Sometimes managers forget that their own rules apply to them too.

So, what would you do if your boss kept demanding that you tighten system security, then got mad every time you followed his instructions exactly?

Would you push back and risk an argument? Or would you follow directions and let him learn the hard way?

In the following story, one IT employee finds himself in this scenario and opts for the latter.

Here’s what happened.

Want me to clean up users on the portal? Done, you’re deleted.

I work in IT for a big company and manage a portal that a small group of people use daily.

The manager wanted me to go through the list of users and remove anyone who didn’t need access.

Simple request, I reduced the list from 100 to 30 people. Everyone’s happy.

A couple of weeks later, the manager is complaining that 30 users are too much and wants me to create a list of all their names, what team they are a part of, who they report to, and how often they need access to this portal.

It’s an annoying request, but sure, I got it done.

The manager wants more access taken away.

He goes through the list and gets mad when he sees names he doesn’t recognize, even though our company has a couple thousand employees… So he tells me to delete all users whose name he doesn’t recognize…

Stupid request, but ok done.

We are a global company, so overnight, I’m getting bombarded with emails that systems are down and no one has access to log into the system and fix it. My phones are going off, but forget it, I don’t get paid to work at 3 a.m.

The next morning, my manager somehow gets mad at me for deleting the users he told me to delete and tells me to add them back. No surprise, Sherlock.

Much to his dismay, the manager brings it up again.

A couple of weeks later, he AGAIN brings up that he’s not happy, and the system is not secure, too many users have access, blah blah blah…. Like BRO how bored are you?

He wanted me to review the list of users with him AGAIN. 27 of the users use this system daily. There are only 3 users (himself and 2 other people) who are high up in management and don’t use the system at all, but are there for political reasons.

He starts yelling at me, telling me to delete anyone who doesn’t use the portal daily as part of their core job, and anyone new who wants access must fill out a form and explain why they need it.

Now, the manager thinks there’s something wrong with the system.

Ok, fine, forget it, done.

A couple of weeks pass, and he says, “Hey, I think something’s wrong with the system. I can’t log in anymore.”

Me: “Nope, it’s working just fine.”

Manager: “Then why can’t I log in?”

Me: “I removed all users who don’t use it daily as part of their core job. (Quoted my manager from weeks ago word for word).”

Apparently, he doesn’t need access that bad.

Manager: “Add me back.”

Me: Slides him the form he created.

Manager: >:0

Me: 🙂

It’s been weeks, he still hasn’t filled out the form, and I still haven’t added him back. We are somehow on good terms now!

Yikes! That manager sounds like an absolute nightmare!

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

According to this comment, he would’ve revoked access rather than deleting users.

Here’s someone who deals with the same type of manager.

It shouldn’t be a problem.

This would’ve been the right thing to do.

The manager needs more work.

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.