'That Job Was Hell': 7 Founders Share Their Worst Boss Horror Stories, and What They Learned From the Lunatics These entrepreneurs lived through bad boss nightmares, but they got the upper hand in the end.

Horrible bosses come in all kinds of unpleasant flavors: delusional, avoidant, narcissistic, rageaholic, bullying, undermining, insecure, micromanaging. The list goes on. Like a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans — yes, that's a Harry Potter reference — bosses come in nasty flavors you never even imagined until you find yourself chewing over something they said or did, and wondering, what is this awfulness?

But the one silver lining to having a bad boss is that it invariably makes you a better one. In fact, having a horrible boss is often the single biggest impetus for wanting to become your own boss. That's certainly true for the entrepreneurs who shared their terrible boss stories with us. Once they employed other people, they were acutely aware of how they did not want to treat them. So whether you're looking for commiseration, or to learn about a flavor of mismanagement you've never had the misfortune of experiencing, or you're the rare lucky devil who never had a bad boss, there's plenty to learn from other people's tribulations. So here's a sampling of horrible boss flavors for you to enjoy this spooky season.

1. The Angry Undermining Boss