TV

Think you have it tough? Imagine these TV bosses in your office

In honor of Sunday’s episode of “Mad Men,” which showcased a really bad boss, here’s our list of TV’s Top 10 Worst Bosses.

  1. 1. Lou Avery (Allan Havey), 'Mad Men,' AMC

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    Jordin Althaus

    The advertising execs on “Mad Men” are, by and large, a collection of tools who routinely treat their secretaries and underlings badly.

    Enough has been written about the dark sides of Don Draper, Roger Sterling and company to fill the Library of Congress, but we would like to add one more guy: Lou Avery. Lou is the kind of callous, condescending egomaniac some of us have met all-too-often in the workplace.

    He’s not chasing skirts and boozing it up from 9-to-5 like most of the Sterling Cooper crowd, but he treats women so badly that he needs his own niche in Boss Hell.

    As a matter of course, he likes his own ideas best and dismisses any presented to him by the obviously more creative Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss), who should really have his job. On Sunday’s episode, he cavalierly dismissed his secretary Dawn (Teyonah Parris) because she was relaying information to disgraced employee Don Draper (Jon Hamm).

    Thank God Joan (Christina Hendricks) came to the rescue and gave the beleaguered underling her office — in effect, a promotion.

  2. 2. Michael Scott (Steve Carell), 'The Office,' NBC

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    NBC Universal Photo/ Justin Lubin

    The regional manager of the Dunder Mufflin paper company was promoted to that position from salesman, but found that particular skill set was not really appropriate for a managerial position.

    He treated work-related relationships as personal friendships, which he acknowledged was more difficult because his colleagues are all lower than him in the hierarchy.

    He overestimated his own importance in the eyes of his co-workers.

  3. 3. Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams), 'Ugly Betty,' ABC

    BACKGROUND: AMERICA FERRERA, ERIC MABIUS, JUDITH LIGHT, REBECCA ROMIJN;  FOREGROUND: VANESSA WILLIAMS, MICHAEL URIE
    Vanessa Williams (left) as Wilhelmina Slater ABC/Vivian Zink

    Mode magazine creative director Wilhelmina Slater was a rapacious, back-stabbing glamorpuss who would stop at nothing in her quest to become editor-in-chief.

    She treated her assistant Marc (Michael Urie) badly, seduced the publisher of the magazine — and then visited his wife in a detox center, offering a slug of vodka, to get her to sign over power of attorney.

    She was eventually appointed editor-in-chief, but her victory was fleeting. Wilhelmina was demoted back to creative director when sales plunged. 

  4. 4. Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), '30 Rock,' NBC

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    NBC/Jessica Miglio

    The NBC executive and former General Electric Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming (Alec Baldwin) regularly interfered with the creative decision-making of writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), foisting Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) on her as star of “The Girlie Show,” and even changing the name of the show to “TGS with Tracy Jordan” without consulting Liz. 

  5. 5. Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington), 'Scandal,' ABC

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    ABC/Richard Cartwright

    Olivia prides herself on her ability to manage crises, but she has never been able to behave professionally, proven by her long-term affair with President Fitzgerald Grant (Tony Goldwyn).

    It took her several years to admit that she sets a terrible example for her staff and that all scandals lead back to her, before she wisely resigned from her own company in the season finale. 

  6. 6. Patty Hewes (Glenn Close) 'Damages,' FX

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    Andrew McPherson / FX

    Patty Hewes was a brilliant attorney with a vicious streak she never quite conquered.

    She could beat anybody in the courtroom and her opponents were justifiably intimidated by her. But so were her employees, particularly Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), a protégée Patty almost had murdered. Temper, temper!

  7. 7. Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin), 'Homeland,' Showtime

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    Kent Smith/Showtime

    How this guy got to be the acting head of the CIA is one of the great unsolved mysteries of “Homeland.”

    Saul made so many bad judgment calls that to name them all would make us enraged all over again.

    Sending an obviously impaired Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) into a mental institution as a way to draw out another one of this series’ endless list of terrorists was probably the most egregious.

    Saul was replaced by a real administrator, Sen. Andrew Lockhart (Tracy Letts).

  8. 8. Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven), 'Entourage,' HBO

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    Jeremy Piven (right) as Ari Gold Everett Collection

    Say the words “Holly wood agent” and images of Nobel prizes and Purple Hearts do not immediately spring to mind.

    Ari Gold, though, was one of a kind. He went through assistants like water and sorely tested the loyalty of Lloyd Lee, making frequent, unnecessary remarks about his sexual orientation and ethnicity (gay and Chinese, respectively).

    When Lloyd tried to branch out on his own, Ari tried to make sure no one in LA would work with him again.

  9. 9. William Masters (Michael Sheen), 'Masters of Sex,' Showtime

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    Michael Sheen (left) as Dr. William Masters Craig Blankenhorn/Showtime

    When conducting a study into human sexual response, is it really the best idea to organize after-hours clinical orgies in your office to gather data?

    Is it really the best idea to participate in the study yourself, copulating with your research assistant, Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan), while your pregnant wife (Caitlin Fitzgerald) waits at home?

    We’re going to say, no, Dr. Masters (Michael Sheen). The inevitable has happened. You have fallen for Virginia while your wife has given birth. Bad form.

  10. 10. Julia Louis Dreyfus (Selina Meyer), 'Veep,' HBO

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    HBO/Bill Gray

    Self-absorbed, conniving and demanding, Vice President Selina Meyer is kind of inept, which is what you expect in politics nowadays.

    She’s also got a mouth like a truck driver and expects her overworked staff to be at her beck-and-call 24/7.