Some bosses really seem to be confused as to what it is they actually want.

They’ll tell you to do something one way, but when you actually do it that way they’re screaming their head off at you.

It’s like they have some sort of memory loss, or maybe an evil twin that comes around and tells you to do the exact opposite of what they actually want!

And when this user was tired of his boss yelling at him for loading the trucks the way he had asked him to load them, he put his foot down, and embarrassed his boss on his last week of work!

Check it out!

Boss Says I Have to Scan Packages Before I Load Them, Then Gets Mad When I Refuse To Load Unscanned Packages

First things first, a little Backstory: I work as a package handler for a large hub facility of a well known shipping company, spending my days loading residential delivery trucks.

The packages come with special barcodes on the side, as well as small spot labels that allow someone to see the address and which truck they go on.

We used to have small scanners that would scan the barcodes in order to ensure we didn’t put the packages on the wrong trucks or get a package that didn’t belong.

This is because sometimes the labels could be lost or a package could get the wrong spot label.

The trucks were even fitted with small door side sensors, so if you scan a package and try to walk into a truck where it doesn’t belong, the scanner would start to whine.

But OP said there was ONE part of work he would leave behind: his boss!

Now let’s move onto our main antagonist in this story: Alen, my former supervisor. Alen is a short skinny guy with a thin mustache and is a micromanager of the highest degree.

He always walked up and down the trucks to watch us work, always watched us from a distance or close by with his arms crossed to get us to work faster.

He constantly told us to grab all of our packages as they came to us despite the fact they go around on a moving conveyor belt that literally loops them back if we miss them.

And he always told us to load up our larger packages as soon as we get them even though it makes it harder to move through the trucks and place other packages on the shelves.

Finally, he had a tendency to hop into a worker’s trucks to move packages around the “right” way (his way).

And while OP could have written a book full of the things Allen did that ticked him off, there was one incident in particular that really grinded his gears…

I can go on and on about Alen, but today I’m here to vent about just one of these events or we would be here all day.

Alen had all the other packages handlers in a group chat in order tell us our start times for our next shift as well as compare our work speeds to each other via our scanning count.

I assume to make us feel bad and work harder, but we don’t really care. Around that time, the number of packages we miss loaded onto our trucks as we call it had increased.

Ever since, Alen had been adding to his group messages that we need to scan every package and make sure we are aiming for zero misloads.

Which while frustrating, wasn’t the biggest deal in the world to OP….

So, one day, I’m working on belt as usual and my scanner suddenly decided to screw up on my as they tend to do if smacked or if the battery comes loose.

I go to Alen and ask him if he could help me fix it or give me a new one to use.

Instead, he takes it and tells me to keep loading my trucks without the scanner and just use the labels on the packages.

This isn’t really allowed, and instead I chose to stack the packages in front of the trucks so I can scan them once I get a new scanner.

This solution wasn’t doing it for Alen, who told him to disregard procedure and load the trucks as he normally would!

Alen eventually comes down and tells me to just load them into the trucks normally and to stop stacking. Frustrating, but I shrug and do it to try and avoid any real conflict.

That evening, Alen messages the group and lists out our speeds with me at the bottom.

He once again is spouting on that we need to make sure we are scanning our packages before loading them, and even comes to talk to me the next day about my number of misloads.

I’m angry, of course, as he is the one to tell me, but at that point I was still fairly new to the job and didn’t feel comfortable arguing with the supervisor.

So I just try to continue on with my work with a mental note of always scanning my packages no matter what so he can’t pull this again.

But the scanning problem came up once again in Alen’s last week as manager…

Fast forward a few months later. Alen is leaving for real estate and is training one of the package handlers to be his replacement before he leaves.

By that time I am fed up with all the micromanaging and pestering, and can’t wait for him to be gone.

It’s about the final week of his employment that I’m working the belt and once again my scanner friggs up and stops working.

I hand it over to Alen once again, and just like before, as if he has never cared about scanning, he tells me to keep loading the trucks.

This time, OP wasn’t getting caught in Alan’s nonsense!

I smile to myself and nod. So I continue, stacking my packages in front of my trucks, waiting for that new scanner to arrive.

Not long after, Alen comes back with the trainee at his side. He asks me what I’m doing and I tell him I am stacking my packages.

Once more, he tells me to keep loading my trucks and this time I talk back, telling him I’m not loading them without a scanner.

I have to admit, at this time, I was done with Alen and let my anger get the better of me, raising my voice and getting a bit shaky as I have a very hard time dealing with anger.

The poor trainee tried his best to defuse the argument, but he didn’t know what he was in for!

The trainee tries to settle the situation and tell me to keep just keep stacking and they’ll get a scanner right away.

He is interrupted by Alen telling me once again to load my trucks, this time louder.

I flatly respond no, and thus it goes back and forth like this for nearly half a minute before I eventually tell him to get it to me in writing because I’m not getting fired over this.

Remember, we are not supposed to load a package without scanning it, and can indeed get in trouble if they can prove we sis it intentionally.

And when Alen threatened to get the higher-ups involved, OP told him to go right ahead.

This seems to get him even more mad and he eventually tries to pull the head supervisor card.

He asks me if I would like him to go get the head supervisor to try and intimidate me, I guess. I wasn’t able to chuckle in my anger and just told him to go ahead and get him.

Him and the trainee walk off with him storming down the belt. A few minutes later, the trainee comes back with a scanner in hand, apologizing and telling me to just get back to work.

I didn’t see Alen for the rest of the day, and if memory servers, the rest of his final week as well.

Sorry if it’s not that explosive, but I hope you enjoyed the read all the same. And to any supervisors reading this, please just let us do our freakin’ jobs.

You can’t have it both ways, Alen! You can either deal with the misloads or you can wait until the new scanner comes, but you can’t tell OP to do something and then yell at him for it!

Reddit said they loved that Alen tattled on himself, and that OP didn’t have to lift a finger to get him in trouble!

And this former UPS worker sympathized about how terrible the scanners were.

And this user said Alen was obviously trying to make sure the blame stayed on OP for his orders to break company policy.

And finally, this user sympathized with OP, saying their own manager loved to yell at them for things he had asked them to do!

Good riddance Alen!

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.