Before I ever started working, I learned about work. I had two main sources: my parents and popular culture. I can’t introduce you to my parents. But with the help of Netflix, I can show you some of the lessons I learned about work before ever getting there.

Now, these lessons didn’t really come in the form of lessons. In fact, I’d say they came more in the form of nightmares. I would watch a movie about having a job and then wake up in a cold sweat when I realized that some day I would have to enter the workforce. Between movies and TV, I saw some of the worst bosses in the history of the world.

As inarticulate, inept, evil, or unprofessional as they may be, they can still teach great lessons about managing young employees. When you understand our fears, which are a subset of our expectations, you can lead us more effectively. All you have to do is watch these charactes and form a mangement philosophy based on the exact opposite of what they are doing. As an added bonus, each of these movies or shows is worth watching on merit alone, so throw them in your Netflix queue and spend a guilt-free night of slacking while you learn these four lessons:

1. Communicate Clearly
Bill Lumberg in Office Space

Outside of movies with mob bosses, there is hardly a more loathsome boss than Lumberg . Whether it’s his frequent requests for employees to work weekends or his insistence on the correct cover pages for TPS reports, the man is simply unbearable. But what makes him a truly terrible boss is the way he asks his employees to do their work. The man can’t speak a single sentence without an awkward pause or a “gee” thrown in for effect. I think I may have been happier to learn that my boss could cut to the chase and ask for things than I was to know that he didn’t care about cover sheets.

2. Be competent
David Brent in The Office (Or Michael Scott in the American version of The Office)

Imagine knowing everyday that you are better at your job than someone else is at his job. Now, imagine that he makes more money than you do, has the authority to tell you what to do, plays favorites, and doesn’t tell jokes that are even remotely as good as yours are. Welcome to working for David Brent. Competence translates into authority because when I start to question if you know how to do your job, I will inevitably begin to question why you think you know how to do my job. This is especially true if you like terrible jokes.

3. Remember my name
Mr. Burns on The Simpsons

The Simpsons may well be the TV show that defines my generation. Thus, it should say a thing or two about the relationship my generation expects an evil boss to have with his employees. Burns frequently refers to his employees as “drones,” his idea of a good note on which to end a meeting is releasing the hounds, and he can never remember Homer Simpson’s name. Remembering my name is an easy way to show that you don’t think of me as an expendable, forgettable, unimportant cog in a large machine. (Not releasing the hounds is good for morale, too.)

4. Be my boss, not my friend
The manager in Waiting

Total creepiness of the mid-40s boss hitting on his barely legal staff aside, the problem with this guy is that he’s trying to be friends with his staff. Even if he was cool enough to hang out with them (and he’s not), there would still be the problem that he would occasionally have to ask them to do really uncool tasks, like cleaning toilets. Bosses and employees can’t be friends. The work thing gets in the way. As long as I’m asking you for a pay check, stop trying to befriend me and lead me where I need to go.