The thing about the corporate world is that everyone is dispensable, no matter what. But many of us have worked under bosses who think otherwise. They are probably intoxicated by power and believe that no one else can take their place or do their work.

And so was the case with the boss of Reddit user Milled_Oats who strongly believed that nobody was capable of doing her job. And when the original poster (OP) offered to fill her role during her absence, she snubbed them. Well, they complied maliciously after that and the boss got swamped with work when she returned three months later!

More info: Reddit

The poster’s boss took 3 months off and when they offered to fill in the role during her absence, she snubbed them, saying that nobody was capable of doing her work

Image credits: Drazen Zigic / freepik (not the actual photo)

After applying again, the poster got the same response that they shared with the other colleagues, so nobody applied for the role when it was advertised

Image credits: u/Milled_Oats

Image credits: rawpixel.com / freepik (not the actual photo)

Now, corporate being corporate, they appointed 24-year-old Bob for the role, who emailed the poster to do all his work, but the poster slyly got out of it and Bob did nothing for 3 months

Image credits: u/Milled_Oats

After the boss returned, she blew up looking at the amount of work that she had to do and called the poster unhelpful; well, they just showed her the email that she had sent

In today’s story, the poster informs us that they have been working for 28 years in their field and are quite capable. Now, their boss was going to take three months of leave for surgery and recovery, so OP offered to fill in her role during her absence. Well, this high-strung lady believed only she knew everything and said, “You are not capable of doing my job. No one here is.” 

She also replied the same thing when OP asked her in an email, so they forwarded it to the other colleagues. Now guess the impact it had! Nobody applied for the role when it was advertised and when the management asked the reason, they just showed the email. But someone from another site applied and, corporate being corporate, they hired 24-year-old Bob for the role.

Fresh out of graduation, Bob was clueless and asked OP in an email to do all their work, and while the poster replied they’d do it once they got time, they never really did it. So, they were called up by HR, but they again showed the email and stated that they already had a full-time job, so they couldn’t do others’ work. And after that, Bob ended up doing nothing for 3 whole months!

The bomb finally dropped after the boss returned from her leave and was showered with pending work. And when she blamed the other workers for being unhelpful, OP used the email again and showed it to her. Turns out, she was so swamped with work, they didn’t see her leave her office for months!

Image credits: cookie_studio / freepik (not the actual photo)

The Redditors found this story highly relatable and many said that they love to read stories where such bosses are put in their places. According to a survey, 84% of American workers said they could do their manager’s job and people also stated that they were most annoyed by managers who micromanage.

Folks online commented that bosses who act like the poster’s boss and show a lack of trust among their employees are actually creating more harm in the workplace than they realize. To understand the psychological dynamics, Bored Panda interviewed Apoorva Kale, an industrial and organizational psychology practitioner.

She mentioned, “Lack of trust by the leaders will always result in low employee morale where they feel undervalued and demotivated which will result in a culture of stagnation with no growth or innovation. Employees may also disengage and lose confidence in communicating their concerns leading to a lack of responsiveness and a toxic environment.”

Apoorva also added that if a manager believes that they are irreplaceable, it can affect team dynamics and the overall functioning of an organization. She stressed that in such cases, the team would never achieve its true potential or professional development. She believed that this could also make employees feel overly critical of themselves and hinder them from their objectives or goals.

Netizens were also divided in their opinions about Bob. While many claimed that he got 3 months’ worth of salary without doing anything, some believed that he was just a scapegoat for the company. They said that it was unfair of the company to dump so much work on him when he lacked the experience. People thought the company just did it out of spite.

Apoorva also informed us that when employees are given tasks outside of their official job description, they might suffer through immense burnout leading to emotional exhaustion. Being under the constant pressure of completing tasks that aren’t their responsibility causes stress, anxiety, and frustration. All of these result in a downward spiral of decreased productivity and worsening of their mental health.

But from the poster’s narration, Bob didn’t really suffer as he simply shirked away the work he couldn’t do. Some commentators believed that the company might have made him face the consequences of this in one way or the other. But since OP didn’t mention anything about Bob, we can’t really say what happened to him.

Do you have any theories about what the company might have done to Bob? And we are sure you had a bad boss at least once, so just spill the beans already and tell us about them in the comments below!

Redditors chuckled at this juicy story about malicious compliance and also shared similar experiences of bosses who thought they were irreplaceable

Image credits: gpointstudio / freepik (not the actual photo)

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