'This... is going to cost the company millions': Factory employee lets frozen products turn to "boiled mush" per their boss's orders

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 3, 2024 11:00 AM EST

This employee is just following directions. If their boss's directions happen to be flawed, well, that's not their problem. You've got to act your wage sometimes. 

Quality Assurance is one of those processes that separates great products from those that are okay or poor. If you've ever bought a frozen dinner and found a hair in it, and then vowed to never buy from that brand again, you know how important this step is. There are some brands that you know you'll have a positive experience with every time. That makes you a repeat customer. It only takes one bad experience with a product to make you stop buying it, and maybe you'll even tell those around you not to buy it too. 

Yet some companies care more about the bottom line than about assuring their food is edible or safe. They only care about the customer as they're forking over their hard-earned cash. Once it's in the customer's fridge, the company doesn't have a care in the world about their actual experience. 

This person wasn't planning to cost their employer millions, but their boss had other ideas. If you don't listen to your employees, these kinds of mess ups will happen. You can check out the entire story below. Then, these job-seekers spotted some subtle red flags at the workplace, like one dude who got told about the "generous severance packages" during their first interview. 

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    Cheezburger Image 9858593024
    via Dylan Hunter on Unsplash
  • 02
    Costing a company Millions
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 03
    So I worked as a QA ( Quality Assurance) at a factory I'll call ida-ore. To get started I'll explain their report process, when something goes wrong in the factory that's directly tied to quality (such as bad coloring or defects) I as a QA lead would have to write a report. These reports were very detailed and extremely time consuming. Now when something went wrong that wasn't directly tied to quality but effected it (such as a
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 04
    machine breaking or foreign material getting in the machines) the lead in charge of the machines were supposed to write the report. Somehow all the reports ended up being written by me even though I had my own time consuming job to do. I had been fighting to not do others reports for months and my boss told me to remind other leads when a report was needed.
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 05
    One day I'm doing my reports plus my data analysis duties and I hear over the radio that a refrigerator unit has gone out and all the product was coming out as boiled mush instead of frozen, so I call refrigeration and tell them "you need to do a report on this I'll send out an email counting how many pallets of product we lost". So I send the
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 06
    email and continue on with my day, two weeks later my boss calls me into her office and asks me why I didn't write a report on the incident, I say " you told me to remind the other leads to do it and not write their reports". She responded " well if you have time to send an email you have to to write a report" then she makes me sign a write up for failure to do my duties (which I did placidly
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 07
    cause she had written up everyone else in my department and had been looking for something to write me up for, so I decided to let her have it and get it out of the way).
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 08
    Well a couple months later and the exact same thing happens and all I do is tell refrigeration over the radio to write a report. I did nothing else knowing that refrigeration wouldn't write it. Because there was no report or helpful emails the product was almost shipped out two months
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 09
    later but it was caught by one of my QAs who mentioned the incident to my boss. Boss calls me to her office and tells me "this incident is going to cost the company Millions in storage fee's for the time it was already stored, disposal fee's, lost product and a fine from Walmart for not meeting contract. Why didn't you email me about this" me " I didn't have the time but I did tell refrigeration to write a report".
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 10
    She couldn't write me up for it cause I had emails from her telling me how to handle these situations.
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 11
    vmanforthewin Wow. 'If you have time to tell someone to do their job, then you had time to do their job, ergo it's your fault they didn't do their job.' That is messed up.
    via u/vmanforthewin
  • 12
    Strikeronima OP. She was really reaching for a reason to write me up, she had tried it before by telling me to sort some files (digital) and when I emailed her to tell I didn't have access she ignored it and a couple months later
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 13
    wrote me and my partner up for not sorting them. I printed off our emails and took them to the union and got the write up removed.
    via u/Strikeronima
  • 14
    stillnotelf Sounds like those reports are a real hot potato at your factory Reply 871 Strikeronima OP. Not my factory anymore I did a couple more things to "cost them millions" then left.
    via u/stillnotelf
  • 15
    verminbury. If you have time to cost a company thousands, you have time to cost them millions.
    via u/verminbury
  • 16
    Strikeronima OP Go big or go home, or in my case go big then go home.
    via u/Strikeronima

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boss workplace-stories jobs job malicious compliance bosses work malicious-compliance-reddit workplace bad bosses malicious compliance reddit employee factory employees refrigerator report
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