Burnt out office employee shocked when his work is complimented by a senior director, rethinks his whole career in a wholesome light: ‘I think about quitting pretty regularly, [but] not today'

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Jun 10, 2026 4:00 PM EDT

Can one compliment change your entire career?

For this man, a junior employee in an enormous office, getting noticed and complimented for his hard work was enough to make him reconsider quitting. He sprinted to Reddit's r/office subreddit to share his wholesome story, hoping to inspire others with a tale of a boss who's clearly one in a million. As many of us know, those good bosses are few and far between…

Honestly, I get that, though. Companies nowadays expect employees to dump their heart and soul into their jobs without as much of a gold star (or a meager pizza party) to reward them. Although I'll gladly accept a room-temperature, sliver slice piece of pizza at the end of a hard week, that's hardly the recompense that many employees deserve after spending late nights finishing briefs and getting their projects ruthlessly torn apart by management. Usually, workers are too busy bending over backwards to fight the fight against complimentary notions, so when a boss actually takes the time to give you a high five or call out your good work, that feels like a win, and tastes better than a pepperoni and cheese pie. 

One compliment can change everything. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10637698560
    via Pexels (Yan Krukao)

    Male model depicting the life of a junior employee in an office.

  • This worker was on the brink of quitting. Like many out there who are considering the wild, wild west of LinkedIn job hunting versus the cushy familiarity of a toxic workplace, straddling the line between employment and unemployment is a mental doozie. Although most of us in the workforce wish there were better things happening in our place of employment and want to demand a better workplace, there's still a part of us that's comfortable with the familiar. It's the devil you know, right? 

    On the verge of quitting and changing careers entirely, but when he ran into the big boss in the hallway, everything changed. It's not very often that we have meaningful conversations with the higher-level leadership, but this C-level boss earned his striped tie that day when he proved to be an actual leader of the company and not just a talking head at the company-wide meeting. If only every boss were so inspiring…

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    A senior director I've never formally met stopped me in the hallway today and what he said completely changed
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    how I'm thinking about my career I'm pretty junior, been here just under two years, the kind of level where senior leadership basically doesn't register your
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    existence and that's just the normal order of things. I don't say that bitterly it's just how large companies work.
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    There's a senior director in our building, different department, probably three or four levels above me. I've seen him in all hands meetings and occasionally in the kitchen. but we have never spoken,
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    Cheezburger Image 10637698304
    via Pexels (Yan Krukao)

    Male model dressed as a boss of an office. 

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    never been introduced, I would have assumed he didn't know I existed. This morning I was walking back to my desk from a meeting and he
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    was coming the other way down the hallway and he stopped and said my name. My actual name, first and last. I genuinely looked behind me to check he was talking to
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    someone else. He said he'd read a brief I'd put together three weeks ago that had apparently made its way up through a couple of layers of the organisation
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    and that he thought the way I'd framed one particular section had reframed how his team was thinking about the whole problem. He said it clearly and specifically,
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    not in a vague complimentary way, he clearly actually read it. Then he shook my hand, said to keep doing what I was doing and walked off.
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    The whole thing lasted maybe 45 seconds. I sat back down at my desk and just stared at my screen for a while. That brief took me two late evenings to get right and
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    my direct manager gave me a one word response when I submitted it. I think about quitting pretty regularly if I'm honest. I'm not thinking about it today
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    BrickHuge3023. Being acknowledged for your work is really important, most managers don't realize that.
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    purplelilac701 ⚫ This is wonderful. Your manager sounds insufferable but don't let that impact your obviously high quality of work.
    via purplelilac701

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