the worst boss of 2024 is…

by Alison Green on December 16, 2024

The final votes are in, and the mother-in-law who manages the sister-in-law and covers up her drunk driving won the Worst Boss of 2024 Award, with 56% of the vote in the final match-up.

Coming in second, the boss who was a jerk about bereavement leave for miscarriages, captured 44% of the vote.

The runners-up, who all managed to be pretty terrible themselves:

my boss says my work is bad, but it’s actually good

my boss is having an affair with a coworker who’s engaged to another coworker

my boss lets my coworker stab office furniture with a knife

my boss jokes about our bodies, our sex lives, and our pregnancies

employer made us take fake lie detector tests to trap a stealing receptionist

my boss said I looked “unprofessional” when I wore a binder to work

Congratulations, you all suck!

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{ 90 comments }

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    4. JustKnope*

      Allison has addressed this previously. I believe her rationale is that we don’t have all of the context of a boss outside of the letter information, so heaping praise on someone might not be the best thing to do. Personally I think a category where we’re praising one specific action from a boss might be nice but it doesn’t sound like Allison thinks it’s something she wants to pursue!

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      1. WellRed*

        Look at all the letters from people who say their boss is great and then come back and update with “yeah, I’ve changed my mind and seen the light on my boss who actually is horrible.”

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      3. ScruffyInternHerder*

        Maybe not as a contest, but as a “share your stories about your boss acting like a good human!” type of thing?

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    5. Asked and Answered*

      AAM has repeatedly said that she doesn’t support a Best Boss competition because what we learn about on the site is too narrow for her to feel comfortable endorsing someone as “best” given all the other bad things they could be doing. You might make the argument that the same should apply to “worst” but I believe the logic is that some actions are bad enough to make a given boss “the worst” all on their own.

      As well, she’s been trying to do less work on the site – not more so I doubt she wants to add yet another task to her list of things to do.

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      1. JustaTech*

        Maybe if folks want to call out specific actions that their coworkers or bosses took, that would be a fun thing for the Friday open thread?
        Not just “Jane is nice” but things like “Jane saw that this inefficient system was making everyone miserable so she spent her personal capital to get the system fixed” or something.
        I’d love to read about ways we’ve lifted each other up at work.

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  3. Three Flowers*

    I really, really do not understand how the boss who let somebody stab things all the time was not at least a finalist.

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    3. Stella70*

      I’m with you! The MIL one, to me, seemed a bit run-of-the-mill in terms of someone managing a relative and then, refusing to correct bad behavior. Maybe my bar for bad managers is a bit too high! :)

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      1. WantonSeedStitch*

        I think it’s because she enabled not just “bad behavior,” but “reckless, innocent-life-endangering behavior.”

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        1. ferrina*

          Yeah, that made a difference for me. There’s bad behavior, there’s psychologically damaging behavior, then there’s This Is Likely To Kill Someone.

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        2. WillowSunstar*

          Yeah, I voted for her as worst because someone could actually possibly wind up in the emergency room or even worse as a result of the behavior.

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      2. Guacamole Bob*

        Yeah, the stakes are really high and I imagine that’s how it won, but family members who are unable to hold firm boundaries around family members with addictions and enable or turn a blind eye to their bad behavior are quite common. Supervising such a family member in a work context does make it worse, but it still feels sad to me. With some of the other contestants it’s easier to be flabbergasted by straight-up jerk behavior that has no difficult emotional roots.

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        1. JustaTech*

          I think the sadness of it is part of why it felt like a “worst boss” to me – maybe the daughter could have gotten some help (or at least a wakeup call) if she’d had a different manager who had been able to respond without the family feelings.
          Like, the mom could have asked to not manage her daughter, or the company could have had a (very normal) policy that you can’t manage immediate family members.

          So there were organizational failures as well (not to mention that the LW feared losing her job for reporting the daughter, I guess as retaliation?) as just the one manager.

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      3. J. random person*

        I think it was the combination of that plus physically endangering random strangers by covering up DUI. Like if the nepotism was only letting her get away with being a slacker and a jerk, then it would have just been run of the mill.

        I had a hard time choosing this year because, overall, none of them seemed like they were up to (or down to) the standards of previous years. Yes, they’re all horrible, but no competition at all for donate your liver boss or grave note boss. I guess that’s good, right?

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      4. Three Flowers*

        I actually do think the MIL one was worst, and also that the miscarriage bereavement leave one really hit hard for the audience. That guy was awful but to me, the awfulness directly affects a much smaller number of people than a whole team that goes through every day wondering if Knife Boy is going to run amok if they turn their backs.

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    5. Czhorat*

      I honestly don’t think it was as bad; it was bad and unsettling, but it is SO dependent on the situation whether it felt like an implied threat or was just weirdly acceptable random damage to office furniture.

      I get needing your hands occupied, but I carry a begleri, a contact coin, and a knuckle roller to fidget with. That seems more work-friendly than a knife.

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      1. Three Flowers*

        There are no circumstances in which *stabbing things with a knife in the office* is acceptable quirky behavior. I say this as someone who often carries a pocketknife and has worked in places where doing things with knives to keep your hands busy (e.g., carving wooden spoons) was totally reasonable. But there is no lab or office in the world where stabbing the upholstery and nicking the countertops is cool, especially if it disturbs everyone else’s sense of safety.

        That dude should have gotten one warning and then an escort to his car on the second offense.

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        1. Czhorat*

          Oh, I don’t disagree at all. it’s a sign of how unhinged the behavior of the other managers are that “lets an employee slice up the office furniture” isn’t the worst management we’ve seen here.

          It is clearly bad.

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      2. Small mind*

        you’ve got to be kidding me. stabbing furniture is not the same as a person using a fidget friendly item.

        the knife behaviour is aggressive/deranged and not even appropriate to do one time. someone should be leading out the front door and turning the locks.

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      1. Learn ALL the things*

        I don’t understand how the bereavement one got so far, since the update said they did, in fact, start offering bereavement for miscarriages. It was bad, but it got fixed in the end which is more than I can say for most of the other options.

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        1. Observer*

          It was bad, but it got fixed in the end which is more than I can say for most of the other options

          Yes, but the Boss did not change her opinion or attitude. She was forced to back down, by people with enough clout to make it happen. Which is why I’m expecting an update where this boss now manages to either make it impossible to actually take the leave or punishes any woman who has the audacity to actually take such leave.

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          2. Ann O'Nemity*

            Yep, the boss was basically forced by the group of senior leaders to change the policy. Also if you read the update, the LW gives more details about how the boss doesn’t like anyone’s ideas that conflict with their own, and the LW keeps their mouth shut out of fear of being ostracized. So I’m not sure the update did much to redeem that boss.

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        2. Magdalena*

          It “got fixed” despite the boss, who was overruled.
          I voted for that one because their comments in the vein of “how do we even DEFINE miscarriage” and “what if someone LIES” were so egregious.

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          1. Observer*

            Oh, and also “Just keep in mind that to make this work we’re going to have to force everyone to disclose their pregnancy one day one”. Veiled threat if I ever saw one.

            So, while I think the drunk driving enabler was worse, this is really something that belonged on the list.

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        3. Fluffy Fish*

          I was very very sympathetic to the miscarriage letter, but ultimately my votes went to ones where the threat of injury or death to others was an outcome. Which in my mind stabbing inanimate objects in the office absolutely could have escalated to actual violence.

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      2. North American Couch Wizard Society member*

        I voted for “stab things” guy because I actually think there’s a reasonable argument to make that a miscarriage would be better covered with sick time, especially if the organization’s bereavement leave policy otherwise requires the requester to produce a death certificate or obit. The boss was awful about it, of course, which is why people voted for them, but I think letting your employees be on edge all the time because someone is using a knife instead of a fidget spinner is worse management behavior. But the people spoke.

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    7. Strive to Excel*

      I think it was the lack of presence of the boss in the write-in at all (from what I recall from reading it); having someone *stab office furniture* is not OK, but there’s not a good way to tell if the boss approves/is remote and doesn’t see the looniness/has been dealing with serious illness/has had bigger problems to deal with/really doesn’t care until the ER has to get called. I think having that info would have swayed it more one way or another.

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    8. Artemesia*

      Me either. Someone making violent motions in the workplace and not being stopped makes the entire workplace terrifying. I walk in urban cities downtown at night; I am not timid. I would be very anxious working with someone allowed to stab furniture with a knife. This seems much worse than bereavement policy.

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    9. Raindear*

      Probably because that boss is entirely absent from the letter so we don’t actually know anything about what they knew or what they were doing, and they were not committing any actual acts of awfulness themself.

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    11. Anon for this*

      Yeah, imo everything on this list was horrible, but most of the other things didn’t *physically endanger* people.

      There’s a big difference between things that are distressing and must be endured while you mentally check out and job hunt, and things which could, potentially, cause you to be injured during your job hunting to get out time.

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    12. LaminarFlow*

      Same. That one was so incredibly strange to me. I can’t imagine that all of the employees in that company feel totally confortable with a colleague playing with a knife like it is a fidget spinner.

      The part about the colleague defacing office furniture with the knife was so odd. I’ve worked for a lot of companies that pride themselves on being weird, but giving Knife Guy free rein is just too much.

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    1. JustaTech*

      Honestly I’d rather that they just learn the error of their ways and improve as people. (If they learned they were here, ugh, several of them seem like the type who’d go scorched-earth trying to find the letter writer.)

      Hopefully each of them will be visited by three ghosts and come into the new year as changed people.

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  7. juliebulie*

    “Congratulations, you all suck!” I love this site.

    I do wish there had been an update on the stabby guy, though. Talk about your missing stairs.

    Reply ↓
    1. Hlao-roo*

      There’s hope for an update! Stabby guy letter was published in May 2024 and three commenters asked for an update on the October call-for-updates post, so fingers crossed that letter writer responded to the update request. We’re only about halfway through update month so far.

      Reply ↓
  8. Mike Engle*

    How is the knockout bracket made? Does Alison subjectively rank them in her head so it’s 1v8; 2v7; 3v6; 4v5? Or is it random?

    Reply ↓
  9. Ann O'Nemity*

    Eh, I disagree with this year’s “winner.”

    Many of the other cases (e.g., the joke-about-bodies boss, fake lie detector boss) involve direct harassment, discrimination, or extreme unethical behavior, which arguably have a broader or more immediate negative impact on employees.

    The MIL isn’t demonstrating good leadership, but who knows what’s happening behind the scenes. I would hope she’s looping in HR and providing resources, which likely wouldn’t be public knowledge.

    If anything, I think the daughter, who is also a supervisor, is the worst boss for driving and working drunk!

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    1. Testing*

      It was a vote, and a tight one. Clearly many people disagreed, but most didn’t. (Insert your own joke about elections here.)

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    2. Czhorat*

      I wholly agree; they were all terrible but my bias is towards more systemic issues, particularly involving racism or sexism.

      I thought the bereavement for miscarriages boss was worse than this as well as the sexist creep with the binder (that was my top choice).

      I think we can agree that these are all terrible

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    3. Limmy*

      The winner is one of the only nominees who is directly responded for putting lives in danger.

      This comment section for some reason loves to play devil’s advocate when it comes to people committing actual crimes (the woman Zooming while driving; the person who locked a baby in a hot car for hours; the LW who hated attractive women to the point of stalking a random woman so seriously they wound up on criminal charges; the man convicted of CSA who was romantically pursuing single mothers of young children) – it’s nice to know that the commenters willing to bend over backwards to defend serious crimes that inflict real harm on others do not represent the majority of readers.

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      1. Hlao-roo*

        the LW who hated attractive women to the point of stalking a random woman so seriously they wound up on criminal charges

        Which letter was this? The only two letters I remember/could find that are remotely similar are “I’m jealous of my employee and it’s impacting how I treat her” from Feb. 2017 and “my new hire is too attractive for me to manage her” from April 2021 but neither of them involved stalking or criminal charges.

        (I do remember reading the other letters you mention.)

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        1. Observer*

          “I’m jealous of my employee and it’s impacting how I treat her” from Feb. 2017

          That part is in the updates.

          No stalking, but both a civil and criminal case.

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          1. Hlao-roo*

            Ah, thank you. I only re-read the first update for that letter, which did not mention stalking nor the criminal case. For everyone else, the criminal case is mentioned in the update that was published May 16, 2019.

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      2. Ann O'Nemity*

        I respect your passion for this topic, but I feel the tone of your comment makes it harder to have a constructive discussion. My intention wasn’t to defend harmful actions but to discuss the context of the ‘worst boss’ debate. I think we can agree that the mother’s actions (or inaction) had serious potential consequences and were irresponsible.

        And actually, the person directly responsible for putting lives in danger is the drunk driving daughter.

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      3. Emergency Pants*

        PLEASE please link the “LW is a criminally charged stalker” letter!
        Also I think the vote says that the commenters (or at least the voting commenters) do think serious crime = very bad boss. Realistically, most blog readers aren’t going to comment “yay the worst boss won” because it doesn’t add to the conversation. However, folks who support a different perspective have more reasons to share their opinions.

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    4. Observer*

      The MIL isn’t demonstrating good leadership, but who knows what’s happening behind the scenes. I would hope she’s looping in HR and providing resources, which likely wouldn’t be public knowledge.

      No, this is not “let’s go through a process” territory, to start with. Furthermore, she has actively enabled the behavior and *hidden* it even when it directly and immediately affected others. That’s not the behavior of someone who is even making a show of trying to reign in bad behavior.

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    5. Leenie*

      My personal vote for worst would have gone to the lie detector one. It certainly didn’t have the worst overall impact, but the amount of effort and that went into that one made it next level for me. It was the creativity of the awfulness.

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      1. Ann O'Nemity*

        “Creativity of the awfulness” – absolutely! Also, I feel bad for the employees who were so nervous about it! IIRC someone got sick and vomited due to stress.

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    6. Over Analyst*

      Yeah, I think this is one of the worst PEOPLE of the year but not necessarily the worst boss. She’s putting people’s lives in danger but not as directly contributing to as terrible a work environment as others. I would’ve picked one who made the employees’ lives more miserable even if it wasn’t as life or death as covering up drunk driving.

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  12. Drought*

    Shook not to see Sally on here. Who tries to give an employee they no longer manage a PIP! And she tried to trick Tina’s current boss into approving it. Way worse then the lie detector boss in my book.

    Reply ↓
    1. I should really pick a name*

      Not sure what letter you’re referring to, but that sounds like someone trying to do something that would never actually work out.
      I think all the letters ranked here are are about managers taking actions that could actually successfully cause harm.

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        1. Cynan*

          Yikes, there’s like four different candidates for worst boss in that letter – the terrible coworker’s boss who enables him, the star employee’s former boss who tries to put her former employee on a PIP and sabotage her review, the boss’s boss who thinks it’s okay to “compromise” with said former manager, and the VP who thinks the whole situation is bad but he shouldn’t intervene. Just a turducken of terrible management.

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          1. Sherry Berry*

            Five! If you count LW essentially saying, “thank god Tina and ~her drama~ is no longer on my team, oh btw she might be being cyber stalked but no one is going to do anything about it,” in the update letter. I do.

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            1. Observer*

              That’s not really fair. The LW on that one was explicit that they were relieved that Tina had gotten a raise and was working with a team that respected her.

              There are some real issues with that LW, but this was not one of them.

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            2. Cinn*

              I wonder if it was the possibility of the LW also being included as part of the problem that prevented it’s inclusion? Like erring on the side of caution. I think the rule is not to include letters where the boss themselves wrote in.

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  13. Carol the happy*

    My son watches this site and sends coworkers to it when he thinks they need help, or validation (or a good, bright mirror….)

    He calls this contest “Mapping the Suck-iverse”

    Reply ↓
  14. Tech writer by day*

    Today’s (old) letter about a person planning to gift red lingerie to a coworker makes me think we also need a “Worst Coworker of the Year” contest.

    Reply ↓
  15. Kevin Finnerty*

    The thing in my mind that makes her the “winner” is the disregard for the direct risk of life. Ultimately other issues can’t beat risking the deaths of strangers for personal gain!

    Reply ↓
  17. BinderLW*

    I haven’t really been up for an update (red state, life is bleak)….but from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I wouldn’t normally recommend turning to the internet in times of personal turmoil, but I really, really needed the validation that this wasn’t normal.

    Reply ↓

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