The funny thing about power trips is that they tend to be unjustified and very vulnerable to hilarious correction.

See an example a condescending person getting a reality check.

The devil really is in the details on this one.

Double Checking Me in Front of Me? I Will do it for You 🙂

I’m a youngish woman and an engineer in a very male-dominated industry.

I am in charge of production and my responsibilities are somewhat Quality Engineer related.

When we build something I have to fully test it and we build batches at a time, so one “order” can be up to 14 identically made products.

That’s going to get complicated.

Our secretary (mine, really) does not like me.

She never has, ever since I made a few minor mistakes while I was taking over for my mentor who left the company.

She has to get a final count on orders before one product can leave the building, which means I have to fully test up to 14 products before even getting information for it, (which is a shot in the dark as to what the customer will request).

It’s a hassle, but I try to make it convenient for the secretary.

I tell her when she asks how many products are good to send out to a customer, how many we can keep and try to sell later at a discounted price and how many went to scrap.

She inevitably turns around and asks my boss or the technician about the yield, who usually shrugs and repeats what I say.

That seems to satisfy her but is annoying because my boss doesn’t even test the product, whereas I DO.

Then humble pie gets served.

This morning I got the same question from her and something inside me took the proverbial wheel, much like Jesus.

I told the secretary that we will need to wait for my boss to come in. Confused, she said OK.

We waited, and when my boss came in and got settled I walked over to them, secretary in tow.

“[Secretary] was wondering about the yields for this batch of x product?”

My boss is confused. “Okay? What did you get for the yield?”

I look down at my notes and repeat “Out of W product, X amount are good to go to a customer, Y amount we will keep and try to sell later at a discounted price and Z amount went to scrap.”

My boss nods at me and then at the secretary, their look now bordering bewildered. I turn to the secretary, “Let me know if you need anything else!”

The walk back to my cubicle was very satisfying.

Here is what people are saying.

Good! Go for it.

Outrageous. I’m glad the supervisor backed her up.

Definitely. She’s wasting time.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t take the hint.

I bet the endorphins were flowing!

I can’t stand condescending power trips.

Ugh.

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.