'I lost my patience': Micromanaging boss forced to resign after employee writes anonymous reviews about him

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jun 1, 2023 5:00 PM EDT

"He honestly didn't do much besides hover, bring bad energy and make terrible suggestions," this employee writes in a captivating story about their irritating former boss. As u/RahbinGraves told to r/ProRevenge, they didn't care for their bossy manager's behavior. The OP writes that they were working at a hardware store making a pretty low wage, yet still doing a lot for the company. It sounds like they were doing the work of multiple employees by implementing a new program that would help customers. Things were going pretty smoothly for the OP and their coworker who was a designer. But then their new assistant manager, Devin, stepped in. And he only managed to make things worse for everyone around him. 

Too many managers just think they have something to prove, and want to have something to show for it by bossing around their employees or demanding changes to the workflow. At least there's justice in this story — it seems like Devin got the unhappy ending he deserved. 

Next, check out another story: this dude got locked out of a ride share car, and unfortunately for him, his luggage and pet cat were still inside. 

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  • 01
    Font - r/ProRevenge. Posted by u/RahbinGraves Micromanager forced to step down after mismanaging a new retail service. This one might be petty and definitely not as epic as some of the posts I've seen here... And I'm long winded. Relevant background info first: Anyway, several years ago I was working at one of the big hardware stores in my area. It's a household name and had some upward mobility with decent pay for the area.
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 02
    Font - I never really found a niche there after my first year and a half. I learn quickly though, so they kinda made me a swiss army employee. I could work hardware, plumbing, mix paint, make keys, prepare contracts for installs and knew all the features and flaws of the appliance models we sold. I was happy to do this because I was building a reputation as someone who could do everything.
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 03
    Font - Two years in, a new program was implemented that I was uniquely qualified to assist with. They crated a new position for me. It was marketed as an all in one renovation/remodel service for interiors. I was to assist the designer with product selection, product information, contracts and local marketing for this service. Everyone involved was super excited about it. Note: I was still only making $10 an hour in 2015 for this.
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 04
    Font - The problem was that because this was brand new, no one knew how it should work. The designer basically had to figure it out for herself while I tried to catch her up with all of the store and product knowledge I had accumulated during my unique experience with the company. Issues with the program: 1. It was waaaay too expensive. 2. Product to be used HAD to come from one of our stores, which was limiting. 3. No one knew about it.
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 05
    Font - It was a rocky start. Coworkers would call me over to talk to customers if they mentioned working on a big project, but that's all we had. No completed jobs to reference or anything provided by corporate to get us running. We made our own stuff. I put together a video advertising the service and got the nod from management to use company card to purchase a TV and media player to roll the video on repeat. We built vignettes in the store to showcase our design ability (I had been picking up
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 06
    Font - The micromanager: Enter Devin the assistant manager. He had actually been involved in the project from the beginning, and had been pretty supportive and brought good energy at first. But I think he got fed up with issues that we couldn't control (sloppy contactors refusing to fix things that they messed up, slow design process as customers worked out what they wanted and people just backing out after taking a bunch of our time when they see the price). We were, on average, charging $3k mo
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 07
    Font - sales on the poorer side of town, where almost everyone knows some kind of contractor or tradesman with connections. It wasn't a good market for this program, but we did manage to start hitting (and exceeding) our numbers. #7 in the region for the brand new program was not bad. And just when we finally started getting some business and a rhythm around 8 months in, Devin decided that it was not working fast enough for him. Obviously the designer was to blame since he had no authority over
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 08
    Font - and get the sale as quickly as possible without concern for liability (for basically destroying a room in someone's home to remake it) or what was realistic in terms of timelines. Customers felt rushed and got nervous. They backed out. We came to a standstill. We would only have two or three designs in progress at a time, but suddenly after working our a es off building the program, we had no customers for the first time in 6 months. Obviously Devin was not subjecting us to his authority
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 09
    Font - I'm a chill dude, but I had been working my a off for this company, making peanuts on the promise that I was working towards something. I endured working for the incompetent managers that got their positions because they started working there at 18 and made it their life. The toxic alpha male "I will lead, you will follow" BS was too much. So I started bullying him back, making fun of him in a teasing way where he couldn't really react without looking bad or losing control. I did that for
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 10
    Font - The designer and I had become friends though, so I was still mad about how it went down. I wasn't finished yet, but I didn't know what to do. Eventually they got another designer and Devin had me moved back to what I had been doing before. Passed over for several promotions that I was more than qualified for (the market had been flooded with long time employees that were being moved around). Bad luck, but I was done with the place. One day we were sent an email link to an anonymous manage
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 11
    Font - It wasn't character assassination or anything, just opinion based stuff with some vague examples so no one could figure out it was me. I didn't lie either, I just said what people don't usually say out loud. He would barely look at anyone after that. A couple of weeks later he resigned his position as assistant manager and took an exterior design position at the other end of the store, as far away from the departments he had been over before. Basically the same thing as what we had done w
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 12
    Smile - Maybe he learned something? He should at least have learned how my designer friend felt. They were both fired at Christmas.
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 13
    Font - Is your designer friend doing well? I was half hoping you two would start a company together
    via r/ProRevenge
  • 14
    Font - RahbinGraves OP. Last I heard she was doing well. We lost touch over time. She moved back home with family and got a better job with an actual interior design firm. I liked the work at the time, but honestly doing something like that in the age of Instagram leaves you with too many cooks in the kitchen. Everyone has a hack or an idea to save time or money. Made things difficult. It is a much better fit for me. I'm glad things worked out the way they did because I genuinely love the work I
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 15
    Font - North-Discipline2851. Petty, sure. But I think this was pro enough on your part. Always nice to see some know-it-all a hat put down several pegs. I had one of those micro-managers who've never actually done the job but loved to complain when we couldn't achieve the impossible. Knowing he was demoted and then fired? Mmm! chef's kiss
    via u/North-Discipline2851
  • 16
    Font - RahbinGraves OP Right? The best part of the whole thing had nothing to do with me. I'm pretty sure he was given the option to step down to save face because of the reviews I submitted. Being fired from essentially the same job as my friend was doing when he fired her, I could not have planned that. But it did feel satisfying.
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 17
    Font - Stormy8888 For $10/hour you wrote 10+ reviews that were bad, or good bad, or bad good. It all went down like you planned. Good for you getting justice for the poor Designer.
    via u/Stormy8888
  • 18
    Font - RahbinGraves OP. Lol thanks! Honestly, I'm still amazed that those reviews made a difference at that place at all. It seemed like a tactic to give the appearance of caring, if you know what I mean. I was really just trying to get in Devin's head because I knew his huge ego would force him to go through the reviews.
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 19
    Font - Schlemiel Schlemazel. I'm curious how you made your supposed "good" reviews sound bad.
    via u/Schlemiel_Schlemazel
  • 20
    Font - RahbinGraves OP. I don't remember what all I said specifically, but one of them was something about how he gave "me" the "freedom and autonomy to do the job my way. If I'm a little late to work, he doesn't get on my case because he knows how hard I work when I am here. A great Hallmark of leadership is to give employees the tools they need to succeed and the freedom to determine what that success looks like for them."
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 21
    Font - Which isn't an inherently bad thing to say, and may even be the best way to do things in some industries. But this was a retail chain, so all of that freedom and autonomy stuff is not what they want to hear. Edit: I also feel like I should point out that I used different styles of writing for these. I'm pretty wordy normally, so I tried to use different language and patterns of speech to write these up. I don't know how well I actually did on that, but I remember feeling like a genius aft
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 22
    Smile - Fink665 You write well. Good story. $10/hr? F that.
    via u/Fink665
  • 23
    Font - RahbinGraves OP. Thanks! And yeah... I kinda goofed off through most of my 20s, so that was the first job where I really applied myself. I didn't really fit in with the culture, but I assumed that's just how work was everywhere and it would get better as I moved up. I was naive. I still don't make a ton of money, but I'm comfortable as long as nothing crazy happens. I also have a lot of autonomy and I'm 100% remote, so I have more free time. Still climbing lol
    via u/RahbinGraves
  • 24
    Font - Wickling429 You should have taken it a step further after you left and ask if he like your reviews
    via u/Wickling429

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Tags

boss toxic-workplace retail work workplace toxic-work-environment pro revenge revenge manager
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