High-achiever "quiet quits" and gets a job in a different area of the company with better pay when manager ignores their repeated warnings about impending issues, watches as the disaster happens exactly as they predicted: 'My new job is a piece of cake'

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Aug 2, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

It's interesting, just about as interesting as it is startling that it really is possible to care too much about your job. Compared to your coworkers who are just there to collect a paycheck, being too involved with your work and getting too emotionally invested in it will lead you to burnout and possibly land you offsides with petty managers who don't actually want to deal with the issues that you're raising.

For years, this risk and compliance manager dutifully warned their organization about potential penalties. Now, one thing companies and their upper management don't like doing is hearing about all the things they're doing wrong, things that would involve "unnecessary" cost to fix, and the lifting of fingers that they don't want to be lifted. Even in the face of certain disaster, that disaster will be wilfully ignored until it's upon them. 

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  • "Quiet quit and got a raise as a result"

    Super high achiever here, able to complete an entire week's worth of tasks in 1-2 days but stupidly kept looking for more to do because I hate being idle. I was in a mid-management role responsible for analysis, risk and compliance. I've been warning of major monetary penalties for two years.
    via Outside_Escape_7104

  • Strangely enough, even though it was, quite literally, this employee's job to predict these risks and navigate through them, it's as if their own organization was just ticking a box by having them there, never actually listening to their analysis and their warnings.

    When they realized that the managers of their workgroup were never going to take action and simply allow the disaster to occur, they got a lateral promotion to another section of the business where they would be isolated from the incoming disaster. As a bonus, they found their new position to have a lighter workload even though the pay was better.

  • Cheezburger Image 10537300736
    via Ahmet Kurt

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • I made significant improvements and achievements in my role that were recognized industry wide and key strategies were implemented with great success by other organizations but not embraced at my own organization. Two months before I could tell sh was gonna hit the fan I quite quit and stopped being available for anything other than my core tasks. For those two months I watched things literally fall apart exactly as I predicted.
    via Outside_Escape_7104
  • At the same time there was a lateral position open in another department at my company with way less. responsibility. I got the new job and was able to negotiate a significant increase. When sh finally hit the fan at the executive level with the board looking for answers as to why this wasn't prevented, there were several panicked phone calls and emergency meetings scheduled my last week in the old role. but I was 'unable' to provide any more assistance. I did have to fire off several emails to
    via Outside_Escape_7104
  • The strategies I developed are in fact being implemented but not by me! My new job is a piece of cake and I have figured out how to stretch tasks to fill up the week instead of taking on more work for myself. Just doing enough is okay!
    via Outside_Escape_7104
  • Cheezburger Image 10537301248
    via Ahmet Kurt

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • nwood1973 Show the commitment to them that they show you
    via Outside_Escape_7104
  • Xtoron2 I am same now. Been working for 16 years and i am now just doing what is expected of my job. I sometimes still do more and help out but not like before. I am happier this way and have really good work life balance
    via Outside_Escape_7104
  • Cheezburger Image 10537300992
    via Ahmet Kurt For Unsplash+

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • EqualUnusual2276 Being a high achiever in most bureaucracies often leads to this... or burnout. There's only so much screaming into the void one can do before being faced with having to choose between the two. It's such a [insert explicative] shame, because we could accomplish so much more if we actually meaningfully fostered the growth of high achievers instead of tacitly getting them to learn to just keep their heads down and not exceed expectations least they just be told
    via Outside_Escape_7104
  • to do more and more without being compensated accordingly or recognized for it until they burn themselves out anyway. We invest ourselves in these businesses, but most businesses just won't do the same in return. So we need to do it ourselves.
    via Outside_Escape_7104

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workplace discussion employment issues antiwork workplace-stories jobs employee employment-discussion job malicious compliance work employees overworked-employees workplace Horrible Bosses workplace malicious compliance employment in the workplace
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