Micromanaging Warehouse Supervisor tells employee to start "documenting everything," they comply and use their paperwork to save themselves from being scapegoated: 'I started writing down every single thing'

Covering yourself from vulnerability is one of the most important lessons you will learn in the workplace… but it's not taught during onboarding or printed in the employee manual.

It might seem as if documenting every little part of your day would be disadvantageous for you, owing to the amount of oversight that you're offering your megalomaniac of a boss, but if you're documenting every little thing that you're doing with your time, it is going to take so much of their time that they're not going to be able to manage all of that information anyways. And when you're working in a toxic environment under leadership that likes to rewrite history and point the finger, there is never going to be a time when you regret fastidious record keeping.

Plus, as with any time a requirement for additional administrative oversight is added, there is going to be a cost to productivity. As every little bit of paperwork is completed, the only way to highlight the ridiculousness of it is to follow it to the letter.

And there will always be things that are overlooked. 

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  • Warehouse worker in safety vest walking down aisle while documenting tasks to avoid being scapegoated by management.
    via Getty Images

    A warehouse worker uses fastidious record keeping to save themselves from a micromanaging supervisor and avoid being scapegoated in a toxic workplace.

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


     

  • Take one example of this, where technical staff were required to visit remote sites to test, repair, and maintain important equipment. This was, essentially, the entire function of the company. As the organization sought to replace old paperwork with new software systems, claiming attempts to modernize when really the core intention was more oversight and control of technician movements, they made one grave mistake.

    While there were all sorts of little bugs and issues with unsaved paperwork, the main problem was that both management and whoever was designing the software had overlooked a critical flaw in the software. See, the software was written in such a way that it needed to be connected to a cellular network at all times in order to function properly. Instead of being saved locally, every entry on the electronic forms would send a request to and from the company's server. Because, again, the real intention behind all of this was more oversight and control over staff movements.

    As we've already addressed and you've probably already noticed, this created major issues where staff were unable to complete the required paperwork on remote sites, and in order to comply with the company policy of properly completing paperwork before moving on to the next job, they had to drive to somewhere they had reception before going back out of reception to complete more work. But, this presented another issue, as staff were legally required to complete all paperwork and leave a copy on site before departing. So they were double-filing paperwork now, completing both the original paper copies before leaving the site to complete the software. 

    This all resulted in a massive waste of time and resources, and the new documentation processes actually made it harder for the company to continue to blame their lowest-level staff for their problems. The extra documentation had effectively created a process where employees were able to protect themselves from retaliation.

  • Manager told me to "document everything." So I did. Every single thing.

    This was at a warehouse job I had a few years back. My manager, let's call him Greg, was one of those guys who loved throwing blame around whenever something went wrong.
    via OrbitHollow
  • Shipment late, wrong items packed, anything at all, somehow it always landed on whoever was closest.
    via OrbitHollow
  • I got written up once for something I genuinely didn't do and had no way to prove it because nothing was documented.
    via OrbitHollow
  • So after that, Greg pulled me aside and said, and I remember this clearly because it changed my life, "from now on I need you to document everything you do during your shift.
    via OrbitHollow
  • Every task, every decision, timestamps, all of it." He meant it as a punishment kind of thing, extra work, meant to feel like a burden.
    via OrbitHollow
  • I said "absolutely, consider it done." I bought a little notebook that same day. I started writing down every single thing.
    via OrbitHollow
  • Picked up pallet at 09:14. Moved to bay 3 at 09:22. Noticed damaged packaging on SKU 4471, photographed and logged at 09:31.
    via OrbitHollow
  • Reported to supervisor at 09:33, no action taken. That last part is where it got interesting.
    via OrbitHollow
  • Because now every time something was ignored or a bad call was made above me, it was in the notebook with a timestamp and who I told.
    via OrbitHollow
  • About six weeks in, there was a big stock discrepency that Greg tried to pin on our team.
    via OrbitHollow
  • I pulled out the notebook. Turned out the error hapened three days before I was even on shift, and I had documentation showing exactly where I was and what I was doing the whole time.
    via OrbitHollow
  • Greg did not bring it up again. I still have that notebook.
    via OrbitHollow
  • Warehouse worker in yellow jacket documenting inventory on a clipboard in a storage facility.
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    A warehouse worker documenting work meticulously to ensure accurate records and avoid workplace disputes.

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

  • Coder Joe1 I think this may be the most popular type of MC story on this sub.
    via OrbitHollow
  • PapaOoMaoMao I was on dispatch and receiving. One of the sales guys came out one day ranting and raving about $10K of lost stock. He was red in the face. Swearing and screaming like a deranged toddler. I was apparently the one who had caused the whole thing. He'd gone to the boss and told him the wild tale about how I'd sunk the business's profits for a few weeks. The boss was going off. All h I was breaking loose. I was confused as sh. I was very stringent on my rules. So much so that the sales
    via OrbitHollow
  • aTickleMonster I was on a highly performing IT team (we don't work many tickets, we often provide support for teams who do) who was assigned a new manager whose previous experience was only with help desk and desktop support. When he first met with us he went on this 15 minute diatribe about the importance of detailed tickets and tracking work in them. I told him immediately after the meeting that we're not a team you crack the whip on, and we don't get many tickets. "You'll quit in 6 months or
    via OrbitHollow
  • joey_wes I'd love to get a look at a few photos from that notebook, I think these stories are great, but there's just something about a hand written memoir that really tantalises the senses! It's like finding an old diary or something, you just never know who these people become! Good luck to you Sir!
    via OrbitHollow
  • No_Bathroom_3291 I remember one manager telling me to document everything. It was funny that about 2 weeks later, the manager asked me to do a specific task. The catch was to do it until the task was fully completed. Do to being on call 24/7 for the task, I notated every minute of time spent. It ended up with 40 hours of overtime that the manager did not plan on. The manager tried to back track on it, but the lead heard the directive and said, "Nope, the employee followed the directive to the le
    via OrbitHollow
  • Ich_mag_Kartoffeln I long ago learned the value of documenting what happened when. Often routine happenings that were never called upon (X happened at Y time today); but there were several occasions in a relatively short time where the notebook saved my bacon from being thrown under a bus, that a few colleagues (including some supervisors & managers) started calling it the "Notebook of Doom". One manager used to jokingly rear back in terror whenever I pulled it out of my pocket.
    via OrbitHollow
  • buffkarlmarx When I had a really evil boss who lied about when they told me something I created a Google spreadsheet that had a column that automatically added a time stamp when a new entry was made. Kept the sheet open on a tab on my PC and a link to it on the home screen of my cell phone so I had a record of every interaction with them, where it was, what was said and when. I ended up not really needing it because this person read the writing on the wall and found other employment within a yea
    via OrbitHollow
  • 7grendel HI yeah! My ADHD brain really hates having to document and time stamp everything, but it only took one bad boss for me to be fully on board!
    via OrbitHollow
  • yetzt CYA, wouldn't wanna be ya.
    via OrbitHollow
  • desertrock62 This is what the movie "The Notebook" should have been.
    via OrbitHollow

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