It’s hard to be penalized for going above and beyond what is required, especially when it involves working with people who like you.

That’s what makes this story so satisfying.

See how this worker got back at her cold and controlling boss.

You want me to “stay in my lane?” You got it boss!

I used to work in a medical specialty office (it was ID, or Infectious Disease) as a medical assistant.

Before that I worked in the food industry and was always told that I wouldn’t ever contribute to society or do anything meaningful with my life.

In my culture if you aren’t a businessman or a doctor, you’re “lower” than everyone else.

I now live in the US.

Her new path is working out well.

I had graduated top 3 in my class in my new field and was certified through the AAMA and scored in the 90th percentile, so I knew my stuff.

But I’ve never worked a white collar job in my life so I was afraid that I would seem out of place.

I did my externship at this ID Clinic in my town and they loved my interpersonal skills.

I was so happy to have a job secured and have a foot in the door to the medical field.

My blue collar experience helped me relate with a lot of our patients and they appreciated my work more for it.

I cared for my patients and our repeats would always look forward to coming back to see me and chat.

So at the end of my externship, I was extended an offer of employment for a decent amount of money and I took it.

I was to be the Medical Assistant in charge of direct patient care.

This meant checking-in, rooming, dealing with prescriptions, performing and searching for labs, packing wounds, and doing dressing changes.

Being officially a part of the office now, I was determined to work my butt off and show myself and my colleagues that I could do it.

But here’s where it gets complicated.

I continued to do my work and care for patients.

However, over time I would notice certain things that weren’t in my job duties that I could do that would help care for the patients.

Certain things like calling their doctors for updated orders or checking for records from local hospitals, helping patients find good Home Health workers, billing, checking referral status, etc.

Doing these tasks meant a bit more work on my end, but also meant the best care that I could offer for my patients.

This went on for a year, and my patients were happy and willing to come to appointments.

Then one day, out of the blue, I’m called into my supervisor. Young, naive me though “I’m finally getting recognized! Maybe they’ll promote me to lead!”

Nope.

My boss, “Shelly” told me that I’m working too hard and sticking my fingers into too many pots.

I asked where this was coming from, she stated that I was staying more than 5 minutes late too many times and it’s because I’m doing too much work.

She said “We can’t keep paying you all this overtime.”

I think I was maybe making 30 minutes overtime at MOST. She said that’s still too much.

I was baffled.

I thought I was doing the practice a service, but she undermined the entirety of the last year’s hard work I put it.

I was frustrated and a bit upset, but tried my best to remain professional.

So I asked her what she would like me to do and the next words out of her mouth were ones she would come to regret.

“Well, I see you’re doing a lot of tasks that are meant for other positions.

Maybe you should stop doing those and just “stay in your lane.”

She then wrote me up for trying to abuse the time clock.

So I asked her to send me a list of exactly what my job duties are, which she was happy to do.

It listed most of what I was originally meant to do, except it didn’t include “dressing changes” and “packing wounds.”

This is the “Eureka!” moment.

I saw this and immediately knew this would be trouble – for my boss.

You see, she was the only other Medical Assistant on our end of the office that was certified to deal with minor wound care and dressings.

At that point, since I was the main contact for patients, that would fall on to her plate.

So I told each of my patients that I won’t be doing any of that extra work because it goes against the practice’s wishes and I was told not to.

All of them understood, but it’s tough to get patients to keep appointments when things are delayed.

Not long after the order was issued, I got my first page for a wound pack.

Excellent.

My boss hated feet and we got at least 2 or 3 diabetic foot infections a day.

Doc wants to see how it’s healing, so he removes the wrap and unpacks the foot.

Spent a little extra time with the patient and now has to get to his next appointment.

I’m paged by the doc to pack the foot, wet to dry.

“No problem doc, let me get Shelly for you.”

He gives me kind of an odd look, but continues to his next appointment.

Shelly gloves up and as soon as she passes the threshold of the room and notices it’s a Diabetic Foot, is holding back her gags and immediately sweating.

I pass by the room and she asks for my help.

As calmly as I could, I turned and said “sorry boss, packing wounds isn’t on my list.

Can’t do it, just staying in my lane.

By the way, the 2 o clock in 3 is a through-and-through foot infection, probably should get that packed soon too.”

I’m glad we were wearing masks because she couldn’t see the massive **** eating grin I had on my face throughout that whole encounter.

She tried to write me up about disobeying superiors, but I had spoken with my GM and she was behind me.

And it’s working out swimmingly.

Instead she ended up getting written up for trying to put wound packs back on my list after she told me I did too much work!

She ended up having to do part of the Medical Scheduler’s job, part of the Referral Coordinator’s job, and part of the Billing office’s job as she had let go one of our front desk staff because there was “not enough work to go around.”

There was plenty of work. I was doing it.

The burnout got to her and she stepped down from her supervisor position 4 months after that.

They ended up hiring another super and I left the practice shortly after.

They told me to come back in to work after 3 days.

I was still very symptomatic from an infection so I told them I wouldn’t endanger my patients like that and to shove it.

Last I heard, they have an entirely new front office staff and they’re perpetually shorthanded.

Should have let me drive my own path instead of staying in your silly lanes!

Here is what folks are saying.

I bet she’s a joy to work with!

I’m sure it feels amazing — for a while.

Good point. It’s also unprofessional.

True. That is so hard to reconcile.

Absolutely! I’m sorry people look down on that.

It disturbs me that people like her boss are in charge of care.

I think anyone would feel that way.

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.