Imagine having a manager who seems to look down on you simply because you report to her.

If she claimed you weren’t responsible enough to be in charge while she was away, would you accept it or wait for the perfect opportunity to make her regret saying that?

In this story, one employee is in this situation and chooses the second option. Let’s see how the story plays out.

Fiscal responsibility – all right then

About 20 years ago I worked for a small state agency where supervisors, quality review and trainers were all the same payscale and you could transfer from one area to the other.

One of the sups was promoted to area manager (4 areas in the state) and our office dynamics changed.

Normally, these 3 classifications were back ups for the security system (manager was fully responsible) and if the manager and all the sups were out of the office, one of us (slightly lesser) reviewer/trainer was ‘in charge’.

He made the mistake of asking who was in charge.

Fast forward 6 months, Upper Management scheduled a 2 day training for the manager and the sups.

I make the mistake of asking who’s in charge while they are gone.

New manager looks at me and says … “None of you are in charge since you don’t have the fiscal responsibility that I and the sups have”.

It was said in a put you in your place voice.

Me, nearing retirement, thinks – Cool, one less headache for me .. what I said was “Glad to know that.”

Time to use the manager’s words against her.

Fast forward 4 months and it’s time to rotate the security system backup (team). Manager looks at me and my partner and says that it’s QRs turn.

I look at the manager and said “It would seem that if QR doesn’t have fiscal responsibility and can’t be ‘in charge’ when management is out, then QR can’t be responsible for security backup.

My manager opened her mouth, shut her mouth and turned a interesting hue of red.

We get out of the meeting and my partner and the trainers are all happy as am I. The 4 sups, not so much.

You really can’t have it both ways.

Either the employees are responsible or not. This was perfect!

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person loved the story.

Another person needed some more explanation.

This person has a question.

But this person isn’t 100% on their side.

Anything you say might be used against you!

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.