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The Ultimate List of Bad Boss Quotes

You finally get the job of your dreams and you’re excited to start work!  However your new job can transform into a source of stress and frustration when you find yourself under the management of a horrible boss.

In this article, I’ve compiled a collection of bad boss quotes that shed light on the experience of working under bad bosses, those who can turn your workplace into a nightmare.

While the ability to lead and inspire should be a cornerstone of effective management, unfortunately, this is not always the reality.

If you’re currently navigating the challenging terrain of a toxic boss, these quotes about bad bosses will serve as a means to articulate your emotions and gain insight into the source of your frustrations.

I’ve curated some of the most poignant quotes on the subject of troublesome bosses and inept managers, all aimed at assisting you in handling the situation with grace and resilience.

Keep reading to find some quotes about terrible bosses!

 
Bad boss screaming at female employee making her cry

Motivational Bad Boss Quotes to Deal With Work Life

There is nothing worse than having a lousy attitude boss who makes you do all the work while the boss leaves early!  

Here are some bad boss quotes to help make you feel a little better about your situation!

👎 People don’t leave bad jobs; they leave bad bosses.” – Unknown

👎 “The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided.” – Casey Stengel

👎 “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.” – Oscar Wilde

👎 “The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.” – Lee Iacocca

👎 “The greatest gift of leadership is a boss who wants you to be successful.” – Jon Taffer

👎 A bad boss can take a good staff and destroy it, causing the best employees to flee, and the remainder to lose all motivation.” – John C. Maxwell

👎 “Bad bosses don’t listen. Good bosses do.” – Robert Sutton

👎 “Having a bad boss isn’t your fault. Staying with one is.” — Nora Denzel

👎 “The worst thing about a bad boss is that you never know when they’re going to snap.” – Philip Seymour Hoffman

👎 Bad bosses can take even the best of jobs and turn them into a waking nightmare.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Horrible Gift for Bad Boss

Lousy Boss Quotes

Here is my compilation of the best boss quotes.  Use these bad boss quotes to inspire yourself to do a better job when it comes time to being your own boss!

👎 “A bad boss is like a disease. It infects the whole team and makes everyone’s life miserable.” – Unknown

👎 “The only thing worse than a bad boss is a bad boss with power.” – Steve Schutz

👎 “Bad bosses bring out the worst in good employees.” – Brian Tracy

👎 A bad boss is a man who can be justly fired only when he agrees with you.” – H.L. Mencken

👎 “You are not your resume, you are your work.” — Seth Godin

"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

👎 “A bad boss can make even the best job in the world feel like a prison.” – Unknown

👎 “A bad boss can turn a great job into a nightmare, while a good boss can make even a mediocre job enjoyable.” – John G. Miller

👎 “The greatest tragedy in the workplace is not the presence of a bad boss, but the absence of a good one.” 

👎 “Bad bosses make good employees want to leave, but good bosses make employees want to stay and do their best.” – Unknown

👎 A bad boss can turn a perfect day into a living hell.” – Unknown

👎 “Bad bosses believe in their power; good bosses believe in their people.” – Jeffrey Fry

👎 “Every leader is a boss, but every boss is not a leader.” — Amit Kalantri

👎 “Bad leaders take all the credits. But never take blame for the mistake.”

👎 “Working with terrible bosses is like trying to dance with a two-left-feet partner; it’s frustrating, awkward, and often painful.” 

👎 “It takes a special kind of resilience to endure bad leaders without losing your sanity or your sense of humor.” 

A bad boss quote with office professionals

Bad Boss Inspirational Quotes

Unfortunately, we’ve all worked with a bad boss at one time in our career!  A bad boss can really dampen the spirit of his team.  I’ve had a couple of downright rotten bosses in my career, and they make going to work not fun!

Here are some bad boss quotes to let you know you are not alone when it comes to dealing with bad leaders!

👎 “Bad leaders can make you question your worth, but remember, their perception doesn’t define your value.” 

👎 “If you define yourself by the title of coach or boss, you’ll never earn real trust from your players or employees.” Bill Courtney

👎 “Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.” — Stephen Covey

👎 “Surviving a horrible boss is a testament to your strength and your ability to weather even the most challenging storms.” – 

👎 “In the grand story of your career, a horrible boss is just a minor antagonist. Your journey is far from over.” 

👎 Dealing with bad leaders is like navigating a maze of frustration. But with determination, you can find your way to a better path.”give us the chills, but on Halloween it’s just for thrills!”

👎 “I am thankful for all those difficult people in my life. They have shown me exactly who I do not want to be.“ Al. E Gater

👎 “A bad boss may cast a shadow over your work life, but remember, you have the power to rise above it and shine on your own.”

👎 “When you’ve worked with a lousy boss, you gain a deeper appreciation for the qualities of a good leader.”

👎 “A bad boss is like a storm that tests your ability to anchor yourself. Hold on, and you’ll weather it.”

👎 “Sometimes, the worst bosses teach you the most valuable lessons about leadership and the kind of leader you don’t want to become.”

👎 “Don’t let a horrible boss define your career. Use their challenges as stepping stones toward a brighter professional future.”

👎 Working with bad leaders is like trying to paint a masterpiece with broken brushes – it’s tough, but your talent can still shine through.”

👎 “A horrible boss is a temporary obstacle in your career journey. Keep moving forward, and better days will come.”

👎 “You can’t control other people’s behavior, but you can control your responses to it.“ Roberta Cava

Female boss yelling at worker

Toxic Bosses Quotes

Here are some bad boss quotes about a lousy boss who takes all the credit when you do a good job!  They turn your dream job into a nightmare, and have employees quit because the employee morale is so bad in the workplace!

👎 “Staying in a situation where you’re unappreciated isn’t called loyalty; it’s called breaking your own heart.”

👎 “People don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses”

👎 There are two ways of meeting difficulties : You alter the difficulties, or you alter yourself meeting them.”

👎 “Take a deep breath. It’s just a bad day, not a bad life.” — Barry D. Hatchette

👎 Don’t let a bad boss break your spirit. You can always quit and find a better one.”

👎 “When employee morale goes down, it’s always because of the boss

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.

👎 “Sometimes you just have to put on lip gloss and pretend to be psyched.” — Mindy Kaling

👎 “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” – Sam Walton

👎 “Bosses shape how people spend their days and whether they experience joy or despair, perform well or badly, or are healthy or sick. Unfortunately, there are hoards of mediocre and downright rotten bosses out there, and big gaps between the best and the worst.” ― Robert I. Sutton

👎 “You will find bad bosses in every corporation!”

👎 A bad job with a good boss is better than an excellent job with a lousy boss.”

Horrible boss quote on white background with blue around corner

Funny Bad Boss Quotes

If you’re tired of dealing with bad leaders making your time at work not fun!  Check out these funny bad boss quotes to give yourself a laugh!

👎 “My boss asked me to start the presentation with a joke. So, I introduced him as my boss.” – Unknown

👎 “If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter.” – John Gotti

👎 “My boss can’t decide between ‘micromanagement’ and ‘ignoring everything.’ So, he does both.” 

👎 “I have a boss who has the management skills of a coin toss. It’s either heads, and everything’s fine, or tails, and chaos reigns.” 

👎 “Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?” — Edgar Bergen

👎 “My boss is like a software update. He’s absolutely pointless, but he keeps showing up every day.” 

👎 “I asked my boss for a raise because I need more money to deal with the stress he causes. He gave me more work instead. Thanks, boss!”

👎 “My boss has a talent for making simple tasks complicated and complicated tasks impossible.”

👎 “My boss has two speeds: ‘Too slow’ and ‘Why haven’t you finished that yet?'”

👎 “I’m not saying my boss is a control freak, but I have to submit a permission slip to go to the restroom.”

Man screaming at blond employee in office

Best Bad Boss Quotes

You may adore your job and cherish your amazing co-workers, but your boss is a bad manager! 

Check out my collection of  bad boss quotes designed to help you navigate challenging situations with difficult bosses.

👎 “I think the best thing you can do is be aware that as a first-time founder you are likely to be a very bad manager.” — Sam Altman

👎 “A bad boss brings losses and problems to his organization”.

👎 “When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: ‘Whose?” – Don Marquis

👎 “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs

👎 As long as my boss pretends that my salary is high, I’ll pretend that I have much work to do.” 

👎”A good boss can make all the difference in your work day”.

👎 A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit.” – Arnold H. Glasow

👎 “It’s a tough world out there. You’re going to prepare yourself for politics, bad bosses, hating employees – and usually when you’re the absolute best, you get hated on the most.” ― Kanye West

👎My boss’s leadership style is best described as ‘organize it yourself and then report to me how it went.'”

👎 “A good leader is hard to find.”

Older man screaming at younger man

Let these bad boss quotes motivate you to do a better job at work no matter what your boss does or says to you!

👎 “When my boss told me this is the fifth time I’m late, I smiled and thought to myself; It’s Friday.” – Bobby Willians

👎 “People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.” Thomas Howell

👎 “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose.” — Dr. Suess

👎 “The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” — Theodore Roosevelt

👎 “I didn’t say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame it on you.” — Ashleigh Brilliant

👎 “A good boss helps to steer your career, not get in the way of it”

👎 “The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” — Jim Rohn

I hope you enjoyed reading all these bad boss quotes.  Hopefully, your next boss will be a good boss and you will appreciate them even more, after having bad bosses for a awhile!

Brilliant Bad Boss Quotes