Micromanager boss reprimands employee for arriving '2-3 minutes' late from lunch: 'Companies pay people good money to babysit adults'

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JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Apr 20, 2024 4:00 PM EDT

Micromanaging will get you nowhere. Nobody likes a backseat driver. Everyone is the main character of their own story, so they generally don't appreciate when others treat them like an incapable child. Heck, I didn't even enjoy that when I was a kid. Let me free, man. I can handle my own business. But unfortunately, that doesn't always fly in the corporate sphere. Managers are paid to watch over their flock, so when nothing is going wrong, sometimes they have to make stuff up to look busy. 

I don't understand time policing in general. If you get your work done, you get your work done. Within reason, of course, but what difference does it make anyway? But that's not how things work in the big bad world of corporate America. Like in this story, which is a classic instance of workplace over-managing. If I were them, I'd start looking for a new job. Pronto.

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  • 01
    "Was ever early?" E69565
    via Microsoft 365
  • 02
    r/mildlyinfuriating u/CreamOnMyNipples • 20h Corporate life - micromanaging
    via u/CreamOnMyN****es
  • 03
    Hey I'm just letting you know that you have 2 tardies from last pay period. on the 5th and 8th you were late from lunch. Im just letting you know so you can be aware 1 AM around 2 and 3 minutes Type a message 10:56 AM How late was I? © Thanks Wow! Oh, ok
    via u/CreamOnMyN****es
  • 04
    I do my job well enough that I now have to be scrutinized for tiny things in order for my supervisors to look like they have an important role of "managing" people. I almost got fired last year because I racked up a total of 6 minutes of tardies over the course of 2 months because I came back from lunch 1-3 mins late a few times. I hope I don't get a write up and sent to the principal's office!
    via u/CreamOnMyN****es
  • 05
    BCwarrior88 • 19h I like the Teams quick response "Wow!" I might have hit that one....
    via u/BCwarrior88
  • 06
    LiveLaughToasterB4th ⚫ 17h • I think all three of them summed it up quite well. In that particular order. "Thanks! Wow! Oh, ok."
    via u/LiveLaughToasterB4th
  • 07
    PhotoFenix 18h When they spend 30 minutes researching to take 5 minutes of your time to let you know you were 5 minutes late
    via u/PhotoFenix
  • 08
    • How_that_convo_went ⚫ 14h This is the textbook definition of corporate waste. Let's just say that this manager makes $80k a year (which is a low estimate but whatever). That means they make ~$40 an hour. Let's also assume they manage a line of ~20 people. So one a month, this runs a "tardy report" and then reaches out to the 30% of the team with tardies as an informal reprimand. Let's say that's 6 people who were each 5 mins late on 2 punch ins. That's 1 hour.
    via u/How_that_convo_went
  • 09
    So, if this task takes this manager 2 hours at $40 an hour to reprimand 6 employees for a single hour of lost manpower, then this company spent $80 to potentially save $20-$30. And yet, when layoff time season rolls around, it's not the manager who gets the chop. Make it make sense. Edit: there's a whole lot of corporate bootlickers in the comments below who think this sort of behavior is perfectly acceptable. Woof. Replies off.
    via u/How_that_convo_went
  • 10
    Jfurmanek 13h A close comparison would be how the US state of Florida put together a department to investigate and punish abuses of public assistance, such as welfare and unemployment. End result: they determine fewer than 1% of cases are illegitimate at a cost of more than 10X the amount paid out to those cases. In short: the cruelty is the point. The cruelty is the point.
    via u/Jfurmanek
  • 11
    Ok_North_440 • 19h New job time
    via u/Ok_North_440
  • 12
    RonStopable88 • 16h Start arriving 2-3 minutes early from lunch and email him each time. "Sorry im 2 minutes early from lunch, will this be reflected as overtime?" "Oh man i frigged up i didnt time my commute properly and i didnt run into beth in the parking lot so Im 92 seconds early today. I hope thats not an issue for payroll to add to my timesheet." Keep doing it.
    via u/RonStopable88
  • 13
    The MightyTortuga • 17h "Was I ever early?"
    via u/TheMightyTortuga
  • 14
    JeepPilot 14h "Yes, we see that you arrive 20 minutes before start time consistently for the previous 7 years, but that's not the problem. You are stealing time from the company by being late."
    via u/JeepPilot
  • 15
    Ok Yogurt8209 • 17h PURPLE Thats insane that companies pay people good money to basically babysit adults and nitpick issues. If you took an hour instead of a 30 sure. But 5 mins on two days gtfo
    via u/OkYogurt8209
  • 16
    AvocadoAcademic897. 18h Plot twist - he drives trains
    via u/AvocadoAcademic897
  • 17
    Immer_Susse⚫ 14h I like how it's "around" 2 and 3 minutes. Like, “I dunno, man, like I wasn't really paying attention or anything weird." In their head it's all 2:34 and 3:12.
    via u/Immer_Susse
  • 18
    DrCarabou⚫ 14h "Come back to working in office for the culture." The culture:
    via u/DrCarabou

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Tags

boss antiwork toxic-manager micromanager work stories toxic-workplace manager tardy toxic-boss task manager managers workplace Horrible Bosses late toxic-work-environment
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