Why is it so many managers make bad decisions and then lie about it?

What do they expect to happen when the employee doesn’t lie for them?

Let’s take a look and see what happens in this story.

Lie all you like boss, but don’t expect me to…

I used to work in manufacturing, and was part of a process engineering (PE) team.

The team would create areas for members to work in with specific equipment for the job.

My job was to price up and order and install the equipment.

The equipment was in kit form, and every area needed a version of the kit. (Like a jigsaw, some needed a 200 piece, some needed a 1000, but it was all the same bits)

Sounds like they have a good system in place where everyone knows what they are doing.

We were tasked with a new process, the PE’s figured out what they wanted, and I set about pricing it all up, using what I already had, and created a order, receipt, and install plan.

New process was 12 weeks away, and the stuff I needed had a 6 week lead time.

No problem!

Well, that seems reasonable. Management wants a whole new area set up with zero costs. Nothing like asking for the impossible.

That was until the money men pulled all funding, and new directive was to install new process with zero cost.

Genius.

So, at 12 weeks to go, I told all the PE’s, there’s gunna be no new equipment.

I moved on to other tasks, abandoning all the kit work.

We have weekly meetings, where I report, every week, “well, I have no money, so no new kits!”

At 5 weeks to go, all the PE’s and manufacturing teams eventually realise, they are in trouble.

Without the kits, they have massive increases in their process times, and won’t achieve the process.

So they all go, en masse, to the money men “we need these kits!”

Oh good, the money is available now. But just a little too late.

After a few days, one of my bosses (I had loads) comes to me and says “got you the money! Order them kits!”

“Well, it’s a bit useless to ask now” I reply “all the kit plans are from 12 weeks ago, and apart from the fact most of the PE’s plans will have changed, the kits won’t get here in time anyway, as its 4 weeks to go and the stuff needs to ordered 6 weeks before”

“Just order it anyway, well sort it…” he demands.

“There’s no point boss! That ship has sailed, supplier won’t be able to deliver”

“Right, let’s go talk to the supplier”

This is brilliant. If I were OP, I’d make sure we keep ordering from this supplier forever.

So off we go (3 hr drive) where my boss asks the supplier “what can we do to get the kits on time?”

“Order it when OP told you to (I could’ve kissed him) but whatever we do now, I cannot guarantee when you will get it, so plan for 6 weeks”

I was asked to leave the room, where I assume they discussed money. I believe (not certain) the original cost I had priced up was nearly doubled.

So. Back in the office next day, with 4 weeks to go, Boss comes to me and says, “can you create a receiving plan for the kits please”

Sounds like the boss is trying to cover up his mistakes.

So I do, with a 6 week lead time, to arrive 2 weeks later than we need it. I show the boss.

“Change the receiving date to 4 weeks, not 6”

“But that’s not correct boss?”

“Just do it, I’ll lean on supplier, get it sorted”

I redo the plan, 4 week lead time, not 6. I print off a couple of copies.

Give one to Boss (1), then go straight to another boss (2) and inform him of what’s going on.

Boss2 thanks me for the info, and follows Boss1 into a manager meeting, where sure enough, Boss1 tells everyone the kits will be here in 4 weeks.

Lots of “well dones” and “good jobs” are slapped upon Boss1.

In the next 4 weeks, Boss1 rings supplier everyday, and reports back everything is peachy.

Boss2 gets me to follow up daily with supplier, and it’s far from peachy. They are in chaos, trying to get multiple kits together with zero prep and short lead time.

Install day arrives. Supplier has not been ready. Boss1 insists they send what they have. Boss1 feeds back there’s a delay.

Upper management are furious. “Who told you that it would be ready?” Boss1 “I was just going off the receiving schedule”

Boss2 interjects, “excuse me, but my equipment guy gave me a plan that did say 6 weeks!”

Upper management “who is doing 2 different schedules?”

Boss1 “there’s obviously been a mistake, I’ll investigate”

UM, “Where did you get that schedule?”

Surprise surprise. Boss1 wants to take it outside the meeting. Coward.

Boss1 “let’s take this outside this meeting and I’ll fully brief you”

Anyway, So remember I said it’s like a jigsaw? The first delivery, Supplier sent the corner pieces… for every kit.

Next day, the bottom edge pieces, for every kit.

The next, the top edge pieces, for every kit.

Basically, we ended up receiving a bit of every jigsaw every day.

For 2 weeks.

So 6 weeks after ordering, all the jigsaws were in, exactly like I told them they would be.

Thanks to a bit of jiggery pokery on my part, we managed (with my excellent team) to install kits daily, by using the new stuff and bastardising old stuff.

I was kind of the face of the kits, so I wanted it in to save face really.

While rare, it is very satisfying when a dishonest manager gets what is coming to him.

No one ever asked me about the schedules, and boss 2 tells me that the right people found out what happened.

Boss1 was told that he needed to relocate to another country, or there wasn’t a position for him anymore.

So he basically was forced to leave our site.

I eventually had my fill too, I left soon after.

Who wants to be in a job where the very thing they employ you to do, they tell you you are wrong and ignore you, then ask you to pick up the pieces of the wreckage afterwards?

Wow! What a terrible boss! Let’s see how the commenters reacted.

Yes! Get everything in writing!

This is an excellent quote. I’ll have to save it!

It’s sad how often managers make people’s jobs harder than they need to be.

Who hasn’t had a terrible job like this?

I can just see the boss saying something like this.

Come on, you can’t expect an employee to just take all the blame for your mistakes!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.