Can I report my bad boss?

Claire Baker
Dec 28, 2025
3 min read

Your bad boss doesn’t owe you anything.

It’s not illegal to be unfair.

So your boss sucks.

They play favorites.

They make arbitrary decisions and everyone knows they have no idea what they’re doing.

They change rules on a whim.

You spend months working toward one goal, and suddenly they change plans a week before the deadline. Now everyone has to work double shifts to catch up.

They take all the credit, even though they themselves leave the office at 4:55 every day.

You’re right. Your boss sucks. But they’re probably not doing anything illegal. They're just bad at their job.

If your boss isn't doing one of these, you probably can't sue their ass.

1️⃣ Harassment

Tie goes to the jerk

ILLEGAL: Creating an unsafe work environment by getting violent, making unwanted sexual advances, or through verbal abuse.

💩Y BUT LEGAL: Being a jerk, a pig, or a loose cannon.

It’s difficult to make a case that someone’s unprofessional behavior crosses the line. Sadly, when it comes to drawing the line between dysregulation and harassment, tie usually goes to the jerk.

2️⃣ Discrimination

Plausible deniability

ILLEGAL: Making adverse employment decisions against a person or group based on a protected trait.

💩Y BUT LEGAL: Finding a reason to fire someone the boss doesn’t like.

Even if you know that you were targeted, it’s hard to connect an adverse action directly to a protected trait. Most people have made enough mistakes or had enough bad days to create plausible deniability.

3️⃣ Wage theft

Usually, requires a deliberate act to be illegal

ILLEGAL: Not paying you for your work.

💩Y BUT LEGAL: Making people work more (or less) than they want to, especially because of the boss’s poor planning.

Unless your boss changed records or failed to follow a wage & hour law like overtime, it’s not illegal to waste your time. Even if you do catch a pay error, you need to give them a chance to fix it.

4️⃣ Protected activity

The law says you can, boss says you can’t

ILLEGAL: Firing you, demoting you, or taking some other adverse action against you because you reported a problem or tried to take protected leave.

💩Y BUT LEGAL: Giving you the cold shoulder for reporting someone’s flaws or participating in an investigation. Pressuring you to come back to work before you’re ready but backing down eventually.

Labor laws are inconvenient to some managers and business owners, especially the ones who are bad at their jobs. They have a tendency to push back. But if they reach the right answer in the end, you may not have a cause of action.

5️⃣ Safety

Usually takes more than forgetting the "Wet Floor" sign.

ILLEGAL: They are negligent with safety measures and put you at risk of physical harm.

💩Y BUT (usually) LEGAL: Putting your psychological safety at risk.

As mentioned in 1️⃣, it’s hard to draw the line between being an incompetent jerk and harassment or abuse. Your psychological safety is real, but your cause for legal action will still be tough.

6️⃣ Fraud or coercion - An actual crime

They're committing a crime or trying to force you to do something against your will

ILLEGAL: Making false statements so that someone relying on those statements would suffer harm. Compelling someone to act against their will through threats, force, or improper pressure.

💩Y BUT LEGAL: Making someone work for a crappy business selling a crappy product.

Sometimes you’re asked to do things at work that you disagree with. It may be an objectively bad idea, but unless it’s against the law and unless someone else made you feel like you had no choice, it’s not illegal.

So what do you do if your boss sucks and they’re making your life miserable? Start looking.

Krista Lane, AnnE Diemer, and I give some pointers about how to leave a bad boss with grace in our most recent episode of HR Peep Show.