Being an assistant to a boss with an unorthodox way of working is like playing daily psychological mind games.

How would you handle having to help your Type B boss get their life back together?

One guy recently shared his reluctant compliance to his boss’s chaos.

Here are the details.

My boss said to stop putting papers on his desk. Okay.

Back in the days before computers, everything was documented with paper.

There was no email, no electronic memos…nothing.

Everything was typed or handwritten.

He was a jack of all trades, master of all of them most likely.

I was the office manager for a contractor. I was also the payroll department, accounts payable & receivable, accounting and HR departments.

The owner’s desk was always a mess. Papers were scattered everywhere.

Nobody had any idea what color the top of his desk was.

Bosses like this are a whole new level of chaos.

He managed to work like that for years…until the day he snapped.

One afternoon, I was waiting for him to sign a stack of checks.

He was interrupted by an urgent phone call and couldn’t find the contract that needed his immediate attention.

It’s always the one instance that nobody expects to be the breaking point…

He stood up, and used his arm to swoop every piece of paper from the desk to the floor in front of his desk.

It was like watching a ticker tape parade in slow motion.

I don’t remember ever seeing him so angry off before.

You could probably hear a pin drop.

Then he yelled, “NOTHING GOES ON MY DESK UNTIL I CLEAN UP THAT STUFF ON THE FLOOR!”

Okay, funny man.

We had 80 employees at the time who were paid weekly.

Remember…this was before computers.

We didn’t allow signature stamps on checks.

That couldn’t have gone over well.

All checks and legal documents required his original signature.

I hated to do it, but orders were orders.

I tossed all paychecks, company checks, contracts, phone messages, bids, and contracts on the top of the pile of papers on the floor in front of his desk.

That’s unhinged behavior on the part of the boss.

I have to give him credit because it only took him two weeks for his stacks of paper to be in neat, organized piles on his desk arranged around his desk calendar.

Then he said my desk should look as organized as his.

I told him off because my chaos was organized inside my head, and if he really wanted it cleaned off he needed to stop giving me so much work to do.

I multitasked before it was a thing, and organizing my desk wasn’t included.

This is a textbook definition of a toxic work environment. Let’s see if Reddit agreed.

Most felt there were parts of the story missing.

Others experienced familiar feelings.

Many people actually felt bad for the boss.

One person pointed out alternative solutions.

And another shared their own hack.

He’s not going to do as he says, OR as he does!

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.