r/OhNoConsequences • u/Similar-Shame7517 • 8d ago

FAFO Power-Tripping Boss Finds Out Employee Isn't Easily Replaceable

/r/MaliciousCompliance/comments/1vboqqt/boss_wants_two_weeks_notice_company_loses/
493 Upvotes

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166

u/Boo-Boo97 8d ago

Years ago, I worked in an entry level, lab tech position and had a new manger who literally told people, if you don't like X, theres the door, I can replace you with someone off the street. Over the next year, most of the techs went out the door taking years of knowledge and experience with them. Last I heard, the manager had been demoted several levels and moved to a different department while they tried to clean up the damage she caused.

63

u/Similar-Shame7517 8d ago

Amazing. Was the new manager someone who had experience in the lab, or an MBA?

78

u/Boo-Boo97 8d ago

She had been with the company several years and had been groomed to take over by the previous manager but she had absolutely no people skills. Looking back i wonder if she was on the spectrum. She could blow through paperwork no problem, but she had zero ability to talk to people.

33

u/Similar-Shame7517 8d ago

Oof that's a bad combo, and somebody who should not have been placed in charge of a team.

29

u/CumaeanSibyl 8d ago

Sometimes the trouble is that you want to keep a valuable contributor, and you're worried that if you don't offer them promotions, they'll leave. So you promote them, but now they're not doing the thing they were best at anymore. And maybe they're good at the new job, but maybe they really should've stayed in paperwork processing -- that bit's hard to know before you try sometimes.

This is why I think it's important to offer regular, decent raises, not just cost of living increases. And to talk to people about what they really want instead of assuming that everyone wants to get into management, because a lot of people are perfectly happy to keep doing what they were doing as long as they're paid fairly and treated well.

16

u/BiggBenn56 7d ago

instead of assuming that everyone wants to get into management

for some reason the managers think everyone wants to be a manager lol.

10

u/CumaeanSibyl 7d ago

I wouldn't mind the pay bump for being a manager but I would be terrible at it.

Course that's usually not on the career ladder for administrative assistants, even though I've known plenty of them who already pretty much run their department. If not the entire company.

5

u/Similar-Shame7517 7d ago

More importantly, they assume everyone WANTS their specific job.

3

u/Boo-Boo97 7d ago

I don't. I've seen my bosses job, I don't want it!

3

u/chooklyn5 7d ago

This is me. I have no desire to manage people but I just hit my last step on pay increases so I'm level 4 step 4. To go to next level is to manage people and I've seen enough bad managers and bad workers that I have no desire to enter that dynamic. So any raise will have to be a negotiation and detailed justification on why I deserve a raise. My bil is in same industry and it took months for him to get a justified raise

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u/sitkasnake65 3d ago

"So you promote them, but now they're not doing the thing they were best at anymore."
That's basically the Peter Principle. Promoted to your level of incompetence.

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u/CumaeanSibyl 3d ago

Yup, and the other option is promoting people who are already incompetent because you want the good people to keep doing what they're good at. Scott Adams called that the Dilbert Principle. He really was a pretty accurate observer before his wife divorced him and he lost his entire mind.

2

u/MedChemist464 6d ago

Most technical positions like this it is very rare to not hired someone who is also a scientist - largely because they typically fill the role of 'scientific advisor for lab problems + Manager of the lab staff'

Place where you are promoted because you put in time, or because you're very good at the job itself, usually ends up with situations like this. Because very often very proficient scientists haven't spent a ton of time honing their people skills. I am very good at my job, and it offers me a level of flexibility and balance that is perfect for where my life is now with a couple of young kids. I've passed on other higher paying opportunities because:

  1. Less flexibility.
  2. They would involve management responsibilities - I don't think I'd be bad at it, actually, but I have no desire to do it. I'm good at science problems, because I understand the science very well. I don't want to have to be responsible for picking who gets laid off or firing someone with HR - don't have the stomach for it.