17 Millennials And Gen Z'ers Exposed The Most Out-Of-Touch Things Their Bosses Have Said And Done, And I Can't Help But Roll My Eyes
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Recently, I was feeling curious and asked millennials and Gen Z'ers across the BuzzFeed Community to share the most out-of-touch thing their boomer bosses have ever said or done. And, well, y'all surely didn't hold back. Here are some of the most frustrating experiences:
20th Century Fox / Via giphy.com
1.The boss who hates when you take time off:
"My Boomer boss loves to make people feel guilty for taking time off, and will poke and prod with questions about what you're doing on that said time off. I swear, if you're not a 'mini her,' you get attitude. Time off for weddings? That's ok, because she LOVES weddings. Time off for something personal? What it is, why, where you going, what you doing? A long weekend for a camping trip? Oh, can't that be delayed? We need you here, you know, camping is so dirty, she hates it, how dare you..."
2.The boss who wants everyone to vote red:
"Who doesn’t know you’re not supposed to talk politics at work? My last boss, apparently. At a team meeting the day after Trump won, he raved about how great it was and how he was going to be an amazing president. He then asked us all what we thought. None of us were comfortable giving our honest opinions, so we all just said something generic like, 'Well it should be interesting.'"
3.The boss with questionable ethics:
"She said, 'I don’t care if you think what I’m telling you to do is immoral, I’m your boss, you have to say yes to everything I say to do.' She owns a mental health clinic and was telling me to charge people's card on file for their full balances without telling the patient first."–laurendaniellef
4.The boss who doesn't understand mental health:
"I mentioned to my boss that I take medication, she asked what for. I told her for anxiety, and she said, 'You really need to get over that.'"
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5.The "self-made" boss:
"That she was shocked so many people had student debt. She then said, 'Guess I was lucky daddy paid mine.'"
6.The boss who doesn't understand why they're short-staffed while offering less than minimum wage:
"Not my boss, but I overheard a man in the bank complaining that he couldn’t find anyone to work for him, which he thought was crazy because he paid 'good money.' $11/hr with zero benefits isn’t good money, my dude. You can make more than that starting at any local grocery, AND they have benefits."
7.The boss who doesn't understand why people are burned out during a pandemic:
"After year one of the pandemic and working from home, my work bestie was exhausted and pretty burnt-out. She tried several times to express her concerns to our boss but he was always demeaning to her. The last straw was when he complained he had to take care of his pool and make sure that the Ph was right before his wife and daughter came back from their Caribbean holiday – right after he refused to let my friend take some time off."
8.The boss who ignored the fact that you have bills to pay:
"When asking for a raise: 'You should stop thinking about money as value. We show you we value you in other ways. That’s better than more money.'"
9.The boss who is bitter when you quit:
"I had a part-time minimum wage job. When I left, one of the bosses asked me if I had a new job and I said no. She said, 'Then I hope you have someone to keep you in the lifestyle to which you've become accustomed.' Like lol my whole month's pay was around £450, please tell me what lifestyle I could have with that, homelessness and starvation?"
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10.The boss who doesn't want to see you win:
"I did an online program through WGU to get my Master's. I did it in five months because I worked 10 hour days, got on the computer the second I got home, did school work for 5-7 hours and barely slept. When I finally got it I cried. My boomer boss told me my degree was fake and no one can get a real Master's degree in five months."–Debbuzlynn
11.The boss who actively hates millennials:
"I work with young children (between 0 and 3) and was discussing one of my students with special needs. My boss was struggling to describe the child in question and I said, ‘They are neurodivergent, as millennials say,’ and she said, ‘Well if millennials say that I will say the opposite.’ To me. A millennial."
12.The boss who doesn't know we don't want to hear their phone call:
"My boss once had a call on speakerphone in an open concept office. Bless his heart."
13.The boss who refuses to learn:
"He refused to learn how to attach a file to an email. I worked for him for six years and every time he wanted to send a file he would call me in to attach it. Took him four years to realize my birthday was the day after his and when he asked me what I wanted, I told him: for him to learn how to attach a damned file to an email. He wasn’t amused."–Mommacat
14.The boss who brags about never taking time off:
"As a first year teacher, our superintendent said he’s taken less than 10 sick days in his entire career and if we want to be good educators, then we must be willing to make sacrifices for our career. As someone with a chronic illness, I took offense to him basically saying that I don’t care about my students if I take a day off."
20th Century Fox / Via giphy.com
15.The boss who thinks you doing your job is the bare minimum:
"At my previous job, I got a new boss who sat us down to talk about goals and performance reviews and said, 'If you're only meeting expectations, then you're underperforming. You have to exceed expectations in order to get a 'meet expectations' on your review."
16.The boss who doesn't understand boundaries:
"My boomer boss is always commenting on everyone’s weight. If you have gained weight or she thinks you should loose weight. … It’s so uncomfortable."
17.And finally, the boss who expects you to work weekends without pay:
"My boomer boss told me once that he and the rest of our team (also boomers, also paid 4x what I was paid) worked on weekends and thought about work a lot… so I was expected to as well. If I didn’t answer his call at 7 a.m. on a Sunday, he’d go ballistic."
Now I'm curious! If you're a millennial, Gen X'er or Gen Z'er, what is the most out of touch thing your boomer boss has ever said or done? Let me know in the comments.
Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity
