It’s always so obvious when supervisors lack a grip on reality.

So what would you do if your supervisor scolded you nonstop for “idling too long” in a company truck, even though downtown traffic made that impossible?

Would you try to explain yourself? Or would you comply and let him find out why that’s a bad idea?

In the following story, one employee finds himself in this situation and gives them their requested idle time.

HERE IS YOUR 0.00% IDLE TIME

I worked for a company that provides a utility truck, and one of the analytics they monitor is how long the truck stays in place with the motor on.

The target number was something like 3%. I consistently was stuck in traffic due to my area being changed to the downtown area of my city, so naturally, my idle time increased.

My supervisor began constantly badgering me over the rise of my idle percent, which was now about 10-12% higher now.

He was unable to do it himself, so he called it in.

After they decided to give me a written Verbal Warning, I became the MOST efficient truck no idler in our branch, and I brought it down to a 0.00 by shutting the truck off at every stop sign, red light, highway stopped in traffic, in drive-thrus, and INSTANTLY off when I got to where I was going.

Now remember this is a utility truck that is charging my two phones, laptop, tablet, and my various equipment’s rechargeable batteries, all this juice sucking and no alternator spinning putting the power back into the truck battery causing it to die. ALOT.

Now, the rules the company had made it forbidden for me to jump-start the truck myself, so I had to call the company. They sent out a tow truck to jump-start it for me (I could do it myself anyway and probably would have, but they are writing people up out here for petty stuff).

Then, he got a new truck.

Every time I call this tow truck, it takes a minimum of 2 hours for it to show up.

I began doing this multiple times a day, every day, until they figured my truck was broken. It goes to the shop, checks out, they give it back- I **** it again.

They end up giving me an entirely new truck, and I start ******* it. I repeated this process until they gave me the THIRD truck, and the manager called me to ask what my daily routine was.

His manager was not happy about it.

I went through the basics and added in the whole stop at red light engine off- stop in traffic engine off- etc., and dude goes: “Why the **** are you doing this?”

Me: “My supervisor wrote me up for my idle time being too high.”

Manager: “This is completely ridiculous.”

He tossed my write-up, and I’m guessing he talked to the supe because I never heard a word about idle time again, and I quit caring about it.

Nice! At least something finally got done.

Let’s check out what readers on Reddit have to say about micromanaging supervisors.

This would not be fun.

Well, let’s hope not.

So true!

This about sums it up.

It’s about time they did something!

There’s no way the company can be profitable with decisions like that being made.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.