The Most Pathetic, Petty Power Trips We’ve Seen
It can feel good to be in a position of power, if only because it means there are fewer people who have power over you. That said, any reasonable person knows that it's best to avoid letting power get to your head.
Unfortunately, not everybody is so reasonable, and virtually everybody has a story about a boss, coworker, coach, teacher, or other authority figure who went on an absurd power trip. These are some of the better anecdotes we've found.
Coffee conundrum
There was one woman in an office who managed the coffee fund and enforced a strict set of rules for the coffee machine. One of her rules was that no coffee should be brewed after 1 p.m., even though some people preferred having coffee later in the day. When others didn't follow the rules, she stopped contributing to the shared coffee fund entirely.
In response, some of the staff began buying their own coffee and bringing it in instead. This also caused friction, as she wasn’t happy with that solution either. Eventually, the disagreement escalated to the point where those who disagreed with the rules ended up bringing in a separate coffee machine and organizing their own informal coffee fund.
The pavement police
I was helping with first aid at a half-marathon, and one of the volunteers had a very simple task: stand at the bottom of a road and direct runners down one of two routes. The road was already blocked off with barriers, so there was basically no way to get it wrong.
Despite that, he became fixated on the idea that runners were only allowed on the pavement and not the road itself. Even though the road was closed to traffic and runners were clearly meant to use it, he insisted that "road" meant cars, and therefore everyone on foot had to stay on the sidewalk. He started yelling at runners and physically trying to stop people from stepping onto the road, forcing hundreds into a tight, crowded space where people were tripping over each other. After a few incidents were dealt with by first aid, I contacted organizers, and he was eventually removed. Once he was gone, things immediately ran more smoothly, even without anyone formally replacing him.
No fury like a Facebook mod
A woman started a hobby group on Facebook to organize meetups and related events, and she shared it across other groups until it grew to include hundreds of members. However, once the group expanded, she restricted posting so that only she could create posts, and things quickly became more difficult for members trying to participate.
She frequently reacted strongly to even minor comments, often banning or reprimanding people for relatively small issues, including responses related to scheduling or attendance. At one point, she even banned me for replying that I couldn't attend a meeting, and followed it up with a guilt-filled message. Eventually, in frustration, she deleted the entire group as a form of punishment for everyone involved. After that, someone else created a new group, which many of the members joined, and it continued operating successfully afterward.
Reversing the accusation
At school, candy wrappers and juice boxes were often found scattered around the hallways and classrooms, and the principal initially assumed the students were responsible. As a result, the blame was placed on the student body for the ongoing mess.
Later, a group of students noticed that the school canteen worker was actually the one spreading garbage around the building. She had been the one insisting that the students were to blame in the first place. Once that was realized, the situation became something people looked back on and found ironic and hard not to laugh about.
Beware of golf carts
While passing through Pensacola, Florida, I got briefly confused about which exit I needed to take and pulled just off the highway into the edge of a very large, empty parking lot to check a map. The building associated with the lot was far in the distance, and there were no fences or clear barriers where I had stopped.
A security guard eventually drove over in a golf cart, got out, and started shouting that I wasn't allowed to park there because it was private property. I was still in the car with the engine running and a map in my lap, trying to figure out my route, not actually intending to stay. After a short exchange, I finished orienting myself, got back on the road, and continued driving.
Probably not the first job he's lost
I'm a video engineer at a TV station, and at one point a producer managed to get her husband hired as my assistant. From the beginning, he came across as confrontational and would enter my office uninvited, seemingly looking for mistakes or ways to challenge me. He often said he was going to take my job.
Despite this, he had been unemployed for years prior, while I had both a degree and a decade of experience at the station. His behavior escalated over time, and the final incident was him shouting at me in the hallway. He ended up lasting less than two weeks in the role, and afterward, his wife was reportedly very embarrassed by how things had unfolded.
The copymaster
I once taught English at an international school in Egypt that was poorly managed. One staff member, responsible for general maintenance, had his office in the same room as the school's copy machine. Because of this setup, all teachers had to bring their class materials to him whenever they needed copies.
Every day, he insisted that we leave our documents on his desk so he could make the copies himself, even though that wasn’t formally part of his job. Since the machine was located in his office, he effectively controlled access to it and positioned himself as essential to the daily workflow. As a result, copying was inconsistent and often delayed, with materials sometimes not being ready until the next day, depending entirely on when he chose to complete them.
Comic Book Guy?
I frequented my local video game store for years, and one assistant manager there strongly fit the stereotype of an obnoxious, abrasive "gamer guy." When a new console release came out, I went in to trade my old system and controller, both of which were fully functional with only normal wear. The transaction immediately became contentious when he claimed my controller was “damaged” and said I wouldn't qualify for the trade-in deal.
He then insisted that, because of store policy, he would open the new console and take the controller from it instead. The situation escalated quickly, and he ended up canceling the sale and banning me from the store while he was acting as manager on duty. After I escalated the complaint to corporate, I learned he had only been promoted that same day. Within a short window, multiple complaints came in about him, and he was ultimately removed from his position.
HR can't help you now
I worked in an office where one of my coworkers was married to someone in HR. He was relatively new to the company and had a somewhat overbearing attitude. After I was promoted, I visited my old work area where a colleague and I were casually discussing a company policy we thought was poorly designed.
The new employee walked over and told us to stop talking about it. I agreed at first but continued the conversation anyway, which led to him escalating the situation and saying he would write me up. I briefly stopped and realized he didn't actually have authority over me, or most of the people there. I then pointed that out and suggested we involve HR to clarify reporting lines. After that, he didn’t attempt to act like he was in charge of anyone again.
The styrofoam stifler
My husband was dropping off Styrofoam and had just finished unloading it when he started walking back to the car. At that point, one of the workers yelled at him to move it to a different pile across the lot. There were no signs indicating where it was supposed to go or that anything had been placed incorrectly.
The worker stood there with his arms crossed, waiting while my husband made two separate trips to move everything to the other pile to correct the mistake.
The baby boss
I worked as a waitress in a large café where the owner was friendly but rarely present, leaving most day-to-day operations to the staff and baristas, who were mostly teens and young adults, along with a middle-aged manager who only earned slightly more than the rest of us. He was widely disliked and considered quite incompetent, to the point where we weren't allowed to use his name.
Instead, we were required to call him "The Boss," and when he brought his son in once, we had to refer to the child as “The Mini-Boss,” which he found amusing. However, he was quick to lash out over perceived disrespect, including yelling at a coworker for using his first name and insisting she “respect hierarchy.” He eventually resigned after it came to light that his business degree was not legitimate. At one point, he even used up all the café’s duct tape to section off a corner as his personal “office,” declaring it off-limits even though it blocked access to the supply closet, and I had to go out and buy more tape just to replace what he used.
Stand down in the standoff
I parked in a 15-minute standing zone while I quickly ran to my house to grab something. A man wearing cut-off gloves, cargo pants, a utility belt, and a badge that looked like it came from a dollar store approached and issued me a ticket for being in a standing zone. I ended up not even making it inside because I got into an argument with him on the spot.
During the exchange, he escalated things and wrote me a total of three tickets. Frustrated, I took photos, collected his information, and challenged the tickets in court. He actually showed up and repeated his argument in front of the judge, who ultimately dismissed all the tickets and apologized after deciding the situation had been handled improperly.
Just creating work
Each year, a Nurse Manager steps out from her office on the ward and selects one patient to follow from admission through to discharge, supposedly to observe the process and identify areas for improvement. On paper, it sounds like a useful quality-control initiative.
In practice, it often turns into the introduction of unnecessary rules and procedures based on isolated observations. At one point, staff could even be reprimanded for not smiling while walking through the hallway. Many employees felt these initiatives were more about proving administrative value than meaningfully improving patient care, leading to frustration among frontline healthcare workers.
Clapping back
I was part of a team brought in to try to keep a flagship store running just before the entire retailer went under. It was a difficult, ultimately futile effort, since the closure seemed inevitable long before we arrived. Our role was simply to operate the store until it could no longer continue.
A few weeks in, a 21-year-old employee from another location was brought in as an assistant to the assistant manager. He acted very confident, frequently giving orders and referencing his "years" of retail experience, despite being relatively new and doing little hands-on work. He tended to speak down to coworkers he considered beneath him. After observing this for a while, I eventually pointed out that I wasn't only slightly older than him, but also had been managing retail operations since I was 18 and held a higher position. He reacted very differently after that, becoming much more subdued. Eventually, the store continued its decline and was closed permanently the following year as part of broader cost-cutting measures.
Bouncer blowback
The bouncers at one club were extremely aggressive and regularly behaved in a way that made patrons uncomfortable. On one occasion, I saw a bouncer physically force a woman down a fire escape at closing time because she was taking too long to gather her belongings. She landed at the bottom, a crowd quickly gathered, and authorities were called, yet the same bouncer was still working there the next time I visited.
On another night, I was wearing a sweater that covered my wristband indicating I was of legal drinking age. While I was drinking, a bouncer approached, didn't ask to see my wristband, and instead grabbed my drink and poured it onto the floor and onto my clothing. I didn’t feel I could respond at the time without risking being banned from the venue, so I left the situation as it was.
Remembered to this day
In the 4th grade, I had a social studies teacher who was disliked by many students, and I felt she targeted me in particular without any clear reason. I have a condition that affects my handwriting, making it messy and causing wrist pain when I write for long periods, which made written assignments especially difficult.
Despite this, she would frequently require me to rewrite my work repeatedly if she felt it wasn't neat enough, or even if she thought my erasing wasn’t up to standard. Because her class was scheduled right before recess, she would sometimes keep me inside during that break, making me continue rewriting until she was satisfied. At the time, it felt especially frustrating and isolating, and I never fully understood why I was held to that standard.
No pen for you
A border agent refused to lend us a pen to complete a line on our transfer paperwork, explaining at length that it was his work tool and couldn't be used by others. As a result, my wife and I had to dig through our bags to find our own pen just to finish the form.
This happened after an 18-hour flight with two young children, when we were already exhausted and trying to get through the process as quickly as possible.
Can't have nice things
There was a receptionist at an office where I worked who was extremely particular about the office chocolate milk powder. She only purchased a single small canister each month for an office of around 150 people, which meant supplies were always limited.
Because of that, she required staff to ask permission before using it, and she would often insist on supervising while people scooped it into their drinks. What was meant to be a simple shared office item ended up being tightly controlled and closely monitored in a way that made it feel unusually restricted.
Unfair retaliation
When I was teaching preschool, my boss delegated the daily scheduling to an aide who wasn't actually qualified as a teacher or assistant teacher. Despite that, she ended up controlling break times, prep periods, and even when staff were allowed to leave for the day.
Over time, the system became increasingly chaotic. Some teachers went weeks without proper prep time, and when they raised concerns, she would retaliate by assigning them extremely long shifts, sometimes up to ten hours. Eventually, the schedule became so impractical that staff stopped following it altogether and coordinated their own routines based on classroom needs. Not long after that, she left the position.
Taking shortcuts
This guy had just been promoted to a supervisor role and was still learning how to use a program I was already trained in. He would usually meet with me for about 30 minutes each day to ask questions and get guidance on how things worked.
One day, he asked why a certain process couldn't be done a different way. I explained that it wasn’t allowed under the official operating instructions, even though another department sometimes used a shortcut because it was faster and they hadn’t received full training. I mentioned it wasn’t a major issue, just technically against the rules. He said he would confirm it with the person who originally trained me. Shortly after, someone from that other department showed me an email they had received from him telling them to stop the shortcut immediately, in a very harsh tone. I was surprised by how strongly he reacted, especially given how new he was to the system himself.
Essayception
At the boarding school where I used to work, a 17-year-old student was appointed as a prefect and given the authority to assign "punishment" essays to younger students. At first, it was intended as a minor disciplinary role, but he quickly became overly enthusiastic about it.
He began issuing so many essay assignments that it spiraled out of control, with younger boys constantly being told to write them for minor issues. Eventually, the sheer volume became so extreme that his own study space was overwhelmed, to the point where all four walls of his room ended up covered with the completed essays.
Can't put an adult in timeout
I worked at a theme park once, and the teenage staff would constantly use the lifeguard whistle for just about everything, even when it wasn't necessary. It became almost a habit for them to overreact or treat minor situations like emergencies.
On one occasion, one of them was complaining to me about a guest who had stepped out of an inner tube too early on a ride. He insisted he had told her she needed to "go to time-out," and was frustrated that she simply walked away instead of listening. He was genuinely annoyed and acted as though it was a major violation, which made the situation feel pretty overblown.
Mad with power
When I worked at a restaurant, one hostess told me that she felt unusually powerful on the nights she worked. She said she could intentionally seat too many or too few people in certain sections, which could either overwhelm servers or disrupt the kitchen flow if tables were turned over too quickly.
She admitted she sometimes used that control to target coworkers she didn't like, deliberately making their shifts more difficult. I was taken aback by hearing her describe it that way. After I reported what she had said to a manager, she was no longer assigned to that duty again.
Can't unstamp that
There was a head girl at my school who would shout at students if their uniforms weren't exactly perfect. She eventually introduced a "stamp system," where minor uniform issues would earn you marks, and after a certain number of them you’d receive detention.
The system only lasted a few months before a parent raised concerns that it wasn’t appropriate to assign after-school detention for something so arbitrary. After that, the system was discontinued.
Reaching the popsicle limit
I worked as a camp counselor when I was 22, and there was a rule that campers were only allowed one popsicle per day. Later in the day, I went to buy one for myself and was told by the shop counselor that the same rule applied to me as well.
Even though I was an adult working at the camp, I was still being held to the same restriction as the 9-year-old campers. It ended up being a slightly funny moment of realizing the rules applied across the board, regardless of age or role.
A fair response
An outside merchandiser at a store told me I wasn't allowed to use the self-service key cutter, even though a regular store employee had already instructed me to go ahead. When that employee returned, I explained what I had been told, and he just rolled his eyes and let me continue.
As I went back to cutting my keys, the merchandiser returned again and asked what I was doing. I repeated that the store employee had already given me permission, which seemed to irritate him further. At that point, my daughter stepped in and told him to back off, and the situation ended there.
Probably made her day
I was boarding a flight out of Mexico and had already passed through security and immigration when I was asked for a small slip of paper from when I entered the country. I wasn't aware I needed it, and it seemed to have fallen out of my passport somewhere along the way. I had to run to an office where the staff were helpful and assisted me in getting the paperwork sorted out so I could return to my gate.
When I arrived back at the boarding area, I saw a flight attendant notice me, smile slightly, and then pull the rope across to close the queue. She informed me that boarding was closed, even though passengers were still only a short distance away, separated by the barrier and about to board.
It's just lunch
Every day at work, the crew received meal tickets that could be used for lunch. Once handed out, people would simply put them in their wallets and use them later when it was time to eat.
One person in charge of distributing the tickets seemed to enjoy having control over the process. He would drag out the distribution and try to create competition or tension between coworkers over who would get their ticket first, almost turning it into a kind of hierarchy rather than a simple routine task.
The sweetest win is the default win
A friend of mine spent years at university telling almost everyone that he had been the class president of our high school. In reality, he had won by default because no one else ran, but he still treated it as a major achievement and influential leadership role.
After that, his behavior and appearance changed noticeably. He started wearing a cheap suit and tie every day, carrying props like a brass lighter, a flask, and aviator sunglasses he had bought online. He also began speaking and acting as though he were a seasoned politician preparing for re-election, despite the position having been largely symbolic.
Getting the bag
I was going through security at a music festival when an attendant stopped me and said my backpack was too large and not allowed. I pointed out that other attendees were entering with similar or even larger bags, but he insisted that theirs were acceptable while mine was not. He told me I would have to either throw it away or take it back to my car.
Since I had arrived by Uber and the bag was valuable, neither option worked for me. My wife and I stepped out of line, waited briefly, and then rejoined separately with her carrying the backpack instead. She was allowed through without any issue, while the same attendant had previously insisted mine was unacceptable, despite no apparent difference in enforcement.
Dan Gray
