'Dude shows up with a clipboard and an attitude': Builder fed up with inexperienced supervisor Derek's tedious new rules, so they purposely drop productivity rates by 75%, ensuring he is transferred to another site

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Emma Saven
Aug 20, 2025 6:00 AM EDT

Many important traits make up a good leader: A strong communicator, an organized and experienced person, and someone willing to roll up their sleeves when necessary. However, when your daddy makes a few phone calls to get you the job, with less than two years of experience under your belt, and suddenly, you've got your posture tied to the roof and a clipboard attached to your hand, changing up the way everything is run, you may run into a few challenges along the way. 

Take this supervisor, for instance, he has a new approach for how the construction site should be run. Making sure his workers return each tool to its original position after every use…at least that's what they took for his demands. Fed up with his unrealistic 'laws of order', the builders ensure that they get the job done as slowly as possible…dropping productivity by a whopping 75% and making sure that their supervisor's job is on the line! Is bringing some order into the site really such a bad thing…or is this Mr Know It All messing with their workflow routines? 

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  • Were the builders' reactions rooted in pettiness or a justified expression of resistance?! Forced to add in a tedious step that would draw out their days by the hour, perhaps the only effective step they could take was making sure that their supervisor was in no position to give them another order ever again…

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    Supervisor on construction site
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    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    Site super demands our tools are "properly organized". So we followed his exact instructions.

    I've been doing construction for 15 years. Our crew of 8 had been working this office complex project together for 18 months, with a
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    good supervisor who was easy to work with and trusted us to do our jobs. The super was in his 60s and was about to retire. The last
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    night we had an awesome night out to see him off after a long career for his well deserved retirement.
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    The next week his replacement arrived. Derek. Fresh out of construction management school, maybe 24, with exactly one
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    previous job site under his belt. Dude shows up with a clipboard and an attitude. After a week of "observing" us (which seemed to involve texting
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    back and forth with his girlfriend while commenting on our work) Derek calls a meeting and announces a new rule: every tool must be returned to its designated position immediately after each use. No exceptions.
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    Anyone who's actually done construction knows this is insane. When you're hanging drywall, you use your drill, then your level,
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    then your pencil, then your tape measure, then back to the drill. Putting each tool away after every single use would triple your work time.
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    I tried explaining this. Derek wasn't interested in input from people who'd been doing this since before he was a gleam in his daddy's eye.
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    So we gave Derek exactly what he wanted. Monday morning, we started putting every single tool back in
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    it's designated spot after every single use. Installing one outlet box became a 45-minute task. Grab drill, use it, walk back to the
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    toolbox, organize it perfectly. Grab level, use it, walk back, organize it perfectly. Repeat for every single tool.
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    Tools and a helmet
    via gettyimagespro

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

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    What normally takes 10 minutes is now taking 45 minutes. But our tools were perfectly organized at all times.
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    By Tuesday afternoon, Derek was getting frantic calls about why we were so far behind schedule. He came over, red faced, demanding to know what was taking so long.
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    "Just following your efficiency protocols boss. Every tool back immediately after use like you said."
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    Derek tried backpedaling, saying he meant "when you're done with a task." I pulled out my phone and played back the recording of his speech where he specifically said "immediately after each use, no exceptions."
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    By Thursday, the project manager was on site asking why productivity had dropped 75%. When he found out about Derek's tool policy, he looked at Derek like he'd grown a second head.
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    Derek got transferred the following Monday. Our old super came back to fill in until a replacement could be found, took one look at us obsessively
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    organizing tools, and said "Cut it out, you id ts. We've got work to do." We finished two weeks ahead of schedule.
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    Apprehensive Plum755 I think Derek might be my wife
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    PositiveAtmosphere 13 Did returning tools after each use, mean to be taken literally at the end of each use, or at the end of each project or at the end of the day. It can really s k when you go to the bench to get a tool, but it's not there because one of your work mates has it in their box and forgot to put it back. You were an a e.
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    DonkeyGlad653 I rarely laugh out loud but this story made me laugh out loud.
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    bobbaphet Shouldn't take a genius to figure out that he didn't mean after every single solitary use... Obviously it meant when you're done hanging the drywall you put the level and the drill back.... and not just laying wherever on the job site...
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    gruntbuggly Derek should have spent 3 or 4 months working for the retiring super.
    via gruntbuggly

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boss antiwork workplace-stories employee organization drama work coworkers construction tools placement slow supervisor workplace building order inefficient
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