80-year-old boss publicly scolds young bookstore employee over tiny mistakes: ‘He keeps publicly reprimanding me over increasingly ridiculous things’

Author image for Etai Eshet
Etai Eshet • Editor
Aug 13, 2026 7:15 AM EDT

An old boss is publicly nitpicking a longtime bookstore employee over tiny mistakes, turning ordinary work into a weird little power show.

Some managers run a shop like a workplace, and some run it like they're auditioning for the role of Smallest Possible Dictator. This one sounds like the second type. The actual book business is almost beside the point. The real product seems to be tension, public correction, and whatever strange pleasure comes from making a younger employee feel watched all day.

Advertisement
  • Woman with glasses reaches for books on a shelf while another person stands blurred behind her.
    via Yunus Tuğ

    Young focused bookstore worker

    Not actual story subjects.

  • I (20F) have worked at the same independent bookstore since I was 16. I genuinely love this job. The pay is
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • amazing, the actual work is easy enough, I love my coworkers and customers, and the bookstore itself has a
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • huge amount of sentimental and historical value to me. I work weekends and holidays.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • The problem is my boss (around 80M).
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • He's increasingly difficult to work with, and the entire staff has basically learned to "walk on eggshells" around him. We
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • can tell he's in a bad mood from the way he walks down the stairs or closes doors. Most of my coworkers just
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • Woman with glasses talks at a table in front of bookshelves with another person in the foreground.
    via Yunus Tuğ

    Young bookstore employee speaking across a table

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • nod and comply when he gets angry because they know arguing or explaining yourself tends to make things worse.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • I'm apparently one of the few people who will actually explain myself when I think something is unreasonable.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • Over the past years, he's reprimanded me in front of customers before, (yelling at me in the store, saying that
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • my behavior was "absolutely unnecessary and very ride towards him." (I told him the book he was searching for
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • had not been ordered because he told me I wasn't allowed to), he's said r de and disrespectful things,
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • made coworkers cry and overall being a person.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • He's not like this all the time: sometimes he is interested and happy with me. But it's not his default mood.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • This behavior is happening often, not only toward me, but lately I've become the scapegoat. I actually had an
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • 'intervention' with him because he thought I was slacking off. Why? I put too
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • much paper in the bin (!!!) and I was coming across as laconic. I apologized, explained I never meant to
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • come across like that and that I take my job seriously. It cleared the air for a bit, but then.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • Yesterday happened. Three things went down:
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • He came in already annoyed because I'd said I couldn't work certain dates next year
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • due to my internship. Then I took a customer call about a book. I checked our inventory system and then our
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • supplier's system. Both said the book was temporarily unavailable, with no indication of when it would
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • be back in stock. I told the customer I couldn't order it for him. I helped him find another book instead.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • My boss immediately questioned why I'd told the customer that we couldn't order it. He said I should have told the customer that it
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • would be back in stock eventually. I explained that I couldn't promise that when I had no date or availability
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • information. He insisted I'd handled it incorrectly. He told me I was 'smart enough to think ahead, right?' while
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • slamming boxes while raising his voice. I didn't really respond, just nodded and tried to explain myself. He
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • didn't like the look on my face, thought it was sassy. I just felt ridiculed.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • Later, during a break, he asked me to walk with him. He asked how I was feeling. I'd previously told him about
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • a chronic health issue because sometimes it affects my mood/memory. He then said:
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • "I'm not sure if it's your health or just your personality that's being sloppy." He proceeded to criticize me
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • that morning. Apparently the coffee was burned by the time he went to get it 3 \*\*hours later\*\*, there weren't enough cups
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • downstairs, and I hadn't done the dishes. I calmly stated that I didn't appreciate the tone he was
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • speaking in toward me, because it was about coffee. Like, come on. I then went on to explain that on Saturdays
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • we normally do the dishes and bring the cups down when we make the afternoon coffee.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • He then pointed at me, raised his voice, and said:
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • "You're going to do things around here exactly as I want you to. Not how you want to do them. You're going to
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • behave how I want, act how I want and do what I want. And if you're not going to do that,
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • you're going to get up and do your thing somewhere else."
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • At that point I stopped listening. I nodded, walked away and went upstairs crying.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • Later he saw me talking to a coworker about what happened and sent me to the back of the store to sort old books onto a table for
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • someone else to look at later. The store was busy at the register, and the task wasn't urgent, so it felt very much like he wanted me away from everyone.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • I've now reached the point where I'm seriously considering quitting.
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • Yes, maybe I'm not totally fitting his image of a perfect employee. Perhaps I'm too vocal and confident or a bit informal. Sometimes I make
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • mistakes and I forget things. But I don't think I deserve this treatment. I work hard and try to do my best every single
    via lorrainemoonsten
  • moment of the day. Do you think that I need to seriously work on my attitude or is he just a bu y boss?
    via lorrainemoonsten

  • The dumbest part is how random the criticism is. One minute it’s a book that can’t be ordered because the system says no, next minute it’s coffee that sat too long, then it’s the number of cups, the dishes, the facial expression, the vibe, the pulse, probably the alignment of the planets. That kind of supervision does not improve performance. It just teaches everyone to move like they’re carrying a tray of explosives.

    Bosses turning ordinary disagreements into character flaws isn’t exactly a new move. If an employee explains a decision, suddenly that becomes sass. If the employee looks hurt, now that is attitude. If the employee asks not to be spoken to like a dog, the boss decides the issue is “how things are done around here.” Amazing how the person with all the power always believes the problem is tone. And the line about doing things exactly as he wants is the whole joke in one sentence. That is not leadership. That is a man with a title trying to turn his preferences into law. No wonder the room feels hostile. Nobody can do good work in a place where every tiny decision can be turned into a public scolding.

    At that point, no wonder quitting stops looking dramatic and starts looking like self-respect. A bookstore is supposed to sell stories, not supply one where the villain is the manager.


     

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

management workplace discussion employment issues boss workplace-stories hr coworkers colleague Horrible Bosses
Scroll Down For The Next Article