35 Cringeworthy Bad Boss Quotes
Working in a toxic environment? And huge chunk of employees are unsatisfied with their work because of their relationships (or lack thereof) with their managers.
While we've prepped you with ways to deal with toxic bosses before, here are 35 bad boss quotes to help you survive the work day in the meantime.
1. “All things are difficult before they are easy.” — Thomas Fuller
2. “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
3. “Show respect even to people that don’t deserve it; not as a reflection of their character, but as a reflection of yours.” — Dave Willis
4. "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin
6. “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” — Will Rogers
7. “You are not your resume, you are your work.” — Seth Godin
8. "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose." — Dr. Suess
9. "Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means." — Ronald Reagan
11. "Where all think alike, no one thinks very much." — Walter Lippmann
12. "The better able team members are to engage, speak, listen, hear, interpret and respond constructively, the more likely their teams are to leverage conflict rather than be leveled by it." — Runde and Flanagan
13. “When dealing with two-faced people, it is difficult to know which face is uglier, the real one or the manufactured one.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo
14. “In a world full of cynics, critics and competitors, we get to choose instead to be cheerleaders for others.” ― Shelley Hendrix
16. “People who are in pain hurts other people, people who are happy makes other people happy, they don’t mistreat other people. When you think of it that way it makes it easier to forgive and have a little bit more compassion towards difficult people.” ― Jeanette Coron
17. “Sharks don’t eat fish because of anything the fish do. They don’t eat fish because those fish aren’t good enough fish, or because those fish aren’t nice enough to the sharks. Sharks eat fish because they are sharks.” ― Drenda Keesee
18. "Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago." — Horace Mann
19. "A good manager doesn't try to eliminate conflict; he tries to keep it from wasting the energies of his people. If you're the boss and your people fight you openly when they think that you are wrong — that's healthy." — Robert Townsend
21. "There are some people who always seem angry and continuously look for conflict. Walk away from these people. The battle they're are fighting isn't with you, it's with themselves." — Rashida Rowe
22. "When introverts are in conflict with each other, it may require a map in order to follow all the silences, nonverbal cues and passive-aggressive behaviors!" — Adam S. McHugh
23. "There are two ways of meeting difficulties: You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself meeting them." — Phyllis Bottome
24. “You can't control other people's behavior, but you can conrol your responses to it.” ― Roberta Cava
26. "The more we run from conflict, the more it masters us; the more we try to avoid it, the more it controls us; the less we fear conflict, the less it confuses us; the less we deny our differences, the less they divide us." — David Augsburger
27. “Listen to those under your supervision. Really listen. Don’t act as if you’re listening and let it go in one ear and out the other. Faking it is worse than not doing it at all.” ― Robert I. Sutton
28. "In business, when two people always agree, one of them is irrelevant." — William Wrigley
29. "The Law of Win/Win says, 'Let's not do it your way or my way; let's do it the best way.'" — Greg Anderson
31. "Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict." — William Ellery Channing
32. “Even if toxic people are right about what is 'good,' they are wrong if the approach is not healthy.” ― John L. Lund
33. "There's been a quantum leap technologically in our age, but unless there's another quantum leap in human relations, unless we learn to live in a new way towards one another, there will be a catastrophe." — Albert Einstein
34. “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
35. "When one ceases from conflict, whether because he has won, because he has lost, or because he cares no more for the game, the virtue passes out of him." — Charles Horton Cooley
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AnnaMarie Houlis is a feminist, a freelance journalist and an adventure aficionado with an affinity for impulsive solo travel. She spends her days writing about women’s empowerment from around the world. You can follow her work on her blog, HerReport.org, and follow her journeys on Instagram @her_report, Twitter @herreportand Facebook.
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