When you are at work, you need to make sure that you get your job done, but you’ll also have some time to talk with coworkers and perform other tasks.

What would you do if your manager told you that you weren’t performing well because you were socializing too much, and always using the bathroom?

That is what happened to the machinist in this story, so he entirely stopped talking to people at work. That made his boss pretty uncomfortable.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

You can’t have it both ways.

This story is about when I worked as a machinist. I had a horrible boss. I just realized that I could end the story there and a bunch of you would relate.

Anyways, this boss was the owner’s brother in law. Someone who never had management experience but rather someone put in a position because “relative = good worker.”

There are so many examples of what made him horrible which I wont go into in THIS post but this man checked a bunch of boxes. We’ll call him BH.

He must like the job well enough.

I had worked there for 6 years at the point of this story. It was the week of my review and I had been unusually nice to him this week.

This was also right after one of the sales guys had come over.

I was having a chat with BH and a sales guy came up. “You know, I was going through the numbers over the years and do you realize that over the years of OP being here. The amount of rework coming out of his area has dropped and profits are up about 400% over the guy he replaced.”

They don’t want him knowing how good of an employee he is.

He started talking some more and BH cut him off and gave him a look.

Sales guy looked at me and back to BH and then walked away. I knew I had some info that I wasn’t supposed to know… and he knew I knew.

Eventually I was called in for my review. There were 4 pages of categories scored 1-10. It was very routine. All my scores were very good and in turn I was feeling good. We finished that up and I signed it as stating I was in agreeance.

He slid it to the side and pulled out a totally different piece of paper.

Wait…what?

“Now that the review for the company is over this is stuff about you I have noticed.”

The piece of paper outlined that I spent too much of my time socializing with others, which significantly reduced my productivity. It also stated I spent too much time in the bathroom and needed to adjust my diet so I would refrain from using the bathrooms at work.

He had broken this into 3 neat paragraphs and I do not remember the exact wording.

This guy doesn’t care at all.

I was floored.

I had gone through years of medical crap and even surgeries with my gut… he knew this.

ALSO, if my machine is spinning and making chips, I can talk and pay attention to the normal sounds coming out of my machine without affecting productivity.

I don’t know if I could keep working for this guy.

We got into a heated argument.

He was adamant that I was wasting time in the bathroom.

I argued that if I go in there and… stuff comes out of me… then the bathroom was needed.

He said that he had no proof of me actually using the bathroom.

I offered to stop flushing and everyone else would alert him of what I did in there for me.

I’m sure the responses just made him more upset.

Every thing he said I had a retort.

At one point I got so upset I walked out of his office and yelled “KEEP YOUR RAISE, JUST DON’T TALK TO ME ANYMORE”

Then he yelled that if I didn’t come back he would fire me for insubordination.

I went back in and just stared.

That raise isn’t worth the disrespect.

He talked for another 20 min without me saying a thing. It was a 2% raise which was “decent for current market rates” and I left and went back to work.

It’s at this point a bunch of people are going to comment about of common sense stuff like HOW ILLEGAL HALF OF THIS IS AND WHAT I SHOULD BE DOING ABOUT IT!

I will point out that I am very neurodivergent and very smart but sometimes lack that sense because of how my brain is wired.

I decided to just do what he said.

Just doing as the boss wants.

I got subscriptions for Audible and YouTube and wore earbuds literally 100% of the time. I stopped talking to everyone.

If someone came up to me and asked why, I would state my time at work is for working and not for talking. I got deep into listening to Roll20 and discovered a bunch of authors and books I love to this day.

As for the bathroom, I adjusted my diet. I would get home from work and eat 1 meal immediately that would hold me over until I got what I needed.

At least the doctor agrees with him.

I called my doctor and told him about my review.

My doctor ALSO had some fun words about my boss.

I got to drop by and pick up a doctors note that read paraphrased “Due to human nature, this note is to state that OP can use the bathrooms at work when needed”

HR very rarely sides with the employee.

This is also when I found out that HR had no idea about what was going on as she was like “What’s this for…. of course you’re allowed to use the bathroom at work”

She said she’d look into it.

I never heard back….

So… No talking to anyone for good productivity and I had a doctors excuse for the… other thing.

Why does this guy have it in for him?

He got mad at me daily at this point. Instead of yelling my name to get my attention, he had to walk over and wave to get my attention (Frankly, I heard him half the time but knew it made him mad to come over so I ignored him).

He would always point out that it would be easier for him if he could get my attention.

I would point out that the handbook says these are allowed and they prevented me from socializing which he didn’t allow.

What does this guy want?

A few weeks of this and he pulls me into his office. States that people keep asking him why I won’t socialize to people and it’s making him uncomfortable.

I state it’s not making me uncomfortable, that they’re his orders, and I have noticed an increase in productivity so it’s working. Did he want me to be less productive? No? Ok BH, I’ll go back to work.

You can’t order me to socialize with people. Especially after ordering me not to socialize with people. I’m not sorry that it makes you uncomfortable that I’m enjoying my book.

I continued this for a whole year before I put in my 2 weeks just before my 7 year anniversary.

That boss is impossible to please.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

Yeah, tell the co-workers exactly what happened.

This would be too funny. But also too gross to actually do.

Yup, the boss was clearly horrible.

This guy also worked for a jerk.

Getting out of that toxic situation is important.

Just doing what you wanted boss, can I get back to work now?

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.