'Take notes of EVERYTHING you say in the meeting? Okay': Boss tries to ignore important safety concerns, "model employee" gets back at them with meticulous notes

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Oct 6, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

When a worker tried to report some concerning workplace issues, they didn't get the reception they'd hoped for. 

If you reported something wrong in your workplace, would anything change? At some jobs, the answer would be an immediate yes. But at many workplaces, pointing out issues isn't going to make you any friends. There's a good chance that management already knows about them, and aren't willing to change them. So when an employee rocks the boat, it gets the supervisors worried for their own job security. 

U/SickSIL1998 knows that all too well after their boss treated them impolitely in a meeting. Instead of being thanked for reporting a safety issue, this employee was berated! Their boss called them whiny and needy, as well as instructing them to just deal with the issue. It was a big enough problem that customers had been complaining about it, but still, this boss wanted to stick her head in the sand and pretend that nothing was wrong. 

Up next, have a laugh at the super petty ways fast food employees got back at their worst customers, like one person who put mounds of onions on an insistent customer's sandwich, saying "The look on her face when she opened that burger was priceless."

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    Cheezburger Image 10412789248
    via Getty Images on Unsplash+

    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02
    Take notes of EVERYTHING you say in the meeting? Okay, but it will get you fired. So this happened a few years ago, and I will be vague since I'm still not sure if the dust has fully settled from this fiasco yet... At my former company, I was the secretary for a small "improvement" team that would meet monthly to discuss issues
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 03
    within the company and brainstorm ways to fix them. Something you need to know about me is that I was given this role because people know I am meticulous at keeping records due to HR-related issues I had at a previous place of employment. I don't think my boss realized that this careful record-keeping applied to her as well, especially when she appointed me to be secretary of this little committee, but I digress.
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 04
    I was a model employee (read: award-winning) and went above and beyond what was asked, as were many others in my department, but we were still having customer complaints and dealt with regular safety issues, due to the company at-large and through no fault of our own. When we brought these concerns to our boss's attention, emails were left unread, and during in- person exchanges, we were called, "whiny," "needy," and were told that we needed to "just
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 05
    deal with it." Whatever the issue, from items being stolen by customers to people being unhappy with the procedures the boss had set down for us to follow, it was always made to somehow be our fault. When we sought support from other departments, we were met with cold indifference, since the boss was great to them, and we must be exaggerating the things she said to us.
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 06
    Well, during an improvement meeting at the end of the fiscal year, it all came to a head. Myself and a couple of my team members dug our heels in and were insistent about the unresolved issues the boss refused to acknowledge, and she finally went off on us. She told us everyone was incompetent, didn't deserve our jobs, and that maybe customers would like us more if we were more likeable. When people pressed her on safety
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 07
    issues, she continued to reiterate that we would just have to deal with it, and that if "someone was going to die, they already would have, right?" I, as the secretary, did my duty and took notes of ALL that happened over the course of that meeting. I usually did bullet points, but that night, I was feeling a little more thorough, so I wrote down words. EVERY word that was said. Every hateful comment, denial of
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 08
    accountability, and idle threat was recorded in black and white. Now, a second part of my job was to distribute the notes from the improvement meeting to the rest of the company. So, come the next morning, I ran about 100 copies of the transcript of the meeting and hand-delivered them to every single department in the building, and things blew up. People from other departments who had attended the meeting were able to verify
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 09
    that everything I had typed up had really been said, and folks were MAD: threatening to quit, refusing to do their normal duties, browsing Indeed during work, etc. My boss's boss (who worked at HQ, so I didn't get the opportunity to hand her a copy) got wind of these meeting minutes only a few hours after I had handed them out and had an hour-long, off-the-record conversation with me about all the safety issues I had documented, all the concerns I
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 10
    had submitted to management in writing, and all the records I had regarding my boss's inaction. She was very grateful for the 100 pages of documentation I sent over and thanked me for my time. The day after I unleashed Pandora's box, I put in my 2 weeks notice, took a new job, and peaced out to greener pastures. At first, it seemed like things were calming down after I left, but the following year, the company did not renew my boss's contract...
    via u/SickSIL1998
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    I still feel a bit bad because | wasn't trying to get her fired or ruin her life - I was just desperate for some accountability thrown her way to create some positive change in the company. But at the end of the day, I just did what she had asked me to do.
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 12
    Justsomedu... Any boss shrugging off actual safety issues needs. to be fired. Preferably from a cannon.
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 13
    thatburghfan Magnificent work. And do NOT feel bad about how it went down for your old boss. As my grandmother would say "She buttered her bread, now she has to lie in it." Alas, Grandma wasn't very good at remembering sayings.
    via u/SickSIL1998
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    helpful_idiott The fact it took a year to get rid of her is the worst part.
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 15
    SushiGuacDNA Good work. You didn't ruin her life. She did.
    via u/SickSIL1998
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    Pewterarm16 I need to learn to take notes that well at work. I have been hit many times with "I never actually said that"
    via u/SickSIL1998
  • 17
    taishiea you do not need to feel bad, she neglected her duties and was fired for it. You on the other hand should feel proud as you may have save lives that would have been loss due to her negligence.
    via u/SickSIL1998

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