Employee plans to leave his job without notice and refuses to train his designated successor: 'If anything remotely related to "what she does" is brought up by the employees, I tell them that they'll have to reach out to her, and I can't help them'

Author image for Olivia Arocena
Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Jun 13, 2026 5:15 PM EDT

Lately, ridiculous bosses are everywhere, or has it always been like this?

Very few things are more pathetic than someone trying to command an authority they don't have, or pretending to have everything under control when they clearly don't, but when it comes to our ridiculous bosses, we love to see it unfold. Sometimes, commanding behaviour stems from insecurity rather than confidence, and people revert to that as their main mechanism instead of opening themselves up to help or external advice. The story below is about a manager who's also the boss's wife, who, in my opinion, is employing this type of psychological defense.

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  • woman talking through mobile phone while sitting on a swivel armchair in an office
    via Dane Deaner

    A model depicting the entitled boss from this story

  • So in my previous post I was intentionally vague about some things because I work in a specific industry and am pretty sure coworkers are on here. I can provide a little bit more context - I own a side business that
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  • was never intended to go full-time, and when I finally decided I was done at my "day job," I started scaling the business up. I'm not worried about income loss because the side business has been operating for over a decade and is
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  • proven at this point. I've spent about a month setting up the infrastructure and finalizing things; I'll be ready to leave at the drop of a hat now! Which feels great.
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  • In the actual office, boss' wife spent a few days. trotting around and acting as if she'd won. Which was fine - she sent a bunch of emails telling me she was "taking over" certain aspects of the business. I answered by telling her I
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  • was thrilled to no longer have those things on my plate, and directed her to anyone but me for help. (basically, external reps/trainers - I don't want to be stuck "helping" her when she inevitably messes up). She even
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  • went out of her way to repeatedly interrupt conversations I was having with employees to ask them for little silly things ("Can you hand me that stapler," it was literally two feet away from her. I just ignored the
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  • interruption.) as power trips. Unsurprisingly, over the course of a week I was getting pinged by every single external support team we have. I don't think Wife realized this would
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  • happen - but since I set all this up, I'm the admin on every single account, and I get notified when employees make mistakes/ask for training/need support/open tickets. She saw that I was cc'ed on
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  • every. single. email. detailing her mistakes or need for support. All of a sudden she was in her office with her door closed on days she was working. If anything remotely related to "what she does"
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  • is brought up by the employees, I tell them that they'll have to reach out to her, and I can't help them. This goes against every managerial instinct I have; I know I CAN help and I want to, but I'm done with the tantrums and her need
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  • for control. So, now she has full control over those aspects of the business, and a pretty long to-do list with urgent items on it. She hasn't thrown another fit yet, but even if she doesn't I have an end date
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  • Long story short, even if this is an update of a story, it’s still very clear what the situation is. This could also be thought of as a case of a very well-employed malicious compliance. He gets his revenge by doing something that is exactly what he formally should have done, and then waiting to see the situation unfold all its chaos. Luckily, he chose the healthy escape, building a side-hustle so stable that he could finally leave his main source of income and go for that. He talks here about a fraud the company was involved in, and it’s crazy that the fraud isn’t the worst thing. The worst thing is how this person treats him and how she can’t be humble enough to admit she can’t handle the position and give our friend the acknowledgement he deserves.

  • in mind for my employment here. I feel so disillusioned, tired, and unacknowledged that I don't want to stay even if she remains neutral. The fraud (which I recently found out is more extensive than I originally
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  • thought) is also a huge factor. I have a vacation scheduled, and then a week and a half back in the office before my end- date. I figured I'll get back from vacation, put in 1.5 weeks notice, and not make the transition
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  • difficult, but not go out of my way. Regardless of who takes over my duties, no one in the office is really equipped to do so and training with me won't be enough. They'll have to train with external support teams too.
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  • woman in black leather long sleeve dress standing near white wall
    via Khachick Simonian

    An illustrative picture how the boss from this story is acting in her office

  • Overall I'm excited to be moving forward, to have an end date, and to not have to deal with a woman in her 30s who acts like she's in high school still. I'm pretty sure our accounting team is going to give Boss up
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  • immediately at the end of the year based on a few one-on-one convos I've had with them, so I feel good about that. I'll update again if anything changes!
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  • It’s a bittersweet feeling when you know you are leaving a place soon, but the time hasn’t come just yet, and there is no point in trying to fix what’s already broken; you just have to wait to hit the gas and drive far, far away. This applies to so many areas of our lives; sometimes, we get caught up in situations that should be over a decade ago, just trying to fix what went wrong instead of having a naturally evolving exchange. I might be going off topic now…. But you feel me.

    I’m pleased to know this is a story about someone who did the right thing with a little maliciousness, and will be able to look back on this like he dodged a bullet, because he did. We should learn a few tips and tricks from this guy to escape our own personal entanglements.

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work toxic-boss workplace Horrible Bosses
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