Boss demands that everyone take lunch at exactly 12:00 PM, left handling an empty office when the time arrives: '12:00 hits. We all just… walk away. Phones ringing, customers mid-sentence---not our problem. Boss looked panicked, trying to handle it all.'

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Mar 20, 2025 10:00 PM EDT

Making blanket demands is never advisable, and making rules that are completely inflexible is bound to result in unintended and unaccounted-for consequences. If it isn't broken don't fix it, but for some reason, nearly every egomaniac new manager is determined to change things that are working just fine. 

Similarly, Micromanaging and undermining your workers' autonomy literally leaves you solely responsible for all the comings and goings and going ons of the workplace. While this might sound nice for those out there who desire complete control, you'll soon realize the impossibility of this and how undesirable and unworkable it is to need every action and every little bit of information to pass between your ears. When everything comes to a standstill while everyone waits on your next command or nervously produces at a snail's pace for fear of making a mistake, then you know that you've made a severe management error.

This boss demanded that the entire office take their lunch at exactly high noon. What, do they moonlight as a gunfighter in an old Western Gunslinger film or something? Who knows what the reasoning for this decision was—beyond a desire for complete control over the staff—but it ended with a predictable outcome when they were left alone in the office to ringing phones and customers as everyone dropped what they were doing to take lunch when the clock struck noon.

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

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    "Boss said we MUST take lunch at 12:00. So we did"

    at my old job we used to have flexible lunch breaks at work. Could go anytime between 11:30-2:00, just made sure someone was covering. Worked fine. New manager comes in, says "Everyone MUST take lunch at exactly 12:00. No exceptions." Okay then. 12:00 hits. We all just... walk away. Phones ringing, customers mid- sentence---not our problem. Boss looked panicked, trying to handle it all. By the time we got back, it was a complete mess. Next day? New rule: "Lunch between 11:30-2:00 is fine." Oh, s
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    The comments:

    Fubaryall Some folks aren't meant to manage.
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    landasher Makes you wonder what they were trying to accomplish by setting a hard and fast rule
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    litsalmon This comes up at my job every so often except in reverse. No lunches or breaks from 11:30- 1:30. Great. Now employees (8- 10) are scrambling to take their breaks and lunches from 1:30 to the end of their shifts, usually 3:30. This usually lasts about a week, but they revive it every 6 months or so. People have short memories.
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    sfgaigan It's always the new bosses that have no idea how things work and have even less an idea of what they are doing that wanna micromanage people who actually know their jobs and then get surprised when sh hits the fan
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    nyrB2 i wonder what the manager's reasoning was, and did they not stop to think that if everyone takes off at once nobody's covering phones? jesus, how inept.
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    Disorderly_Chaos My manager walked in on his first day and said that "union breaks were no longer a thing". Well, I marched up to the Union President's office and she came down and put a boot up his a Guess who got their breaks back? Then he tried to mandate when the breaks were. We used to have a "just take your break when it's convenient and don't leave the area un-manned" policy, but he wanted the mandated to an exact times.
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    So, much like OP, we would put people on hold for 15 minutes if need be... or walk away from conversation. Because 10:15 is exactly 10:15. Some people shouldn't be managers... and most managers go through all 3 envelopes in a month.
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    ARoundForEveryone The lesson here, for new managers, is don't make any changes for a while. Whatever the reason for the previous person leaving or the position opening up, let the inmates run the asylum for a bit. Learn their habits, their abilities, their commitment, their personalities, etc. Then use that information to adjust schedules, priorities, and responsibilities. Just sit back and observe for a while.
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    Walking in and changing things in the first day/week just reeks of superiority and entitlement. Get to know the company and team before doing a thing other than figuring out where the kitchen and restrooms are.
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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