‘Message heard loud and clear’: Auto employee maliciously complies with arrogant boss's orders, almost costs the auto shop a crucial client as a result

Doesn't it bother you when folks think they can do your job better than you without giving you a chance to prove yourself? How about when your boss brings in a "professional" to set you straight and "pick up the slack" on every task you've been doing "wrong"? If you've never been in that situation before, count your blessings. There are some employees who are well aware of how much their managers and other superiors don't trust them with tasks. Why hire you then?!

In this next story, we have an auto shop employee who does powder coating jobs on semi-wheels. The employee noticed that the wheels they've been given to fix up have dirt covered all over them, but their boss assumes that this is the employee's fault and not the fault of whoever gave them the wheels. As a result, the boss brings in "professionals" despite the employee's protests, and things go awry from there.

If they're so professional, why did a major client complain and demand all of their wheels be redone? Scroll to see how this story unfolds.

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Author image for Lana DeGaetano Lana DeGaetano
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  • "He never questioned me again..."
    via Mitchell Luo for Unsplash
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  • "Leave things as the professionals set it"

    I shared this in a comment a while ago and was told I should share it so I thought I would finally get around to sharing it with a little more information.
    via Auirom
  • About a decade ago I worked for a big name company electrostatic powder coating semi wheels. The GM (who was actually a really good
    via Auirom
  • boss) got a trainer to come in and teach me what I was doing right and wrong. After a week we got things narrowed down with the settings on the
    via Auirom
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  • machines that my quality improved a lot and my quantity of wheels I could paint in a day improved by about 5-10 per day. I was now averaging anywhere.
    via Auirom
  • from 50-65 wheels a day. I used those same setting for almost a year before that same GM started messing with them.
    via Auirom
  • I had a few wheels from a trash company come to me covered in dried mud one day. Not the first time and wasn't going to be the last. I had knocked off as
    via Auirom
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  • much as I could before stripping them and did my best to blow off what dust was left. I still missed some spots on the edges. Usually when this happens I end up with tiny holes on the edges of the rims.
    via Auirom
  • Cheezburger Image 10464827392
    via Gabriel Jimenez for Unsplash

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • That day the GM had come back to get a count of paint to see what needed to be ordered. GM: "What's with all the holes on the edges of these wheels?"
    via Auirom
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  • Me: "It's from dirt. I didn't get it all off when I blew off the wheels." GM: "Dirt doesn't cause this. I think your settings are the issue."
    via Auirom
  • Me: "I'm telling you it's dirt. Everytime we get these customers wheels in with dried mud all over them this is what happens." GM: "Dirt doesn't cause this. I'll have some people come in to check this out."
    via Auirom

  • This auto shop employee wasn't even being a wise guy about it. They were speaking matter-of-factly to their boss, expressing confusion about why there was dried mud on so many of the wheels he was advised to paint over. Painting over mud sounds like a poorly done job to me, but having a completely different paint setting that does a worse job isn't much better. The boss doesn't want to take blame or blame a supplier/client but is quick to blame his subordinate. What happened to bosses who have their employees' backs? I guess they're few and far between.

  • He left after that. Fast forward to next week and he meets me in the morning with about 4 other people. GM: "These guys are going to look over the machines and adjust things so we no longer have issues."
    via Auirom
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  • Me: "I told you it was dirt." GM: "The professionals are going to adjust the settings and you will leave them where they are at. If you don't you will get written up. This is not up for discussion."
    via Auirom
  • Ok. Message heard loud and clear. I'll leave it to the professionals and not touch a thing. Thankfully my powder gain had multiple settings. I asked the "professional" to set his new settings on another preset.
    via Auirom
  • The next day I noticed the wheels I painted were coming out yellow. I also noticed that the paint was very thin in certain spots. Due to my new settings the positive charge was blasting powdered paint away from the wheels.
    via Auirom
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  • A few days go by GM comes back and sees all my new painted white wheels. yellow and asks why everything is coming out yellow. I told him it was because the oven was set to high
    via Auirom
  • GM: "Why didn't you change it? That's over a 100 wheels that need to be redone!" Me: "I was told not to change the settings the professionals set so I didn't touch it."
    via Auirom
  • He walked over and turned it down and told me to leave it. A week later I get called into the office. One of our biggest customers was complaining that their
    via Auirom
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  • wheels needed to be removed and repainted after a week or two due to starting to rust. We delivered over 150 wheels a week to them.
    via Auirom
  • GM: "What is going on here? The paint too thin and the customer is complaining. Do I need to call the professionals back in to look things over?"
    via Auirom
  • Me: "It wouldn't change much cause I haven't touched anything on the machines since they were out last time." GM: "Just fix it. I don't care what you do just fix it."
    via Auirom
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  • Me: "It wouldn't change much cause I haven't touched anything on the machines since they were out last time." GM: "Just fix it. I don't care what you do just fix it." He never questioned me again when it came to powdered coating.
    via Auirom
  • PAUL_DN... Oh please save us from meddling consultants, experts and professionals, us numpties who know our jobs will get along just fine without them all.
    via PAUL_DNAP
  • CoderJoe1 That's wheely bad.
    via CoderJoe1
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boss workplace-stories malicious compliance revenge work reddit story horrible-management workplace Horrible Bosses reddit thread red flag bad bosses payback malicious compliance reddit entitled people toxic-work-environment
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