'He decided to get rid of people... a month later, critical systems were failing': 25+ New managers who majorly messed up their workplaces

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 25, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

When there are changes in management at a workplace, the whole vibe can suddenly shift. A new manager can change a workplace without even trying, although, as these people shared, a lot of managers try their hardest to act in charge at their new place of business. As they get accustomed to the job, they should be listening to the workers, learning all about how things run on a day-to-day basis, and trying to set their workers up for success. But, as you can probably tell from the stories below, a lot of managers don't do any of these things. 

One person had a manager who changed their management style by the hour. They sometimes welcomed employees into their office; other times they berated the employee for bothering them. Other managers pushed their employees to hit the highest targets, only to tell them they were so behind that they'd miss the next quarter's targets too. That's quite demotivational, so why bother to tell the employees about it if it's just going to bring them down? 

While we're on the subject of hiring new people, read about the HR folks who were surprised by these odd resumes, like one person whose "resume had a skills section...only thing listed was 'calculator.'"

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  • 01
    A
    via Bench Accounting on Unsplash
  • 02
    What was the quickest way you've seen a new manager screw up a workplace?
    via u/detonatingorange
  • 03
    [deleted] Came in, took over a department, decided to get rid of people who were contractors, even if they'd been there for 3+ years. Didn't care what they did, just axed them. A month later, critical systems were failing and the people left there just shrugged. He'd axed the people who knew how those systems ran.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 04
    Onid8870 Had a manager get promoted who read a self help book about business communication and decided that is what we need. She hired them to give us a day long seminar at 8:30am- 4:30pm on a Saturday. People pushed back. She responded by sending out an email that this is mandatory now and if
    via u/Onid8870
  • 05
    you were going on vacation you have to show her proof of that. Then there was a couple of rambling emails about how she is trying to help us and can not believe no one would want to do this and that when her kids throw tantrums that they need guidance. The day of the seminar the manager showed up
    via u/Onid8870
  • 06
    in the morning to give us a pep talk. The person running the seminar asked if she was going to stick around today to see our progress. Manager said no because her weekends are family time with her and that is sacred to her. Then she said good bye and good luck and walked out the door.
    via u/Onid8870
  • 07
    Within weeks people were finding other jobs. In six months more than 70% of the people at that seminar were gone.
    via u/Onid8870
  • 08
    mxmnull We had a dude I'm going to here call Benny. Benny had been a corporate dude and decided he wanted to run a location instead. Corporate agreed and gave him the location I work at. It was clear almost immediately that Benny was a helicopter manager. He would show up
    via u/mxmnull
  • 09
    unexpectedly and hover. He'd nitpick. He'd ask weird questions. He'd send out lengthy rambling emails about goals he had for us as a team. One morning as my overnight was ending, he arrived unexpectedly, pulled me into his private office, and had an hour long conversation with
    via u/mxmnull
  • 10
    me where he revealed he'd been watching me and that he knew I did video editing. I was creeped the out, but admitted that yes, it was something I enjoyed doing periodically as a hobby, alongside a bunch of other creative pursuits. He replied that he wanted me to make a music video starring coworkers to lift the morale of the team. I
    via u/mxmnull
  • 11
    replied that I'd think about it and got the out ASAP. My direct supervisor revealed that she had overheard him talking about firing the entire staff and rehiring from scratch. I told my girlfriend that I was considering quitting based on how the next team meeting went.
    via u/mxmnull
  • 12
    That evening, I got an email to the tune that Benny had been forced by corporate to resign. He had been caught acting like a sociopath and that in his 1 month tenure employee morale had reached an all time low. It's been a few years since Benny left, but I remain paranoid about him still to this day.
    via u/mxmnull
  • 13
    lockedlantern Guy gets hired as a supervisor, worked on a Disney cruise before so he thinks he knows how to run a bar. During his interview he points out to a few staff how they're doing minor things wrong. Somehow he's hired and immediately starts making changes, getting
    via u/lockedlantern
  • 14
    mad whenever anyone does something other than his way. Meanwhile he's rarely seen on the floor, rather, he's in the office creating cocktail guidebooks while it's extremely busy at the bar. Got into an argument one night where another supervisor who wasn't working at the time got a bit drunk and told him he never helps out and how
    via u/lockedlantern
  • 15
    everyone disliked him, he tries to get said supervisor fired. It backfires and everyone complains about him instead. This all took place. in the span of a month. I quit shortly before he was fired.
    via u/lockedlantern
  • 16
    Missus_Aitch_99 Worked for a brokerage/investment banking place that had sized up rapidly from the lean, mean start-up days. I was around the 100th employee. Shortly after I started they hired a full- time office manager for the first time. Her first official act was to eliminate the free Snapple in the break room to save
    via u/Missus_Aitch_99
  • 17
    money. I never saw anyone become so despised so fast. EVERYONE refused to comply with her direction after that, ignored her in meetings, just generally froze her out. She was gone in a couple of months. Moral: Feed the brokers.
    via u/Missus_Aitch_99
  • 18
    [deleted] Our team had a 15 minute break at 10am, we always have done. Our new manager arrived and it turned out this break wasn't actually official, so he stopped it happening. The place very quickly fell apart, it basically required people ignoring the rules to get things fixed, working into lunch was
    via u/[deleted]
  • 19
    very common or staying behind a little bit late to get a job done. So when this break happened we stopped going above our job description and did it to the letter. They had to spend a fortune calling in contractors to fix things that we had been fixing but weren't supposed to, jobs got delayed constantly because we would pack up and leave
    via u/[deleted]
  • 20
    to go to our lunch breaks exactly on time, or drop a job half way through to go home exactly at finishing time.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 21
    dambrucee810 We were a pioneer account. The account was a huge US telecommunications company that handed their department to be outsourced to our center, from another that it up. We were excited. For the first 6 months, we flourished, so much that
    via u/dambrucee810
  • 22
    the company thought it was a good idea to make our Operations Manager move to another location to get him to improve that. So who replaced our OM? The old OM that handled the account at the other center who up. Basically ran the account to the ground. In less than 6 months.
    via u/dambrucee810
  • 23
    Kept hiring more and more people. Only promoted people he liked. Job assignments weren't clear, people kept being reassigned. At the end we had over 500 employees, and he had to fire 300 of them because the account only needed 200. The company suffered a lawsuit and lost the account.
    via u/dambrucee810
  • 24
    Moots_point By changing management styles - basically everyday. The classic "my door is always open". The "email me first before coming into my office - have you tried working this out with your peers together, first?". The "why do you think I called you in here" after
    via u/Moots_point
  • 25
    every time I tell you to come into my office The "I don't eat lunch with any member of the team anymore as they are my subordinates now" The "Why doesn't anyone on the team treat me the same anymore? Why don't they like me" The "Come see me at the end of the day 'just to
    via u/Moots_point
  • 26
    check in' before you leave" The "no seriously, coming to see me is now mandatory before you leave for the day" The "email me when you come in and when you leave everyday"
    via u/Moots_point
  • 27
    The "why'd you take a 45 minute lunch break" - whilst going to 'Walmart' for 3 hours this morning and coming back with a Chipotle cup.
    via u/Moots_point
  • 28
    Gregormcc17 We worked in teams of two on 8 hour rotating shifts. That meant there were 8 crew members in total. We split our duties between us to keep our workplace clean and properly provisioned. New manager decides to promote one in each team as a sort of supervisor.
    via u/Gregormcc17
  • 29
    The obvious happened. The new supervisor says to his colleague that they should do x,y or z, colleague responds off that's what they're paying you the extra for. Ruined relationships for years.
    via u/Gregormcc17
  • 30
    [deleted] My old 'new' manager jumped on the job. First manager position. Proceeded to demoralize the out of our entire department to the point where she literally had to call us into a team meeting to group apologize for being such a in front of our GM. Then continued to be a cuz why not lol.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    seriouslynothavingit First time she met me she walked right past my desk and looked all over the work area to find something wrong. She staryed asking me if I knew how to do my job. I was there 12 years by this point. This was not an isolated incident ans she
    via u/seriouslynothavingit
  • 32
    acted this way to everyone. She never worked in the field but had been a manager previously. So it seemed like she was intimidated by people who knew their jobs
    via u/seriouslynothavingit
  • 33
    bisteccafiorentina I worked as a cook in a restaurant in a country setting. American food, burgers, fries, some simple seafood/steak specials.. Nice food, but simple and easy to prepare and filling portions for the price.. They lost their head chef on short notice and we
    via u/bisteccafiorentina
  • 34
    were chef-less for a month or two. The new guy they brought in wanted to change everything. He wanted to redesign the kitchen(which it did need. and which was planned). But then he started talking about getting rid of the burgers on the menu, getting rid of the deep fryer.. Started trying to sell these little
    via u/bisteccafiorentina
  • 35
    vegetarian ornately- plated small dishes for high prices.. Ordering little flowery garnishes and telling the cooks they were all going to need to buy their own $50 pair of plating tweezers.. Started hiring, one by one, employees from his old restaurants, creating this weird social divide between his cult followers and the existing
    via u/bisteccafiorentina
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    employees who know that a hard-working farm hand will not pay $18 for some steamed beats with herb goat cheese smeared on the plate. Not many people were very happy.. He didn't last long.
    via u/bisteccafiorentina
  • 37
    I feel a little bad for those employees who jumped ship to follow him only to be let go when he was, maybe a month later.
    via u/bisteccafiorentina
  • 38
    MTSwagger A former manager used their company phone as a hot spot to watch Netflix at home since they didn't have internet. This happened for their first month on the job, until the phone bill came in. Apparently, that one bill was for over $3k.
    via u/MTSwagger
  • 39
    [deleted] We had a new supervisor join us at the retail job I used to work at. His first impression on everyone wasn't great. He dressed up wayyy too much for what the job was (wearing a suit to a thrift store lol) and just kind of acted douchey. Bragged about the manager position that he had previously at a bar,
    via u/[deleted]
  • 40
    which we all figured he must've been fired from. Immediately talked down to all the employees. The supervisor team lead felt iffy about him right off the bat, but the last straw was when he called her "kiddo". He didn't even last a week until we were all informed he had been let go.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 41
    goddamnitgoose I worked at a restaurant all throughout High School and bit into College during breaks. My manager at the time was awesome to work with. So much so I suggest that she hire my youngest sister when she can start working as my sister and I share the same work ethic and I knew she would love it there. About a year into
    via u/g********goose
  • 42
    me leaving and my sister hiring on, the owners asked the manager I knew to move to another store to save their sales, which she did. To replace her they put a manager from another store that was being shut down in the helm. What was his first act as a manager? Well to get rid of all the current employees that the
    via u/g********goose
  • 43
    regulars knew and requested by name over a period of time and hire the employees that were left out to dry from the pervious store. This, quite surprisingly to him, didn't work out well for his sales. His team was nowhere close to being as welcoming as the team I worked with and that my sister started working with. He clearly favored
    via u/g********goose
  • 44
    his team too. He really didn't understand the concept that a customer was fine with their meal and didn't need to be checked up on every 5 minutes personally. I'm sure there were other things that I'm not aware of, and I don't need to know these. Eventually I went in and was talking to a former coworker. She told me she
    via u/g********goose
  • 45
    was pulled off to the side by the owners and asked to step in as manager effective immediately as the store was not doing well under the new manager. I congratulated her for the early promotion and within a week the store was doing its old sales just like it used to under my former coworkers management.
    via u/g********goose
  • 46
    She's rehired those workers that wanted to come back and has since hired some younger waiters/waitresses and new back of house folks who are so much more friendly and make the restaurant worth stopping into.
    via u/g********goose
  • 47
    MegaPiglatin I had a manager named, we'll say Larry, when I worked for an airline. He only lasted a few months, but came in boasting about his prior experience with another company. Over time, he grew increasingly stubborn and it all culminated with one particular plan that he was convinced would "save" us by routing all of
    via u/MegaPiglatin
  • 48
    our baggage to a single conveyor belt line. All of us supervisors--and I mean ALL of us-- explained to him that his plan was NOT going to work since we knew there were going to be 500+ bags for several flights in the span of a few hours coming down that line and we did not have the staff or the space to work on that belt and it was
    via u/MegaPiglatin
  • 49
    guaranteed to jam. We had the numbers, we had the on-the-ground experience, everything. I tried to talk him out of it in a last ditch effort simce I was the one who had to physically make the change in the computer and he shut me down almost immediately. So, the plan was a go. It failed so spectacularly that not only did I
    via u/MegaPiglatin
  • 50
    immediately get a call and message from him on the morning of my day off (the "start" date), but his manager called me requesting that I make any necessary changes to remedy it, as well as several other high-up individuals. He was "let go" within the week.
    via u/MegaPiglatin
  • 51
    FlipFlops NPorkChops. Worked for a company that was owned by 3 individuals who built up an incredible business over about 10 years and sold to a large national company. One of the owners was technically the manager as well and was absolutely awesome. Treated the employees very well and was
    via u/FlipFlops NPorkChops
  • 52
    probably the nicest man I've ever known. In comes younger new corporate manager to oversee office operations. He was hired about a month before previously mentioned owner was due to leave and learn from him. On his last day as owner/manager, he went around hugging each employee and saying his goodbyes.
    via u/FlipFlops NPorkChops
  • 53
    People were legit crying over him leaving. New manager couldn't comprehend how the employees were emotional over this. Was making awkward remarks about how silly it was. Didn't take long to realize we were now working for an insensitive corporate schill who had no soul.
    via u/FlipFlops NPorkChops
  • 54
    jonahvsthewhale The old CFO at my company worked from home, but gradually was convinced by the CEO to work more in the office. The guy was very traditional and very stern i.e. the workplace was not a place for idle chit chat, employees weren't to take many bathroom breaks, etc. We were told our attitudes were being
    via u/jonahvsthewhale
  • 55
    observed. In the span of 6 months, like 4 people had been let go for "not being a good fit". It got to the point where we felt if we didn't consciously smile and act with enthusiasm, we'd be fired. It felt like I was in a cult or something, and ended up leaving
    via u/jonahvsthewhale
  • 56
    Wrong_Answer_Willie. he came in and fired all the people that he didn't like and kept the ones that would kiss his he was fired within 6 months.
    via u/Wrong_Answer_Willie
  • 57
    Monteze I worked at a taco Bell/kfc. And while we did have a perpetual skeleton crew (owners loved saving on labor) we made it work with minimal customer complaints. Well new manager comes in and decided so change all kinds of that doesnt, shouldn't matter to an area manager. Where the wraps
    via u/Monteze
  • 58
    for the food is, the bags on the drive though and the cold bar on our line. Now technically the before and after set ups were both fine as far as health regulations go but if you've ever worked in fast food a lot of that suff is muscle memory. I could make most orders near blindfolded, but shitforbrains decided that it
    via u/Monteze
  • 59
    had to be changed. He threatened to call the police on one manager who he fired because she wasn't leaving. Well she was very pregnant and waiting on her ride. He wanted us to change dates on food to keep from throwing it away. He wanted us out right after we closer but also didn't want any pre closing Done until we closed. He
    via u/Monteze
  • 60
    wanted us to use two servings of protein instead 3 for certain items and when the store was busy he'd be our schmoozing instead of managing. I could go on and I did report stuff to corporate but to no avail. He did. eventually get fired, which I called after he fired me (I refused to stuff large items into a small bag) and then
    via u/Monteze
  • 61
    he got fired from another chain. But the best karma was when this bag bought a local catfish buffet place that had been around since I was a child. It was very popular with the locals and the owner's son had a successful place of their own. Well when this waste of humanity bought it it lasted about a year, again
    via u/Monteze
  • 62
    called it. And now it's back to the old owner to my knowledge and is doing fine. Dude was just incompetent and bullied people to get his way. But being vindicated is pretty great.
    via u/Monteze
  • 63
    [deleted] We had an entire system worked out at work, very small administrative department. Because it was basically a chain of administrative documents that had to go from person to person, everyone knew who they were getting documents from and who they were supposed to give it to next so it could be
    via u/[deleted]
  • 64
    registered in the correct departments. New supervisor comes in, decides the system is and decrees that from now on, every document is to placed on a specific table where they can then be picked up by the staff. Productivity also needed to go up by 30%.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 65
    Week one hadnt passed and everything was a mess already. Papers filed incorrectly, some departments hadnt even seen the documents before they were rushed out so they were missing authorisation for the labourers outside. Customers complaining about not getting their shipments.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 66
    He grudgingly went back to our old methods during week 2 but we were already way behind everything. He then quit during week 3 cause he felt unneeded in the company.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 67
    Lizard Wizard444 they fired the IT guy right after putting all our records. in a database. the guy hadn't left the building before they realized they had no idea how to use the database.
    via u/Lizard Wizard444
  • 68
    Krogsly I was the assistant manager at a pizza chain. The company decided to outside hire without even giving me an interview. I decided that maybe this was the right decision, and stayed at my job. My next month was spent training her on how to be my boss. Understandably, this was horrible, so I decided to
    via u/Krogsly
  • 69
    step down and be a delivery driver. Even though I was no longer a manager, she continued to treat me like her training manager. She spouted off on how awful the current employees were to me in private. Finally, she told me she was going to fire my friend John. I decided to call John at home immediately during my next delivery.
    via u/Krogsly
  • 70
    While I was gone he drove to work and chewed her out. When I got back she chewed me out for "sharing private information" as if I should have even know the information anyway. I quit and went to the competition. Their school account clients came with me when I pitched them too.
    via u/Krogsly
  • 71
    optigon Create a nearly impossible bonus structure by quarter, change the rules of the bonus when announcing that no one got it, then letting the employees know that not only have they not gotten the bonus, but so far performance into the new quarter has made it statistically impossible for them to get the bonus this quarter as well.
    via u/optigon
  • 72
    At my last workplace, they set a requirement that files should be processed within 24 hours, and we could get a bonus of $500 each quarter if 95% of our files were done in that time period 95% percent of the time. There were a lot of issues that could cause problems that were out of our control, so most often, people hit about 80%. Nevertheless, we tried.
    via u/optigon
  • 73
    The quarter ends, and our manager announces that the rules weren't for each of us, but for the whole team. So, if anyone didn't get the bonus, no one did. I pulled up his old email announcing the bonus and asked him where it said it was a collective bonus. He got and recalculated. He was overloaded, so it took a few
    via u/optigon
  • 74
    days. He finally gets back to us telling us that even individually calculated, we wouldn't have gotten it, and by the way, since we're over 5% into the quarter and none of you have hit this mark yet, you're not getting the bonus now. Our group, who was previously mildly disgruntled, but tolerant of their misery, became
    via u/optigon
  • 75
    enraged. Most of them were gone within a few months. This was followed with dangling a promotion in front of everyone, having everyone interview, then deciding to not promote any of us, but instead to bring outsiders that didn't know our business at all in to run the show. So, not only did we not get the
    via u/optigon
  • 76
    promotion, but we had to train people who were paid better. I only stuck around because I interviewed the best and was given a small promotion to start a new department under the COO.
    via u/optigon
  • 77
    TiniroX Had a new manager at a BBQ restaurant I worked at in college. After she yelled at me in front of all the customers in the lobby for throwing a fork that was on the counter away, I put my two weeks in. To her credit, the trash was on the same counter and she just thought I put it back with the clean forks, but her reaction was very extreme
    via u/TiniroX
  • 78
    and public. She was only around for a month at that point, and that was just the tipping point for me. I found out 2 weeks later that she put a tall pan of beans in the smoker on the top rotating shelf (instead of the bottom, giving more room to rotate) and the smoker jammed up and broke. Cost a ton to repair, and she resigned because
    via u/TiniroX
  • 79
    she got a "much better" job elsewhere. Also she lied on her resume saying she had a doctorate in cooking...cause who's going to believe that.
    via u/TiniroX
  • 80
    [deleted] Worked in finance for a large bank, and the bank decided to fire about 90% of their mortgage officers. They were all called in for their annual mortgage meeting, and once they got there they were all fired on the spot. The Branch/Operations department knew about this and had reps outside
    via u/[deleted]
  • 81
    ready to hire the people who weren't storming off in frustration. They chose to hire these mortgage lenders as the new Assistant Managers for different branches, because it paid the same and was considered a lateral move. However. Getting to Assistant Manager normally takes YEARS of experience. Handling customer frustrations.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 82
    Learning how to balance vaults and order the right amount of cash by monitoring trends of when we need more cash on hand. Opening accounts accurately. Scheduling staff. Different security protocols for how to open and close the branch, and what to do if there's a robbery. There SO much they have to learn, and these new mortgage officers were
    via u/[deleted]
  • 83
    immediately thrown in with ZERO experience or training. The woman assigned to our branch was awful. Would hand out wrong amounts of cash. We literally had zero $50's or $100's because she didn't order any. Imagine coming in for a $1,000 withdrawal and you're the teller having to explain that we're out of big
    via u/[deleted]
  • 84
    bills and the $20's are in the ATM so we can give you mostly $10's and some $20's. She messed up account openings, assigning debit cards to other accounts so the person would swipe their card and the money would come out of some random customer's account.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 85
    It. Was. A. Nightmare. And guess who had to clean everything up and deal with everything she was doing. The tellers and supervisors she stepped over to be ABM.
    via u/[deleted]

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