‘Things were falling apart’: Team lead refuses to work during busiest shift after boss 'plays favorites' between her and other employees, leaving the entire department high and dry

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Apr 9, 2025 9:00 AM EDT

'Favoritism' is a word people love to throw around regarding all kinds of aspects of life. Usually, you would hear it either in family-related disputes or work-related dramas.

When it comes to family, we all probably have experienced favoritism. Our parents can claim they don't have a favorite child, but we all know that's not the case. They always have a favorite, and they reveal it with small (or sometimes big) gestures towards the favorite child, and the rest of us simply learn to deal with it. Some brave children might confront their parents about it, but usually to no avail.

In work, the favoritism might be a bit more concealed. Bosses pick and choose a favorite employee based on specific merits they are most drawn to, and they show it in a way that is just obvious enough for the rest of the employees to pick up on. Being a spectator of work-related favoritism is annoying, but unfortunately, there is not much you can do about it, unless you plan on confronting your boss as well.

In the story below, the workplace favoritism was crystal clear, so one brave employee decided to do something about it

Advertisement

  • This type of workplace favoritism is actually the worst. Because it wasn't as if the boss chose a favorite based on the skills of her employees, she chose favorites because she simply hired her friend for the job. So when it got to the point where the favoritism got in the way of the actual work, an annoyed employee decided to do something about it.

    Keep scrolling to read what it was.

  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10490913792
    via Lifestock

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

  • 02

    "Employees should listen to your friend instead of the boss? Okay!"

    This wasn't my malicious compliance, but my friend who I work with. We'll call her Amy. Relevant information: We work at a large grocery
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 03
    store, and Amy is a team lead. Team leads are often asked to go to different departments and help out. However, because our department is usually incredibly busy, it can't be
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 04
    left completely without a guide. Because of this, every day, my department has one of the regular employees designated as an acting team lead (ATL)
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 05
    for when the team leads need to leave or get busy. Our department manager, Taylor, has a bad habit of playing favorites with some of the employees
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 06
    she's friends with. This includes ignoring when they break the rules, giving them more flexibility with the schedule and time off, etc. She also tends to try to replace the scheduled
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 07
    ATL with one of her friends because they want to be in charge. This is most often used to let Mark, one of the employees she's friends with, do whatever he wants and be in charge.
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 08
    Yesterday, Amy came into work and asked one of the employees, Sara, to do something for her. Sara said yes and started doing it. After a few minutes, Mark came up to her and
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 09
    asked her to do something else. Sara told him that she couldn't because she was already doing something that Amy had asked her to do. He left, and she figured that was that.
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 10
    An hour or so later, both Amy and Sara get pulled into Taylor's office to talk. Taylor told Sara that she should have listened to Mark because he was the ATL. Amy pointed out that
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 11
    he was not the ATL on the schedule, I was. Taylor told her that she had told Mark he could be ATL and doubled down that Sara should have listened to
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 12
    what Amy had asked her to do. Amy was understandably irritated at being told that she was not really in charge of her department.
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 13
    Cheezburger Image 10490914816
    via Mehrad Vosoughi
  • 14
    So, she decided that since Mark was the ATL and apparently in charge over her, she would leave him to it. She took Sara with her and went to help the produce department, who
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 15
    had been requesting help, instead of going back to our department. On a normal day, this may have been fine. However, it was a Saturday, and we are always insanely busy on
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 16
    the weekends. It took all of thirty minutes before the department had crazy high customer wait times and things were falling apart. I had just clocked out and was talking to Amy before
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 17
    I left when the following exchange happened. Taylor radioed Amy to ask her why there were such high wait times in the department. Without missing a beat, Amy
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 18
    answered to tell her, "I don't know, I'm not back there, but Mark is. He should know." Suddenly, Taylor was talking about how Mark “isn't in charge of the
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 19
    department” and that she needed her to get back there to run things. So, Amy told her that she'd be right back there. She then promptly told me that she'd be finishing stocking
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 20
    the cart she had before she went back, which was not even halfway done. I laughed and went home. I can only imagine that the department was in chaos given how it usually is on
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 21
    the weekends, and it reflects very poorly on Taylor when we have high wait times. I guess the actual team lead should have been in charge after all!
    via a_romantic_demise
  • 22
    notagin-n-tonic Should have asked for it in writing.
    via notagin-n-tonic
  • 23
    jnelsoninjax If it ain't broke, fix it until it is
    via jnelsoninjax
  • 24
    Jordangander Should have replied that Taylor told her specifically that Mark was in charge earlier in her radio reply.
    via Jordangander

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

Tags

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