'I stopped correcting Stacey's work': Employee told by HR to stop fixing boss's mistakes without approval, boss loses clients over too many errors

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jun 9, 2025 4:00 PM EDT

Employees are often told that they need to be OK with receiving feedback and, yes, criticism in the workplace. However, that should be a two-way street. The best teams operate under the assumption that the best and most precise solutions should win out. Unfortunately, the only thing that frequently gets away with this "best idea wins" mentality is the ego of the people in charge. 

Sometimes, those in positions of authority feel that because they have worked their way up the ladder, they have reached a status of being untouchable. However, the truth of the matter is that no one is immune to criticism. For the purposes of good business, bad mistakes should be corrected no matter who is responsible for making them and regardless of who points out the flaw. Keep scrolling below to see what happened when this employee was told to stop correcting his boss's work. Let's just say it backfired quickly!

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    Cheezburger Image 10514521344
    via Unsplash+ (Curated Lifestyle)

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

  • Clearly, “Stacey” was incapable of handling criticism well. The funny part is that growing a thick skin should be something that true leaders possess, but I digress. Stacey told her employee to stop fixing her typos and correcting her mistakes on memos and reports without her approval, so that's exactly what the employee did. This meant that Stacey's often sloppy work would go straight clients and potential business. It did not turn out well for Stacey in the end!

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    "HR told me to stop correcting my manager's mistakes. So I did."

    I used to work in a marketing agency as a project coordinator. My job involved catching small errors before they got to the client,typos, scheduling issues, creative briefs with wrong metrics, etc.
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    My manager, let's call her Stacy, was notorious for rushing through her work and missing details. I'd quietly fix her stuff, no fuss, because I didn't want the team to look bad.
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    One day, HR pulls me into a meeting after Stacy complained that I was "undermining" her by "altering her work without approval." HR said I should "trust
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    in leadership" and "allow the natural workflow to proceed without interference." Cool. You want the natural workflow? You got it.
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    Cue the malicious compliance. I stopped correcting Stacy's work. Didn't change the headline from "You're invited to our Annual Diner" to "Dinner." Didn't update
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    the webinar date that she pasted from last year. Didn't flag when she used a client's old branding deck.
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    Within two weeks, we lost a client. Another escalated a complaint, asking if we'd gone through layoffs. Then our VP asked why quality had tanked. I
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    simply said, "Per HR, I was instructed not to alter leadership's work without approval."
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    HR backpedaled. Stacy got pulled from client-facing work and moved to internal process development. She now spends her days documenting protocols,
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    including a brand-new one: "All outgoing materials must be peer- reviewed." Thanks, HR.
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    Cheezburger Image 10514521600
    via Unsplash+ (A.C.)

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

  • 13
    JustAnotherSlug · 2h ago Sounds like HR was tired of Stacey's ☐ as well....
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    PAUL_DNAP • 2h ago Nice moves. Well done. Stacy thought she was a hot-shot, but didn't realise it was you that was making her look so good.
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    CoderJoe1 · 1h ago To be fair, Stacy was probably riding the coat tails. of her mom. I hear she's got it going on.
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    Unique-Arm-1323 · 2h ago • Seems like HR wanted Stacy to get in trouble.
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    avid-learner-bot • 2h ago HR's advice sounds like it was written by someone who'd never seen a typo... or a client complaint. What exactly were they expecting to happen?
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    kidwrx 1h ago • Stacy sounds terrible, but I've heard her mom has it going on...
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    Fr... 1h ago Edited 59m ago • • It's not malicious compliance, it was compliance. And when upper leadership noticed, HR didn't backpedal (regardless of what communications you saw),
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    they knew all along that Stacy would get demoted or canned. The natural workflow (consequences) panned out exactly how they thought it would.
    via Lost_Satisfaction666

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boss workplace-stories work stories toxic-workplace job malicious compliance work toxic-boss human resources Horrible Bosses bad bosses company workplace malicious compliance toxic-work-environment
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