Sometimes, the best revenge is a life well lived.

If you suggested an idea in a business meeting, and the boss basically told you to be quiet, would you continue to assert your ideas, or would you do as directed even if it meant watching the company crumble around you?

Read how one Redditor tries to solve a company problem, but after their boss’ rude response, wipes their hands clean of problem solving.

See the story below for all the detials.

Stay In Your Lane

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how we were going recover from a major problem on the manufacturing line that had reduced production throughput to about 50%.

I was not on the production team. I was there to stay informed as the design engineering lead for the project.

But this professional noticed an obvious problem.

The problem was software in certain older assembly units in half of the production lines.

The best-estimate projection from the manufacturing director was that patch, test, and functional confirmation of these units would take a week to 10 days.

So, they offered a solution…

I suggested that we should contact the manufacturer of the newer, functioning units and find out how quickly they could deliver and install replacements for every problem assembler on the lines.

Yes, I know. It was a very expensive suggestion.

The VP’s response will absolutely shock you.

The VP running the meeting simply told me to, “Stay in your lane. You don’t know anything about the real work done around here.”

Having worked elsewhere for nearly a decade in manufacturing prior to transitioning to design engineering and the role at this company, I actually knew all about the “real work” being done.

And the OP had a hunch that this “best-estimate projection” was out of pure laziness.

I also knew that the projection of about 7 to 10 days for a firmware fix for those machines was nothing more than a very deep pile of male bovine excrement.

By my rough calculations, it would take at least 3 weeks to complete unit replacement and get the throughput rate back up to a marginally acceptable level.

But, the worker obeyed orders.

I stayed in my lane. I kept my lips zipped for the remainder of the meeting.

I told my director afterwards that the production team had it under control and that I was no longer needed.

So, this Redditor adopted some humility…

Following an email discussion thread CC’ed to everyone at the meeting and my director that included my ridiculous suggestion and my “humble” acknowledgment that I really should stay in my lane, I moved on to a new project.

Three weeks later, after multiple failed attempts to update the old assemblers, the work to replace them all with new units began.

Three weeks after that, production was hovering at about 75% and finally reached 95% after an additional 2 weeks.

So, after this extenuated timeline — someone paid the price…

Grapevine (heard, but no way to substantiate): The manufacturing director was the scapegoat and was let go. The VP’s yearly bonus was impacted due to a $450k shortfall in revenue.

I continued to stay zip-lipped during all production meetings, discussions, email threads, etc., until I left the company a year later.

I stayed in my lane.

Should this worker have pushed their solution forward? Or did they do the right thing to hang back and get out? Let’s read what Reddit thinks in the comments below.

One Redditor felt the VP could’ve been a lot kinder.

Another pinpointed the VP’s vice immediately.

A commenter mentioned they were happy to hear the OP had moved on.

And finally, one reader shared the response they would’ve given.

This company sounds like they don’t respect talented employees.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.