Office favoritism has a way of turning business decisions into personal disasters.

So when a diligent hiring employee was pressured by her boss to hire a poorly qualified woman he was trying to impress, she followed the order, but kept the receipts.

Everything soon unraveled into a mess that caught HR’s attention.

Keep reading for the full story.

Hire Her, No Matter What. As you wish.

I am part of a small hiring team at my workplace, and I take my position very seriously.

Sometime ago, we were looking to fill a key role that required someone sharp, organized, and ready to work under pressure.

The employee had already gotten to work sourcing several great candidates, but that’s when a boss decided to throw a wrench in the plans.

We had a solid shortlist after several interviews, and then my department supervisor pulled me aside.

He told me, flat-out, to hire one candidate in particular.

His reasoning was extremely shady.

Not because she was the best fit, but because he wanted me to. I later heard through office rumors that she was an “almost-girlfriend,” basically someone he had a thing for and was trying to impress.

He said I should just make it work, and he would take the heat if needed.

The thing is, she didn’t think his pick was the right choice in any capacity.

I refused at first, showing him her results from the interview.

She was one of the lowest ranked.

She was late to the interview, gave vague answers, and couldn’t explain basic industry terms.

But he wouldn’t listen and said it was a direct order.

So I did exactly what he asked.

I hired her.

She tried to give the woman the benefit of the doubt, but the candidate proceeded to make a series of huge and expensive mistakes.

I gave her all the support I could and even offered extra onboarding help.

Within a month, she accidentally sent a confidential client file to the wrong company.

Then she once approved a purchase order for 10 times the budgeted amount because she obviously didn’t read through all those numbers.

It went from one mistake to another.

We lost a major client over the email slip.

Another pulled back on their contract due to delays on her end.

Finally, leadership and HR took notice.

When upper management started asking questions, my manager tried to dodge responsibility.

But HR already had the hiring records.

I made sure all instructions, including his, were documented, which was intentional in case a situation like this came up.

And it did.

Neither the candidate nor the boss lasted much longer.

He was reassigned within the quarter.

She quietly disappeared not long after.

Turns out, hiring your crush isn’t as cute when the company starts bleeding money.

How unbelievably unprofessional.

What did Reddit make of all this?

This commenter gives another reminder on why personal biases shouldn’t inform hiring decisions.

Mixing your personal life with your professional life rarely ends well.

The boss seems to have gotten a much better deal than he actually deserved.

Luckily, some managers seem to know better.

At the end of the day, crushes don’t belong anywhere near the payroll.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.