'Being micromanaged...was not something that we were interested in': Small business trucking company fires client of 50 years over their rep's demanding attitude

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 23, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

Ask and you shall receive. When this company representative decided to make empty threats, I'm sure he thought it would make him look tough and professional. Instead, it backfired spectacularly on him. 

This malicious compliance story takes place at a small family-run company that specialized in trucking. This person knew that relationships with their clients were important to the company's long term success. So when they encountered another business's representative who rubbed them the wrong way, they tried to get past the rep's brashness. After all, sometimes in business, you have to work with people you don't personally get along with. 

At least the OP, u/Wildcatb, had the common sense to do things by the books. When they parted ways with this rep, they still gave him 60 days — two whole months! — to find another company to work with. But even with all that warning, the rep just wasn't cut out for that job, it seems. Additionally, in the comments, OP left six different updates about the ongoing work situation. 

Next up, this person had a really simple solution to a work issue, but when their work rejected it, the employee let their boss get 20,000 help desk tickets. 

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  • 01
    Wheel - HERB TAC 'I wrote a short, polite, direct letter to our customer of over fifty years telling them that we were firing them'
    via Zetong Li on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - "You should fire us!" "Ok." L OC My family runs a small trucking company. Depending on where you are in the world, you might call us a P&D company, a Final Mile company, a White Glove company... basically we handle the kind of stuff that you might buy to have delivered to your home or business, that's too big for someone like UPS to deliver, but not big enough for a tractor trailer to haul, and/or stuff that actually needs to be brought into the home and set up, like furniture, appliances
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 03
    Font - A lot of what we've hauled over the years is stuff going to small stores that can't take delivery by large truck, construction sites where large trucks can't get in and out, neighborhoods and apartment complexes... we don't work for the people buying the stuff, we work for the people selling or shipping it, but as we tend to see the same business owners a lot, we've developed great relationships with them over the years.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 04
    Font - We don't get rich, but we've been pretty comfortable over the years. Our one major stressor has been a long-time shipper who has - or rather, had become increasingly demanding as time went on.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 05
    Font - Now when I say 'long-time' I mean it. We made our first delivery for them over fifty years ago. Our company has been doing business with them longer than any of their current employees or management staff have been there. There was one point, not too long ago, where the retired guy who came in a few hours a day to sweep our warehouse because he was bored sitting home, literally knew more about this shipper's systems than their senior field rep who was supposed to be 'supervising' our oper
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 06
    Font - We have been a small, but vital part of their network, for so long that almost no one there really realized how much we did for them.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 07
    Font - We've seen field reps come and go. Some have been great, some have been a little challenging, but most have - once they realized what was going on - largely left us alone to do our jobs. One even called when he took over our area to ask who we were, because his predecessor had no notes on us at all, because they'd never had to visit. We've just been (mostly) quietly plugging along, taking care of their customers, in some cases for generations.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 08
    Font - Well... the latest rep... was a genuinely unpleasant person. He was arrogant, abrasive, casually insulted our employees... honestly it's not worth getting into the minutiae here. He wasn't someone we wanted to work with. But I'm able to put on a happy face and get along with about anyone, when needs must, so onward we strode.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 09
    Font - As I said earlier, the shipper had been getting more and more demanding as time went on. Systems had been getting harder to navigate, inventory had been getting harder to track, phone trees had grown into Banyan nightmares, more and more layers of bureaucracy had been added, and with every change they'd grown less agile, slower, more difficult to deal with.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 10
    Font - One day the field rep called because he didn't like how we'd answered an email. Not that we hadn't answered it, just that he didn't like the manner in which it had been answered. After decades of dealing with this shipper, being micromanaged to that level was not something that we were interested in. The manager here who was dealing directly with him tried to defuse the situation, but it kept getting worse until the field rep said, "If you aren't happy with the way things are going, maybe
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 11
    Font - We started running the numbers, looked at all our other business, decided that we could, indeed, go on without them, and then I called the field rep to have a frank conversation with him.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 12
    Font - And then I wrote a short, polite, direct letter to our customer of over fifty years telling them that we were firing them. We didn't just pull the plug. We gave them a full 60 days' notice, so they'd have time to get something worked out. And... they didn't.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 13
    Font - We've always been here for them. They've never had to worry about it. They had someone they thought was going to be a replacement, but... well... as of today most of their customers in this area haven't had deliveries in a week. Some, longer than that. Many don't know when they'll get their next shipment. That field rep might still have a job when all is said and done... but it's not our problem anymore.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 14
    Font - Our phone keeps ringing, people looking for their freight from that shipper. "Sorry, you'll have to call them..."
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 15
    Font - UPDATE 11-28-22 Sorry it's been so long, but I kind of wanted to let things settle down before I wrote anything else. For almost a month our office got daily calls from people looking for their orders. A lot of the regular customers had my and my partner's cell numbers, and we got more than a few calls directly. My most recent call was a guy I've known since the early 90s desperately trying to track down a replacement order that just seems to have evaporated. Sorry... can't help...
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 16
    Font - We have picked up enough new business that we're not worried about the future. We did have to let a coupe of people go, but our remaining employees are happier dealing with the new customers, our working hours have settled down, and we just took our first four day Thanksgiving weekend in probably fifteen years. My wife kept saying how weird and wonderful it was to have me home for the entire holiday, and for my part it was the best Thanksgiving I've had in a long, long time.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 17
    Font - The new company is still struggling to keep up, let alone catch up. We've been told that the old field rep is 'not in a position to be able to treat people like that anymore,' but haven't been told exactly what has happened to them. Their replacement in our region is burning the candle at both ends trying to keep up with his regular work, and get the new company straightened out.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 18
    Font - One of Old Customer's biggest customers in this area told them that if they wouldn't commit to sitting down at the table with us to try to get us back, they were going to look at taking their business elsewhere. We didn't ask for that, but we said we'd be willing to talk if they came to us. They haven't. The new field rep said he passed on our willingness to talk, but that Higher wanted to stay the new course for now. Their call, and I'm honestly not upset about it.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 19
    Font - The new field rep sees the problems we've seen, and it seems like Higher does as well. We handled that business here for a long time, and were pretty emotionally wrapped up in it, and we told New Rep that we were sorry to have put him in this position; he said - paraphrasing - 'no, no this is our fault; we put ourselves in this position.'
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 20
    Font - I heard through the grapevine that we were one of over a dozen service providers to quit their network around the same time (in the space of a couple months) and asked New Rep about that. He clarified that it was over a dozen East of the Mississippi and that there were "a bunch" more in the Western region. Putting two and two together, we estimate something close to 15% of their providers. That's been a wake-up call to them; hopefully they'll work toward fixing some of the longstanding pr
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 21
    Font - Like so many things in life, it seems like this was something we should have done a long time ago. I still see a lot of our old contacts, and it's nice to have the time to actually stop and chat with them, instead of being on the run all the time. One of them invited my family to his place in the country next spring, and another wants to get together for lunch next week. This is good.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 22
    Font - Broote Every time you get a call for freight you should not only say "Sorry, you'll have to call them..." add: "Be sure to ask for <field rep>". It's a shame a good business relationship went south because of nonsense. But that's how it goes when the business doesn't care enough to train their people. :((To be clear, not your people, THIER people)
    via u/Broote
  • 23
    Font - Wildcatb OP +1. There's so much institutional memory that's been lost. No one there understands how well things used to run, so they think that the current dysfunctional state is just... how it's supposed to be. Maybe if we hadn't been around so long, we'd be the same way? I don't know. It's bad, and only seems to be getting worse. I really hope they pull it together and things get better. Maybe we'll even start hauling for them again some day...
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 24
    Font - Budget Speech_3078. This one need an update.
    via u/Budget_Speech_3078
  • 25
    Font - Wildcatb OP +1. F It's ongoing. Tag me in a week or so... Edit - RIP my inbox... Edit 2 - gawdz there are 218 comments and over half of them are 'remind me'... I promise I'll try to remember... Edit (c) over 350 'remind me's... What have I done... Edit IV - 700 'remind me's. I'm scared to go to sleep.
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 26
    Cheezburger Image 9800838400
    via u/Wildcatb
  • 27
    Cheezburger Image 9800838144
    via u/albatross6232
  • 28
    Cheezburger Image 9800838656
    via u/StudioDroid

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micromanager work stories job work workplace company malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit petty getting fired fired email
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