‘My boss promoted the wrong person after I quit; the company tanked’: Boss tanks company after replacing employee who quits with new hire

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Jul 10, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

When one door closes, another opens, or so they say. In this case, the door that opened led to utter and complete chaos in the work environment of OP, who quit his job after finding a greener pasture. OP was working at a large electronics retail store for many years and eventually found himself working in a warehouse position. After quitting, he was given the job of training the employee who would take his stead. So he put in a lot of hours training this new employee. For some reason, his boss decided to promote someone else instead…

All the hours OP had put in now amounted to nothing. In addition, the job that OP was leaving was very difficult, and required a lot of skill and practice, with firsthand knowledge. The person that his boss hired had none of that, and it was too late, as OP was halfway out the door. To say that the company suffered as a result of this poor decision would be an understatement. Scroll down to read what happened next. For more, here is an employee who refused to train a new hire because he had technically already left the company… that didn't stop his boss from demanding that he stay in order just to 'train him'.

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  • 01
    Wood - "The store never recovered; almost everyone was fired."
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 02
    Font - I worked for this large electronics retailer for over 14 years. I started as a part timer and bounced around until I found my way into the back end side of the company: warehouse. I was a rare commodity for this retailer, I'm self motivated and I work hard because I feel it reflects on me. I don't need any supervision, just tell me what needs to be done and I will do my best.
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 03
    Font - I did, basically, the same job the whole time and became a master of my craft. Eventually a coworker joined me on the other side of the warehouse and became one of my best friends. Between the two of us we kept things going: paperwork, training, product flow, store set up, etc. To keep a very long back story shorter, the store became very dependent on us, more than we realized.
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 04
    Font - I decided I wanted more from life and gave them a 1 year notice, I would be moving on. Give me someone to train or it could be disastrous. So they did, I trained him in everything I knew. Ordering systems, merch systems, ways of flowing product so it can best
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 05
    Font - be shopped by customers (sales employees were awful, but that's a story for another time) everything I could pass on. So I drop to part time to go to my new job and instead of promoting him, they promote someone else who I haven't trained at all.
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 06
    Font - Over the next few months things start unraveling, product not getting to the floor, new displays, ordering. Now I have to start working more hours to make up for it while trying to show him what to do. Spring turns to summer, summer to fall. My coworker/friend quits to join me at the new job. I then decide to do the same.
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 07
    Font - Now understand, I had numerous meetings with our leadership, going over all the things we did, all the things that would need to be done for holidays, day to day, hours and hours of learned experience. Do you think he or they took notes? Wrote anything down? Nope, they were all sales people and you know how they feel about warehouse: waste of labor dollars. So I put in my two weeks and left.
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 08
    Font - Holiday season, instead of a well oiled machine, chaos. No one knew how to replenish shipping materials, no one knew or paid attention to any back end paperwork or processes (all you warehouse people know what that means), it was a disaster. Most of the leadership team was fired, I don't know how the GM kept her job. The store has never recovered
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 09
    Font - as far as I can tell. It looks terrible, you can't get any help. I have had nothing but terrible experiences so I no longer Shop there. The place is a ghost town and honestly, I used to care so much, now... the place could close down and I would care at all.
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 10
    Font - CermaitLaphroaig . 14 hr. ago This is such a common problem, the disconnect between admin and frontline, regardless of the industry. It's also how big problems get worse and worse, because admin will dismiss concerns, and
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 11
    Font - frontline smooths it over and makes it work because they'll get yelled at if they don't. Eventually the whole thng is made of duct tape and hope, and admin will be pikachu-face when it inevitably collapses 264 Reply Share
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 12
    Font - hedgehoghell. 7 hr. ago The problem is "who do they see value in". Bob the sales guy sold 2 million dollars in hi tech gizmos that he basically knows zip about. He gets the big promotion because he is the guy that "delivers" Not Sarah, the design engineer that made the concept work.
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 13
    Font - Not Frank, the manufacturing engineer that oversaw the production of all that product. Not not any of the dozens of other talented people that designed, made, managed the supply chain, supported or did any of the important parts of the success. Just the guy with
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 14
    Font - the golf clubs in his trunk and the perfect hair style. This is why the corner offices are all sales. Because the senior VP that started in sales knows just how important his skill set is. Reply Share 92
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 15
    Font - hottlumpiaz 11 hr. ago My buddy worked as an alarm/stereo system installer at a large electronics retailer back in the day. Despite working there, the company required him to provide all his own tools out of his own pocket. cost him thousands of dollars. Because of this....he told
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 16
    Font - every customer he could that if they were paying cash....come back after his shift was over and he would install their system for a steep discount so that the money would go directly into his own pockets instead of the company.
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 17
    Font - Fast forward 15 years and the electronics retailer is now defunct and my buddy owns an entire customs shop working exclusively with extremely high end supercars Reply Share 136
    via u/Paladinknight86
  • 18
    Font - Brendan110_0.4 hr. ago Senior management are blind and make stupid decisions quite often. Took 3 people to replace me, still advertising for people with the skillset I had 1.5 years later lol New management made the mistake of just looking at my job title and description and thought I was overpaid so hounded me out to save a few £££.
    via u/Brendan110_0
  • 19
    Font - Took my 25 years company knowledge to a direct rival for the same money, less hours and zero responsibility for people management. Easy life now. Reply Share Vote
    via u/Brendan110_0
  • 20
    Font - ApricotNo2918 - 12 hr. ago This is how these things usually go. Been there. Not my Monkeys, not my Circus.. I could tell you literally the same plot line. Reply Share 1
    via u/ApricotNo2918
  • 21
    Font - Mammoth_Ad_3463 · 11 hr. ago Sounds like a job I worked. Gave several weeks notice, they waited until my last days to hire someone. Told boss he would need to step up for the things he should have been handling. He didnt. Place went to hell. I have run into a few customers and ALL of them have asked me to come back because they ran better with me there. 413 Reply Share
    via u/Mammoth_Ad_3463

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management promotion workplace-stories-reddit promote-employee manager petty-revenge-reddit bosses new hire customers electronics quit warehouse 13 company retail-store quitting
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