'Within two weeks the electricity was cut off': Boss reminds employee they aren't an office manager, chaos ensues after employee stops managing their office

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    Product - 'Cue malicious compliance. If everyone agrees that I am not the office manager than I will stop managing the flow of the office.'
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    Font - Boss agrees with secretary that I am not the office manager so I stop managing the office M OC When I was doing my articles at a small law firm (internship to be admitted as an attorney) I was the go-to person for everything at the office (setting up computers, buying stationery, paying bills, going to court, seeing clients, etc). After being admitted as an attorney I continued doing all this because the secretary only did about 20% of what a secretary would usually do and refused to do a
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    Font - Since we worked from my boss's mother's house, the secretary also spent about 50% of her day just chatting to his mother and they became fast friends. Guess who was always the evil one that everyone ganged up on? Yours truly. I was made out to be incompetent at my job and I used to cry a lot and almost became an alcoholic from work stress.
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    Font - One day the secretary got really upset with me (after I asked her to buy stationery since we didn't even have staples) and after a heated argument told me that I'm not the office manager and should stop lording it about as if I was (bear in mind I was her senior both as an attorney and in number of years worked at the firm). My boss did nothing and rather got upset with me and so did his mother.
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    Font - I decided there and then I am done doing both secretary work and my attorney work because I was working roughly 50-60 hours per week (standard is 40) trying to get everything done without receiving overpay (the unemployment rate in my country is around 30% and in the legal field supply of lawyers exceeds demand). She knew this and my boss knew this but no one cared that I was basically working myself into an early grave.
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    Font - Cue malicious compliance. If everyone agrees that I am not the office manager than I will stop managing the flow of the office and only do my attorney work. I stopped paying the bills, buying the stationery, reminding my boss of important meetings, etc.
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    Font - Within two weeks the electricity was cut off for 10 days because it wasn't paid and my boss' elderly mother and the rest of his family had no electricity. We could also not work for those 10 days. Once the electricity went on, the phone lines were cut because of non- payment. We could again not work. The post piled up, there were no stationery. We couldn't do service of court documents because our service providers cut us off. It went on for weeks. I simply worked around the issues and so
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    Font - In the end my boss and his mother begged me to do what I used to do but I refused. Since I was focusing more on my actual work my fees increased and my pay increased as well. Shortly thereafter I moved away from that office to our secondary office and worked alongside lovely colleagues who all did what they got paid to do. I have been at this new office (same firm just a different location) for the last two years.
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    Font - harrywwc S +3 so many times here I read about someone told to "just do your job", they do, and the company finds itself in a hole. well done you, and more so for finding a way out of that rat-hole and into a nicer environment :)
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    Font - measaqueen +2. Or getting in trouble for going above and beyond and above their pay grade. But then told that saying "that's not my job" when asked to do something not in their job description. Double edged sword.
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    Font - ✪ [deleted] Great lesson. Overachieving just enables other people to be bad at/not do their jobs. Draw clear lines and stick to them - everyone is better off.
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    Font - verminiusrex Hard work and dedication usually just leads to being handed more work. 424 Reply Share HungryAd2461 OP. That was my reality since 2011. I wish they taught these things at school.
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    Font - Voidroy We have a security guard that helps mandate masks and social distancing while people are waiting for their food. One day, we had a ton of Togo orders and he decided to help bag the food, as nobody was here what so ever. The boss decided that he isn't allowed to do that so she yelled at him. Now he refuses to leave his chair like he was told to do, for any reasion what so ever, other than a patrol around the premises every hour. And the boss got upset that he was sitting on his a
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    Font - Uthucus By the way, you talked about how your old boss did stuff like not pay his taxes, when you switched did you end up reporting him?
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    Font - HungryAd2461 OP. No. He may be an idiot but he is a kind person. In my country the tax man gets you eventually but I made VERY sure that my payslips reflected that he deducted my taxes (even though he never did). I'm not going down with him. I'm also leaving after nearly 10 years (got a job 4 days ago) because it seems that the firm is closing down due to poor management.
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    Font - MackerLad93 The firm has multiple locations but one is an employee's mother's house? 8 Reply Share HungryAd2461 OP. Yip. His dad was an attorney before him at the same house. There is an existing client base. Also, lots of firms work from houses in my country. There is normally just no people living there.
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    Font - hooliganmike Power shut off within 2 weeks? That's barely even enough time to mail a notice.
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    Font - HungryAd2461 OP. I commented on another post about this. Remember the 30% unemployment rate? I live in a 3rd world country. Private companies do not allow you to just rack up fees without paying. Also my boss (the shady person) would pay the bare minimum on whatever bills so one skipped payment means cut off. I knew this, the rest didn't because Cinderella over here was in charge of everything.
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    Font - In my country the only thing you can delay paying for months on end is your municipal account because it's the government and here and there your mortgage payment (but that is very dicey).
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    Mammal - qimike The saying at my company is "No good deed goes unpunished"
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    Font - RobinSage What I find the most interesting is that your firm is big enough to have multiple offices but one of the offices is in someone's mother's house.
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    Font - HungryAd2461 OP. That's where the clients are. A teeny, tiny, small two room place. We never, ever held roundtables (where clients try to settle, which means all legal reps + clients) at our office. I always had to drive to the other attorneys with nice aircon and nice secretaries. The best I could do was dress really nicely everyday but yes, even my friends said what you say.

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