Boss demotes managerial employee for taking 2 months of sick leave, faces consequences of rash decision making: 'I told my former staff to direct ALL questions to my boss'

Author image for Ally Perry
Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Apr 16, 2025 9:00 PM EDT

No matter how some bosses would like to pretend otherwise, human employees are not machines. Even the most healthy and robust of people can run into surprise health issues, and newsflash, target obsessives, stress and overwork are incredibly common reasons for somebody to need to take sick leave.

When somebody is dealing with an unhelpful boss or a cutthroat corporate company, being ill is the worst thing that can happen to a worker trying to make a living. Heck, it can prove deadly even in a more liberal workplace. Even though a period of poor health can occur through no fault of the individual experiencing it, the consequences often make their situation that much more difficult.

Management can make or break the unfortunate occurrence of going through health troubles while being an employee. While it doesn't always happen, this makes it extra satisfying for somebody who has dealt with the more negative side of this to get their revenge.

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  • 01

    Stripped of Managerial Position ... OK, I Can Do That

    This happened decades ago -but after reading another MC I figured I'd post this. I was a manager of a programming department. I initially had 5 programmers reporting to me and I was able to spend half of my time programming and half managing.
    via blueboy714
  • 02
    2 000 000 SQ31 Method R Read Survey + Question Elaboration
    via Sebastian Herrmann

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

  • This is something that one programmer and department manager managed to benefit from. After taking 2 months of leave because of their poor health, their boss decided they were no longer competent enough to be a manager and requested that they stick to programming.

    Advising their former team to direct all queries to this higher up, things soon unraveled for him, and eventually became much better for the programmer. They shared their story.

  • 03

    "My boss knew nothing about programming"

    I had always gotten exceeds or far exceeds expectations on my annual reviews. About 10 years later my team had 25 people and I was spending less and less time programming. Fast forward a few years and I missed 2 months during the year for a surgery and hospital stay and in my annual review my boss (who knew nothing about programming) told me I was not doing a good job and the programming department was missing deliverable dates (probably because I was in the hospital). They wanted me to go back
    via blueboy714
  • 04
    I told my former staff what had happened and told them to direct ALL questions to my boss (who knew zero about programming). He was overwhelmed and soon senior management figured out that my boss was the problem not me. They canned him and replaced him with the VP of programming in the UK (I am in the US). She was great since she started as a programmer and was an excellent boss in general. Since I was just a programmer now - all of the managers were in the UK and I told my former staff to direc
    via blueboy714
  • 05

    "She asked me what it would get me to stay"

    In the meantime my health wasn't the best and my doctor told me | should go to a 4 day/32 hour work week so I my health wouldn't continue to suffer. Since my employer was a strict 40 hour week company I looked for another job and got 8 job offers in about a month. I was ready to resign. Finally after a few months my new boss asked me to be a manager again because of the time difference between US & UK and because I most experience as a programmer in the company. Instead I gave her my resignation
    via blueboy714
  • 06
    Cheezburger Image 10494732288
    via ahmad gunnaivi

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

  • 07

    People were impressed with how the situation had turned around.

    Lonely-Coconut-9734 Impressed that the company had people smart enough to realize that a mistake had been made and they worked to resolve it.
    via Lonely-Coconut-9734
  • 08
    DarkLordArbitur It sounds like the company was international and at least partly based in the UK (lets be real, they just have better working ideals over there), and it looks like the team answered almost immediately to upper management, which is generally smarter than middle management and doesn't have much up and down to deal with when working the chain of command. Those two factors combined absolutely reduced the likelihood that someone was gonna say/do enough stupid sh to perpetuate the mist
    via DarkLordArbitur
  • 09
    Unknown-Meatbag Amazing that companies exist that actually think about considering good options like this. It's never fun to have to go over your managers head to get the basics done, let alone have people who actually understand how valuable good employees are. I work with so many team leads (aka supervisors without the supervisor title) and so many are trapped in endless cycles of meetings and delegating everything away that they barely know how to do the main job anymore. But with that, we kn
    via Unknown-Meatbag
  • 10
    Rensuto this brought a single tear to my eye. love when malicious compliance turns into a fat W
    via Rensuto
  • 11
    jsting Glad it worked out, but that initial boss is stupid AF. You are coming off FMLA and he demotes you when you get back. Big old lawsuit if you wanted it. He can say "performance down" but any lawyer worth their salt is salivating at that timing.
    via jsting
  • 12
    blueboy714 OP The 2nd week I was back in the office no less.
    via blueboy714
  • 13
    Compulawyer Great story. I think you sold yourself short when you only asked for 10%. That sounds like a 25% situation to me.
    via Compulawyer
  • 14
    cosmic_scott businesses are so shortsighted. it's the biggest reason we're spiraling now. there is no end to corporate greed.
    via cosmic_scott
  • 15
    maydayvoter11 I don't think it's "corporate" greed. It's usually the result of individual managers doing short-sighted stuff in order to please their manager and help their own career. They only look at the short-term cost savings and not the long-term health of the company. For example, I cannot tell you how many times I've seen this conversation: Employee: "I want a raise to meet the market pay for this position." Manager: (wants to save the company money) "No." Employee: (weeks later) "I quit
    via maydayvoter11
  • 16
    davidguydude How did staying work out for you? I've read that most people who accept a counteroffer to stay at a company (instead of leaving to the new employer) end up being fired within a year.
    via davidguydude
  • 17
    blueboy714 OP I stuck around for another 10 years until the company was bought by someone but that's another whole story I'll save for another time.
    via blueboy714
  • 18
    RoyalFalse She asked me what it would it would get me to stay and I told I wanted a 10% raise The rare moment where you actually are justified in thinking to yourself "could I have asked for more?" and the answer would likely have been yes.
    via RoyalFalse
  • 19
    DeniedAppeal1 A 10% raise? Wow, that's so small for a tech job! Then again, with management in the UK, maybe that's the best you could've expected... but I would've asked for 20% minimum.
    via DeniedAppeal1
  • 20
    Toptech 1959 A 10% raise along with a 20% reduction in work hours is quite a large raise. Example, if he was on a salary of $1000.00 a week for 40 hours that would be $25.00 an hour. Now $1000.00 for 32 hours is $31.25 an hour. Plus the 10% raise would be $34.37 an hour. That's around a 38% raise. I know, math is hard.
    via Toptech1959
  • 21
    Saptilladerky Good for you, man. Not only did you MC, you put yourself and health above the job. Not many people can or are able to do that.
    via Saptilladerky
  • 22
    Fun Fennel5114 I hope you got that new work schedule, pay grade and etc. in writing in an offer letter?
    via Fun_Fennel5114
  • 23
    Nukegm426 This is the way!
    via Nukegm426

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boss programming employee manager malicious compliance work programmers workplace reddit thread Reddit demotion
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