUI_Junkie
  • At one point in time, the client started renovating the space without relocating any of us. I warned my bosses that this was not safe (I was a union member of the safety board of our company). He told me that everything was under control.
    via GUI_Junkie
  • 000
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • A few weeks (?) later, when I arrived, I saw that everybody was in the hallway. I asked what was going on and they told me that a ceiling lamp had fallen on top of the desk of someone who luckily had gone for a coffee. Nobody was hurt.
    via GUI_Junkie
  • I entered the office to call my boss. He: "You have to call the other boss because I'm on holidays." I called the other boss, and told him what had happened. Then, I called the head of the safety board of our company to inform him as well. And now, for the good part!
    via GUI_Junkie
  • The second boss berated me for: 1. Not expressing the urgency of the situation (it was literally the first and only time I had called him). 2. Not inform him of the risks of the renovation project (which I had done).
    via GUI_Junkie
  • 3. Informing the head of the safety board without reason (someone nearly got hurt for k's sake)! That's the dumbest it I heard any boss say in twenty years. Anyway, we were relocated for the duration of the renovation project.
    via GUI_Junkie
  • okaylezgoooo When I told him I would need to take it easy over the next few weeks as my 13 year old brother had just been diagnosed with BONE CANCER: "oh well, at least you're lucky he's so young".
    via okaylezgoooo
  • Elrumir_A When I asked for more staff and she said no because of budget reasons and topped it off with There's always going to be more work than employees
    via Elrumir_A
  • Which is true in a way of course. However, not replacing meant I would soon have only work and no employees. I got my recruitee in the end ☺
    via Elrumir_A
  • Socrav "The company needs to manage IT budget and security compliance instead of anything innovative." I'm a technical founder. High skilled. I build stuff and tell great stories to our customers. Run dev teams. Forward thinking,
    via Socrav
  • lead-by-bringing-up kinda thing We had some crop happen at our company and lots of heads were reduced. Of course I can do the job, I did build it up after all. But this is not who I am and where I want to be in my career. They find out probably mon that I quit. Found somewhere better suited for who I am.
    via Socrav
  • RummazKnowsBest "It's not mandatory, it's compulsory!" A deeply stupid man, too stupid to know he was stupid. He was also an aggressive bu y. Absolutely stealing a living (he's been promoted again since I worked with him).
    via RummazKnowsBest

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