Manager Is Fired After Employee Proves That She Micromanages And Attempts To Fail Her Employees

Nov 15, 2021 by apost team

Being a full-time employee is a rewarding job for most people, especially if they have chosen a career that they love and are pursuing a role that offers growth and learning. However, even a person's dream job can become a nightmare when a boss creates a hostile and toxic environment that stifles any sort of evolution for an employee. Bad bosses continue to be of the top reasons for people quitting their jobs despite excelling at everything they do. 

Sometimes, bosses can go overboard in their demands — they may cause an employee to consistently work overtime, for example, which can lead to burnout, or they may try to control everything to go a certain way, which can hinder progress instead of being helpful. Most employees who have a good relationship with their bosses give them the benefit of doubt, but what happens when a boss is purposely malicious and wants their employees to fail? 

This is what happened to one person on Reddit, who shared their story of how a micromanaging boss's unfair tactics eventually ended up backfiring. Posted in November 2021 on the subreddit "Malicious Complaince," the original poster (OP) of the story detailed how their former boss eventually dug a hole with their own demands, leading to her firing. 

The OP, in their story, was an ideal worker who enjoyed their job thoroughly and gave it their all. This was not enough for their boss, and at every chance, the boss wold focus on the negative rather than the positive. However, the OP had the last laugh in the end. 

In the Reddit post, the OP gave some background information, "My new manager at work is one of those people that absolutely has to be in control. Even when you're exceeding every scorecard measure, keeping you head down, not putting a toe out of line, she still asks you to come to a meeting room to discuss some minor issue or another." 

The OP also added a few examples of this attitude and how they had reacted to certain situations, "Recently, she pulled me into a meeting to discuss me being late from work. Protocol is to call in, say we'll be late, then submit a schedule adjustment request when we arrived. She accused me of not calling in or submitting a request but was able to prove I did, only instead of leaving it at that, she insisted I now needed to call her and explain why I was late. That's not the process, I told her, and she said she was making a new one. So now I call her at 6am on her day off to let her know if I'm gonna be late." 

Along with this, the OP also added a couple of other examples to give an overview of what they had been dealing with. "Suffice to say, complaints have been raised to her manager," wrote the OP. 

This then led to the crux of the situation, "Following an incident where she was asked to follow up on something for me, and claimed 'if it's not in writing, it didn't happen,' I've been asking for everything in writing and repeat that mantra back to her when she claims to have told me something." 

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Even after not following her own rule multiple times, the boss tried to penalize the OP for perceived mistakes, but thankfully, the OP stood their ground and made sure to keep documentation of all of their interactions. This would prove to be extremely helpful. 

After another incident where the boss refused to follow her own rules, she attempted to catch OP off-guard by threatening a meeting with HR for repeated issues and insubordination. However, the OP was prepared and attended the meeting with a union rep armed with all the receipts of all of their interactions. 

"HR said there may have been a miscommunication, and that I could return to work. I have it put in writing that I am not accused of any misconduct, and have been cleared of any false accusations, with nothing documented on my staff file.

Yesterday, my team was advised that our team leader had decided to pursue opportunities outside of the company and we were getting a new manager." This was an ending that worked out well for the OP as well as other members of the team! The OP also found a lot of support on their Reddit post and over 2 weeks, the post had accumulated over 900 comments. 

One commenter wrote, "It's more like team leader has become a liability. Risk has been mitigated." Another person commented, "I really don't get it. I'm a manager and if I had an employee that's demolishing expectations, I'd be leaving them alone and make sure that they get a good increase come performance review time"

What did you think about this situation between the OP and their boss? Have you ever had a similar situation? Tell us about your experiences, and be sure to pass this on to others as well.