Skip to Content
Back to Press Room


CareerBuilder.com Launches New Viral Site

Company Releases Survey on Most Bizarre Boss Behaviors

CHICAGO, January 27, 2009 - They lie, they cry, they yell a lot. They’re bad bosses and 43 percent of workers reported they have quit a job to get away from them, according to a survey of more than 8,000 workers by CareerBuilder.com, the nation’s largest online job site. Workers who are dealing with problem supervisors will be happy to hear that help is on the way. CareerBuilder.com just launched a new online Anonymous Tip Giver tool that enables you to provide "constructive" criticism or fun advice for bosses or co-workers without revealing your identity.


By logging onto www.anonymoustipgiver.com, users can select from one of four outlandish characters and choose a unique voice to deliver a tip for the recipient. You can write up your own advice or select from a list of pre-made tips such as "One out of 10 people think your barking dog ring tone is funny, that one person is you." You can even record your message over the phone. Without revealing your identity, in an instant the fully animated tip is delivered right to the recipient’s e-mail box. Voilá! Bad boss problem solved. Annoying co-worker situation addressed.

"Anonymous Tip Giver is part of CareerBuilder.com’s new national marketing campaign, which is officially launching at the Super Bowl," said Richard Castellini, Chief Marketing Officer at CareerBuilder.com. "The campaign is a lot of fun and is chock-full of tips to help workers ‘start building’ better work experiences."

CareerBuilder.com’s survey found women (48 percent) are more likely to quit because of a bad boss than men (39 percent). Age also plays a role in who stays and who goes. Approximately 48 percent of workers ages 35-44 left their jobs because of a bad boss, while 40 percent of younger workers, ages 18 to 24, and 41 percent of older workers, ages 45 to 54, said they quit.

Some survey respondents shared real life examples of bad boss behavior that borders on the bizarre, including:

  • Hid in weird places in order to spy on employees

  • Took a bite of someone’s doughnut while they were away from their desk

  • Held a meeting while locked inside the bathroom

  • Brought a gun to work and cleaned it in an area behind employees

  • Tap danced on employee’s desk

  • Showed everyone a kidney stone he had passed

  • Broke down and cried during a meeting, "Why don’t you like me?"

  • Kept his lunch in a freezer intended for human organ storage

  • Used a taser gun on a subordinate

  • Declared "Talk like a pirate day"

  • Rode a child’s scooter through the office

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com among 8,038 U.S. employees (employed full-time; not self-employed; non government) ages 18 and over between November 12 and December 1, 2008 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset U.S. employees, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 8,038, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1.09 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com is the nation’s largest online job site with more than 23 million unique visitors and over 1.6 million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), the company offers a vast online and print network to help job seekers connect with employers. Careerbuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 1,600 partners, including 140 newspapers and leading portals such as AOL and MSN. More than 300,000 employers take advantage of CareerBuilder.com’s easy job postings, 28 million-plus resumes, Diversity Channel and more. CareerBuilder.com and its subsidiaries operate in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.careerbuilder.com.

CareerBuilder Media Contact
For all media inquiries and interview requests, contact:

Jennifer Grasz
(P) 773-527-1164
(E) jennifer.grasz@careerbuilder.com