'The contractor calls my office saying this is going to cost $20,000 to fix': Construction consultant gets even with demanding boss by agreeing to "shut up and do your job"

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Nov 20, 2023 11:00 AM EST

How much could one little mistake possibly cost? Quite a lot, as it turns out. 

Bosses love to hire people for their expertise. Then, once the employee has settled into the role, some bosses start getting into  micromanagement mode. Instead of letting their employee do the literal job they're paying them to do, these managers would rather doubt their worker at every turn. Worse still, the supervisor at u/licdb's job doesn't trust her to do a specific type of construction consulting that is her area of expertise. 

One nice thing about being an employee instead of a supervisor is that you don't have to clean up the big messes. When the OP made a $20,000 mistake, she wasn't on the hook for it! She certainly could've been fired, but at the end of the day, the only person to blame is her insistent boss. Who knows if he'll learn a lesson from it or not, but maybe next time, he'll think twice. 

Check out the entire malicious compliance story below. Then, check out a few home owner's associations horror stories, like the dude who got fined for having his garage door open… as it was being repaired by a garage door handyman. 

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  • 01
    Shut up and do my job? Fine. That'll cost the company $20,000 LOC So I don't work at this company anymore for obvious reasons but this was such a satisfying moment for me. Also I was 25F at the time. My boss 34M. Not that it matters too much just for context.
    via u/licdb
  • 02
    I work in construction consulting and our job is to make sure that all dirt materials are stable for building or pouring concrete or asphalt on. We have three different labels for dirt. Type one. Type two. And type three. We very rarely interact with type three except in very specific circumstances. One of my first few weeks of the job there was an underground foreman that was trying to use type three material that had not been approved. Type three needs approval for use and can only be used to
    via u/licdb
  • 03
    to type three. My average coworker could go two years without ever seeing it. Fast forward a year and a half later and my boss and I keep getting in tiffs. He's asking me to drive across town (in my personal vehicle) and I'm telling him no, which I was perfectly within my right to do. And there were just other random little things that he was getting mad about. He decided he had had enough of me when he approached me one morning asking me to go to a job site on the other side of town as an overt
    via u/licdb
  • 04
    hour drive that night through the pitch black desert of Arizona. So I told him I wouldn't go. If I was in the wrong here or not is irrelevant. I was only required to work my forty hours as an hourly employee and did not have to do overtime. But he was 1.
    via u/licdb
  • 05
    I got called into the office that afternoon and had a stern talking to about how my attitude needed to change. While I went back and forth with him saying he can't expect me to do things he doesn't expect of my colleagues he decided the correct answer was "I need you to just shut up and do your job when I tell you to." Well alright then.
    via u/licdb
  • 06
    A week and a half later I arrive at a job site to test what is supposed to be type two for underneath asphalt. The ONLY material allowed under asphalt per our building codes is type two. I looked up this specific material on the county approved material listing to find it was labeled for type three use only. So about half a medium sized neighborhood worth of street is currently filled with the
    via u/licdb
  • 07
    wrong material. And I am well aware of this. It's about 12,000 cubic yards of material that was placed and treated. This takes hours and hours to do and dozens of rock trucks full of loads of rock. I have two options when I realize this. I can call my boss and let him know that the contractor placed the wrong material. Or, I can just do the testing that is asked of me and be on my merry way.
    via u/licdb
  • 08
    So I did the testing. I did everything I was supposed to do. Gave my paperwork to the contractor and left. The county building department then shows up to have a look at the material and my paperwork.
    via u/licdb
  • 09
    The following Monday County calls my office asking why I tested type three. The contractor calls my office saying this is going to cost $20,000 to fix and that we should've caught their mistake and so we have to foot the bill. My boss calls me and requests we have a meeting.
    via u/licdb
  • 10
    A lot of my coworkers were about me getting in trouble the previous week so one calls me to let me know that my bosses actually didn't know what the proper code was for this situation and had called another coworker who had been in the industry for 25 years.
    via u/licdb
  • 11
    I had also already accepted a job with a new company but I hadn't given them my notice yet so I wasn't really worried about what the outcome of this would be. My boss is yelling at me for allowing this material to get through to county and that I need to do better and why didn't I call him.
    via u/licdb
  • 12
    I told him I was doing my job like he had told me to do. That he had told me not to ask questions and to just do what I was told so that's what I was doing. He didn't want to hear this and kept saying ow I was better than that and that I should've known better.
    via u/licdb
  • 13
    At which point I've checked out of this conversation and am thinking about anything else. I calmly let him know that any of my coworkers would have also made this mistake except for possibly the very one he called that afternoon to ask about the code. He told me that that wasn't true and that everyone else would have known. I said okay okay sure yeah whatever. And that maybe you should've trained us better because No one knows what type three even is.
    via u/licdb
  • 14
    At this point his boss comes in and says how we will probably be the ones to foot the bill for this situation and how it's a very costly mistake and we need to do better. He says it's going to cost about $20,000 and that it looks very bad for me as I signed this paperwork. He's rambling on about possible repercussions for me and that if there
    via u/licdb
  • 15
    was a lawsuit I would be liable. I'm not the person of competence for this job site and I didn't do anything wrong in terms of lying about the situation which would actually put me at fault. But the bosses keep talking about this and tell me I can leave.
    via u/licdb
  • 16
    Two days later we have a department meeting about this situation. Not a single one of my coworkers rose their hand when my boss asked if we knew what type three was other than the coworker he had called. He got pretty red and said "we will have more training on this soon"
    via u/licdb
  • 17
    I put my two weeks in that Friday and was walked out on Monday. Felt really great about that. TLDR: tell me to shut up and do my job? Okay I will. And that will cost $20,000 for the company.
    via u/licdb
  • 18
    paradigmofman Yeah I can't see how the contractor can even hold your company liable for the $20k if everything was already placed. Maybe if you had been there to approve of the material as it was coming on site sure, but if it's already been placed by the contractor, it's their problem whether you told them it would be rejected or didn't tell them. Sounds like your ex- boss just trying to throw weight around IMO.
    via u/paradigmofman
  • 19
    VirenarDerg He might have gotten what he deserved, but how did you do your job if you incorrectly tested the materials? I assume checking the dirt type is part of the test
    via u/VirenarDerg
  • 20
    MiloSheba The problem is that she correctly tested the materials. She wasn't the one to order or place the material. Her job was to test the materials to see if it was the right kind after it was placed.
    via u/MiloSheba
  • 21
    licdb OP Technically I did test the dirt correctly as I tested for what was already there. I tested the type three as if it was type two. It is my place to tell the contractor that county will reject this material but it is not my place to say that they can't use the material. At my new job I would have instantly flagged that for being something that shouldn't be there.
    via u/licdb

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