Workplace politics can be a funny game.

This guy believes his boss used him to show the owner why they did not need another man in the team.

His boss being a smart man, played very cleverly and ended up getting the desired results.

Let’s see what went down at this mill.

My boss used me for MC five years ago and I just figured it out.

About five years ago I was the office guy for a small lumber mill. My direct supervisor was the general manager, but the owner was also pretty hands on.

The mill wasn’t generating as much profit as the owner believed it could (he was probably right, the guy was smart as a whip with 60+ years of experience).

To do some damage control, his boss made necessary arrangements..

One of the things the owner tried to do was hire an outside consultant to try and find ways we could safely increase productivity or cut expenses.

The guy had owned and operated his own mill and also had a ludicrous amount of experience.

The consultant had some suggestions..

One of the things the consultant had been pushing for was running the mill into overtime. He thought we could increase productivity without incurring more expense than we gained.

My boss asked me to run an analysis of how much we would gain/lose if we ran overtime.

I did the math and gave him the results, even in the best case every minute of overtime would result in a net loss to the company.

This man made sure he would give his boss the best possible answer.

This report had taken me several hours as I wanted to be sure I gave him the right answer.

My boss took it, nodded, and the next day announced we would be running the mill in overtime.

Two weeks later when I prepared the end of month financial statements it showed a large loss. I was quietly seething, since I felt like I had been asked a pointless question, my time wasted, and my input ignored.

This man figured out what had happened..

But, looking back on it with significantly more experience, I think I know what happened.

I think my boss was bothered by the consultant who had come in to tell him how to do his job and then given him bad advice.

His boss was a clever man and he used this guy to prove that!

The owner wouldn’t listen to my boss telling him he didn’t need a consultant, so he did exactly what the consultant suggested and let the owner judge for himself.

As far as my report went? I think he just wanted to be sure it wouldn’t cost us too much when he pulled the trigger.

This man has now realized why his boss did what he did!

Tom, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry I was resentful about the whole affair for the past five years, my bad.

The boss knew what he was doing while this poor guy was completely unaware of how he was being used to kick the consultant out.

But that’s okay considering that the consultant wasn’t doing a very good job.

Let’s see what the Reddit community had to say in the comments.

This Person wants to know if the mill finally started making more money?

This person learned a thing or two from the scenario.

This person broke the code and found out what the boss was doing.

This person wishes the boss had been more ethical.

This person speaks with experience of being a manager.

Sometimes bosses have to make tough choices for things to be fruitful in the long run.

Isn’t that what a leader must do?

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.