Boss demands employee ‘stay in their lane’ after they help manager with his projects, employee complies, resulting in manager drowning in work: ‘Not my circus’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Dec 25, 2024 1:00 PM EST

Who is not familiar with the neverending battle between wanting to prove your worth at work and be as helpful as you can be, while not overdoing it to a point where you are much too overworked?

Some people get so invested in wanting to prove themselves, they lose sight of how things are meant to be working, and end up doing more damage than good. For example, when one wants to show their manager how much they are capable of, they might find themselves taking on even more work, specifically work that is meant to be done by said manager. While that manager might be happy with their workload being reduced, perhaps the manager's own boss is not too happy to learn that their employee is not to one who actually does their job. This creates a situation where even if the employee feels like they are helping, the opposite is the truth.

This can be said about the employee in this Reddit story, who was reprimanded by their manager's boss, for not 'staying their lane' and doing manager's projects instead of him. Keep scrolling to read what happened in the full story. 

Advertisement
  • 01
    "I will not overstep"
    via South_agency
  • 02
    I'm overstepping? OK, I'll stop.
    via ghandigun1
  • 03
    Need to be a bit vague for reasons. I had a job where you work pretty independently to complete projects for customers. Each project takes
    via ghandigun1
  • 04
    about a week. Week and a half if it's a really rough one. There's not a ton of supervision hour to hour, you just get your project done and check in to report progress once a day, tops.
    via ghandigun1
  • 05
    My manager is bad at his job. Since I was hired, he routinely takes 2-3 weeks on a project. I had to cover several go backs to fix missed issues on "completed" projects of his, so I
    via ghandigun1
  • 06
    started to go through his projects before delivery. First pointing out what needed to be completed, but also redoing bad quality projects so we still hit customer deadlines.
    via ghandigun1
  • 07
    Well manager, boss, and I had a meeting. I was firmly told that I was overstepping my role by inspecting projects besides my own. They appreciated how my interventions resulted in
    via ghandigun1
  • 08
    multiple projects being deliverable on time with high quality, so I was therefore not receiving an official write up, but I needed to stay in my lane. going forward.
    via ghandigun1
  • 09
    WELL delivery is in 2 business days and manager calls to see if I have spare time to check on his one week difficulty project that he had 2 MONTHS on.
    via ghandigun1
  • 10
    I said I would take a look, but am buried with my own projects. Sure enough, about half the project is not finished. Messaged the boss, citing the directive I was given in our
    via ghandigun1
  • 11
    meeting, and was instructed not to interject into the project. "Not your circus, not your monkeys" (kudos to reasonable bosses).
    via ghandigun1
  • 12
    Left manager a note about what needs completion, but I will not be "over stepping" and completing your project. Have fun. Not my circus.
    via ghandigun1

  • As much as it can be difficult to get reprimanded for doing more work, and doing it well, there might be other considerations going into this decision, and that is something OP (original poster) is clearly not seeing. They should be asking themselves – why does it matter to the boss who is the one completing the projects, and how does it look for the manager when all their projects are getting done by someone else entirely? At the end of the day, maybe ‘staying your lane’ is not that bad of a thing to do after all…

  • 13
    -edit for clarity- It was my manager who specifically directed me to not interfere in his projects. Boss simply agreed on that principle, but refused to do an official write up because of the circumstances.
    via ghandigun1
  • 14
    Boss was informed each time I had to do extra work to cover for manager. I get the sense they've been building documentation to ditch manager. THIS project just has
    via ghandigun1
  • 15
    the situation of me being specifically told not to help and now manager face planting on it. (He is already blaming office staff for not catching that the project he marked complete is in fact not at all complete)
    via ghandigun1
  • 16
    Javka42 9h ago It might have been malicious compliance if it was your manager who had told you to stop interfering with his projects.
    via Javka42
  • 17
    As it is, this sounds like you have been contributing to the problem by protecting your manager so your boss can't fire him, and now you're doing what your boss actually wants.
    via Javka42
  • 18
    ghandigun1 OP • 9h ago • It was the manager who told me to stop interfering with his projects, the boss was just at the meeting and agreed. Sorry wasn't clear in the original post. Trying to be a touch vauge for obvious reasons.
    via ghandigun1
  • 19
    • StudioDroid 7h ago • The project is also probably one that can take the hit of being late or low quality. Boss may have. chosen this to give more rope for the manager to get tangled in. After said manager is gone, you may be handed the project mess to polish up and present.
    via StudioDroid
  • 20
    ghandigun1 OP • 7h ago • Sadly, it's less "upper management will be mad they dont have their expense report" type of project and more of a "that family won't have hot water for Christmas" project.
    via ghandigun1
  • 21
    maydayvoter11 • 8h ago • Sadly, that's what it takes for either the manager to learn or his boss to fire him. This may be a case where the boss needs the manager to learn sink or swim on his own.
    via maydayvoter11
  • 22
    • spicymato 8h ago • Depending on where you are, boss may need you to let manager fail, so they have justification to fire manager.
    via spicymato
  • 23
    Odd Gamer_75 • 2h ago • Top 5% Commenter This is malicious compliance... but it's not your malicious compliance, it's your boss's malicious compliance. Your manager went to your boss and
    via Odd_Gamer_75
  • 24
    said you were overstepping your bounds, and the boss agreed... to comply, knowing that it would destroy your manager. The fallout has yet to happen, but I suspect it will. :)
    via Odd_Gamer_75
  • 25
    obxhead • 4h ago • Be ready to apply for his job the moment they are handed the notice of termination.
    via obxhead

  • I think there is a strong lesson to be learned in this story, because even though OP didn't really get their intended ‘malicious compliance’, there will be clear repercussions for how things were being handled up until now. The manager is not going to get away with failing to complete his projects, and it even sounds like the big boss is orchestrating a reason to fire him. And as for OP, at least they now have less work to do, and who knows, maybe a manager position will be opening up soon.

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

boss workplace-stories employee fired manager job malicious compliance tales-from-the-workplace malicious-compliance-reddit reddit story overworked-employees workplace Reddit company
Scroll Down For The Next Article