Some bosses love making pointless rules, that is, until they backfire.

So, what would you do if your boss micromanaged your schedule to the point of absurdity? Would you follow their orders, even when it made no sense? Or would you push back and risk the consequences?

In the following story, a fed-up employee finds himself in this exact situation. Here’s how it all played out.

Boss: Under No Circumstances – Me: OK

I was working in promotions at a TV station. The GM thought it would be a good idea if I was also a sales assistant.

From 8-12 I was only to do sales stuff, that was it. From 1-5 I was only to work in promotions. NO EXCEPTIONS!

It was kind of dumb. I know how to allot my time. Sometimes, there was no sales stuff in the morning, and other times, there was nothing in promotions in the afternoon. I did what needed to be done on my schedule.

Then he started sending me emails almost weekly. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE YOU TO WORK ON PROMOTIONS BEFORE LUNCH OR SALES AFTER LUNCH.

The GM was something else.

Ok, those days with no sales stuff, before noon, I sat in my office and played games. If a salesperson asked me to write a script or enter an order after lunch, it would sit there until the next morning, even if I had no promotions to work on that afternoon.

This went on for months until it got back to the GM and he was all, “I didn’t mean that literally. Work on what you need to blah blah blah.” Guess UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES means something different to him.

I didn’t last too much longer. I was put in charge of Production and Promotions with zero help.

I asked the GM for a raise, and he told me that my low pay was job security. He didn’t even want to give me the Creative Services Director title. I ordered new business cards with that title anyway, and he eventually caved. I knew my time there was done.

Here’s where he decided to make a point.

You get what you pay for.

I was sent to Vegas for the yearly Promotional Convention. Blew off the whole convention and partied my *** off while charging it all to the station.

Went to Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant. Saw Jerry Seinfeld. Saw Love. Charged it all and tons of booze to the station.

I made it a day and a half back before getting fired.

After returning from his trip, things did not go well.

A sales guy whined to the GM because I was so busy and wouldn’t drop everything to kiss his ***. Told him to go **** himself.

Later on that day I was brought into the GM’s office with the sales guy to apologize. Kind of lost it and told them both to go **** themselves.

Fired the next morning. The best thing that ever happened to me. I’m self-employed and make more than double what I made at the station with no *** to kiss. Forget office life. I’m surprised they are still on the air.

Wow! That sounds like a toxic workplace.

Let’s check out what the fine folks over at Reddit have to say about this.

Eek! This person doesn’t like how they acted at all.

Here’s someone who can relate.

This person explains why it’s not actually malicious complaince.

This person’s parents worked in media.

That was risky behavior. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Hopefully, everyone here learned a lesson.

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