Sometimes hard work gets overlooked, especially when new management comes in with a narrow vision of what your job “should” be.

So, what would you do if you went above and beyond at work, only to be told to stop helping other departments and stick to just one role?

Would you do the bare minimum as they wish? Or would you just find a new job?

In the following story, one driller finds himself making this very decision and opts for the latter.

Here’s how it all played out.

Drillers will only Drill.

So, back in the late 80s, I started as a driller helper at an engineering firm, which was small but very family-like and not part of any corporation.

I learned the ropes, and when one of the drillers quit, I was tested on all the rigs.

We had three main B53, B50, and a B40 Unimog; these are all-terrain carriers for soil exploration and monitoring well drilling.

I passed all the testing and was promoted to driller.

He got bored with sitting around and started helping other departments.

Drillers were guaranteed 40 hours a week. If not on the drill, we got paid to sit around.

That got old real fast for me, so I started doing some tech work.

Breaking concrete test cylinders, hanging out in the lab, learning and doing laboratory work, sieve studies, hydrometer studies, and elasticity tests on soil.

Even started riding with and doing tech work.

Would also run plans around to different dot offices and such. This went well until the owner decided to retire and sell the business.

The department heads all wanted to know what would happen with his job.

Next thing you know a management firm was buying us and called their first company meeting to layout their expectations.

1st thing they took away was that the driller guaranteed 40 hours.

If you didn’t have a drilling job, you waited at home till you did. No work, no pay, lol.

Well, they went around with all the department heads and discussed individually. After that, they asked for questions. And every department asked what about me, the new managers answered, “What about him?”

And every department head lists all the things I was helping with. (I was really kinda surprised because I was just doing these things to stay busy and make the day go faster.)

Well, these managers flat out said I was a driller, “That’s what he was hired for, that’s all we want him to do.”

Management was so bad that all of the drillers left.

Well, that did not sit well with any of the departments, and the meeting started getting a bit rowdy, and the other drillers grabbed me and did the hasty exit.

We left and went to our local watering hole, where we had a few barley pops and quite a few laughs.

After a couple of hours, most of the others came by and were really disgusted with this new management. We then went home.

I got a call to come in for a drilling job 3 weeks after I received my last full check.

I already had another job, and the other drillers had also. They were surprised that none of us were willing to just sit and wait.

I visited the new office a few months later and found out they had to outsource all the drilling, sell off the drills, and hire 4 more people to fill positions that I had been working.

Oh, the stories they shared during my visit. There is a steep learning curve. And I guess maybe it was not really malicious compliance, but a whole lot of Karhma delivered.

Wow! They probably regretted some of those decisions.

Let’s check out how the readers over at Reddit relate to this story.

This person got all technical.

It sounds like it.

Here’s someone who wishes their work hired drillers.

So true.

Just more proof that one bad policy can destroy a company. Sheesh!

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.