'It's missing a lot of functions': Project manager dismisses team’s concerns about their primary platform's flawed upgrade, so they deliberately flood his inbox with individual support requests until he's too overwhelmed, forcing his boss to take over

Author image for Emma Saven
Emma Saven
Jan 27, 2026 6:00 PM EST

There's no "I" in team…but there is "tea"…and it's hot!

When a project manager plans to upgrade or make changes to the platform that his or her team works with daily, it's probably best that they go through the viewing and testing process with their team…This way, they'd avoid a lot of confusion and complaints when it comes to the effectiveness of the new platform. I mean, it sounds pretty obvious, doesn't it? Communicate with those who will actually be using its functions, rather than thinking that you can do it all alone. 

After being presented with the platform "upgrade", this team called for a meeting with their project manager, who brought along his coders. They expressed their concerns, specifying the way in which the new system was missing a bunch of 'basic functions' essential to completing their jobs…Questioning how he could have tested it without having contacted the team…? However, he just responded to their lists of concerns with defense and anger. Going on to tell them that if they had a problem or a question, they could use the ask-help-link and send him an email…

If an email was what he wanted, this team was about to ensure that emails were exactly what he was going to get…Except this time, in overwhelming bulk! To the point where the only thing he wished for was to delete his Gmail forever! 

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  • This just proves the importance of communication when it comes to being a “leader.” If a boss or manager is unable to communicate effectively with those they lead, how can they expect their team to follow successfully?

    Being a manager is not strictly about giving instructions; it’s also about learning from your team and allowing them to have a voice and opinions of their own. Oftentimes, their ideas and suggestions are exactly what can bring life to a concept or improve a pre-existing system. So instead of ignoring those “below” you, use them as a valuable asset rather than an expense. In doing so, you can also avoid a very full and intimidating inbox!

  • Company CEO hosting a meeting with his employees
    via monkeybusinessimages

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

  • Work upgraded to a newer version of a document saving/sharing platform for security reasons. Totally understand that since the old one was 25 yrs old.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • Our team knew this was happening and since nobody asked for any input on viewing and testing we all assumed they pulled history records to see what everyone used and would mirror the new platform based on that.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • New platform rolls out with no announcement and big shock it was missing a lot of the things we need to do our job.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • I took it upon myself to compile a list of things. we couldn't do on the new system and emailed the project manager of the platform asking how we could communicate the things needed to be fixed.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • He sets up a call which includes a couple of his coders and I invite my sup and a fellow team member to join.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • PM is not friendly not being understanding or helpful. He explains that this was tested before it rolled out and I said 'Who tested this?
    via Wakemeup3000
  • Because our team uses this multiple times a day and we weren't contacted at all. Its missing a lot of functions that are basic things.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • Two coworkers working on a coding project together
    via gettyimages

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

  • How could all this be overlooked if it was tested?' PM got pissed. Like you could hear the smoke coming out of his ears pissed.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • He said that if we saw anything that needed correcting or had questions to use the ask help link and send an email.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • Then he logged off the teams call along with his coders. Sup, fellow team member and I stayed on and decided that we would bring up these things one email at a time.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • We took the list is questions and problems and divided them between all of our team members who them used the request help link to notify that team of 1 thing per day times 5 people.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • So 5 emails a day each with a different issue or question. The response was always that they were going to research and get back to us.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • So after a week of no response to the research we added a second email per day of following up asking when they would have an answer to our original issue.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • Half way through the second week my sup gets an email from PM stating that his team is getting a lot of questions and is having difficulty getting through their workload because of them.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • Stressed employee overwhelmed by his workload
    via gettyimages

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

  • He had cc'ed his boss in on the email. This is where my sup hit reply all.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • She noted that we tried to give him a list of the things were were seeing on a call weeks ago that included his coders.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • Instead of taking the listed issues we were told to use the ask help link and send emails on things which is exactly what we did.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • PM's boss stepped in and asked for a complete list of things they needed to correct or add and we never heard from PM again.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • mikraas As a User Experience person who can't seem to get a job in the market, this makes me so freaking mad. Do your damn job, PM. How hard is it? And now everyone is going to have spend more time and money to fix things that could have been programmed correctly in the first place.
    via mikraas
  • OP Wakemeup3000 AND his boss knows how badly this went because HE included the guy on an email where he was scolding us for asking questions and pointing out things that they missed.
    via Wakemeup3000
  • PhDTARDIS You were trying to make the PMs job easy, but they stonewalled you. Okay, suit yourself - now you get the hard way, a blizzard of tickets is now yours! I love this.
    via PhDTARDIS
  • boomer60 Several years ago we peons were told we should test drive a new database app, one that was the base of company's business. We were given a user name and password and let loose. No manual, no training. Most got to login, but no further. After a couple of weeks execs told us it was our fault for not rasing concerns during 'testing' and we were told THIS was going to be our new system.
    via boomer60
  • Greener Anonymous I was in a similar situation with a custom database created by our HQ. After weeks of trying to help them fix it what finally got action was our manager saying "Our team will no longer be using this tool until it meets this list of requirements that you should have included in the first place."
    via GreenerAnonymous

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developing emails coding project manager bombarding workplace
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