Coworker stands up for employee who is being berated by their boss during a team meeting, turning the roast back on her: 'Maybe if you didn’t change the brief 5 times, he’d have it done. Chill'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jun 1, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

There really is just no place in the modern workplace for a public grilling; calling someone out and delivering scathing criticism in front of an employee's peers to "set them straight" is an old-school mentality that does nothing but harm morale. The only purpose it serves is to fuel your own ego, showing the team that you wield the authority through a proper dressing down. So, if you want to make an example out of someone—well, don't. A constructive approach is far more effective than public humiliation in handling a performance issue. This, along with putting undue pressure and micromanaging as a form of control and management, creates a hostile working environment where staff feel scrutinized rather than supported. Stifling any creativity, motivation, and initiative. 

But, if their poor performance needs to be addressed or there are other factors that put a dismissal in the cards, do it professionally and through the proper channels. Performance evaluations, constructive performance plans, and coordinating with human resources are better ways of handling issues within the team than the aforementioned alternatives.

Where there are old school management tactics, there are also those workers who are a part of the furniture and secure in their roles, or uncaring, they are willing to take poor managers to task in a way that others don't dare to. Luckily for this worker, their coworker was there to take a stand for them when their manager gave them a very public dressing down.

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  • 01

    "Coworker ROASTED our micromanaging boss in a meeting"

    So my boss Janet is a control freak. She'll email you at 7pm like "where is the report?" when it's not due til Friday. Last week, she calls a team meeting and starts GRILLING me about a project timeline in front of everyone. I'm stumbling, sweating, cuz I was still waiting on client feedback. Then my coworker Sarah, total legend, jumps in. She goes, "Janet, maybe if you didn't change the brief 5 times, he'd have it done. Chill." Janet just sputtered, "Well, let's move on." Later, Sarah winks at
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    Do anyway
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    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 03
    TeachBS 7h ago • Great colleague. If you had said it, it would've sounded like you were making excuses. You're lucky to be working with some decent people.
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    • Bat_Foy 7h ago Sarah definitely knows about the de d bodies that Janet is hiding
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    Tough-Habit-3867 · 7h ago wow.. those type of coworkers exists! Lucky you to have such colleague on your team.
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    thementant • 6h ago . What a terrible manager Janet is. A public dressing down is Never ok. Say whatever you want to me in private but leave my peers out of it. Cheers to Sarah for knowing your, and her own, worth. Make sure to pay it forward as you move up the ladder. Make people feel good about themselves. Lift up while you climb. We're all we have after all.
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    gooeyjello 6h ago • I wish more coworkers had gonads to stand up for others. Eff that supervisor though. So unprofessional.
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    CaptainofFTST • 5h ago I'm a Sarah. Been working in law so long I knew the Summer Students that are now Senior Partners, Counsel, and Judges. Some one was going off on a junior IT staffer for absolutely nothing but their own stupidity. I walked into the yeller's office and said "Mark you can't fix stupid. And you've done this stupid mistake for the last 18 years. Thank goodness you are good in a courtroom or you'd be unemployed."
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    Pointed at the kid and told him he can leave. I then closed the door and let the lawyer have it. A few laughs later he opens the door and tells me to "Get the f outta my office!" pretending like he reamed me out.
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