'Time is money': New boss enforces efficiency policy, backfires as employees start making mistakes, boss's job is on the line

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Nov 2, 2024 8:00 AM EDT

Sometimes, the best kind of leadership is stepping back when things are working perfectly fine.

Here, we have a new boss who came from a more fast-paced startup environment. He decided that the best way to get his team members to like him was by enforcing an entirely new policy without their input that would prioritize efficiency over everything else, including quality. This was the kind of guy who didn't like any hint of hesitation, so this Redditor complied, albeit maliciously. He knew that as soon as quality suffered, clients would eventually become aware, and the new manager would have to explain himself to his boss.

Well, the inevitable happened, and thankfully, the Redditor kept receipts to ensure that there was no world in which he was taking the fall for the "efficiency policy" his team leader enforced consistently. Keep scrolling below for the fallout after the higher-ups got involved. For more stories like this, take a look at this post about a nanny who started to suspect that her horrible boss was tracking her every move.

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    Cheezburger Image 10422703872
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    My Boss Wanted 'Efficiency'―So I Gave Him Just That!
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    Note: English is not my first language. I've been working in my field for a while, and I've always taken pride in doing a thorough, reliable. job. I'm a high performer
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    and had a solid track record with my previous bosses, who valued quality and consistency. But then Eric became our new boss, and things took a hard turn.
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    Eric was all about efficiency. He came from a startup environment where things didn't need to be perfect, just right AND fast! He wanted
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    things done fast-even if it meant cutting corners. In meetings, he'd throw around phrases like, "Time is money!" and "Every second counts!"
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    Sure, efficiency is important, but Eric took it to an extreme. He didn't care about the quality of our work; he just wanted it done now. Nuances,
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    quality checks, and double-checking went right out the window. Then, he decided to implement a "Time Tracking and Output"
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    policy. This meant logging every task we worked on with specific time limits. Anything taking longer than his arbitrary limits was
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    flagged, and we'd have to explain ourselves in weekly "efficiency reviews." Essentially, the new rule was: don't need to do it completely right- just do it fast.
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    I tried explaining to him that rushing through things would lead to mistakes, but Eric insisted this would "maximize productivity."
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    Frustrated but willing to play by his rules, I decided I'd give him exactly what he asked for. If Eric wanted speed, I'd deliver speed.
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    I stopped double- checking everything. Tasks that normally took an hour to review and refine? I was now completing in 15 minutes, barely glancing at them.
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    Documents that required analysis? I'd throw some data together and call it a day. Anything that usually got a thorough review now only got a quick, single pass-tops.
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    Naturally, errors began cropping up. Typos, incorrect numbers, misplaced data, bad presentations-mistakes
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    were popping up everywhere. But technically, I was working exactly within Eric's time limits. Eric was thrilled
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    with how much faster I was working and started bragging in meetings about how "efficient" our team had become.
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    Then the clients started to notice. One of our biggest accounts found a major error in a document I'd whipped together at
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    record speed. That led to an awkward phone call with Eric. More issues came up, and after about two weeks of "optimized efficiency," I got called. into his office with his boss.
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    Eric, visibly irritated, asked me why the quality of my work had taken. such a nosedive. I calmly explained that I was meeting all of his time limits, exactly as
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    instructed. I told him that quality work requires time, which I simply didn't have under his new policy.
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    Eric sat there in silence, realizing his policy had backfired. His boss stared at him, completely stunned and red in the face. After an awkward
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    pause, Eric muttered about "re-evaluating" the time limits on tasks. The "efficiency" policy quietly disappeared soon after.
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    Now, I'm back to doing my job properly. Eric's under performance review and his boss is closely involved with all our operations, especially
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    with big clients. Why reinvent the wheel when things are working fine? And why try to rein in the high performers to stamp your authority?
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    darke... 52m ago. • lol, amazing! I do actually believe in continuous improvement, but learn the existing processes first,
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    Pirate... 41m ago. "Better, faster, cheaper -- pick any two"
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    _Kra... • 35m ago. Pretty much going through something similar. My boss wants to remove me from production work. I put out twice
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    as much as the next person and with FAR higher accuracy. Has refused to QC the rest of the group for years, and I had been quietly helping
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    other project teams with fixes on the output from my group. Boss has gaslighted me before when I've brought up issues
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    with the quality and accuracy of the others output. So now I've stopped giving feedback,
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    stopped fixing things, and stopped providing all the extra info/training I had been giving to them all (without any thanks mind you).
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    Projects are taking twice as long to get done, riddled with issues, and the other staff are at their wits end. It's amazing how poor managers get their positions, I'll never understand it.
    via Mr_Coco1234

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workplace-stories employee work stories toxic-workplace job work toxic-boss Horrible Bosses reddit thread Reddit company toxic-work-environment
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