You’ve probably been in a situation like this before…

I’m talking about when a new manager comes into a workplace and they immediately try to put their stamp on everything…even when they don’t know how things operate…

It happened in this story from Reddit, so this worker decided to let the new manager learn a lesson the hard way.

Check out how they handled this joker!

I knew my job but the new manager thought he knew better so I did it his way. Very precisely.

“I used to work for one of the top delivery companies in the UK.

There was a lot less competition 15 years ago.

I was very good at my specific delivery job and I often undertook every office task from single delivery routes to maintaining the office and delivery distribution to all routes.

But things changed…

Then one day in comes the new manager and it was the cliche that you dread.

You probably all have met the type.

Suit slightly too big and a trainee mustache. He had just finished Uni and to his credit got himself a business degree.

The problem with this company was every office around the whole country was run differently and this poor manager was expecting every person to do things by the letter but most of the work was done on good will since we were allowed to finish for the day when we had completed our deliveries.

It was creating a rod for our own backs but it was nice to finish earlier on lighter days.

They told them how things worked…

Finally on his third day after watching me daily and asking me why I was doing things in certain orders I told him my delivery route was complex and required it to be done in a certain order to ensure the timed deliveries got there before 1 pm and the other delivery staff were “fed” their delivery materials by myself at certain times to ensure optimum delivery speeds and minimum delay.

He replied “No it doesn’t work like that”.

I simply stared for a bemused few seconds and said I don’t understand.

He wanted it by the letter today as per company guidelines.

I argued very hard against it and said he will really regret it because we won’t complete but he insisted I was wrong because it was all timed and measured.

Okay, if you say so…

So after an exasperated 15 minute heated discussion I did as I was told. To the letter.

The 5 staff I fed deliveries to weren’t happy but understood.

It was like a domino effect of carnage.

At 12:30 pm we all rang in the office to report the failed timed deliveries which he promptly freaked out about because they were strictly monitored.

The subsequent enforced break times and shuffling required also left 15-20% of each walk unfinished which he also now has to complete himself on top of the timed ones.

That didn’t go well!

He had to fill out reports for all failed 1 pm deliveries, all walk failures and then had to call in managers from other offices to finish it all.

They all finished around 4 hours late.

He was not popular!

The next day he came to me asked me to show him the mechanics of the delivery route in detail because “I didn’t expect that to happen if I’m honest”.

It was close enough to an apology for me 😁.

We actually became good friends over time but he never questioned me when I said “nope” ever again.”

It sounds like the manager actually learned his lesson, which doesn’t always happen.

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person chimed in.

Another individual spoke up.

This Reddit user shared their thoughts.

Another individual weighed in.

And this person weighed in.

New managers need to listen more than they talk.

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.