'I knew it would be a total mess': Micromanaging supervisor's simple mistake costs company $220k, gets fired

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Jun 14, 2023 12:00 PM EDT

Whenever someone is confidently incorrect, sometimes it's better not to argue with them. Instead, make sure you cover your own rear and let them do their thing… and watch the chaos unfold—just as this worker did when they got a micromanaging new boss.

This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by the worker, Reddit user u/BrightRick. u/BrightRick explains that they worked for a catalog in the 80s. What's a catalog, you ask? Well, see, before the internet, people who were trying to sell stuff to you needed different methods for getting stuff in front of your eyeballs. In order to do this, every promotional season, they would mass-produce these magazines that were filled with every single product that they offered. They'd shoot these suckers off to your mom, dad, teacher, dog, and even your Aunt Shirley. They'd shove them into every single mailbox and sometimes skip that step and throw them right there in the street.

It wasn't great for the trees, but oh man, was it awesome when you were a kid. You could hand-pick every little thing (that you would have otherwise never known about) that you wanted to buy and harass your parents about it for months.

Anyways, this guy worked for one of these, and what happens when your catalog doesn't actually have the right stamp to be sent off anywhere? This supervisor was about to find out.

Tune in next time for when I explain phone books. For now, check out this manager who told their employee to find some perspective; They did… by getting a new job.