There’s nothing like executives telling you to do something that doesn’t even make sense.

So, what would you do if a higher-up interrupted your normal routine during a store visit and insisted you move equipment their way instead of the way you’ve safely been doing it? Would you push back to avoid issues? Or would you follow the directions and see how it goes?

In the following story, a retail stocker finds himself in this predicament and does exactly what he’s asked. Here’s what happened next.

I embarrassed a corporate higher up today by following his directions.

I work in retail, and I just stock shelves.

Three or four people from corporate were with the store director and all ETLs touring the store, and they were in the middle of the main backroom walkway.

I backstocked and had trash on my U-boat. It’s a lot of styrofoam because I was doing lamps and candles. They were completely in my way.

A corporate employee told him to push the cart differently.

I was pushing the U-boat from behind because technically we are only allowed to push vehicles, we are not allowed to pull them from the front, and I was going to follow every rule while we had the visit going on.

As I move past them, the highest-ranking one stops me, “Excuse me? Can you do me a favor? Can you grab the middle of the vehicle and walk side-by-side with it so you can see?”

Then I step out to the side, look at my vehicle, and look back at him, “…How?” How can I grab it from the side? There is no middle shelf on this U-boat.”

And he stepped over to actually look at my vehicle for once and was like, ” Well, would you look at that, it looks like you’re missing a few shelves there.”

When he moved the cart, it spun out of control.

So then I’m like, “Okay, so how do you want me to do this then?”

And then he told me to grab the top part of the inside of the vehicle. I don’t know, it was weird and confusing, and after I did it, I confirmed with him that it is what he wants me to actually do, and he’s like, “Yep, just like that.”

I take a few steps forward, and then the back of it spins out of control and slams into a flatbed, and then everything flies off onto the ground.

All of my trash is just everywhere.

The guy helped pick up the trash.

I immediately just start picking everything up, and he is like, “I am sorry.”

And he helps me pick up my trash, and I said, “Yeah, I guess the back room is a little cramped right now because of inventory prep.”

So anyway, I thought this was absolutely hilarious because I proved a corporate guy wrong, literally to his face, just by following his directions.

Apparently, he was embarrassed and felt bad about the issue he caused.

I met with my ETL afterwards, and she said she also thought that it was hilarious, and she said that the guy talked about how he’s super embarrassed now, and he felt bad for me.

By the way, after all my trash was picked up, I then just pulled the U-boat from the front like a normal person, and he never said anything to me about it.

One of my co-workers said that I should have just kept doing it the way he told me, and repeatedly lose my trash until he would tell me not to do it that way anymore.

I wish I had lol.

Wow! Well, at least he admitted he was wrong.

Let’s see if the readers over at Reddit have done anything similar.

Um… hotels charge their guests.

This is some for sure, but not all of them.

This sounds like sarcasm.

Here’s someone who stands up for the executive.

It was an honest mistake.

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.