If you believe Reddit, there are a whole lot of bad managers out there making big mistakes from day one.
Big mistakes like – for example – calling out the one employee everyone else knows should never be messed with.
OP worked in a warehouse that ran smoothly, no issues. When a new manager showed up, though, he obviously felt as though he wasn’t doing his job unless he was figuring out some small way to improve.
I used to work in a warehouse and one day we got a new Floor Manager. He had this grand idea that he was going to make an already functional supply warehouse work even better.
It is important to note that all of our deliveries were sent out on time, received on time, no workplace accidents other than the occasional stubbed toe or splinter from a wooden box.
This place ran about as smoothly and efficient as possible but it wasn’t good enough for the New Manager. He made it a point to check on everyone, getting into things that weren’t his business and things he didn’t know about.
Since the company wouldn’t buy him a machine to actually clock people in and out, he decided standing by the door to make sure people arrived on time was the answer.
One of his biggest things was making sure that everyone was at work on time. We didn’t have a time clock, we just wrote down when we got in and when we left.
The New Manager insisted that a punch card system would work much better for us, but the owners weren’t willing to invest in that. So, New Manager would spend every morning watching everyone come through the front door.
We had maybe fifty people who worked there, so he made sure to count who came in and when. Anyone who walked in the door past 8:05 am got written up. That is when he met the Old Guy.
When one of the “old” employees came in fifteen minutes late one day he laid into him, screaming that he had to clock in by 8am, no exceptions. He wouldn’t listen to anything the employee had to say until the old man finally shrugged and agreed.
Old Guy had been with the company pretty much since it opened. He knew everything and everyone there. Great guy and everyone liked him.
On the second or third day of New Manager watching everyone come in, he sees Old Guy walking in the front doors at 8:15. New Manager rips into Old Guy telling him that he was late, that it was unacceptable, and that he was getting written up.
He is yelling in the middle of the warehouse where everyone can see and hear him. Old Guy tries to explain, but gets told to shut up. New Manager tops this all off with an order. “This warehouse opens at eight am sharp every day, five days a week. And I expect you at that door at eight am to begin your shift. You will be here when the warehouse opens! Is that understood?”
Old Guy just kinda smiles, takes the paperwork, and apologies stating that he would be in tomorrow at eight am just as he was told.
The next day, everyone was there by 8 – but nothing was ready to go. No one could work. Nothing was getting packed or shipped. It was total chaos.
The smug look on the New Manager’s face was picture perfect. He was certain that he had just fixed the biggest flaw in the company.
The next day at eight AM sharp, Old Guy walked through the door and simply made sure that he was seen. Then he went off into the warehouse.
That day was a nightmare. Orders were backed up. Trucks were waiting on paperwork. New Manager is almost in tears because of the chaos.
The Owner comes in and starts trying to make sense of the situation with New Manager, and they track the paperwork issue back to Old Guy.
Come to find out that the old guy usually came in at 4 to make sure everyone else was ready to roll by 8, but after being publicly humiliated, he figured he’d better follow directions.
New Manager is upset, but Owner is concerned and asked Old Guy if everything is okay? Old Guy just tries to hide his embarrassment saying that New Manager wrote him up the day before and he was told that he had to come in at eight am.
Not at four am like he always did to get all the orders and paperwork ready for the day. The day before when he walked in the door, he had been coming in from a break.
The new manager was fired, and everything went back to normal – which was working just find for everyone anyway.
New Manager tried to back peddle, saying he didn’t know, that it was Old Guy’s fault.
Owner knew better.
After that, the New Manager wasn’t working at the warehouse anymore, or for the company. He went off to become a New Manager for someplace else.
Thankfully, Old Guy knew what was going to happen and had most of the paperwork done for the day already so we weren’t too behind when the smoke cleared.
I bet Reddit has lots of “old guy” stories of their own and I am here for it!
Like I thought, everyone knows an “old guy.”
And this one was delighted to meet this new manager, for sure.
It is, after all, a tale as old as time.
Nothing is right when they’re gone.
Lots of good advice in this thread.
If you want to be happy at work, I mean.