The Original Poster (OP), known as u/taintedCH, posted about their situation in Reddit’s popular “Antiwork” forum where it received more than 23,000 upvotes and 2,400 comments. The post can be found here.
Complaints Within the Workforce
According to the 2022 World Happiness Report, Americans are unhappier than their Northern European counterparts, with Finland, Denmark, and Iceland taking the top three spots for happiest citizens. The United States and the United Kingdom came in 16th and 17th, respectively.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that more than 47 million Americans quit their jobs since October 2021 in what has been termed The Great Resignation.
A survey conducted by Pew Research found that 57 percent of workers who quit their jobs in 2021 felt disrespected at work, with 63 percent blaming low wages and lack of opportunities.
‘I Quit on the Spot’
In the post titled “I had an American boss and I feel so sorry for all my cousins across the pond,” the OP said they work for a small law firm and the boss is from the United States.
According to the OP, the boss hired a new office manager based on their degree from a “random university” in the U.S. and he immediately created a toxic workplace.
OP said the office manager demanded employees work overtime and complained about the number of times OP used the bathroom during their shift.
The manager also made OP take lunch at their desk to take calls because they were short-staffed.
“Legally they’re allowed to only give you 30 mins for lunch here, but it boils down to what as a skilled worker you’re going to accept,” the post read.
Recently, OP was invited to a termination interview, which they believe was intended to “scare” them into being “compliant and accepting their conditions.”
“Ultimately, I quit on the spot when they gave me the summons to the termination meeting,” the post read. “The work environment was giving me anxiety and with my skill set I could quite easily find a better job with better pay elsewhere.”
‘My Position is Still Vacant’
The OP said the office manager was “scared” that he didn’t have enough staff and told them they must give a seven-day notice.
“But luckily for me my doctor was quite happy to give me a sick note,” the post read. “The boss was seriously passive aggressive. At one stage she started blanking me, issuing me tasks in the 3rd person by CCing me on emails.”
They also claimed their boss incessantly made “racist” comments and that their coworker was dissatisfied and also expressed interest in leaving.
“I have a job alert on LinkedIn for the company and I love seeing that after almost a year, my position is still vacant,” the post read. “The secretary told me that people in my job constantly left after short periods of time because the boss was completely bonkers and the environment was too toxic.”
The OP said that now they are “extremely cautious” about accepting a job with a manager from North America, saying they have a “weird idea” that they are doing them a “favor” by hiring them regardless of their skill set.
Redditor Responses
More than 2,400 users commented on the post, many criticizing the boss for creating a toxic workplace.
“Yeah, that sounds typical, especially regarding the ‘you need to work through your lunch’ business,” one user commented. “Even though it’s illegal over here, that’s where a good portion of wage theft comes from, because they’re banking on workers either being too intimidated or not informed enough to stand up for themselves.”
“In France, you’re not allowed to eat at your desk. It protects us against manager that want to push you to work through your lunch break,” another commented. “Also, traditionally, our lunch break are 1h or more.”
“Apparently an American company took over one in Canada,” another commented. “As part of their restructuring they were canceling maternity leave. They were laughed at.”
“American here, they do treat us like s**t. Luckily I’m in a strong laborers union, so I’m somewhat shielded but I won’t hold my breath that I’m insulated from being homeless at any given moment. Very stressful,” another user wrote.
Newsweek reached out to u/taintedCH for comment.
Other Horrible Bosses
In other viral Reddit threads, a manager was blasted for calling the cops on an employee and a boss was slammed for firing an employee of seven years for “being late.”
On Monday, a worker went viral on Reddit after saying they “gaslit” their boss into giving their team more paid time off.
