Boss demands employee take on an extra role with no additional pay, employee complies but only completes tasks for the second role, boss gets fired: ‘You failed to do your job’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jan 15, 2026 7:00 AM EST

Getting a promotion is an exciting thing… most of the time.

If you get promoted to the role you were after, while also getting an actual raise in the process, then getting promoted is great. However, many employees find that the only thing that changes when they get a promotion is that they have a lot more work to do. Often, that work is not even in the job description or has anything to do with your previous role; it's just an extra pile of tasks your boss decided to drop on you and present it as a reward. All while you have to accept it as a way to show gratitude for the opportunity to move up in the company.

The employee in the story below never trusted her boss, so she was prepared to stand up to him as soon as the situation called for that. That happened when she was promoted to Retail Manager, and her boss decided he wanted her to do the role of a quality control checker as well. Being roped with two roles, but with the resources and time of only one person, this employee knew she couldn't keep this up for long. There was no way she could do the job of two people, and it was clear that some tasks had to fall between the cracks in the process.

Luckily, this employee had a few tricks up her sleeve and a plan to get her boss what he deserves. She gathered all of the evidence of her boss's demands, documented all her tasks and everything she managed to do in a day, and sent it all to the upper management. Then, she proceeded to only do the tasks of a quality control checker and neglected the task of retail manager altogether.

It wasn't long before the boss noticed that one of the jobs was not performed, and he decided to publicly confront the employee about it. But when she came prepared to prove that he was the one at fault, the boss immediately understood the repercussions of his actions.

Next time you get a promotion, be sure to check the fine print and ensure it doesn't come with extra baggage. We're not all able to pull the trick the employee in the story below managed to do.

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  • Angry Colleagues Arguing at Office
    via Karola G

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

  • My boomer manager and his boomerish ways of managing backfired on him

    So few years ago, I've got of the most a le boss one could ever have. To give some context, this manager is on his 50s, almost 60s still preying on younger employees and that includes me, he tried to charm his way to me but then he learned quickly that I got a boy friend at the time so then he started to start a hate campaign towards me lol.
    via pimilpimil
  • Keep this in mind. Before I met this manager, I worked for the company for almost 2 years, I resigned but this manager is new in the company when I am almost done serving my notice period and he stopped me from resigning and offered me a Retail Manager position.
    via pimilpimil
  • I accepted since it's more pay, less hours and good for experience. Anyway, back to present, when this boss started his hate campaign, one of his thing is that he hates to see me sitting on my desk trying to do my job (i.e making weekly schedules for the retail, resolving complaints, creating proposals for retail improvement, etc.) for him, working means being on foot and actually literally moving from place to place.
    via pimilpimil
  • I should add to context that during his hate campaign, he also added my tasks, apart from retail manager, he also unofficially appointed me to be a quality control checker, so 2 opposite jobs.
    via pimilpimil
  • Idk really what to do at that point because I tried doing quality checking but then I can't also at the same time do some paperworks and focus on retail so, my position got compromised.
    via pimilpimil
  • He always yell at me when he see me on my desk even if I am doing my job I wouldn't let that happen, so I devised a way to show him what it means if he wanted me to do what he wants.
    via pimilpimil
  • I do the scheduling and the proposals during my break time, schedule send it to him for approval and do quality checking and making sure he sees me doing quality checking most of the time.
    via pimilpimil
  • Now, I deliberately send the schedules and proposals to him, and as expected, he did not read it, he barely even read a simple message so I waited for him to yell at me for "neglecting" my retail manager duties.
    via pimilpimil
  • Surprisingly, he did not yell at me, instead, he called a meeting with the owner of the company and the director to publicly humiliate me during the meeting.
    via pimilpimil
  • He claimed I had failed to do my job as a retail manager and that he wants to fire me.
    via pimilpimil
  • Unbeknownst to him, my emails had the owner, the director and anyone important to the company cc'd on it, now it's his turn to be humiliated not even reading the email and now claiming I failed to do my job.
    via pimilpimil
  • I then explained to all the boss what I was tasked to do, and why I did what I did.
    via pimilpimil
  • A Woman in White Long Sleeves Holding a Laptop
    via Karola G

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

  • The boomer boss got fired, I got a raise but I still left the company after few months for different opportunity.
    via pimilpimil
  • funtobedone 50's maybe 60? That's generation X. Boomers are 70+
    via funtobedone
  • pimilpimil Original Poster's Reply Oh sorry. This happened 4 years ago, that person would be 60+ right now I suppose as he is if I'm not mistaken already 58 when this happened
    via pimilpimil
  • Hot-Enthusiasm-1723 The funniest part is he created the problem by stacking two conflicting roles, then acted shocked when you prioritized the one he was yelling about. You didn't even have to argue, you just showed the paper trail and let him trip over it. That's the cleanest kind of compliance.
    via Hot-Enthusiasm-1723
  • pimilpimil Original Poster's Reply I did what I have to do since I know I won't win by arguing with him as he will report me for insubordination so might as well let him taste his own medicine
    via pimilpimil
  • gllimmerpuff You basically gave him enough rope to hang his own career by letting his ego ignore those cc'd emails. Using a boomer's refusal to read digital communication against them is the ultimate chess move for younger employees.
    via gllimmerpuff
  • pimilpimil Original Poster's Reply The thing with this boss is just because he thinks less of me, he also deliberately ignored hard copies of the files I sent him in email and acts shock when I told him I gave him both email and hard copy months ago lol
    via pimilpimil
  • sooper_genius Trust me, these are not boomerish ways. They are assholish ways.
    via sooper_genius
  • pimilpimil Original Poster's Reply He also expects us to stay late just to say we worked hard. He doesn't even care if we are doing anything but when the clock strikes past 5pm and he sees us still at our desk, he would then think we are working hard. Idk that's his definition of working hard even if we finish our tasks before the end of our day.
    via pimilpimil
  • pangalacticcourier >so 2 opposite jobs. When approached with an additional role's duties, I used to say to my boss(es), "Which parts of my current job do you want me to stop doing in order to take on the duties of another job description, and what salary increase are you offering?"
    via pangalacticcourier
  • pimilpimil Original Poster's Reply This is smart.
    via pimilpimil
  • tseeling "Unbeknownst" when using CC:? I'd have believed you had you used "BCC".
    via tseeling
  • pimilpimil Original Poster's Reply My boss doesn't read emails so he really doesn't have any idea about anything. I don't even know how he functions as the head of our department
    via pimilpimil

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boss workplace-stories employee fired manager job tales-from-the-workplace ceo overworked-employees workplace company
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