Clever employee beats micromanager at her own play of power, micromanager caves to employees request to work from home

Author image for Sienna Varady
Sienna Varady
Apr 17, 2024 7:00 AM EDT

There are a few key elements to take into account when searching for a job. The salary is undoubtedly the first, followed by the employees in second place, and the boss in third. 

The story below is an account of a frustrated and underappreciated employee. The Original Poster (OP) had worked for the same business for a considerable amount of time. OP enjoyed his job and loved his manager. However, as luck would have it, OP's manager resigned to pursue greater opportunities, and the manager appointed to take over for the amazing boss, was completely different from the prior manager in terms of her attitude, mannerisms, and strategic thinking.

So, be sure to read the story below if you're curious about what happened when the new hire showed up and whether or not OP succumbed to her ridiculous play of power! After you've finished reading, don't forget to check out the story of the mechanic who, after receiving orders to level the field 'no matter what', bulldozes an entire field and destroys army infrastructure!

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  • 01
    "Touché... GE
    via canva
  • 02
    Should have pre-approved my remote day due sickness? Ok.
    via u/Ok_Performance_342
  • 03
    This happened in my old job, and I was reminded it today. Thought it would fit here. In my old job we had a great boss, and hybrid work. If we had any reason not to come to the office, just a message to him and extra remote day would be approved. Then he was let go, and we got a new boss, who was exact opposite of her predecessor. This happened a few weeks after our old boss was let go and his boss became our new boss.
    via u/Ok_Performance_342
  • 04
    One morning I wasn't feeling well, too sick to travel to the office but not too sick to work from home. I had couple of remote meetings with customers, so it was just easier to me to work while being a little sick than try to reschedule. I spoke with my boss in Slack, and our conversation was like this. Me: Good morning! I have a sore throat and a slight fever, I'll be working from home today,
    via u/Ok_Performance_342
  • 05
    so no need to reschedule anything. Boss: Our employer handbook clearly states that remote days are Tuesday and Thursday and exceptions need a pre approved by the manager. I was ped. Is she really trying to force me to the office even I'm sick? Or what was her motive? But then it hit me, it doesn't matter, and our discussion continued.
    via u/Ok_Performance_342
  • 06
    Me: Oh, sorry, that's true. Me: I have a sore throat and a slight fever. I'm unable to come to the office so I'm taking a sick day. Could you ask someone to reschedule the meetings with Customer A and Customer B, since I'm recovering at home at least for today. Me: The employer handbook states that I can take three sick days in a row without a doctor's note. But I'm willing to make an exception if
    via u/Ok_Performance_342
  • 07
    you want to, and get you one. Do you want it? I was left on read for 10 minutes. She started typing, deleted the text, started again and deleted it again. She was active in our chat for entire 10 minutes until I finally got a response. Boss: No, that won't be necessary. I'll ask someone to reschedule those meetings. Get
    via u/Ok_Performance_342
  • 08
    well soon. My colleagues almost d d on laughter when I told them why I'm having a sick day and not just work from home. Our boss didn't like me after that, but the feeling was mutual. I left the company later for a new job, but not before she was fired. EDIT: Formatting
    via u/Ok_Performance_342
  • 09
    RookMeAmadeus . 15 hr. ago Yeah, I worked for a company that wanted to do the whole "Come into the office part of the week" thing for a bunch of us who were hired purely remote since the pre- р mic days. The ENTIRE department, even going as far as four levels above me in the chain, hated the idea and we ALL pushed back. It made no sense given that
    via u/RookMeAmadeus
  • 10
    most of us worked in different states from our co-workers. For about 2/3 of us, it would literally just be driving into the office to find an empty room and sit on conference calls all day. In a rare moment of good sense in corporations, they actually backed off our case and let us keep doing what we want.
    via u/RookMeAmadeus
  • 11
    Alexis_J_M 15 hr. ago I have a hybrid job. I drive to the office to sit alone, much of the time.
    via u/Alexis_J_M
  • 12
    TootsNYC 13 hr. ago this is happening NOW in department at my company. Everybody has been pressured to come back to the office 3x a week (usu TWTh), the idea being that then everyone is together and can communicate freely, brainstorm in person, all that good stuff that comes when people are all in the office at the same time. (Which I personally agree with.)
    via u/TootsNYC
  • 13
    A colleague felt like you did. And didn't want to fall behind. So she said she was going to WFH on one of the days. Her boss told her she had to come in on Friday to make up the in-office day. Even though no one else would be there. We all told her: Take the sick day.
    via u/TootsNYC
  • 14
    Though, our union is in negotiations, and the company looks as though it's going to impose a sick-day limit, when in the past they had no limit for sick days, and no trouble with people taking too many.
    via u/TootsNYC
  • 15
    • grauenwolf 15 hr. ago Hybrid work: Used when a company knows that having people in the office is not actually necessary, but they would rather increase air pollution than admit that they leased too much office space.
    via u/grauenwolf
  • 16
    • Head Razzmatazz7174 14 hr. ago And that's why a lot of companies are trying to force their remote workers back into the office at least one day a week. They've got all this office space rented, and can't get out of the contracts. They want some justification for the expense.
    via u/Head_Razzmatazz7174
  • 17
    sutheglamcat 11 hr. ago . My old job, we had a manager who was like this. We'd always an unofficial rule about being able to WFH if you weren't 100%, that whole "I'm OK to work but not to also travel" thing. She loved it... for herself. She had a 45 minute drive, so skipping that was great. I had a 20 minute drive, so she started saying
    via u/sutheglamcat
  • 18
    I had to come in or take a sick day. Even though I never had meetings, all my work was on a laptop so could be done from home, I did actually wfh 2 days a week anyway so carried the laptop in & out daily, etc etc. I was already looking for another job, so when I messaged and said "I'm coming down with something, don't want to share it so will wfh today", and got "if you're too ill
    via u/sutheglamcat
  • 19
    to come in, you shouldn't be working", I sent a reply to her - and the whole company - saying "I won't be working as I have a sore throat". Ran into the CEO a week later, who asked about it. My response was "she told me I couldn't work, and to let people know I
    via u/sutheglamcat
  • 20
    wouldn't be in." He knew the issues I had with her (another reason I was going, as he could change things for me and wouldn't), so just smiled a bit and said he understood. Next day I was offered a new job. Emailing her my resignation was glorious.
    via u/sutheglamcat
  • 21
    CoderJoe1 14 hr. ago • She should win the title of Miss Management of the year.
    via u/CoderJoe1
  • 22
    Mapilean 13 hr. ago "...but not before she was fired". What a perfect ending!!!
    via u/Mapilean
  • 23
    MemnochTheRed • 13 hr. ago Tell us why bad boss was fired. Inquiring minds want to know.
    via u/MemnochTheRed
  • 24
    Ok_Performance_342 OP 12 hr. ago She was Commercial Director. Last year before she joined the company, it made 606k€ profit. In her first year, 413k€, second year 1k€ and she was fired at the end of the third. She was there before I was, but during my time she focused on standardizing the sales process, which lead to us losing the sales and bringing in less money.
    via u/Ok_Performance_342
  • 25
    For example, we couldn't modify text in proposals for the customers without asking a permission from Productization and even after that only Marketing would be allowed to make changes. And this was even in situations where the customer didn't want some feature our product had, we couldn't even remove the text about it. It lead to situations where we heard from the customers that
    via u/Ok_Performance_342
  • 26
    we focused in completely unrelated things, not those which were relevant to the customer and their board chose another vendor, even if the internal champion believed we were much better. Which we said would happen before this new model was implemented.
    via u/Ok_Performance_342

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