The plot follows three friends, played by Bateman, Day, and Sudeikis, who decide to murder their respective overbearing, abusive bosses, portrayed by Spacey, Aniston, and Farrell.

Markowitz's script was bought by New Line Cinema in 2005 and the film spent six years in various states of pre-production, with a variety of actors attached to different roles.

Nick Hendricks, Dale Arbus and Kurt Buckman are friends working in Riverside, California who despise their bosses: Nick works at a financial firm for the sadistic Dave Harken, who hints at a possible promotion for Nick for months, only to award it to himself; Dale is a dental assistant being sexually harassed by his boss, Dr. Julia Harris, who threatens to tell his fiancée Stacy that he had sex with her unless he actually has sex with her; Kurt enjoys working for the kind-hearted Jack Pellit at his chemical company, but after Jack unexpectedly dies of a heart attack, the company is taken over by Jack's arrogant, cocaine-addicted son Bobby, whose apathy and incompetence threatens the future of the company.

Michael Markowitz's script for Horrible Bosses was sold at auction to New Line Cinema by Brett Ratner's production company Rat Entertainment in 2005 for a six-figure amount.

During the six-year development of the film, several actors were in negotiations to star, including Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Reynolds, Dax Shepard, and Johnny Knoxville.

[23][10] Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jeff Bridges had been approached by New Line Cinema to take the role of David Harken, described as a psychopathic master manipulator with an attractive wife.

Production designer Shepherd Frankel specifically set out to create distinctly different environments for the three employees and their respective bosses' homes and offices.

Nick and Harken's workplace is the "Comnidyne" bullpen, which was designed to "enhance the discomfort and anxiety of lower-level employees clustered in the center of the room where every movement is monitored by the boss from his corner office."

Costume designer Carol Ramsey worked with Frankel and set decorator Jan Pascale to match Harken's suit to that of the surrounding "cold grey and blue" color palette of his office.

Harken's home was described as "equally lacking in warmth" as the office but more lavishly decorated and "for show", including an intentionally oversized portrait of him with his "trophy wife".

Frankel approached the design through Julia's mentality, stating, "She's a Type A professional at the top of her game, who likes to play cat-and-mouse, so it's a completely controlled environment, with apertures and views into other rooms so she always knows what's going on".

Similarly approaching the character's home, the design allowed for wide windows which face onto a public street "which afford her the opportunity to put on the kind of show she couldn't get away with at work.

Frankel continued, "It features a mishmash of anything he finds exotic and erotic, mostly Egyptian and Asian motifs with an '80s Studio 54 vibe, a makeshift dojo, lots of mirrors and a massage table."

[9] For "Pellitt Chemical", the production team found a "perfect landscape of pipes and containers" in Santa Fe Springs, surrounding an unoccupied water cleaning and storage facility.

[28] Gordon encouraged the actors to improvise, though Aniston claimed to not have taken advantage of the offer as much as her co-stars, stating, "My dialogue was just so beautifully choreographed that there wasn’t much that I needed to do".

[19] McCready, Lessard, and Mark worked with musicians Matt Chamberlain, David Levita, Aaron Kaplan, Victor Indrizzo, Chris Chaney, Davey Chegwidden and DJ Cheapshot[30] to develop the music.

[19] Major contributions were provided by Mark on keyboard, McCready and Levita on guitar, Chaney and Lessard on bass, Indrizzo on drums and DJ Cheapshot on turntables.

The website's critical consensus reads, "It's nasty, uneven, and far from original, but thanks to a smartly assembled cast that makes the most of a solid premise, Horrible Bosses works.

Ebert gave particular praise to Spacey, labeling him "superb", and Aniston, judging her performance to be a "surprise" and a return to form, stating "she has acute comic timing and hilariously enacts alarming sexual hungers".

[46] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly reacted positively, calling the film "a bouncy, well-built, delightfully nasty tale of resentment, desperation, and amoral revenge" and complimented the casting of the protagonists and antagonists.

Club's Nathan Rabin also praised the cast, stating that the picture "succeeds almost entirely on the chemistry of its three leads, who remain likeable even while resorting to homicide", adding the "acting more than compensates for the film's other failings."

Rabin singled out Day's performance as "a potent illustration of how a brilliant character actor with a spark of madness can elevate a ramshackle lowbrow farce into a solid mainstream comedy through sheer force of charisma.

"[48] Edward Douglas of ComingSoon.net credited director Seth Gordon with having assembled "the perfect cast", claiming "the six leads kill in every scene", but echoed Nathan Rabin's sentiments that Day is the "real standout".

Douglas summarized the picture as "dark fun that works better than expected due to a well-developed script, an impeccable cast and a director who knows how to put the two together".

"[51] Leonard Maltin of indieWire considered Day to have had the "breakout role" and offered praise to the performances of the cast, but lamented the lack of screen time for Farrell's character.

"[52] Rolling Stone's Peter Travers gave kudos to the "killer cast", with specific credit given to Bateman and Day, but was critical of the movie, stating "it wussies out on a sharp premise" and that it is a "hit-and-miss farce that leaves you wishing it was funnier than it is"[53] The Guardian's Philip French called Horrible Bosses "a lumbering, misogynistic affair", but admitted "I laughed frequently, probably to the detriment of my self-respect.

"[54] Nicholas Barber of The Independent gave a positive review, complimenting Gordon for not allowing the actors' improvisation to be detrimental to the pacing, but felt the movie was not as "dark" as its premise required, saying "what edginess the film does have comes instead from the inordinate quantity of swearing, plus a smattering of homophobia and misogyny.

"[6] Salon's Andrew O'Hehir offered a mixed response, characterizing the film as a "lot funnier in theory than in practice, but it won't ruin your Saturday night".

Chang echoed the sentiments of The Village Voice in lamenting that the film failed to pursue the premise to "darker, more daring territory" and faulted it for falling back on "over-the-top comic exaggeration".

[73] Seth Gordon confirmed in July 2011 that talks were underway for a sequel, after the financial success of the film in the United States, saying: "Yeah, we've definitely discussed it.