Employee complies with manager's bad instruction, then manager comes back to consult with employee about what to do when his instructions don't work out

Author image for Giuliana Tiscioni
Giuliana Tiscioni • Writer
Oct 5, 2026 8:00 AM EDT

Sometimes I wonder what exactly managers do and why they are managers in the first place. 

Many times, they don't seem to make much sense. They rarely ever know what really goes on in the office, their instructions are confusing, and their qualifications are, at the very least, questionable. Oftentimes, they seem to be working for a different company and are not caught up with what's going on in the one they actually work at. They end up giving instructions that are out of touch with reality and that only make the work all the more difficult. Other than that, when they don't catch the mistakes someone else made and the project fails, they will always find someone to blame except themselves. 

On rare occasions, managers do come around and start taking responsibility for what is supposed to be their job. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's also not impossible. And in this case, something like that happened. The manager had told his employee to stop correcting other people's mistakes in files, and so the employee did. When things stopped working the way they were supposed to, the manager complained, and the employee told him that he was just following instructions. Even though he wasn't thrilled with the answer, the manager started asking for the employee's opinion afterwards, before making decisions. Not a usual thing to see, but refreshing nonetheless. It shows that anyone can correct their train of thought with the right push. 

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  • My boss told me to “stop thinking and just follow instructions,” so I did exactly that.

    My manager was always complaining that I took too long to finish tasks because I kept double- checking things and pointing out
    via u/OkInteraction230
  • problems before they happened. On Monday, I noticed an order had the wrong delivery address. I mentioned it to my manager, but
    via u/OkInteraction230
  • Cheezburger Image 10668605952
    via Vitaly Gariev for Unsplash+

    The manager.

    Model representation.  

  • he was already irritated and told me, "I don't pay you to think. Just do what you're told." So I said, "Okay." A few hours later, I noticed
    via u/OkInteraction230
  • another order had an obvious mistake. Normally, I would have stopped everything and asked someone to fix it. This time, I didn't.
    via u/OkInteraction230
  • I processed it exactly as it appeared on the paperwork. The customer received the wrong items and immediately complained. My
    via u/OkInteraction230
  • Cheezburger Image 10668606720
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    Wrong package.

    Stock photo unrelated.

  • manager came running over asking why I hadn't caught the mistake. I reminded him, word for word, of what he'd told me earlier. He said,
    via u/OkInteraction230
  • "You should have used common sense." I replied, “I thought you wanted me to just follow instructions." He wasn't amused.
    via u/OkInteraction230
  • The funny part is that after that day, he started asking me for my opinion before making decisions. Would you have done the same thing, or was I being petty and deliberately setting him up to fail?
    via u/OkInteraction230
  • Cheezburger Image 10668609536
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    Manager talking to employee.

    Picture does not depict real parties.

  • TSinWassie When teaching our children, we let them understand that There Are Consequences. That's all you did, your boss was behaving like a petulant child.
    via TSinWassie
  • rainydaytales Tell him to pay you for advice Imao
    via rainydaytales
  • BellybuttonWorld G it's tempting. Half my work stress is the constant firefighting from previous bodges, and half is getting into rows with my manager about him trying to have us bodge the next thing.
    via BellybuttonWorld
  • I could just stop arguing, and the one type of stress would go down but the other would go up. I don't see how I can win, except maybe by learning to just not give a sh .
    via BellybuttonWorld
  • ShireNomad I was literally fired from a previous job because I spent too much time correcting other people's errors and, consequently, not enough time doing the work the bosses had hired me to do.
    via ShireNomad
  • Let "not my circus, not my monkeys" be your mantra, and leave errors to fall on those who made the errors.
    via ShireNomad
  • SkinnyDugan 'When I used common sense, you told me to follow instructions. Make up your mind.'
    via SkinnyDugan
  • Diesel07012012 Some people have to learn the hard way how ridiculous they are.
    via Diesel07012012
  • Dirtywoody Japanese manufacturing was built on fixing mistakes when they happened. Stop the production line, fix it and move on. Guess who won.
    via Dirtywoody

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employeers malicious compliance work bad manager employees Office managers workplace Reddit malicious compliance reddit bad instructions
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