When a new manager comes into a department, they almost always want to make some changes to try to ‘improve’ the way things work.

All too often, things actually get worse because the new manager doesn’t know the details of the work being done.

That’s what happened in this story when a new manager made this employee push a deadline up two weeks.

Let’s check it out!

My manager promised his manager that we could get our work done 2 weeks before the agreed timeline, so I “made” him work on Saturday with me.

Almost 10 years ago, I worked at a company where my department analyzed survey and secondary data, compiling it into handbooks each quarter.

Why do new bosses always feel like they need to start making changes immediately?

After six months of joining the department, my manager, who joined us two months after me, reorganized our tasks in an attempt to improve our efficiency.

This manager was promoted internally and was notorious for kissing up to management.

In the corporate world, it is more about who you know than what you know. This is a perfect example of that.

He was technically not qualified for the promotion due to a different background required for our department, but one of the C-suite member liked him a lot.

He did have some expertise in other areas, but generally had an unpleasant personality, so, many people in the company didn’t like him much.

Along with three new projects, I was assigned the handbook task for the first time.

The meeting was in February, so my first handbook would be for that year’s Quarter 1. In the meeting I also asked my colleague who had managed the project for 4 years to explain the usual timeline.

It sounds like this is a very big, and important, project.

She said it took 6 months, a timeframe agreed upon by management for years, considering the person handling it would also have other important projects.

This means, for Quarter 1 data, the printed copies of the handbook need to be ready by 30th of September.

The 6-month period includes collecting the analysis from survey managers, and for secondary data, I would have to contact the data owner and do the analysis myself.

I also have to work closely with the outsourced company that does the design and printing.

I carried out the handbook project smoothly along with my other tasks, and by late July, the only thing left for me to do was to proofread the content.

The next procedure required me, my manager, and the designer to review and finalize every page before sending it to the Unit Head for approval.

Printing and delivery take about 2-3 weeks, so we aimed to submit the design by mid-August and confirm the final version for printing by the last week of August.

I would be so upset if my boss did this to me. Makes major changes without even discussing them first. That is just not right.

However, on the last Friday of July (a whole 2 weeks before our target timeline to send the design to the Unit Head), this conversation happened:

Manager: OP, I need you to finalize everything today, because we are sending the design to the Unit Head on Monday.

Me: Next Monday? Why? We have two weeks.

Manager: Well, the Unit Head wants to see some changes around here, so I thought we could speed up the publication of this handbook to start. I told the Unit Head we would send the design to her on Monday.

Me: Okay… you could have discussed this with me first. I mean, the proofreading is almost done, I can get it done by today, but we still need to sit down with the designer to finalize and sign off. The appointment is in a week.

Manager: Can you do it tomorrow? Go ask the designer.

(Now, it was not normal in our company to come to the office and work on weekend. And of course I already had a plan for that weekend so this was really annoying to me. At least I knew that the designer would have no issue moving it to the next day, because he is very cooperative.)

Me: I can try… but tomorrow is Saturday. I’m not sure if he can make it. And are you sure we want to rush this? Because even if we meet the designer tomorrow, the hardcopy will be delivered just 2 weeks earlier than the normal deadline. Is it that significant?

Manager: Yes! Just go ask the designer now.

So, I called the designer, and as expected, he had no problem meeting on Saturday.

While I would be upset I had to work on the weekend, seeing the boss’s face after this would almost be worth it.

Me: Mr. Manager, the designer is okay to meet tomorrow. Is 10am okay with you?

Manager: Huh? (Puzzled look)

Me: Uhmm… You also need to be there for the sign-off.

Manager: I do?

Me: Yes, you literally need to sign off on the final version to send to the Unit Head. It’s the normal procedure.

(Tbh, he didn’t need to be there aside from following procedure. He had already seen the design a few times and likely wouldn’t have contributed much to the meeting. I would have loved for him not to be there anyway. But at that point, I was quite excited to make him come to the office on the weekend when he obviously didn’t realize he ALSO had to be there with the designer.)

Manager: I can’t tomorrow, I’m going [somewhere] until Sunday.

Me: Well, if you want to send this to the Unit Head on Monday, then YOU HAVE to be here tomorrow.

Manager: Sigh… let me get back to you.

About half an hour later, he came up to me with the sourest face ever, “10am tomorrow is fine”, and walked away.

I’m guessing he must have pissed off someone when he had to change/cancel his weekend plan.

So the next day, he came in 1 hour late, not smiling at all, and was rude to the designer and me.

He was really unhappy to be in the office on that day, but we got it done by 1pm.

Hopefully the boss doesn’t hold it against her for too long, but this is just funny.

The following week, the story of how *I* made my manager come to work on Saturday was told around the company.

Apparently, the plan that he had for the weekend was a group trip with some of his buddies who also worked in the company, and he had to make new arrangements to get to the place by himself and arrived late.

A lot of people thought it was really funny (including the Unit Head and some of his buddies) and laughed at the image of him walking into the office on Saturday for some trivial yet necessary work.

Nevertheless, the next 2 years that I worked on the handbook, he never promised anyone to have the handbook ready before the 6-month timeline.

I hope that the boss realizes that this whole thing could have been avoided by simply talking to his employee ahead of time.

The best bosses know that they aren’t always the experts on every subject and that they need to rely on their team.

While this story had a very funny ending, most of the time when a boss makes a change like this it only causes problems for the team, which can be very frustrating.

Let’s see what other Redditors had to say in the comments.

I wonder if managers even realize that these types of actions drive good employees away.

Yeah, once the manager is impacted by his decisions, he starts making better ones. Odd.

You really can’t rush high-quality work.

Great job! Make those managers earn their big paychecks.

This is right. A good manager is a leader, not just a boss.

Managers like this are the absolute worst!

Ugh!

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.