Shutterstock

A quick temper is not a great trait for managers, but unfortunately, many of them have it.

What would you do if you walked into the office 10 minutes late after working 18 hours the day before, and your manager yelled at you and said that you were fired?

That is what happened to the employee in this story, so he set that day’s pile of work down and began to leave the office, which immediately caused the boss to realize he made a big mistake. By the end of the event, this employee still had his job and actually got a raise on top of it.

While everything worked out well in this case, it is unfortunate that the boss almost certainly won’t change the way he manages. Red through the full story below and see what you think about what happened.

You’re FiHired

One morning I roll into the office about 7:25, and get a dirty look from the boss as I head to the dispatcher’s office to collect my day’s work (supposed to be there for 7:15).

Coming in late after a very long day should be normal.

I’d actually been working until about 1:30 (c. 18 hour day) the night before, and was thinking that only being 10 minutes late wasn’t bad.

When I got my stack of papers for the day, I let out one of those low groans, and said, “you’ve gotta be kidding me!”, it was going to be another long day.

This is not the threat that his boss thinks it is.

Boss takes that as his chance to call me out in front of the rest of the office: “Hey, if you’re going to show up late and then complain about work, we don’t need you around here, you’re fired”.

Dunno if he thought I would apologise for coming in late and ask to not be fired, but I knew that I could have a new, equally crappy job before the end of the day.

His boss didn’t expect this.

So, I called his bluff, and handed over my clipboard and walked away.

He must have looked through my work for the day, and realised that he didn’t have anyone that could do what I could do, and with the labour market crunch, he just didn’t have anybody.

Sorry, stranger, you’re not his boss anymore. You fired him.

On my way out to my car, I stopped and started chatting with my buddy and the dispatcher, having a smoke.

Boss comes out and tells me to meet him in his office so we can discuss my attitude.

The other employees are defending him immediately.

I said, I’m not going to your office, I just got fired, my buddy and the dispatch are shocked, buddy says: “you know he pulled 18 hours yesterday, and 15 the day before that.”

Dispatch says: “why did you fire him, we’ve got no one to do his run today!”.

Maybe the boss will learn his lesson when it comes to letting his temper get the best of him.

Boss is taken a little aback and says: “I didn’t say you’re fired, I said you’re FiHired”, so here’s your route for the day.

I say “well, if I just got hired, we should talk about my starting wage”, and that’s how I got a $2/hour raise.

Well, that worked out perfectly. Sadly, the boss isn’t likely to change his ways. I’d still be looking for a different job.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

This commenter is spot on.

He isn’t going to get any work done today.

Driving restrictions only apply to CDL drivers.

This manager thought he was being clever.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who ends up quitting over a dispute over bereavement leave.

Many managers suffer from this.

The manager immediately realized his mistake when this guy called his bluff. Being in a position where you can easily find a new job gives you a lot of power at work, so you don’t have to put up with people like this.

It is great that he was able to turn this bad situation into a raise that will benefit him for years to come. Well played.