The worst employee that everyone wanted to get fired became a best hire when he filled in for someone else, now he's a manager, he was just miscast: 'Lately I think I might be the Marcus on my own team'

Author image for María Cetra
María Cetra • Writer
Jul 17, 2026 1:00 PM EDT

Sometimes we aren't bad at our jobs. We are just misplaced!

When you are unemployed, you send your resume everywhere. You get to a point where you don't even know for what position they are calling you abut our what the company that is interviewing you does. Is normal. We all have been there. But there is something that happens when you haven't had a job in a while, is like an impostor syndrome where you start to believe that you are capable of doing every job. You may not even step a foot in college, but you start thinking that you could definitely be an astrophysicist at NASA. This job market starts to change your brain chemistry till you become unstoppable when applying for jobs. Your lemma becomes "the worst they can say is no", and you continue sending resumes. 


What I believe happened in this Reddit story is exactly that. I think Marcus was desperate for a job when he saw that they were looking for employees to work in customer service, and even though he knew he wasn't a good fit, he applied anyway. He went through the interviews, and when he realized he was working in a client-facing position without any communication skills. He wasn't a bad worker. He was hired to do something that he was definitely not good at. He needed a job and took it, but that didn't mean he actually wanted to do it. 


When the whole situation with the employee living in an open position happened, he stepped up because he cared. He realized that he was not currently making a good job and that he was probably getting fired soon. He had nothing to lose, so he tried and succeeded. He didn't just have luck, as the user telling the story said. He took a chance. And that is something very valuable to take into account. He realized that even though he wasn't a good fit for his position, he had the abilities to succeed at another one, so he tried. Yes, Marcus was completely miscast and wasted on a position he was horrible at when he could have been hired since the beginning for the one he ended up being a better fit for. So take your chances. You may be wasting your potential. 
 

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  • 01
    This was maybe six years ago at a mid-size marketing agency. We had a guy, I'll call him Marcus, everyone had quietly written off. Account coordinator role, which at our place meant you lived on the phone, ran the client check- ins, worked the room at the quarterly dinners. Marcus was terrible at all of it. He'd go quiet on calls, clients said he seemed "disengaged," and he'd vanish at the networking stuff so you'd find
    via Bobobo130
  • 02
    An office meeting in the building's kitchen, surrounded by employees. Representation image.
    via Redd Francisco

    An office meeting in the building's kitchen, surrounded by employees. 

    Representation image. 

  • 03
    him outside on his phone. Two managers wanted him gone. There was a real conversation about managing him out. Here's the thing though. Anything you handed Marcus that he could do alone, he crushed. A messy dataset, a broken reporting process, a deck nobody could make sense of, it came back cleaner than anyone else could've done it. We just didn't count that, because the job was "officially"
    via Bobobo130
  • 04
    about being client-facing. What saved him was dumb luck. Our analytics person went on leave, someone had to cover the reporting for a quarter, and Marcus was the only one free. Within a month he'd rebuilt the whole reporting system and the account leads were fighting to get him on their projects. They made it permanent. Last I heard he runs the data team there now.
    via Bobobo130
  • 05
    I bring it up because lately I think I might be the Marcus on my own team, and there's no analytics- person-goes-on-leave accident coming to rescue me. Good reviews on the actual output, but I'm clearly miscast for the visible, room-working half of the job and it's quietly capping me. Marcus got saved by luck. I'd rather not wait around for mine. So for anyone who realized they were in the wrong seat and
    via Bobobo130
  • 06
    actually did something about it, how did you work out what your right one even was? Without just waiting to get reassigned by accident.
    via Bobobo130
  • 07
    A person working on a computer at a desk, model image.
    via Microsoft Copilot

    A person working on a computer at a desk, model image. 

  • 08
    talexbatreddit Huh. It sounds like he was hired for the wrong job, no? I sound a little like Marcus, actually, usually a poor performer at a networking event, unless I know a few people, but loving setting up systems and writing reports. I'm very happy to hear he's found his niche always awesome news. --
    via Bobobo130
  • 09
    greginnj You have to make your own dumb luck. Figure out a way to approach your management that doesn't mention your feeling miscast: "I'd like to broaden my skillset"; "I'm getting more and more interested in XYZ", etc. , then say "Is there any way that part of my time could be assigned to do that?" Don't name anybody else, what they're doing or not doing; just frame it as personal growth. Even if there isn't a perfect "right seat" for you, you could become the utility player that
    via Bobobo130
  • 10
    can handle multiple roles as needed without being a rockstar at any of them. You need to be proactive rather than waiting for the dumb luck to happen.
    via Bobobo130
  • 11
    Mistress Who My Marcus story is that I got into Finance through a friend, working on a team that used a ticket based system to complete maintenance on lending products. I was in this role for about 5. years and consistently had medicore manager reviews. I knew why, I was bored. Like gouge my eyes out bored. it was a monotonous job that had micromanaging, powered tripping leaders, but I didn't see an opportunity to switch roles within the
    via Bobobo130
  • 12
    organization. Cue an acquisition of my financial institution by a larger one and I was laid off. Best thing ever, as I was able to apply for a role at a competing Fl and now have my dream role, where I have autonomy and a variety of tasks and responsibilities to keep me engaged.
    via Bobobo130
  • 13
    talaman4eg Marcus is neuro divergent, just learned some descent coping strategies. Finding appropriate place to apply your strengths is one of them, arguably the best one. If you feel like it, don't wait for happy accident, educate yourself on topic, and work to move in desired direction.
    via Bobobo130
  • 14
    KilgoreT59 First, I want to congratulate you on being so self-aware. That says a lot about you. Good for him, that he was able to find his niche. I hope you find yours, soon. I honestly can't say I worked with anyone like that. But, that might've been my lack of self- awareness to spot it.
    via Bobobo130
  • 15
    Catlenfell I'm in a similar role. I can't explain how I do things, I just get them done. I work way in the back by myself so everything gets done so they forget about me. I always make sure to take a couple days off before my annual performance review so they remember that I am working back there.
    via Bobobo130
  • 16
    SocietalQuestioner Find a problem, fix it, save the company time and money. There a running joke in the corporate world. If you have a difficult job assign it to some one lazy. They will find a shortcut or push the job to the people who have the actual knowledge. Marcus sounded like the lazy guy who learned the shortcut manual on your
    via Bobobo130
  • 17
    company programs. (Pray he is not just using Al but actually going over the data) Your bosses probably knew this but hoped he could talked to people in "normal speak". I doubt they just "happened" to pick Marcus to cover. They picked him on purpose by freeing up his schedule in advance. That being said in your case, frame it to your boss as you want to get some feedback and ask if you can observe the others syrategies as a team building exercise. Youll find what you lack.
    via Bobobo130
  • 18
    OPGuest Putting people in the right spot and motivating them is something that is not being done actively. I once build a team at an assignment (we started with 3, after 3 years we were with 15), and half the team members were 'rejects' from other projects. "No, you shouldn't take M, he can't do anything by himself" I gave M a task, told him I'd help him to own the task, arrange it himself. Within weeks he was doing great, happy he could finally take
    via Bobobo130
  • 19
    some responsibility. Others took longer, but even the most obnoxious one made his job a success after 9 months or so. He even made a real career later on at the customer. It isn't that hard to do, attention and adapting, that's all.
    via Bobobo130

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