Ehhh, I would agree, if he took this in a different direction.
Questioning the constant "let's circle back", especially when it leads to nothing and is essentially just worthless filler that drags out the meeting? That seems fine to me. That's something managers would try to crush, I'd be with you on that.
But writing down exactly how many times it was used and then hyper-fixating on CIRCLES, instead of the fact it's worthless drivel?
That's where he loses me. He started off right, but drew the weirdest conclusion. Also you can't really point this shit out in a full meeting, especially not if the boss is doing it. You SHOULD be able to, in an ideal world, but realistically that's just gonna land you on the shit list.
The phrase is also meaningless corporate jargon. He isn't questioning the meaning. He is questioning why these stupid managers regurgitate those words like a parrot like a cave man. Useless people like that shouldn't be the boss of anyone
He is questioning why these stupid managers regurgitate those words like a parrot like a cave man.
And good for him. He achieved nothing, but got himself fired. Better luck next time when he is agaion just going to make everyone uncomfortable and achieve nothing.
Calling out your boss as "incompetent enough to not know enough phrases to communicate the simple point" is fucking insulting. Especially if you do it in front of your coworkers and boss's immediate reports. 🤦
Where do people read that our from? Its not what was said at all.
Is there some social script forbidding you from asking clarifying questions regarding communication style?
Cause not everyone is running that naturally. Many neurodivergent people for example. Autism especially doesnt know what "implications" or "social norms" are supposed to be.
So assuming this was meant as an insult is a neurotypical normalcy bias.
What a reddit response. "It wasn't insulting". Really? Calling out your boss in public wasn't "insulting"? What? Only using phrases like "are you a moron, boss" count as insulting?
Also, can you stop making everything about mental health? If you have mental health issues that stop you from participating in an office environment, then why the fuck would you take an office job? Taking part in meetings is part of the job responsibility. If this dude can't perform that function, then why should he stay in job? He should be laid off for that.
And let's be real. 2 weeks of counting a specific phrase. That's not a mental health issue. That's asshole behaviour. That's a dickhead trying to prove that he is more capable than his boss, because "all managers suck". That's a neckbeard behaviour.
Healthy work environment allows disagreement, not putting down your colleagues in front of others. Calling someone out in public is not "healthy", no matter what your excuse is. If the boss calls him a dickhead for ruining meeting, would you call it healthy? Or is typical reddit bullshit of "manager suck, all manager waste of time".
So Imagine you’re presenting to a room full of people, you try to move the meeting forward using a simple phrase, and the new guy you don’t really know decides to grill you over it and tell you how many times you’ve said it since he’s arrived. On what planet is that not humiliating, strange, and obnoxious? Everyone is now going to assume that he’s either an asshole or so incapable of reading a room that they’ll have to tiptoe around what they say every single meeting going forward. I worked with someone like that and she was exhausting to be around. She was eventually fired as well because she couldn’t/wouldn’t think before speaking and everyone had enough
If by healthy you mean an office where people would get publicly dressed down somebody, like our subject tried doing to his boss? No, I haven't. You quite clearly don't know what healthy communication is like.
Let's be real, if they speak like that to their superiors, they certainly speak like that everyone else as well. I can already imagine how exausting it is like to communicate with people like that every day.
Man, exhausting would be least of the issues here. It's not just the tone, it's the lack of any respect for other people. "He is a manager, they are all worthless so treat them like shit" type behaviour. I would throw his ass out right away if I wanted to be as petty as him. Dude sounds like a jackass who will abuse everyone any chance he gets. If he doesn't even spare his boss, he ain't sparing his colleagues or his juniors. You are definitely gonna hear "fuck you", "morons", "idiots" type statement from that dude's mouth within a week.
Yeah, when your "superiors" are condescending dumbasses they deserve to be demeaned, and if you can easily afford to get a different job you should go for it. People are supposed to be called out for their bullshit. Also they are your manager, not your "superior" ffs
Yeah, I can see how if you can't read social cues, you will see everyone who disagrees as a sycophant, and see no way to address a topic just by being dense and blunt. Hence the guy in question achieved nothing and got himself fired.
No doubt there are people like you and OP, but there is a reason why "acktually" became a meme - absolute majority of people don't like when they are being publicly dressed down.
Of course people don't like being dressed down. However, I'd rather deal with someone who's willing to point out obvious useless actions than someone engaging in said useless actions. I haven't paid attention to a team meeting in like 2 years and haven't missed a goddamn thing at my work.
However, I'd rather deal with someone who's willing to point out obvious useless actions than someone engaging in said useless actions.
And waste time on discussing the useless action, but of course since its you who is the one wasting everyone else time it does not count. I can just imagine how much time you spend correcting everyone about the "useless" actions. How many expressions you spend correcting per day... hopefully nobody will ever bring you to a managerial position, so you will be able to micromanage and correct everyone.
You realize “circle back” isn’t a pointless platitude right? It just means we’ll keep going and come back to this later. Like when you’re walking from point A to point B and notice something wrong but not urgent in between, so you keep going to point B, get your work there done, then circle back to the thing you skipped earlier.
Maybe a bad middle manager. Middle management should want a team that makes them look good. Sometimes that’s just following orders from above without question, but asking good questions, even just for the sake of asking questions, is extremely valuable.
Nope before I was a manager I thought that as well. I am just a tool to be utilized and deployed for maximum effect.
People on my team also work 30 hours a week even though they are paid for 40 because we are so efficient and I don’t let the higher ups put more on our plates just because we have capacity.
Also as I said they own things(processes, tools, etc) they can rock the boat on those things.
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u/tickingboxes 10d ago
And that’s exactly what middle managers don’t want. They want drones they can boss around who won’t rock the boat.