Global Courant 2023-05-13 08:16:02
I think many of us would agree that upper management can make or break a work experience. At best, your manager is an advocate and mentor who values and prioritizes your success. At worst, they’re a micromanaging nuisance during a power outage that makes every day at the clock hell.
“Your boss is an asshole.”
Hulu
A post recently went viral on the r/antiwork subreddit on which the internet rips a manager to shreds for being last. The gist: they called one false encounter for their employees as a “loyalty test”.
Screenshot of “The Office”
NBC
According to Reddit user u/geometric sun (or OP, for original poster), they were “called to an all staff meeting at 9am” and left after 20 minutes because the manager didn’t show up (a perfectly normal response).
A woman who says, “That makes sense.”
CBS
Later OP and their colleagues got this email from the manager who missed the meeting:
u/geometric sun
“Today’s meeting was supposed to be that I didn’t show up.”
Jimmy Fallon says “What?”
NBC
“My goal was to see who would step up to the plate and who would go through my left and right hand.”
Does Donna say, “Excuse me?”
NBC
So, let me get this straight: This manager purposely called a mock meeting and wasted their employees’ time, hoping that one of them would just stand up and run the meeting himself??? To see who should get a promotion????
Screenshot of “Schitt’s Creek”
CBC
I have never been a manager but I can confidently say this is NOT the move.
I’ve seen some ridiculous workplace manipulations in my time, but this one is really nonsensical. Instead of organizing this weird and unnecessary ‘test’, the manager might as well have run their reports on the open positions, gauge their interest and talk to them one-on-one if necessary. Right???
James Kennedy Says “Just a Thought”
Bravo
People in the comments were just as furious and absolutely ripped this manager apart (and rightly so, tbh). Some outright called out the bad management style.
“So it was supposed that someone ‘stepped up’ and ran a meeting on behalf of the boss without being asked and without any clear idea what the meeting was supposed to be about? This is bad management.”
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“The people who are willing to waste time get promoted, and the people who waited a reasonable amount of time and then went back to work, don’t they? Gee… that sounds like good business practice.”
“How are you and your colleagues supposed to know that’s what the manager wants. No one is a telepath. Second, the ‘manager’ has to run the meeting. It’s their job. Not your job. And finally, if this person thinks they’re too do a lot, they need to DELEGATE and actually talk to people. Instead of playing these stupid games where you’re supposed to read their minds to understand.”
Others shared their own bad manager stories, proving that this sort of thing (unfortunately) runs deep and isn’t all that uncommon.
“The last gig I had our boss did a ‘loyalty test’. She left a bag of OPEN candy in PUBLIC and was shocked when people took HER candy. ‘I can’t trust any of you.’
Multi-billion dollar business is booming right now, basically because of a mass exodus over a bag of Reese’s.
“My manager schedules team meetings exactly like I need to pick up my kids from school, start dinner, pack their lunch, etc. Every meeting I get the ‘I missed you at the meeting today’ speech, and every meeting, I just don’t care.”
Some even had some fun payback ideas (although OP probably wouldn’t do any of those because, you know, they don’t want to get fired).
“You have to arrange a time and day with the manager and don’t show up, then copy and paste the same thing they wrote.”
“I would have sat there all day to get paid for it. Oh, do you want me to go back to work? No, sorry. I’ll wait for the boss to come and run the meeting or fire me. Thank you.”
And finally, u/Embershot89 brought up this very interesting point about what “loyalty” in the workforce actually means today.
“I don’t understand the idea of loyalty for a job. If I work for you and you don’t give me tenure, why should I be loyal? You can fire me literally at any time without notice.” . I am loyal to my income (if it is good enough), my family and myself. That is it. If you don’t give me a reason to be the way you want me to be, why should I feel this way in the first place?”
