Some bosses can’t resist going on a power trip, even if they’re new in the company.

This man complains about a new manager who is trying to bully him.

As he was an independent contractor whose contract had recently ended, he refused to work with the bully manager.

So the payroll manager devised a plan to ensure that he stays and the manager goes.

Read the story below for all the details.

Try to bully me, new boss? This will be your shortest job ever.

Back in the day, I worked as an independent IT consultant.

I was hired along with another independent to subcontract on a team for a major consulting house.

We’ll call it CH.

Everyone else on the team was a CH employee.

This man and the other independent contractor were the ones doing all the work.

The two of us were not supposed to tell the client that we weren’t part of CH, but the client figured it out pretty fast.

Because we, independents, were doing most of the work.

While CH’s code monkeys were busy filling out spreadsheets all day and going on team-building exercises.

But I digress.

He stayed every week until the project was finished.

The project ran past its initial deadline, and my contract expired.

I stayed on a week-to-week basis, as a professional courtesy to get the project finished.

Because I liked the client, if not the team.

Unfortunately, the CH project manager was booked somewhere else for his next gig.

Meet the new project manager…

So, they brought in a new guy to replace him.

Let’s call him David Stress.

David flew in on a Monday morning to get the project handed off to him and immediately started marking everything to claim his territory.

He was derogatory and belittling to the team and liked to raise his voice.

David burst into his office.

I was working in my office (well, actually a closet with folding tables that I shared with three other team members) and didn’t hear what he was saying out in the main room, but I could sure hear his tone.

Then, he burst in to the “office” and demanded: “How are we doing [specific payroll-related conversion task]?”

I said, “We’re using [program X].”

David was trying to bully him.

He waved his hand dismissively and scoffed. “That’s stupid. [Program X] won’t work for this. You need to do something else.”

The other indie was in the room at the time, and she saw me coming up out of my chair.

She told me later she thought I was going to deck him.

I knew he was full of garbage because I wrote Program X. It was custom code for this project, and he had no way of knowing what it would or wouldn’t do.

He was just trying to bully me and be the alpha dog.

So, he went to the payroll manager.

I did not deck him.

Instead, I went to the client’s payroll manager.

She and I had been working closely for months, and she was driving the client side of the project.

I laid it on the line. I said, “Look, I know you know I don’t work for CH. I’m here on an independent contract. That contract is up, and I’ve been working here week-to-week just to get you guys through.”

She told me she was aware of this.

He told her he was not going to work with this toxic manager.

“Okay. This new guy, David Stress, is a bully and a blowhard, and I won’t work with him. I have no contract at this point, and with him running the project, I won’t be back next week. I’m not asking you to do anything specific about it. I’m just letting you know as a courtesy so you can plan to transition my work to someone else.”

She sat back in her chair, thought a moment, and said, “Okay. Thanks for letting me know.”

David was removed from his position.

Two hours later, David Stress was removed from his new position.

The payroll manager was faced with losing the one technical guy on the team.

The only one who actually knew what was going on with a very complicated payroll system.

So, she called CH and said, “We don’t want this new guy. Take him away.”

CH rearranged some things to keep the original project manager with the project.

His welcome dinner turned into a farewell dinner.

The funniest part of the whole thing was that CH had scheduled a “welcome” dinner for David.

It’s at a posh steakhouse that evening.

Rather than create the further embarrassment of cancelling the dinner, they actually went ahead with it.

But now, it’s a “farewell” dinner for David, who had been on the project for less than one day.

It was fun to watch him try to put on a brave face for that.

Whoa! Serves him right. Now, let’s find out what others have to say about this on Reddit.

Well done, says this person.

LOL at this similar experience from another user.

This person rates the story 7 out of 7.

While this one is impressed.

Finally, short but straightforward comment.

Moral of the story: Respect is earned, not freely given.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.