Manager belittles employee for rescheduling a client without emailing her first, employee maliciously complies by inundating manager with emails: 'If that’s what she wanted, I could play that game'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jun 1, 2025 8:00 AM EDT

Some managers need to learn the hard way that a lack of clear instructions can backfire spectacularly. Most employees are socialized to believe that if something falls through the cracks, it's their fault. Perhaps they didn't pay close enough attention to the details of the directives. Perhaps they confused two different procedures. Perhaps they're not good at their jobs.

However, there are moments when the mistakes are so clearly not the fault of the employee that the only people managers can properly blame are themselves. In this instance, we have an employee who often takes over the jobs of multiple individuals when people are swamped and the office is busy. She received a phone call from a client requesting to reschedule an appointment for another time. This was a routine practice and not something the employee previously needed approval for in order to make the change, so she switched her appointment time quickly and easily. That is, until the manager found out about it and lost her cool…

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    Cheezburger Image 10512209408
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • When the manager confronted her employee, she enforced a new policy that any changes whatsoever needed to be approved by management via email. Of course, going through administrative channels like that takes time, and before long, everything was running behind because the employee needed to go through these so-called “proper channels.” Well, let's just say that it didn't last long…

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    A few years back, I was working in a small office where I basically did a bit of admin work, customer service, scheduling, you name it.
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    I was kind of the unofficial catch all employee. My manager loved being in control but would never actually take responsibility when things went sideways.
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    One day, one of our longtime clients called in and asked to reschedule a major service appointment. They were super reliable, always paid on time, and
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    honestly just easy to work with. I looked at the schedule and saw that with a bit of rearranging, we could make their new time work just fine, so I went ahead and made the change. Done and dusted.
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    Later that day, the manager stormed into my office like she had just caught me stealing company secrets.
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    She asked if I rescheduled the said Client without her approval. I affirmed and told her I've done that in the past. She then said from then on, I was not to make
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    any schedule change without written approval from her. Email me. Every time. I want it in writing. Those were her words.
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    Okay then. If that's what she wanted, I could play that game. From that moment on, I emailed her for every single change even the smallest, most routine stuff.
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    Appointment time shifts, when someone came back from lunch late, if a client called in to confirm something, if a tech was running ten minutes behind. Didn't matter. I sent it all. And I waited for her written approval every time.
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    It didn't take long before things started to pile up. Clients were calling back wondering why their appointments hadn't been confirmed. Techs were waiting in the parking lot because I couldn't
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    officially send them to the next job without her go ahead. One poor guy waited 45 minutes because she didn't check her email all morning.
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    After about two weeks of this nonsense, she came charging into my office, completely exasperated.
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    She asked why I was blowing up her inbox with all of that. I simply told her I was just doing exactly what she asked. You said everything had to be in writing,
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    so I'm making sure I have your approval before touching anything. I said at the end. She just stood there blinking, realizing she had created her own nightmare. Let's just say that little policy didn't last much longer
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    Augustus Reddit 12h ago Let's just say that little policy didn't last much longer I hope you got that in writing... preferably by email.
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    Sigwynne 10h ago I'm glad you no longer have to deal with that, but you should have asked her to send you an email... so you could have her instructions in writing.
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    Neverdropsin57 • 10h ago . I imagine it lasted about long enough to soothe her ego about not folding too soon. If she had the potential to grow into a good manager, she'd have admitted she was mistaken and fixed it on the spot.
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    Ridcully 56m ago . I had something similar happen earlier this year. A new manager said to me, "Every email that a customer writes or you respond to MUST have me in CC or a copy forwarded to ME!". It
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    was not just that, but I could no longer approve or schedule things, it was up to her from now on. Everything - I mean EVERYTHING - stalled. She couldn't keep up and didn't have any idea what was going on.
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    You can set this up in MS Outlook with rules, so I ended up flooding her inbox with the most ridiculous emails (like "Thanks, have a great weekend!") which drowned out the important
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    emails. I showed my colleagues how to set this up, and I sincerely hope that they did too, but I don't know. She doesn't work there anymore.
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