Blue collar employees band together to prove a point by dropping productivity by 60% but end up quitting all at once instead, office closes: ‘They could not replicate our quality...’

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Jul 19, 2025 3:00 PM EDT

Sometimes you can be good at your job, and still get the short straw. How does this happen? Usually when a bigshot management company takes over and they think they know how to do your job better than them. What do you do then? Well, this group of blue collar workers got their office to shut down. 

 

You see, most of their work is done in the field, so taking meeting after meeting during the day is pointless. However, when a new management company took over, they demanded that they all do this. To drop all of their tools, find a quiet space, and attend a meeting where management simply stroked each other's egos. 

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  • “Meetings don’t improve metrics, actually being able to work does,” this Redditor writes. And true words have never been spoken! Good meetings are short, they give everyone action items, and build everyones' confidence. Period. If the person who swings the hammer wants to know about marketing, let them ask about it. Don't force them to put down the hammer and sit in an hour-long meeting about it. That's literally not the job they singed up for or even wanted. So take a note from this crew and get your pointless office suits to shutdown.

  • Cheezburger Image 10531728896
    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

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

  • "You want me to participate in the weekly all-hands? No problem."

    Several years ago I worked for a small solar company that was acquired by what is essentially the Walmart or solar. We went from weekly in person meetings on a schedule that worked for both management and staff to daily check ins, weekly department calls
    via GinggasinParis
  • and other unnecessary regional calls and meetings. What was initially 2-3 short meetings per week turned into around 10 45 minute to an hour meetings per week. My responsibilities were about 20% in office, 80% field work. Some of the
    via GinggasinParis
  • locations I needed to get to were an hour + away and a lot of times I was crunched to get to 5-6 locations within the work day. For as long as I could, I would either skip a call if I was in the field or I would listen and not participate so I was "on the call" but
    via GinggasinParis
  • could still take care of whatever tasks I needed to. I ended up getting reprimanded and told to just park and take the calls but I needed to participate in all of them or I would be written up. So that's what I did. If a call was
    via GinggasinParis
  • happening, I would find. the closest parking lot, take the call and participate. This company also scrutinized overtime and hours so we couldn't work OT without approval.
    via GinggasinParis
  • This meant if I didn't get something done, I would just head back to the office and reschedule it for the following day. My coworkers did the same and our productivity dropped overall by about 60%.
    via GinggasinParis
  • Within a month, our regional manager was in our office asking us was going on and we told her directly that we have a large region to cover and most of these calls are nonsense corporate feel good bs. If they wanted
    via GinggasinParis
  • productivity where it was before, they needed to cut the meetings because meetings don't improve metrics, actually being able to work does. They did cut our meetings but it turned into a shitshow when the big company fully took over. That office
    via GinggasinParis
  • is now officially closed because while we had the 2nd best metrics in the entire company, we were tired of the bs and we all quit and they could not replicate our quality or quantity of installations in that office.
    via GinggasinParis
  • Cheezburger Image 10531731968
    via Unspalsh+ (and Andrej Lišakov)

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

  • Tremenda-Carucha Ain't that the truth! Management always wants us running around like chickens with our heads cut off. But hey, props to you for standing up and making them see reason!
    via Tremenda-Carucha
  • avid-learner-bot It's frustrating how meetings can drain productivity and morale... but it's encouraging to see people stand up for what they believe in rather than just endure nonsense.
    via avid-learner-bot
  • WNickels Meeting Agenda 1. When is the next meeting? 2. How long will the meeting be? 3. What will the next meeting be about? 4. Icebreaker 5. Recite the company pledge 6. Roundtable
    via WNickels
  • cynic_male "meetings don't improve metrics, actually being able to work does" ... I love this and I'm going to bring it up in one of our pointless meetings at work.
    via cynic_male
  • greginvalley I am going through something similar, so i just take the phone meetings onsite with all the construction noise going on around me. It is disruptive to the meeting, and I just tell them I am in my office, which is a construction site. Waiting g on them to tell me to not do the remote meetings
    via greginvalley
  • cero1399 Had a similar situation, at my former employer. I'm a field technician for emission monitoring devices. I used to have 2 recurring meetings. 1. Small 10-15 min check in monday and Wednesday at 8am with the local technicians from another department their boss. That one usually didn't
    via cero1399
  • matter to me, it was mostly to coordinate if any technicians need help or an extra set of hands. I was invited but not required. Usually just joined while driving or skipped entirely without any issues. 2. Every 2 weeks a 2 hour meeting with my boss and my team (spread over the continent). What time did they choose? Monday 14:30-16:30. I was
    via cero1399
  • ALWAYS at a customer site at those times, usually a loud factory. So i tried skipping those too, since I'm the only technician in my country everything that matters to me can be talked about in 10-20 minutes in a separate call. Nooo that was a huge issue. So whenever i could i would just sit in my car for those 2 hours, and if not keep working in the loud factory with my mic unmuted.
    via cero1399

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