Workplace rules sometimes make more sense on paper than they do on the floor.

One worker was busy stocking shelves when his micromanaging boss insisted he drop everything to do things her way.

But when he complied, it became clear just how inefficient her way really was.

Keep reading for the full story.

You want me to work the whole pallet at once? Sure thing, boss.

Coworker Brad was asked by a store manager, Jessica to work a pallet of pet products as everyone would be coming in soon and decimating the aisle.

Brad knew this could create a bottleneck, so he tried to mitigate this.

Knowing the aisles are tight quarters at this store, Brad got a shopping cart and started to load the top few layers of the pallet so he could shelve them and not block the whole aisle.

But this wasn’t good enough for Jessica.

Jessica decided this was not efficient enough and told Brad, in no uncertain terms, to work the whole **** pallet. No carts except for cardboard (which we send back to the supplier).

So when Brad complied, the store turned chaotic.

So Brad took a cart for trash, brought out the pallet, and blocked the end of the aisle. He then took individual boxes off the pallet and stocked them.

It took him way longer and blocked traffic to the most heavily shopped aisle in the store for more than an hour.

But it was much more efficient.

Was this really an effective trade-off?

Commenters chime in with their thoughts.

Apparently ease = laziness in some managers’ minds.

Effective leaders treat their employees like teammates, not subjects.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

It often helps when managers start from the bottom.

When you micromanage common sense, don’t be surprised when things grind to a halt.

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.