The Devil Emails at Midnight

What Good Leaders Can Learn from Bad Bosses

By: Mita Mallick

Narrated by: Mita Mallick

In The Devil Emails at Midnight: What Good Leaders Can Learn From Bad Bosses, Mita Mallick shares how bad bosses aren't born. Bad bosses are made. They are a product of their circumstances. She shares hilarious and heartbreaking stories of the thirteen bad bosses she once endured and survived, even including when she was a bad boss in her career. She challenges both current and aspiring leaders to avoid the pitfalls of bad boss behavior.

With powerful storytelling and practical advice, she covers bad behaviors like never having time for our teams (except at midnight); micromanaging and re-doing all of our team's work; being completely disengaged, and disinterested in leading; ruling with fear in hopes of driving business result; loving the spotlight and taking credit for all of the work; and much, much more.

The Devil Emails at Midnight: What Good Leaders Can Learn From Bad Bosses is a must-listen guide on how not to become that bad boss for anyone on their journey to be a better leader. Mita reminds us that a good leader can be the difference maker: ensuring we are recognized and valued for our contributions in our organizations. So remember that the devil emails at midnight. Let's make sure that devil doesn't become you.

©2026 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (P)2025 Ascent Audio

Great book that should create pause and reflection

I think the best thing about this book is that it draws from real world examples across multiple companies, capturing the modern workplace remarkably well. Most of us have experienced, witnessed, or at least recognize the situations the book highlights.

The real reason for pause and reflection is that we need to do better at work. Too often, our jobs don’t need to be as stressful or complicated as we make them. When we’re intentional, we can create far better environments for ourselves and for others. This book serves as a powerful organizational mirror check. Do we continue to allow these types of bosses and behaviors to persist, or do we finally demand better?

A Powerful Reminder of the Cost of Bad Leadership

I just finished The Devil Emails at Midnight and could not put it down. It pulled me in from start to finish — I read it in one weekend. The author’s story is courageous, eye-opening, and painfully relatable for anyone who’s ever had to navigate unhealthy leadership. This isn’t just a book for new managers — every manager should read it, and honestly, it should be reviewed annually as a reminder of what leadership should look like in practice. We can all learn from bad bosses — not just what to avoid, but how to lead people well.

The honesty and vulnerability of the author.

Content is very relatable to the those of us who have had bad experiences with bosses. Narration on Audible is easy to listen to.

Heartfelt, relatable and true

I started off thinking I’d read only about the devil-boss who emailed at midnight, but ended up seeing the different versions of devil-bosses, which to some extent, I have experienced or heard about. Mita helped me put a name to each category and the story was narrated in a way that was very relatable.
The book is also a lesson in leadership & one of the additional things I have taken away is that we could unknowingly be bad bosses and so we must be aware of our feelings & triggers, and catch ourselves if we start to act unusual. From the stats and impact of bad leadership, I have extra reasons to not be it.
I absolutely loved the book and glad I caught her post that day on LinkedIn.

The vidid examples of different types of bosses and the behaviors these bad bosses exhibit. So brilliantly written

Liked everything! I could have listened to more and more examples of bad bosses. So brilliantly written