'Karen is speaking as though she is my supervisor...the board members [are] giving strange looks': Company troubleshooter agrees to let new hire take over, business soon begs them to return

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 2, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

Don't you hate when everything's going perfectly at work, and then the new hire has to ruin your workflow? No one knows that feeling better than u/ACFF, who got a new coworker and was presented with some genuinely shocking orders from the boss. 

These coworkers really had a good workflow. One person was the boss, and the other their subordinate, but they operated almost as equals. Having a boss who empowers you to work hard and be proud of your work is a great situation to be in. But then all a sudden, these two found out that they were getting a new boss in the most abrupt way possible. 

For some reason, their boss decided that a board meeting was the perfect time and place to introduce their new manager. It completely blindsided the two employees: they were told that they'd have to do just one subsection of their role, while the rest would go to the new hire. That boss's way of introducing the new hire seems unprofessional, and it makes sense that this person was ready to leave their job after all of that nonsense. 

After that, check out these TVs that are just hung up way too high, like one person who "couldn't keep a straight face when the client told me where he wanted the TV." 

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  • 01
    CEO didn't understand what my department did apparently.... L Update at the bottom. Thanks so much for the up votes and silver, gold and platinum. I really didn't think this would take off like this.
    via u/ACFF
  • 02
    Some backstory; I was a general troubleshooter for my company. My job involved a lot of travelling to different clients we support. My area of work is Ontario, Canada (where I am based out of) and some of the nearby States in the United States (New York, massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania.) I did most of my travelling by car since my schedule can change quite quickly and flying can become very expensive. I had one colleague who is technically my subordinate but we have a very good working rela
    via u/ACFF
  • 03
    A little over a year ago I get an email calling me to the head office in New York City for a meeting with the CEO and the board of directors regarding my job. I check with my colleague and he got the same email. So we make our travel plans and meet in New York City the following week. We have dinner together the night before our meeting and can't figure out between us what the issue is about (it's rare to get summoned to head office and more rare for things to be so vague).
    via u/ACFF
  • 04
    When we go into the meeting the next day we are informed that the company is dividing our department between the US and Canada and that there would be a new person to deal with the US clients and we were to restrict ourselves to Canada. Both my colleague and I were a little shocked at this since neither of us has even heard this was being discussed. I asked who the new person for the US was and we then learned that it was a new hire that the CEO had taken a special interest in.
    via u/ACFF
  • 05
    Trying to be of good spirit I offered to train the new person. (There are many realities of the job that are not in the job description). CEO accepted and then brought in the new hire. In walks a young lady who looks about 23 years old and wears an expression that she knows everything. She sits at the table and immediately makes it very clear that she wants nothing to do with us.
    via u/ACFF
  • 06
    CEO - Bob, New Hire - Karen, My Colleague - Jim. Bob: Welcome Karen, we have just informed OP and Jim about the change in structure and they are willing to give you the support you need to get yourself started. Karen and Bob both look at me.
    via u/ACFF
  • 07
    Me: Glad to have you aboard Karen, I think both Jim and I have a lot of experience to share with you and we are happy to do so, perhaps it would be better in a separate meeting so we don't take the board's time.
    via u/ACFF
  • 08
    Karen: Thank you all. I have a lot of ideas about how I can streamline our department and new policies I can introduce that should save the company a lot of money in expenses.
    via u/ACFF
  • 09
    I'm very confused at this point. Karen is speaking as though she is my supervisor and that is distinctly not what Bob spoke to us about. I can see some of the board members giving strange looks at this as well. Me: Bob perhaps I misunderstood the new roles here. Would you please clarify?
    via u/ACFF
  • 10
    Bob: Sure, Karen is the new head of your department and both you and Jim will answer directly to her. Board member: That isn't what we discussed or approved as a board. We weren't fully convinced of dividing the department but this is completely against what we discussed. Karen: What did you discuss then?
    via u/ACFF
  • 11
    Board Member: That your department would be divided between the US and Canada. OP and Jim would remain north of the border and you would run the US. Karen: That's not what I was told but I can work with that. As long as these two stay out of my way. (Indicating me and Jim) Jim and I are both shocked and insulted to be spoken of in this manner. We are both very good at our jobs and before today have never seen this woman in our lives.
    via u/ACFF
  • 12
    Bob: That settles it, OP, effective immediately, you and Jim are to have nothing to do with Karen. Do not interfere with her work at all. You are both to restrict yourselves to working within Canada only. With that he ended the meeting and left the room with Karen close behind him. Jim and I sat there stunned for a moment and some of the board members came up to us to express their shock and sympathies about this. I had enough presence of mind to ask if we would get a written directive of this c
    via u/ACFF
  • 13
    So after sending an email to all our US based clients advising them of the change and giving them the contact information of Karen, Jim and I made our way back to Toronto and reorganized ourselves for working within Ontario only. This meant much less travelling for us so it gave us more room to breathe.
    via u/ACFF
  • 14
    Within a week I was getting complaints from our US based clients that Karen was not answering emails and missing appointments. I forwarded these emails to Karen and copied the entire board including Bob. Another week later I get a phone call from Karen who sounds frantic but will not admit she needs help. She makes pleasant conversation and then asks how I would handle a particular type of situation. I tell her I'm really not interested in discussing work as that might be seen as interfering in
    via u/ACFF
  • 15
    By the end of that month I get a call from Bob asking if I will take over the entire department again. I politely tell him no since I didn't want to interfere with Karen and her role. For the next 3 months I'm getting emails and phone calls from US clients asking if they can have me back as their contact. This confirms an idea that had been in my head. Jim and I had actually grown our client base in Ontario since restricting ourselves here. So I had lunch with Jim one day and asked him if he wan
    via u/ACFF
  • 16
    As soon as we were clear we both submitted our resignations with explanations of why. The next time clients contacted us we told them we no longer worked for the company. When they asked if we still worked in the field we told them we had established our own firm and what services we offered. A month later we had 60% of our US clients on board, and since the former company had no Canadian support at all, we had 80% of the Canadian clients. Within 2 months we had 80% of the US and 90% of the Cana
    via u/ACFF
  • 17
    In the year since that time our new company has grown enough that we have hired 7 new consultants. Jim and I find ourselves doing more office work than road work, and a lot of client courting. Our old company has had to stop offering the in person troubleshooting (what our department did) and Bob was fired by the board. No idea what happened to Karen.
    via u/ACFF
  • 18
    Updates: Because of interest expressed in the comments I made a phone call to one of the board members I remained on friendly terms with. Here are some answers to questions. How did Karen get the Job? Apparently Bob had set up a business school scholarship out of his own money which had put something like 6 or 7 students through business school. Karen was the latest graduate and Bob wanted to give her a start in the business world.
    via u/ACFF
  • 19
    Was Bob sleeping with Karen? No clear answer was given. But Bob's wife divorced him shortly after he was fired from the company. Make of that what you will. What happened to Karen? Apparently she got a job as middle management in a financial services company. Hopefully she can still build a life for herself and had learned some important lessons. What happened to Bob? Last heard he was a regional director for a large hotel chain. Hopefully he also lands on his feet. Everyone deserves a chance to
    via u/ACFF
  • 20
    Some questioned why the board was there for this meeting. I honestly don't know and neither did the board member I spoke with. It was one of their regularly scheduled meetings and Bob added things to the agenda. Some questioned my use of non competes saying its not nice. Its a normal reality in the business world. The oddity is that my old company did not have one. The non compete I have my employees sign is not overly burdensome. It protects our intellectual property and professional contacts.
    via u/ACFF
  • 21
    Some inquired if we are still hiring. Unfortunately we are not. We are taking a pause from expansion right now as Jim's wife is dealing with cancer. I don't want Jim to worry about the office while taking care of his wife so we have decided to maintain our size (which I can do with minimal input from Jim) until his wife is in remission and he has a chance to rest and return his attention more fully to our company. Jim and I treat each other like family. So this is a natural step for us.
    via u/ACFF
  • 22
    Thank you all so much for your interest and the great feedback and discussion in the comments.
    via u/ACFF
  • 23
    gwoerp Wow, what a great story and congratulations on your successful business! Thank you for sharing. That company didn't deserve you!
    via u/gwoerp
  • 24
    C [deleted] You're lucky that you guys didn't sign a non- compete clause in your employment contracts. Kudos for throwing them under the bus.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 25
    MCPhssthpok A young lady that the CEO had "taken a special interest in". Hmmm... 2.7k Reply Share ACFF OP. Lol yea. We all thought it, just didn't want to make any undue accusations.
    via u/MCPhssthpok
  • 26
    C [deleted] That is the best comeback I've ever read here. Keep it up!
    via u/ [deleted]
  • 27
    (B) imakenosensetopeople Ontario eh! Pitter patter, lets get at 'er! I love it when they bring in very inexperienced people off the street and put them in positions of leadership. The smart ones ask for help (that you so kindly offered) but the dumb ones do exactly what she did. Look at how much money they saved lol.... 252 Reply Share ACFF OP. A CEO's Salary's Worth. Plus my and my partner's salary. Lol
    via u/imakenosensetopeople

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karens boss workplace-stories jobs job malicious compliance bosses work coworkers malicious-compliance-reddit demanding karens in the wild workplace entitled karen story malicious compliance reddit karen entitled people
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