'[I] got my entire Chain of Command fired': Bosses demand employee check the same inventory over and over, employee anonymously reports their bosses

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jul 29, 2023 5:00 PM EDT

Doing the same exact task over and over again is not how most employees want to spend their days. Sure, most jobs involve some form of repetition. But this person's boss kept insisting they do the same exact inventory count over and over indefinitely, so it's no wonder this employee got so fed up. 

This person ended up filling out an anonymous survey where they spilled the beans, and as folks in the comments helpfully noted, please remember that no survey from your workplace is every really anonymous. Even if you believe all the safeguards are in place to hide your identity, in this day and age, there are definitely ways that your bosses could figure out who said what. So be prepared to own up to anything you write on those surveys… you never know what could come back to bite you later on in your career. 

At least this OP didn't get caught, and instead, they made their job a nicer place to be. You can read the entire story below, and the OP also answered people's questions in the comments as well. 

Next, check out another story about a bad boss: this person's boss wanted to chastise them in a one-on-one meeting, but accidentally fired them instead. 

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  • 01
    Computer
    via Scott Graham on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - Was forced to do a task. Got my entire Chain of Command fired. M OC For obvious reason I will be omitting names and anything specific so my a is covered. TLDR at the bottom I've been serving in a certain military branch for 5 years and I'm nearing the end of my contract. So the "give a care" is completely gone. I'm in charge of inventory of specific pieces of equipment.
    via u/its_dooper
  • 03
    Font - Smaller pieces that are used by many people at my job. From time to time these pieces "disappear". Most of the time that just means things are misplaced, but we just got out of a certain period where we had MANY hired contractors at our job that tend to take things. Now every once and a while we conduct an inventory of these pieces of equipment for accountability reasons. When we lose things, it looks very bad on my work. More specifically, bad on my bosses.
    via u/its_dooper
  • 04
    Font - So I prepared the inventory and was startled by the amount of missing pieces. I did everything I needed to do and presented the inventory to my boss. He didn't believe we had so many pieces missing and asked for me to inventory them again. so I did, got the same number, and put the inventory in his inbox. Few months. go by and I get the same thing. "There can't be that many! Do another one." So I'm very compliant and do it again, and again.....and again. This gets dragged on over a year a
    via u/its_dooper
  • 05
    Font - So last week I was sleeping since I work nights and I'm woken up. My boss tells me I have to do a specific survey with my co-workers that will get sent up to the head honcho. This survey allows the small guy have a voice directly to the top. I tell him that I have the night watch, but he doesn't care and demands I go and do this survey. Fine. Before the survey starts our boss tells us we need to be completely honest and all these surveys are anonymous. Rad. I wrote down what had been happ
    via u/its_dooper
  • 06
    Font - Fast forward to yesterday. All my bosses are fired and now I'm reporting to new people who are now fixing the issues with the inventory. Edit: Thank you so much for the Silver! TLDR; Boss was avoiding issues to cover himself. Told HIS boss during a mandatory survey to cover MY Boss got fired. a
    via u/its_dooper
  • 07
    Font - Zaconil I remember one time we were doing inventory and one item was missing. Apparently it was the end of the end of the world that it was missing (it looked like a radio mount but I don't remember it being exactly that). We did a full inventory. Everything in our battery (company) was laid out. Towards the end of the day we were all just bulls ting in the motorpool slacking off when we noticed it. Someone was using it as a d pillow.
    via u/
  • 08
    Font - BEFEMS Last year there was a post on reddit in malicious compliancy how a worker had to write EVERYTHING in his inventory. S ty boss wouldn't listen to reason, so he started to write down bolt by bolt, nail by nail, instead of "box of 100 nails", "box of 100 bolts". Sometimes it's better to do exactly what the boss says.
    via u/BEFEMS
  • 09
    Font - Theresajhall Considering some of that stuff could very important having it missing till the world ends isn't a good idea. 510 Reply Share its_dooper OP Some people are comfortable with that, if it means they don't get in trouble. It's big sad
    via u/Theresajhall
  • 10
    Rectangle - xubax First rule of inventory: lock it up. Second rule of inventory: first rule of inventory doesn't matter if too many people have access.
    via u/xubax
  • 11
    Font - amboomernotkaren. Years ago my dad's neighbor worked at a Navy facility. My dad, not the most upright guy, was absolutely shocked at how many tools his neighbor had that were previously at the Navy facility. Thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of tools. RIP you two old reprobates.
    via u/amboomernotkaren
  • 12
    Font - 1Baffled_with_bs See the main thing about the military is paperwork. The new guy does an inventory and signs for what is there. No paperwork no sign. There are supposed to be 90 an-psc-5 and only 89 you better have that da-5519 or you go to jail. That stuff follows people even before they can ets. No ta-50 no dd-214. 177 Reply Share its_dooper OP It's all bureaucratic, but people are willin to just sign off stuff to get it over with. It's scary.
    via u/1Baffled_with_bs
  • 13
    Vertebrate - Baseless Earth12 Oh, hey! I know where everything is! Not where it should be.
    via u/BaselessEarth12
  • 14
    Font - Orange Jr36 God I love formal inventory and surveys for exactly this reason, it's the fastest and best way to get so much s piled on someone who deserves it.
    via u/
  • 15
    Font - AnotherGit I don't get it. Was it one boss or multiple bosses? Why are multiple people fired because one dude tried to cover his al Reply Share 3 Hey_Allen Possibly a whole lot of corruption that was uncovered when the investigation team started poking around after getting the tip about the missing supplies.
    via u/AnotherGit
  • 16
    Font - Nicoderm So, from a loss prevention standpoint, Your Bosses boss already knew what was happening. The survey was to reaffirm what they already knew. I can tell you that anytime you're given a survey like this it is designed to see if anyone else is in on it and covering for someone. Had you not been completely honest you'd be on 4th shift with a DD. It is an LP tactic, always tell the truth.
    via u/Nicoderm
  • 17
    Font - Yo0o0o0o0o0 Glad it worked out for you but treat every anonymous survey as if it is not anonymous.
    via u/Yo0o0o0o0o0

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boss anonymous coworkers Horrible Bosses survey malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit inventory contractor repetition
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