Micromanager tries to blame project delay on employee after employee reports her to HR: 'She now questions everything I do'

This manager had a bad habit of jumping to conclusions, but her employee kept receipts!

We all know what it feels like to have an authority figure hovering over your shoulder and watching you like a hawk. Most of the time, it feels terrible to be surveilled like that. It feels as if when you make any false note, that person will be quick to jump down your throat and call you out on your mistake. 

In fact, feeling like you're being watched all the time is probably more likely to cause mistakes rather than prevent them. After all, people need their space in order to do good work. If only more managers were actually able to see that as well!

This author recounted the tale of what happened after her manager claimed that the reason the invites to an upcoming work event were delayed in the mail was due to the author's negligence. 

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  • Of course, the micromanager's assumption that the author was at fault here was based on zero evidence. She seems to be the kind of employer who needs a specific something or someone to blame when anything does not go her way. Blaming a delay like this on the postal system is a bit too broad for someone like her. She needed a scapegoat, and unfortunately, the author just so happened to be that person.

    While we wish that the employee did not have to endure her manager's unnecessary outburst, it's a good thing that the employee responded by vowing to always have her own back in case something like this were to happen again. Inevitably, it did happen again.

    When there was another upcoming event that required the author to mail out invitations, she made sure to cover her tracks and keep receipts so that there was absolutely no way she could be blamed this time around.

  • A female boss hovers over her employee's shoulder as she works on her laptop.
    via CoWomen

    A female boss hovers over her employee's shoulder as she works on her laptop.

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

  • Want to be certain things go in the mail?

    One of my coworkers is a micromanager. Not my boss (used to be but that got changed because of her mistreatment of the role). Anyway, because I *dared* to report her to HR she now questions everything I do.
    via sharonanigans
  • Recently I was tasked with mailing invitations to an upcoming event. RSVPs to that were really slow, so naturally her response was that I must not have mailed them. (Because I
    via sharonanigans
  • have nothing better to do than keep or throw away something I literally had spent hours completing). And a side-
    via sharonanigans
  • note that I have been trusted with large sums of money, but she cannot trust me with a mailing apparently.
    via sharonanigans
  • A stack of white envelopes with red and blue frames.
    via Liam Truong

    A stack of white envelopes with red and blue frames.

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

  • A coworker shared micromanager's concerns with me and we had a good laugh. But I am petty.
    via sharonanigans
  • Today I was tasked with mailing out another group of invitations. I videoed myself taking them out of my car, up to the PO (even filming which PO I went to), and putting them in the mail receptacle. Now we wait.
    via sharonanigans
  • Part of me hopes she questions it again, then I will enjoy an afternoon of putting them one at a time in the mailbox and making sure all names are visible so she can be certain I actually mailed them out.
    via sharonanigans
  • Arrasor . If you truly want to be malicious compliance, post office sells Certificates of Mailing for $2.4 apiece. It's physical evidence that you did mail such and such. Buy the Certificate of Mailing for every single invitation and expense that with Accounting.
    via sharonanigans
  • A female boss hovers over her employee's shoulder as she works on her laptop.
    via CoWomen

    A female boss hovers over her employee's shoulder as she works on her laptop.

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

  • Frankjc3rd ⚫ My mother would mail stuff out for her sorority. What When she would do is take one of the items and address it to herself that way when she received it in the mail it would tell her that other people should have started receiving theirs.
    via sharonanigans
  • Melodic_Policy765 You need to set it to inspirational music.
    via sharonanigans
  • eightfingeredtypist I used to work in a mail room. You can get certificates of mailing, certified return receipt, etc.
    via sharonanigans
  • Registered would be really bad. That's a separate mail system the PO has set up for mailing available, like beater bonds, securities, jewelry, antique documents,
    via sharonanigans
  • etc. there's social envelopes, special safes at each PO, forms to fill out, and signatures required for accepting the Registered mail.
    via sharonanigans
  • For anything as valuable as a boss's party invite, it's the way to go. Also, all seams need to be sealed with brown paper tape and stamped with the accepting post office's cancellation stamp to prevent tampering.
    via sharonanigans
  • Disastrous-Artifice Malicious compliance would have been to insist that she accompanies you to the post office so that she can witness you posting the invitations. Of course,
    via sharonanigans
  • before that you would have asked her to sit with you at your desk to make sure that you create and print out the invitations properly.
    via sharonanigans

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Tags

micromanager employee human resources Horrible Bosses workplace malicious compliance workplace story
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