Getting a boss to listen can feel like you’re pointing something to them, but they have a blindfold on.

In those cases, you may need to let the boss make her own bed and have her lie in it.

Read this story to see how this played out in an office bureaucracy.

Send an internal approval doc to external to approve? Okie dokie.

30 people don’t have a box ticked off in a form because they’ve been in the company 20+ years and the box was only initiated 5 years ago.

So it’s affecting my boss’s key performance indicators (KPIs).

She finds an information pack containing all the requirements to get the box ticked. Pulls a single assessment page with the clear guide that it’s for our team only to sign.

Tells me via email to get all 20 peoples external leaders to sign it as evidence.

I was very aware this is not the correct way to do this, it’s just the least amount of paperwork.

So I did due diligence and took it sideways to the team next to us who handles stuff like this.

Their leader authorizes it without thinking it through.

The wheels of OP’s plot are set in motion.

I explained my hesitation and another leader overhears this and also says “if it’s in writing you can action it” with a sly smile.

She knew what I would do.

The day my boss went on leave, I attached the piece of assessment and sent it with the list of names to all external leaders from the official shared inbox and not my own.

I had 10 emails sent back in less than 30mins refusing to sign it with a big WTF?

OP let the reaction from her colleagues speak for itself, since her concerns were ignored.

They cc’d in all relevant people and pointed out how this breaks compliance regulations.

I replied, excusing myself from future speculations until a directive from on high came down.

My Team is now required to get approval from the document control team before any external document is sent out.

I’ve happily stopped editing the horrendous documents big boss sends me to send out.

She doesn’t know that, so her key performance indicators (KPI) are tanking.

Here’s what people are saying.

I second this. You need to cover yourself!

I haven’t either but I just read this in an Australian accent.

It was good to see ethical recommendations like this one!

Another reason to avoid using a lot of jargon: it looks like AI now to some folks.

I disagree, but I work in marketing, so that helps.

I’m glad I don’t work there.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.