'She spouted all types of lies to HR': Threatened manager tries to push out star employee, employee exposes boss's incompetence

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Apr 14, 2024 2:00 PM EDT

Picture this: your manager is incompetent, you do most of their work for the better part of the year, and then, she tries to fire you! 

That's right. You would think the final part of that journey would be a well-deserved raise or promotional opportunity. Perhaps some acknowledgment of all this hard work and going above and beyond would have been nice. Instead of gratitude, all this manager felt at the end of the day was threatened.

This Redditor shared how she managed to come out of this toxic workplace environment (yes, it was a startup) relatively unscathed. Not only would she do all of her boss's reporting for her, but also her boss would ask the Redditor to "dumb it down" so she could then explain all the data analyses to the higher-ups as if they were her own findings. Of course, when the Redditor discovered that her manager was trying to get rid of her, she made it widely known who was really behind her team's output.

Keep scrolling below for the consequences and fallout. For more stories like this, check out this post about another employee who got back at their micromanaging boss.

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  • 01
    "Manager tried throwing me under the bus"
    via Dan Burton
  • 02
    Manager tried throwing me under the bus, so I showed everyone her incompetence. MOC
    via u/landinthesky
  • 03
    I recently resigned from a toxic workplace as a data analyst at a start up. It was promising at the start, but not long after I noticed many red flags, including the fact that my manager had absolutely no data analysis or management
    via u/landinthesky
  • 04
    experience prior to being promoted. How can you manage analysts without knowing basic excel functions? I ignored those red flags and trusted her leadership because I liked the company's goals (little did I know this would be the worst decision ever).
    via u/landinthesky
  • 05
    I basically did all the work for the team for the whole year I was there. When I ran the numbers for reporting and analysis of team performance, she always asked me to dumb it down so she can present it to high level management. I thought everything was going well because I only got good feedback from her and the rest of the team.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 06
    About a month ago, a coworker who I don't get along with made a complaint about me which was absolutely untrue. Manager believed it without investigating and all of a sudden I was placed on a PIP. She spouted all types of lies to HR, and when I refuted those claims with written evidence, they doubled down and started gaslighting me ("you're just too negative").
    via u/landinthesky
  • 07
    I refused to sign and was threatened with termination, so I complied and started building a case against them. I knew she was doing the PIP to terminate me as she looked for internal candidates to replace me in secret because she was dumb enough to set the meeting up beside me.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 08
    Once I signed my contract for a new job, I did basically started working from home. all and
    via u/landinthesky
  • 09
    Before my resignation, she asked me to do some reporting for her so I ran the numbers and sent her the raw data, told her where the files were located and that she can analyse the data and make the presentation herself. Since she's the data analyst manager she should know how to do it. She tried reporting me for that but
    via u/landinthesky
  • 10
    ultimately backfired because they asked her if the work that I did was actually wrong, and was forced to admit she didn't know what she was looking at. Everything else in the team was questioned and I believe they are now being audited by an external investigator. Credibility destroyed.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 11
    I'm now working for a manager who is competent and has clear goals for the team, but that was a of a ride. Small win against toxic management - but a win is a win.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 12
    EDIT: PIP is a Performance Improvement Plan. It is used by managers to address underperformance and start a documentation process. Usually used as a first step to fire someone or phase them out.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 13
    cabird 78 18 hr. ago Good thing the data doesn't lie, unlike your former boss. I bet she's now googling 'Excel functions for beginners'
    via u/landinthesky
  • 14
    Spacefreak 14 hr. ago I once had the plant manager (been there for 5 years) question how I had calculated the overall yield for a product line I had given in a presentation.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 15
    Everyone knows you can't just do the basic weight out vs weight in with our MRP system because it's stupid, so I explained my basic methodology (I was actually really proud of myself for having figure the technique out).
    via u/landinthesky
  • 16
    As I explained, he seemed to get more and more irritated and just stopped me and said "this is ridiculous! Why didn't you just take the weight out vs the weight in? It's so simple! No wonder your numbers differ from mine! You engineers overcomplicate everything!"
    via u/landinthesky
  • 17
    Then he scoffed and looked over at our Plant Controller as if to say "Can you believe this guy?" But she had her head in her hands, and he realized maybe he said something stupid.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 18
    It was the KPI equivalent to someone asking why people choose to drive their cars around instead of flying them. Because that's not how cars work.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 19
    It would have been hilarious if I hadn't needed him to sign off on a project that would cost about $100k and potentially save the plant millions a year.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 20
    He ended up not approving my project because it was "too expensive." And he, of course, later got promoted to VP of Operstions for our whole company (multiple plants).
    via u/landinthesky
  • 21
    Xenoun 17 hr. ago Technically you don't need to be able to work a role to be able to manage people doing that role, it's common in many industries. However it also requires management and leadership skills which they clearly didn't have
    via u/landinthesky
  • 22
    Uzzer lozer19 - 11 hr. ago Yeah I had a similar issue years ago. My manager was technically a good manager as they delivered what they projected for the team within the timelines presented to stakeholders.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 23
    They left me which an area which no one wanted to touch and I owned it and turned it around with alot of pain and effort. Timelines did slip but even the resources that I used made it clear they weren't avaliable so things shifted. This was highlighted to the manager who instead of supporting decided to rewrite the whole structure of my plans and roadmaps.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 24
    This put the whole project back as it meant changing alot of things and not just the other of how things were done. At my EOY I got a bad rating and a PIP also. I raised a grievance and turned out the manager couldn't justify their reasoning but the evidence I provided showed that they had made the wrong call by changing direction mid project.
    via u/landinthesky
  • 25
    I got taken off the PIP, a raise and I moved roles a couple of months later but not before I emailed the team to remind them that the time they had worked in liue was not paid or added to their holidays so they should claim it which led to a rich of holidays thr next month before the holiday calander ended and the dept ground to a halt.
    via u/landinthesky

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