'How could you not foresee this?': Manager forbids security guard from letting visitors enter office without his approval, guard complies, causing manager to miss important meeting when he fails to answer his phone

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Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Aug 5, 2024 9:00 AM EDT

Some people simply don't have common sense, or even the smallest ability to predict the consequences of their absurd decisions and actions. Unfortunately, a lot of those people end up in high management positions. That means that anyone who has to answer to those managers, sometimes has to comply with unreasonable demands they know would end in disaster, but there is not much they can do about it.

Take the manager in this Reddit story for example. They decided to forbid their security guard from letting any external visitors enter their office without phone approval from someone inside. Even if those visitors are higher-ups who do not like waiting around to be allowed in. This demand led to a mess when important people came for an important meeting with the manager, but he failed to answer his phone and let them in. By the time he got to the office, those VIPs already left, and the manager was forced to take back some of his ridiculous rules…

Scroll down to read the full story. Up next, click here for a story of an employee who was forced to fire a coworker after filing their resignation. 

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  • 01
    "How could you not foresee this?" 000 A eeeer SECURITY
    via Canva
  • 02
    no externals without permission? sure!
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 03
    background: I work in security and our company has many different clients and no fixed posts, so I jump from site to site. the site in question (client) is one of the more complicated sites for us and has an awful work atmosphere.
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 04
    we man the gates and next to the normal truck traffic, there are also multiple visitors coming, some of them so often you basically know them by name and we just open the gate for them, because they are here every day
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 05
    one of the middle managers (power) from client is one of those people that think they are the most important person in the world as soon as they get a little bit of power. for example when power got into middle management.
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 06
    now the story: power decided that this way everybody could just come and go in. so we got the new order to not let anyone external in without getting the okay from the person "responsible" for them. every external you say? oki-dokey
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 07
    this alone made dhl, ups and so on not happy since we stopped them now and first called the people who take the packages from them, making them also really annoyed.
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 08
    the it happened: some very important people came for an appointment with with power first thing in the morning. something much money was hanging on. the good girl I am, I
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 09
    tried calling power for 15 minutes. no answer. welp, guess I can't reach power. means I can't let the very important people in. I told them, so, so sorry. obviously they were not amused, but my idea that they could bill client for their wasted time made them less un- amused.
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 10
    power came 15 minutes later, his car had issues. he told me that he has an very important meeting and if very important people come, they can go directly to him. I then told him the sad news that they were
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 11
    here already and I tried to call power for 15 minutes, but after I couldn't reach him I did send them away as our new I structions demand me to do.
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 12
    the instructions were very quickly withdrawn to the earlier system, where we could let people in if we know who they are without needing to ask first
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 13
    molewarp 2 days ago I'm glad his own rule bit him hard :)
    via u/molewarp
  • 14
    Xenolog1 2 days ago • Nice one. But you're still not letting unknown externals in, just because they are claiming they've got an appointment with power, yes?
    via u/Xenolog1
  • 15
    AgarwaenCran OP. 2 days ago no, but ups for example can now go in again without needing to stop and in situations like this I now also call coworkers if the person the people have an appointment with if they may know something (which we weren't allowed before either)
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 16
    vblink 2 days ago I was a temp fill in for a post like that you were supposed to call the resident for anyone not on the list. Of course these people never bother letting you know they ordered pizza or the like. I just let anyone through, because the residents would never answer the phone.
    via u/vblink_
  • 17
    AgarwaenCran OP. 2 days ago never worked in residency but yeah, I can 100 % see that happening lol
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 18
    dathriteTM 2 days ago Worked security a few years. Following the letter of the "law" as written by non-security people never ends well.
    via u/d**thriteTM
  • 19
    AgarwaenCran OP. 2 days ago eyup. but wont stop them to come up with ideas for new rules.
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 20
    DynkoFromTheNorth 2 days ago I often ask myself, reading such stories, how could the one responsible not foresee this?!
    via u/DynkoFromTheNorth
  • 21
    Simpson17866 · 2 days ago Forseeing things is a skill where you think about the fact that there's a real world outside of yourself - with real people in addition to yourself — where things keep happening even when you're not physically present to personally make them happen.
    via u/Simpson17866
  • 22
    AgarwaenCran OP. 2 days ago when you powertrip, you don't think clearly
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 23
    Wodan11 21 hr. ago Was this before phones? Who doesn't call in when running late to an important meeting with outside guests? That alone demonstrates the nature of this person, without even needing the power trips.
    via u/Wodan11
  • 24
    AgarwaenCran OP. 17 hr. ago this was maybe half a year ago lol and yes, it really does
    via u/AgarwaenCran
  • 25
    Brave_Character2943 · 2 days ago Any repercussions for power? Or just a stern talking to?
    via u/Brave_Character2943
  • 26
    AgarwaenCran OP. 2 days ago not as far as I know
    via u/AgarwaenCran

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boss workplace-stories employee manager job malicious compliance tales-from-the-workplace malicious-compliance-reddit reddit story Office workplace Reddit company funny
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