'I've decided that enough was enough': Worker quits job after tactless manager tells them their 'abilities are not worth that much'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
May 24, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

Workers often leave their companies for better opportunities not because of the company itself, but because of bad management.

The management structure of a business has a lot to do with an employee's day-to-day life. Some people have bosses who are micromanagers who want to hold their employees accountable for every minute of the day. With your boss breathing down your neck 40 hours each week while you're trying to write your emails and do your tasks, it's easy to get sick of the scrutiny. Other people just have a different work style than their boss, like a boss who wants the employee to be self-sufficient, while the employee wants direct answers to every question they have. 

There are plenty of reasons why an employee might quit their job, but there's a good chance that their boss is the main reason why. This person, u/surefinewhatever67, had the unpleasant experience of having her boss tell her to her face exactly what she thought about her. The news hit her hard, but she got the last laugh. 

Next up, the owner of a shop selling crystals and trinkets insisted on getting help from a customs worker… only to realize she was getting a huge bill in the mail. 

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  • 01
    ""You can quit, but I will be sorry to see you go." And quit I did." FAILURE IS
    via sps universal on Unsplash
  • 02
    Thank you for your input Karen (or how I did exactly what the HR lady told me to)
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 03
    Hello everyone. First I would like to point out that I've created a new reddit account just so that I could post this story. I didn't want to use my regular account as I would like to stay as anonymus as possible and my post history plus this story will make that difficult.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 04
    Second, just so you know, English is not my first language, so please excuse me if there are any mistakes. And lastly, this story happened earlier this year, but the real consequences came last week, that's why I've decided to share it now.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 05
    The context I (35 f) live in a big city in Western Europe. After graduating college I was hired as an office assistant in a big company (let's call it Happy Place). I did my last internship as a student there and it went so well that I got hired just a few weeks after getting my Master's degree. Over the next ten years I worked my way up from an assistant to office manger to head of one of the biggest departments. I was not
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 06
    paid a lot of money, but it was above average and the benefits were great. But the main reason I stayed for so long was the people who worked there. Over the year I've made quite a few friends there and by the year 2020 I was one of the most experienced people working in Happy Place. My colleagues often came to me for an advice about how to to do this or that and I also head a great relationship with the big bosses. And the cherry on top
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 07
    was that I had the best boss someone can hope for. Let's call her Maggie. Maggie was 10 years older than me and she was Wonder woman. She is nice, professional, cool, helpful and has a heart of gold. I've worked with her during my whole time at Happy Place and the last 4 years she was my direct supervisor. I loved her.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 08
    Then, in 2020 a few things happened almost at the same time and over the course of 6 months Happy Place turned into Sad Place. First, the company hired a new HR lady, Karen. She was the worst. She treated everyone below her level of responsibilities (which as pretty much 99% of the staff) as if they were lesser people, talked down to everyone and constatly made changes in the HR policies. She implemented
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 09
    quite a few new rules which lead to us losing some of the benefits that we liked (like free lunches, paid time off to go to the doctor's office during office hours, etc.). But the CEO of the company trusted her for some reason and soon he stopped taking meeting with the staff, making Karen the only person who could make decisions regarding the staff. Which meant that noone could actually complain about her and we slowly started feeling helpless. Second, Maggie was
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 10
    promoted to a different field (the one she actually wanted to work in, so I cannot be mad at her for leaving) and she got replaced by Susan as my new supervisor. Susan was cool but she was my age and with less experience, which did not make much sense. So eventhough on paper she was the one in charge, I was the one constantly explaining to her how things worked and what needed to be done, while she took the credit.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 11
    And lastly, C d. Our line of work was highly impacted by the p so the whole year 2020 I was working under an enormous amount of stress, taking almost no vacation time, doing my job and some of Susan's job (as at some point she went on a medical leave) and some of my coworkers's jobs (as some colleagues cracked under the tension and quit, but no one got hired to replace them). But despite all of the hard work, I did not receive any pandemic related
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 12
    bonus (which was weird since some of my coworkers let it slip that they got a 1000€ bonus for "acheivements during the р >"). The compliance So given all the events of 2020, in January 2021 I've decided that enough was enough. When it was time for my annual review, I've decided that I would negotiate better conditions for myself, because as much as I loved my
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 13
    job and the people I've worked for, I couldn't keep working so much for so little pay. As Susan was still on a medical leave, Karen was the one who did my annual review, despite the fact that I've only met her a few times and we've never directly worked together. In preparation for the meeting, I've made a list of the things I've been putting up with and a list of reasons why I should get a slight pay bump. I was asking for a 15% pay increase
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 14
    (but was happy to accept a 10%). It was not about the money. It was about knowing that there was at least a chance that management valued me as an employee and that I was not just some sucker who did so much for not even a thank you. After making my case to Karen and carefully explaining to her what my job was and what I was actually doing, I asked her the dreaded question. She looked at me, smiled and said "OP, I
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 15
    appreciate everything you've been doing for the company and we value you as an employee. But your responsibilities and your abilities are not worth that much".I was speechless. I admit, | was so angry and hurt, that I felt tears coming up to my eyes. But I took a deep breath, calmed myself and said "Thank you for your input, Karen. But I cannot keep working in this conditions, it's not worth it."
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 16
    Karen rolled her eyes and replied "Then you can quit, but I will be sorry to see you go". And quit I did. You see, there were two things Karen did not know. First, as explained, I was a highly valued employee with a great reputation and over 10 years of experience in the field. In our field reputation is important and for the last 2 years I've been
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 17
    receiving job offers from competitors. I always refused, because I loved working for Happy Place. But since the events of 2020, I started taking interviews, checking what else was out there. And just before my meeting with Karen, I did an interview with Cool company, who offered me a 60% raise to do the same job as I did for Happy Place.Secod, remember how I said I took almost no vacation days in 2020? So by
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 18
    January of 2021 I had over 2 months of paid leave available. I checked with the HR (not Karen) the week before my annual review and they confirmed to me in writing that I was free to take my vacation days whenever I wanted. So, I did exactly what Karen told me to do. I quit. I put in my two months notice and took my two months vacation. Which meant that I came to work for only one day (to clean out my office and
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 19
    say goodbye), before leaving for good.I felt bad because I left so many of my colleagues in a really bad position, since they now had to do my job. But they all assured me that they understood and that they would have done the same thing. After my two months paid vacation I started working at Cool company and I've been here ever since.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 20
    The aftermath I kept in touch with a few friends from Happy Place and the regularly informed me of what was going on over there. It seems that me quitting was the push that many of my coworkers needed to also make the final leap and quit. As I said, the conditions went from great to bad since Karen took office. Also, the fact that I quit so abruptly got the attention of the CEO as we had a good relationship. He
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 21
    asked Maggie (who was aware of the whole story with Karen) about it and she told him the truth. About me not getting the "cold" bonus, about Karen speaking down to staff members, about her telling me to quit if I wanted to. The CEO finally opened his eyes and launched an investigation into Karen's actions. He personnaly did interviews with some staff members and heard stories about her from people from many different departments.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 22
    He also investigated the "c d bonus" story and it turns out, she only gave the "cd" bonus to her friends from different departments and a very generous one to herself. Plus since I've quit no one was actually able to do my job and the fact that Karen was responsible for me leaving, made her responsible for the consequences. So after reviewing everything, the CEO decided to terminate Karen's contract. Rumor has it the whole
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 23
    staff of Happy Place celebrated this joyous occasion. The cherry on top Last week, my boss at Cool Company walked into my office and said "OP, you know Jen from HR is retiring soon, right? We did interviews to replace her, and one of the candidates, is Karen. She seems competent but asks for quite a lot of money. You and her worked together, right? What's she like. Do you think she
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 24
    deserves to be paid more than we initially offered?". I said "Boss, you have a few minutes? Great. Let me tell you a story..." After hearing my very honest opinion of Karen, boss man laughed and said "Ok good to know. I think we will tell her that she is not the right fit for us. Thanks OP". As soon as Boss man left my office, I sent an email to my friend Laurie from HR, who was in
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 25
    charge of replying to candidates. I also told her the story and asked her to keep me informed if there is any development with the whole Karen-applies-to-Cool- company thing. A few hours later I got an email from Laurie. Turns out, she copied me to her official reply to Karen. It read "Dear Karen, thank you for your interest in working for Cool company. After careful consideration we regret to inform you that in our opinion, your
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 26
    responsibilities and your abilities are not worth that much..." I brough Laurie a big chocolate cookie the next day. Thank you all for reading. have a great day and remember, don't let Karens ruin your sense of self worth!
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 27
    UPDATE Hey guys, thank you for all your comments and support. I have a small update, I thought you might want to know. The CEO from Happy Place approached me last week to ask me to come back and work for him. He offered me more money but didn't really apologize for what he let happen to me and the entire team. I said no, because even though Karen is no longer
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 28
    there, things haven't really changed. At least not for the better. Almost all of the good people from that place have left for other opportunities since my departure. Even those who have been there for 20 years. That includes my friend Maggie who now works with me at Cool Company. I could not be happier Judging by her LinkedIn page, Karen is still looking for work.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 29
    CoderJoe1 It's amazing how quickly one person in the right position can ruin an entire organization. I had to fire a Karen like this once after losing too many great employees. It took too long. to get it done due to our union, but was worth all the extra work.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 30
    Cassiopia23 We had a project manager like that, after we all went somewhere else (most of us to the same place) we see them walking her through the building giving her a tour.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 31
    5 of us told the director if you hire her I'm walking out. They decided she wasn't worth 5 of their employees. Was honestly expecting to have to find a new job.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 32
    cadre_of_storms The ending was glorious. Oh to have seen Karen's face when she read that.
    via u/surefinewhatever67
  • 33
    talibob It happens all too often that these kinds of people don't get their comeuppance. It's nice to see it happen here. Glad everything worked out for you.
    via u/surefinewhatever67

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