‘I’ve got to say, things have improved greatly!’: Employee and his trainee collectively “break” their manager after only 5 months of doing exactly what they were asked to do

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Sep 28, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

We have all been there: Working a job alone, even though it is meant for an entire team. It's not just annoying and frustrating, it is also extremely mentally unhealthy. That's a straight shot to burn out, my friend! You try to explain this to your boss like a million times, but since they don't actually understand the inner workings of your position, they just brush it off as laziness or whining. Usually, people just end up quitting a job like that. But sometimes, if you're lucky, you find someone who gets justice served instead. 

 

Like this graphic designer who was being worked to the bone at an ad agency. He kept begging his boss for more hires to help him out, but was always answered with a no. Finally, they gave him ONE more hire that he had to train himself. Great, even more work! But he was sick and tired of everything, so he trained the employee as fast as possible, and decided to make sure that his boss new about every single thing and received every product possible. The overwhelming emails and alerts finally broke their boss…

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  • Cheezburger Image 10558236672
    via Unsplash+ (and Tim van der Kuip)

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

  • "You want these ads done 3 months in advance? No problem, boss."

    Long-time lurker, but I finally have something to share that's happened within the last few months.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • I work as a senior graphic designer for a company for 5 years now. Originally it was only a team of 3: a marketing manager, a marketing executive, and myself.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • The former two have since quit, and you'll find out later why. A huge part of my job is to handle a huge advertising schedule in a project management system (PMS) for which I design print/ digital ads for.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • Enter, my difficult micromanaging manager. He's the VP of Sales and Marketing who's been with the company for 30+ years.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • His way of quality control is to force all our marketing materials to go through an "approval process" in our PMS in which everyone else has to give their feedback and only then will my manager will give the final sign off once it reaches him.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • On top of that he insists on being copied on every notification for every single step of the way.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • So every single ad produced had to be sent through our PMS while tagging the product managers and proofreaders.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • Those individuals would then comment feedback for changes needed, or if the ad is approved, they'd mark it complete and then send it along to the next person.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • It would end with this micromanaging manager, who'd have the final say on whether it's good to be sent out or not.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • Sometimes the process would be flawless as everyone would approve it the first time with no changes needed.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • But when it got to my manager, he'd reject it and I'd have to do it over pending his remarks.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • The thing with our PMS is that you can see timestamps of when people viewed updates.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • He's on our project board so he gets all the updates, and he could've easily interceded earlier and let me know if changes were needed to pass his check so I'd not waste my time.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • But because of the way he is, he only wants to see the final drafts after everyone else sees them.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • Everyone else always seems to move things along in a timely fashion, but when it finally gets to my manager he'd just let it sit and then you'd have to constantly check to see if he marked it off.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • When I pushed back and stated how arduous this all is, his tone-deaf reply was to "have it done 3 months in advance." He also insisted that the ads I produced have to look different each time for each publication's insertion order.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • So after 4 years of handling all this by myself, I was barely meeting deadlines, and the quality of my work started slipping as I was making really stupid mistakes.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • Every few months I would ask my manager if we're going to hire an additional designer for our department since we're doing more marketing, and every year I'd hear, "It's not in our budget right now." Things came to a head during one of my biannual reviews, where I told my manager bluntly, in front of HR, that we desperately needed to hire an additional designer, as there was no way for me to hit the "3 months ahead" goal that he keeps parroting.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • He actually asked me, and I quote, "Is it typical for companies to have more than one graphic designer?" I'm de d serious.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • Cheezburger Image 10558236928
    via Unsplash+ (and John)

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

  • I showed how I handled everything by myself as best as I could at that point, and I was getting burnt out.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • For those that may ask why I stay, they compensate me VERY well without having to commute into a major metropolitan city.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • A golden handcuffs situation, if you will. By the end of the meeting, my manager finally caved and gave me permission to hire an additional designer who started with us this past January.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • While showing him the ropes on our design systems, he told me the manager said something snarky to him along the lines of, "I never imagined having to hire TWO designers.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • You guys should have no problem being 3 months ahead on ads now." Are you kidding me?
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • Over the years, I watched my manager as he hired a plethora of account executives and replacements for our department, most of whom quit within months. under his watch, but he's going to give me crop for needing ONE designer after I made things work for 4 years by myself?
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • I was so infuriated by his comments that I decided: He wants ads done 3 months in advance?
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • Okay, bet! I trained the new designer on our approach to the advertising schedule in the PMS and the ins and outs of the approval process, and we went to work.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • We both proceeded to BURY my manager in notifications as we churned out ad after ad after ad, pushing items through the pipeline with my manager receiving notifications on EVERY.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • SINGLE. UPDATE. When the tasks ended at him and we got no response, we set up automations to ping him every hour calling for his approval.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • We also would send detailed weekly reports stating our progress and also made it inherently clear to mention our goal was "to be 3 months ahead of deadlines." By this past May, in time for one of my biannual reviews, my manager made an announcement.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • He announced my coworker, the marketing assistant, would be promoted to the vacant marketing manager position.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • Furthermore, they would now be handling the advertising schedule and be the final point person going
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • My manager also asked to have all notifications for him be removed, as "he didn't have the bandwidth anymore" to monitor it and is taking a step back from overseeing us.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829

  • Because of their overproduction that they made sure their boss new about every step of the way, they gain freedom from this demanding boss. 

  • We collectively broke my manager after only 5 months of doing EXACTLY what he asked, and I've got to say things have improved greatly so far.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • Our new marketing manager is very laid back, as we're still getting things done ahead of schedule and he is really good at what he does.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • We've also since hired 2 more additional employees for our department, and we've been steadily growing.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829
  • My newly promoted co- worker recently joked with me and the junior designer about how he wanted to go over the advertising schedule for next year with our manager, but he elected to not see anything and fully trusted my co-worker to handle it completely on his own.
    via Puzzleheaded_Data829

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