Employee turns the tables, uses micromanaging boss's own reports to trick her and expose her hypocrisy in her criticism of his work: 'I found the folder online and used her past work verbatim'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Feb 16, 2026 12:00 PM EST

Sometimes it can feel like there's no winning in life. No matter what you do, say, or contribute, there's always some fault, something to take issue with. Working with someone who is like this, especially when it is your boss, is miserable. Over time, their incessant nitpicking remarks about your work can leave you questioning your aptitude and abilities. Even those with the most iron-clad self-confidence may find themselves wondering if it's them or their boss.

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  • Cheezburger Image 10606851328
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    A boss points at a report while taking a photo of it with her phone, her pink painted nails resting on the document.

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

  • The workplace and the act of professionalism itself are a testing ground for patience. At times, it may seem like all the workplace is a test of your temperance, your ability to show self-restraint and rationality in the face of the increasingly irrational. As with most out-of-line behavior, the external expression of unworthiness, its direction toward others, often reflects an insecurity and inadequacy that they feel and see within themselves. 

    In the corporate space, once a lot of people have "Peter Principled" their way into a management position that they will never grow from, they seek to cover their tracks and remove all evidence of their shoddy and inferior work so that they can enforce their iron-fisted demands for perfectionism with impunity, despite knowing full well that such work is impossible.

    After growing tired of his boss's incessant criticism and micromanagement, nitpicking every bit of formatting and every incorrect bit of grammar, while ignoring the technical proficiencies of the work, this employee decided that a little self-reflection might do her some good. When he was going through some older network files, he stumbled across some of his boss's own work before someone had made the bewildering decision to give her a team to manage. He decided to take these files and take the boss's formatting, along with anything that could be applied to look like her old work, even using her language and word choice. 

    When he drafted the reports and handed them to his boss, she didn't catch on. Instead, she took the bait, hook, line, and sinker and blew her top, going on and on about how terrible the reports were down to every last detail. Only when she was through did the employee reveal the truth: she had been sat down and made to gaze into a mirror and bask in her own reflection.

    This left the boss, for once, with nothing to say. 

  • I was telling this story the other night, and I was told to post it here.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • This takes place 19 years ago when I worked for S Street Bank for one of the worst human beings ever, Paula.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Real places and names so I do not care. If you live in Boston and a looking to work at this place, skip it.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • It is a horrible place to work. Anyway, on to the story. I had just started working for Paula, the team was a mini project team tackling complex financial operation problems with high SVP visibility, that's how it was sold to me.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • In reality it was a mushroom farm, with Paula keeping you in the dark and feeding you sh.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • All I did was compile reports and gather data from people who were terrified of my team.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Needless to say, I was bait and switched and was looking to get out shortly after I got there.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • She had a habit of always criticizing your work to h I with the stupidest things. One the reports I was responsible for was a weekly update on certain Oil warrants out of Nigeria.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • To those that do not know a warrant is an agreement to buy a commodity at a specific price, regardless of what the current value is.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • The reason being there was an option to buy at $30 per barrel when prices peaked at $90 per barrel.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • We had no idea if the holder knew about this or not, but we had to monitor and report because the liability and loss would have been massive.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Any who, week after week after week after week Paula would review and rip me a new a hole over the format, verbiage and every stupid thing not related to the actual numbers being right.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Total ticky tack stuff. One day I was going through the network files and stumbled across an old folder for a similar project.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • It was Paula's handiwork before they gave her a team to manage. So, I decided to use her format for everything, even changing the report structure to look just like hers and using her cover letter language.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I brought it to her office to review and sign off, and she absolutely lost her sh..
    via MerryMisandrist
  • She asked what happened to the old format. I told her since she didn't seem to like what I had been doing I thought it best to change it around.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • She said that this was worse than before, probably the worst I submitted to her. She went on and on for what seemed like forever.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I just looked at her and didn't interrupt with blank look. Her last question to me was what I was thinking when I made these changes.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I told her that I used the formatting and language she used when she was doing a similar report a few years
    via MerryMisandrist
  • That I found the folder online and used her past work verbatim, just with the numbers and relevant information changed.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I gave her printouts of her reports and letters to compare. She just looked at me and had this dumbstruck look on her face.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I asked if this was bad should I go back to my format then? She just signed off on the reports and said to send them as is.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I just wanted to confirm that they were fine to send because less than a minute ago she said it was basically unreadable.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • She said they were fine as is and we didn't have time to redo them. So, I sent them out.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I was smart enough to find and save all of her old work, for example, to use.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I noticed that she went thought and deleted/moved the older folders after I encountered because I expected her to.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • This cat and mouse game went on for remainder of my time there. I would use her templates/past work and wait for her to tear it apart.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • After a few more times, she eventually figured out I grabbed all of them. She asked and I told her I created SOPs using all of her past work and had it saved locally.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • It seemed like a logical thing to do. I was able to quit a few months later.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • An employee points at a report while the boss critiques it
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

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

  • gilbeys 18 I hope you're having a bad day Paula! You deserve it!
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Extension-Math5183 Holy sh. Don't hold back homie. Because f Paula!
    via MerryMisandrist
  • CozJeez85 Paula sounds like Mike. Mike is a
    via MerryMisandrist
  • MerryMisandrist Original Poster's Reply FMike.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • MerryMisandrist Original Poster's Reply That is the weird thing about S Street. They are successful, but the people there I do not know how they do it. The used to hire Quincy townies, but they are all de d or laid off by now. They were under educated morons with substance ab e issues. The managers were all promoted because they were good at their prior job, which rarely translated to managerial skill or leadership ability. There were other instances where they were friends with someone higher u
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Valerim The most miserable person ive ever met was a middle manager at State Street. Hi Sharon.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • juliaskankles I'm sure Paula continued to fail upwards, they always do. PS love your energy.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • MerryMisandrist Original Poster's Reply Nope, she was Peter Principled. She was not well liked and or trusted. No other SVPs wanted her on her team after the sh she put their areas through. No one liked her as well, did I mention that. You can do your job and keep it business like and most people will understand, but when you actively go out of your way to f people over, eventually it catches up to you.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • PM_WORST_FART_STORY Should have asked Paula what her superior thought, too.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • supersonics79 loved this line: it was a mushroom farm, with Paula keeping you in the dark and feeding you sh.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Mountain_Usual521 >Paula would review and rip me a new a h le over the format, verbiage and every stupid thing not related to the actual numbers being right In a past job I was tasked with developing a very complex official corporate policy document that would become the official law of the land, so to speak. My boss would go through every draft with such a fine-toothed comb that she would send the draft back with complaints like, "the period at the end of the sentence on page 57 looks like it m
    via MerryMisandrist

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