‘Okay!’: Helpful employee is scolded by arrogant boss for taking workplace initiative, so they fill up boss's entire afternoon with back-to-back interviews

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Feb 16, 2025 6:00 PM EST

When you grow comfortable in your role at work, you understandably start taking more workplace initiative. You know the ropes, you know your boss, and you hope all of your efforts to do more without being asked to will count toward a generous raise. Many bosses appreciate employee independence and initiative, while others see their subordinates as a threat to their position. Sometimes, subordinates are after their boss's job, but others are simply trying to get a bigger paycheck for doing menial tasks… and there's nothing wrong with that!

In this story, an employee and their coworker take on some interviews at an MD's private medical practice. They were asked to do so by their boss, and these interviews were scheduled in a way that aligned with their schedules.

Their boss was having a bad day and blamed both of them for things that were not in their control, then proceeded to scold them for changing interview times (despite them doing so because of lateness on the boss's part). As a result, they were asked to stop doing interviews. Well, that's her problem now!

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  • Wishy-washy bosses who can never keep their temperature warm and only function on hot and cold emotional settings tend to give their employees whiplash. This dynamic is kin to a parent who either treats their kids like golden gods or dirt on the bottom of a shoe depending on their day at work… and that should tell you something about the kind of boss you do not want to work for. The employee in this story is dealing with a hot-headed boss who uses them as a scapegoat. However, in this instance, they messed up. Big time.

  • "She's going to need a speculum to fit any patients into her calendar now." 18 25 19 26 27 28 22 29
    via Eric Rothermel for Unsplash

  • "I Live to Serve"

    Some background context before I begin: I work in a very small medical practice, we are currently looking to add a new front desk position in our office
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  • to help me (the main front desk person) and my boss (the MD who owns the practice) had asked me for help conducting phone. interviews. She also sent
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  • me like 10 candidates to schedule for this week and we have a very limited window in our workday when these interviews can take place.
    via t0rtilla_s0up
  • This morning, my boss came into our office ON ONE, ripped me a new one for something I am not in control of, went to my coworker's office, ripped
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  • her a new one for something also not in my coworker's control, then came to me and asked me why I had had to reschedule some of the
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  • phone interviews my coworker and I were going to conduct yesterday afternoon. I explained to her that we (she) had been running 30 minutes
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  • behind with patients and so my coworker and I needed to focus on the patients in front of us and the two people I had needed to interview were
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  • super chill and flexible when I asked if it was okay to move their interviews to the next afternoon. My boss responded with, "I don't want you doing
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  • interviews anymore, you're too busy. I only want you to schedule them for me and (our other provider who was not in today), we CANNOT be moving them around."
    via t0rtilla_s0up
  • SUNDAY MONDAY PLANNER&CALENDAR WEDNESDAY THURSDAY TUESDAY FRDAT SATURDAY 1 2 3 4 7 8 9 10 11 SEMINAR 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 break 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 4 27 28 29 30 31
    via Curated Lifestyle for Unsplash+

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

  • I responded with, "Okay!" and immediately moved the three interviews I had scheduled for myself this afternoon to her calendar, which, combined with the
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  • 3 interviews she already had scheduled, filled her calendar for the entire afternoon. She reached out to me and asked why all of these interviews
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  • were suddenly on her calendar and I replied, "You told me this morning you didn't want me doing any of the interviews, so I moved them to your
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  • calendar, and you told me we couldn't move them, so I am not sure how you want to proceed." She said, "Yeah... I'll take care of them..."
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  • sinwarrior live and di by her own rules. respect.
    via sinwarrior
  • CatlessB... She's going to need a speculum to fit any patients into her calendar now. Good job.
    via CatlessBoyMom
  • Okieboy1... You are the one who should be interviewing for a new position, right now. Your coworker should also be interviewing for a new position.
    via Okieboy1950
  • justaman_... Well played. They go to school to become a doctor but can't comprehend the consequences of their own orders.
    via justaman_097
  • bolshoich I wonder what this physician's bedside manner is like. All those years in academia and never one exposure to interpersonal communications and social interactions.
    via bolshoich
  • Illuminatus-Pr... Gee, Doc! I was just filling your prescription!
    via Illuminatus-Prime

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