'He came into the job knowing absolutely zero about what we did': Clueless boss causes entire department to be terminated

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Mar 29, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

This manager could only do one thing: sink every department he was put in charge of. 

As much fun as it probably is to hire a bunch of your friends to work with you, that strategy is going to come with some drawbacks. Sure, you two can goof around and take long lunches. But when it comes time to get down to business, you may regret hiring your BFF for something they're totally unqualified for. 

That's what happened at this worker's company in the aftermath of a management change. Before the switch, their whole team was given generous pay bumps and were told to take responsibility in their jobs. But after that management change, a new hire came onboard, and this supervisor had zero idea how to do his job. To make matters worse, this person was also insisting on getting results (without knowing what that would even entail). 

Now, some management types are able to fake it until they make it. But not this person. He was apparently so clueless that everyone realized the original poster was the dude to go to with any questions. You can check out the full story of this supervisor's plan that backfired spectacularly. 

Next up, these people ate some completely awful meals at the weddings they attended, like one person who had to eat "plain boiled chicken with no seasonings." 

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  • 01
    'He came into the job knowing absolutely zero about what we did and immediately wanted to demand results'
    via Jason Goodman on Unsplash
  • 02
    r/ r/MaliciousCompliance Satan085 You're the boss? Ok, you're the boss L L I just found out my old boss was fired and remembered a story and thought I'd share this multiple malicious compliance with u guys.
    via u/Satan085
  • 03
    So back in 2021 I was working from home with a team of about 20 people in my department. To summarize our job was monitor credit cards. We worked pretty independently and effeciently, so the company to award this literally promoted the entire department and tripled our pay. And with this they emphasized that we should be more independent, take more responsability and all that. And everyone was super ok with it.
    via u/Satan085
  • 04
    But then, six months later, as every story on this sub goes, there was a change in management; the manager took a job at another bank and our supervisor was fired for doing the deed. in company grounds ( pretty cool guy, but terrible choosing where to ). The new manager was pretty competent, as far as I know she's still in the position. The problem was the new supervisor to our department, AKA best friend of new manager.
    via u/Satan085
  • 05
    He came into the job knowing absolutely zero about what we did and immediately wanted to demand results. But then again, he knew nothing about what we did, so he would demand results in the wrong places. Always asking for overtime even when we didn't need, complaing about how we didn't use "formal language" on the group chat and so on.
    via u/Satan085
  • 06
    One relevant thing he learned on his first week, is that I was supposed to take his job before he came along. My old supervisor was training me to take his job because he was about to leave anyway. And everyone on my team came to me when they needed something, but it help with a demand or advice on something work related.
    via u/Satan085
  • 07
    And he was quick to remind me of that, as he asked me to hop on a call with him and reminded me he was the boss. He told me if anyone asked me for something to tell them to go to him; I said ok.
    via u/Satan085
  • 08
    This backfired very quickly, since he didn't know anything about what we did, he didn't know how to help all the people coming to him. After a few days the stopped asking him since he could never help and came back to me again. Then again he told me to hop in a call with him and his new strategy was to whenever someone asked him something, he would then asked me so he could tell them; again I said ok.
    via u/Satan085
  • 09
    After a month of this our production was at the lowest it had been in 3 years, but he was happy since everyone was going to him and getting albeit longer responses. So he had to look somewhere else to cause intrigue.
    via u/Satan085
  • 10
    He started to bicker on when people took their breaks. Our jorney was 8 hours a day with 3 breaks, 2 10 minute breaks and an hour break. Everyone had their time to go to these breaks, but since it didn't impact our job in the slightlest, everyone just went when it was most convenient for them. All my colleagues started complaining to me the was busting their for this until
    via u/Satan085
  • 11
    it came my time. He went on a 10 minute rant on why I shouldn't take my one hour break 30 minutes before I was supposed to. I told him it was because I went to a bakery close to my house everyday because I was tired to make dinner, and he to take my break 30 minutes early otherwise it would be closed. He said if I wanted to go to the bakery I should go on my own personal time when I'm off the clock; I said ok.
    via u/Satan085
  • 12
    But what he said gave me an idea, for me to go on my own personal time. As per company code, beside those 1 hour and 20 minutes of break, you have up to 1 hour of personal break per day, in which you can take whenever you need for whichever personal reason. I told my colleagues this. And everyday, one hour before my one hour break I would take one hour of personal break to go to the bakery and buy my lunch, my colleagues would do similar things that they needed to do during the time they were us
    via u/Satan085
  • 13
    Well, 2 months later the entire department was terminated since we weren't bringing enough revenue to the company. Unfortunatly this supervisor wasn't let go until last week. and the department he took over also was terminated. And another disclaimer to anyone worried that about 20 people lost their jobs; we have a pretty niche set of skills and everyone quickly found jobs of similar paying wages, no one was sad to be fired, we were actually pretty happy, a few even resigned before the ship sunk
    via u/Satan085
  • 14
    T.L;D.R. New supervisor wants to be the boss and run things on his own when he doesn't know what to do, ends up bankrupting the entire department.
    via u/Satan085
  • 15
    TeslaStar If I ever took over as a boss of someplace I'd for sure ask the people there longer than me what was up. This twit took a winning team and managed them into the ground.
    via u/TeslaStar
  • 16
    Sir_Distic "So you want people to come to you, then you come to me, get the answers and then take credit for my knowledge, skills and experience? yeah No. I thought you were the boss. Why don't you know your own job?" would be my answer.
    via u/Sir_Distic
  • 17
    PoppyStaff You have to wonder what management were thinking as they watched a highly profitable department tank after one supervisor change.
    via u/PoppyStaff
  • 18
    Archangel4500000 Ferengi rule of Acquisition #16 "A deal is a deal... until a better one comes along."
    via u/Archangel4500000
  • 19
    saturn211 Hence the term manglement........
    via u/saturn211
  • 20
    Contrantier He went to a new department and bankrupted them too? Look, if he sucked so badly at his job, why did he continue to pretend he had what it took to be in charge of anything, even the company toilet? If you're too stupid to supervise something, why not just sit the down? Does he WANT the world to see him as a failure? Good God man.
    via u/Contrantier
  • 21
    KeepLkngForlntllgnce The principle of Chesterton's Fence. Always join in listening mode. Sweeping changes because you think they worked last time, almost never work out Amazing to me, how many newbie ma Agee's and seasoned ones, I see making this mistake
    via u/KeepLkngForlntllgnce

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