‘But since you insisted’: Long-standing employee has an ‘I told you so’ moment when the new department head ignores his warnings

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Jul 16, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

New management always tries to come in and change things. Perhaps it's to validate themselves in their new position or to create a clear hierarchy in the workplace, but when this new managerial Godzilla comes to trample over a functional system, there are bound to be a few toes that get stepped on.

When the long-standing employee in our next tale encountered his own world-demolishing manager, he decided to ensure that the only toes getting trampled were his manager's. After an ungraceful organizational change in the company, the original poster of this story was forced to pick up the operational pieces on the backend of the workflow. He created a loophole that benefited all of their departments and suited every manager just fine until the newest suit came in with something to prove. 

Keep scrolling to read all of the details of how this experienced employee warned the hot-headed newbie of the potential fallout of her department 'clean up', but was foolishly ignored. Remember sis, you've only been with this company for 5 minutes, while some of us desk jockeys have been here since the dawn of the Internet. 

After this, here's another tale of workplace craziness where a bride-to-be gets her PTO denied for her wedding day.

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    "But from that day onwards, if I told her that I couldn't do something, she took my word for it"
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    Posted by u/RMaua I guess I'm not all powerful after all M OC
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    About 10 years ago, I was working in a big organisation with lots of different departments. I was a subject matter expert working across different departments. I saw
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    my job as making the people I worked withs lives as simple as possible. And my clients loved me for that. - Unfortunately, this came back to bite me because they started expecting me to perform miracles.
    via RMaua
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    Before I started at this job, someone had decided to split up a department. Except they didn't really do it properly. So, all the systems still saw them as a single department. The two
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    department heads despised each other. My solution: create a work around in the system I had control over so that they looked separate from each other and no one saw the other area's data. But in every
    via RMaua
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    other system, one department looked like it fell under the bigger one. And if you looked closely at my reports, you could very clearly see the work around.
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    Department head of the smaller department was really sick of this and asked me to fix it. I explained that the issue was at the organisation level.
    via RMaua
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    She needed to write to the higher ups and get written authorisation to change the official org structure. Then once that was done, the rest of the systems would follow suit. If I
    via RMaua
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    changed it in my system, then something would break and she would have bigger problems than just having to ignore a header that I would hide or delete from her reports.
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    She insisted that if I changed the structure in my system, it would start a domino effect and everyone else - who was less helpful than I was - would have to listen to her when she said that she wanted their system changed to mimic mine.
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    I tried to make a joke of it explaining that I know I look like I'm all powerful because I can get stuff done for her, this was not going to work out that way. She actually needed to
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    deal with the organisation bureaucracy BS. Trust me, I can't help with this one. This response only frustrated her more. We went around this for about a year and she finally lost it
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    with me. She called me late one Friday afternoon and told me I had to make the change or else. I explained again that things would break but she wasn't having it. She cut me off and told me to do as she asked 'or else'.
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    Cue malicious compliance: I asked her to put her request in writing. (Always cover your .) She promptly sent me an email. I responded straight away saying doing this is going to break stuff. We have
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    discussed it before but since you insist. I'll get the changes sorted ASAP. I organised for the change in my system. Stopped by my
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    boss's office on my way out to tell him what was happening and to prepare for the fallout. (Again, always cover your He chuckled and wished me a good weekend. (The change )
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    was easily reversable. And the problems would be very frustrating but minor. No one was going to die so neither of us were too concerned.)
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    11am Monday. Department head calls me in a huff. Apparently, she wasn't able to see any of her staff in the HR system. I said, that sounds about right. Now that my system and HR don't
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    agree..."computer says no". Remember how I told you things would break... this is things breaking. I'm happy to switch my system back. She simply hung up on me.
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    Word is, she called the HR person who told her that the only way to get the change she wanted was to follow the process I had been pointing to for the past year. And that only
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    she had the authority to ask for the change. She spent the rest of the day pulling favours to get the process I told her about months before fast tracked. All of this could have happened without anything needing to break.
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    By our next meeting, things had been changed properly. The situation was never mentioned again. But from that day onwards, if I told her that I couldn't do something, she took my word for it.
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    EchoGecko795 1 day ago Would you look at that, Manglement can learn to become Management. The CYA was nice as well.
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    Rainy_Grave 1 day ago If someone tells you to send your demands to them in writing, you are about to do something monumentally stupid.
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    Solutions1978 · 1 day ago Never discount the administrator's warning, it is equivalent to FAFO if you do.
    via Solutions1978

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