What are some things, strategies, tactics in your experience that bad bosses do?

Abusing what piddly ass power they have.

Micromanage.

Alpha managers or leaders hire Alpha staff and then let them alone to do their jobs.

Beta managers hire less able staff and then micromanage them.

@gailcalled has it right – micromanaging

also – Look for blame, not solutions.

Manage by intimidation.

Openly flirt with female employees, especially the fat fuckers dripping in sweat.

Napoleon complex.

@jca Did you see this article?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/21-signs-you-have-a-terrible-boss/ar-BBjUjPE?ocid=U146DHP#page=3

Ugh..yes, I loathe micromanaging, just leave me the hell alone and I’ll wow you, I promise. lol
Also, refusing to ever take responsibility for their mistakes, oversights, poor memories, always shifting the blame to others, because, well…they are the boss and can do no wrong, ever. Gah!

They intimidate, humiliate, ridicule.and simply abuse their power as management.
Instead of organize ,prioritize,and motivate.

Threaten you with the loss of your job at every opportunity, unless you do exactly as they desire.

Constantly interrupt employees by asking “what are you working on?” Also, frequently changing an employee’s job functions or responsibilities, then yelling at the employee for not doing something that they didn’t know was their responsibility.

@sahID I had this lunatic chinese boss years ago. She’d come by my desk, lay out a bunch of accounts for me to work on and then, not 20 minutes later, she’d come by again and exclaim ” What are you working on, no, no, you should be doing XYZ!”
OMG….she seriously did not remember putting me on task less than 30 minutes ago.

I had a boss like that. She’d change procedure…then write me up for using the new procedure because she didn’t remember changing it.

@Dutchess_III I had a boss like that, I started carrying a small note book and writing down when things like that were said, he would come back and freak, I would whip out the note book and throw it in his face,he got little better after that but not much.

Fail to communicate well or even just communicate.
Try to bully staff into doing things.
Ignore the pressure their staff is working under.
Turn a blind eye to problems they’ve caused for more junior members of staff even though they know those problems are detrimental to their junior staff’s progression.
Not own up to their errors and poor management.
Another vote for @gailcalled‘s micromanagement.