'Supervisor [...] fired her staff for obeying the rules': Receptionist follows boss's rules, refuses to make coffee for salesman, gets fired but asked to stay until replacement starts

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Oct 17, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

In case it hasn't been clear, workplace culture is undergoing a serious facelift these days. The question is how everyone responds to these (in some cases, very necessary and long overdue) changes. 

Here, we have a supervisor who specifically told the receptionist staff to never fetch coffee for salesmen at the office, as they are more than capable of making their own beverages. However, you can't enforce these policies and then not have your employees' backs when they follow through. That's what happened when this Redditor's wife was fired simply for refusing to make this dude's coffee… per the orders of her very own boss. 

Not only was OP's wife unjustly fired, but they also had the audacity to request that she stick around until they find a suitable replacement. Thankfully, she was able to find a much better position at a far more progressive company that actually put its money where its mouth was. Keep scrolling below for the full story and for the best reactions in the comments section. For more content like this, check out this post about a horrendous interview.

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01
    Hand - Boy
    via Mad Fish Digital
  • 02
    Font - You are fired for obeying my rules, please stay until we can replace you though M OC I love reading a good story here. This one is a little on the edge when comes to malicious compliance. But I know the readers here would enjoy the story and so here it is, make up your own minds if it fits. It was 2005 and the lady I had met over the Internet, having visited me in Australia and me visiting her in the USA and meeting her folks and all that, she had now come to be with me and we had married
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 03
    Font - She was determined and flexible though and did some temp jobs, clerical, receptionist kind of things, using skills she had leaned while working at college as a librarian. She finally got a 'real' job as a receptionist/clerk at a company that brokered loans and she got on with things.
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 04
    Font - One thing that was always a problem was that sales rep/sharks would have their clients come in and they would tell the women to make coffees for them. That wasn't part of their role. So my wife and co-workers were told that they were not to do that, it was up to the salesperson to make the coffee for themselves and clients. This was part of an initiative to try to retain women in these roles as they didn't tend to say long in what was something of an anarchic office.
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 05
    Font - So my wife is working and a salesman's (they called them Financial advisors but they were the credit business version of the used car salesman class), client comes in and she buzzed the guy.He comes out and says to her to make them both coffees. She tried to be discrete but said that he knew she couldn't do that. He blew up, went to her Supervisor and she told my wife to make the coffees. Later she had her in the office and fired her !
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 06
    Font - Yep she was fired for trying to do as she was told, the opposite of malicious I guess, but the Karma comes in anyway. She was fired but asked to stay on until they got another person to replace her!
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 07
    Font - For the next two months she continued to go to work, now able and ready to refuse anything she didn't want to do, especially the coffee making. The same guy tried once, she said no, so fire me. lol
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 08
    Font - They could NOT find a replacement, word of their issues at that company had got around the receptionist/clerical field locally. [Edit: she reminded me the agency she had got the job through refused to send any one, it was the third person in a row dumped when the probationary period was nearly up, so the agency was not being paid their commission]
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 09
    Font - Then she was offered a much better job with some real responsibility and standing (and almost 30% more salary), walked in the office next day and told them she was leaving at the end of the day. No notice required of course and they had still not got a replacement and did not find one for months more, by which time they were trying to replace two of them. Eventually the company let the woman supervisor go and initiated sensible rules.
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 10
    Font - My wife never looked back but we still have a chuckle 18 years later at how well getting fired worked out for her and how badly it ended for the supervisor who fired her staff for obeying the rules.
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 11
    Font - Rdafan 8 hr. ago The absolute worst thing about this story is the fact you told me 2005 was 18 years ago. I didn't need that punch of reality at 6 am.
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 12
    Font - Gold-Carpenter7616 9 hr. ago It's a weird story, and I love it! .
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 13
    Font - well____duh 6 hr. ago Also that sounds like the perfect job opportunity: to be "fired" but you can stay until you're replaced, so you're getting paid to basically do nothing and/or tell people no. And they can't find a replacement for you.
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 14
    Font - I-baLL 8 hr. ago For the next two months she continued to go to work, now able and ready to refuse anything she didn't want to do, especially the coffee making. T I would argue that this fits the "malicious compliance" part perfectly
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 15
    Font - Practical_Ad3462 OP. 6 hr. ago That was the bit that made me decide it was worth sharing, thanks for the confirmation. It was an odd time for sure, but we did kinda have a bit of a blast at the bizarre but funny situation - maybe we had/have a touch of the old Schadenfreude
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 16
    Rectangle - vonBoomslang. 8 hr. ago I get a feeling the supervisor thought the "women don't need to make coffee" rule was only for her benefit
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 17
    Font - D rentacle 8 hr. ago Having worked very briefly for a loans company I can confirm they are the scum of the earth all over the world. On my last day they fired 2 people and someone else quit with me. Good on your wife for making it work.
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 18
    Human body - prettypsyche 9 hr. ago Bet you anything that salesman was their top guy
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 19
    Font - Beelzeboss3DG 8 hr. ago The best part of the story is that you're still together and laughing 18 years later. Wholesome.
    via u/Practical_Ad3462
  • 20
    Font - TheZaladain. 6 hr. ago I got fired from a Mexican food restaurant for following the law but they told me to stay for the rest of the day I decided to leave at the busiest moment.
    via u/Practical_Ad3462

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

boss workplace-stories fired work stories toxic-workplace malicious compliance work malicious-compliance-reddit toxic-boss Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit malicious compliance reddit toxic-work-environment
Scroll Down For The Next Article