There’s a pecking order in every office, whether spoken or unspoken, and most people acknowledge it and move on.

Some people, though, need the underlings to kiss their rings and whatnot – and sometimes, that desire gets them into trouble.

OP nabbed a job out of college that most people left quickly.

My first job out of high school was a big deal for me. It was a simple data entry job that I took very seriously. I started moving up very quickly. With so many young entry-level employees, turnaround was high, and I guess sticking around made me stand out.

I was soaring in that company. Before I knew it, I was a supervisor over a team. In the department I was in, there was only one other supervisor. We worked very well together and agreed on almost everything. The two of us made a full training for our department, a department policy sheet, and conducted all direct employee contact.

Our department was doing so well that our manager was recruited by another department for a much more lucrative role in the company.

When he didn’t, he became super valuable to the company and was even asked to help train a new manager.

The new manager was the nicest man alive, but as an outside hire, he didn’t know anything about how we ran things. At the same time as he was getting acquainted with us, the other supervisor went on maternity leave. I was the only lead in the department left that really knew what they were doing.

It sounds rough, but I blossomed under these circumstances. I helped find our new acting supervisor whom I’ll call Trevor. I went into all meetings with my manager to take notes and help him understand what we were discussing.

I hired all the new staff members, from talking to the recruiter, conducting the interviews, and making the call to offer the position.

I was running the show and I loved it.

When that manager decided the job might not be for him, he confided in OP that he was going to recommend him for the job.

Our new manager was not really grasping things and told me he was thinking about leaving. I was sad to see him go.

He then told me that he thought he would ask them to have me backfill his position. This would have been the opportunity of a lifetime.

In the meantime, another supervisor was going on maternity leave, so there were spots to fill.

OP’s colleague ended up getting the management position, and though OP was disappointed, he tried to shake it off and get back to work.

A week later, my manager told me that he talked to the director, but the position wasn’t going to me. It was going to the acting supervisor, Trevor. Apparently, this guy had been schmoozing while I had been working.

I hadn’t even been paying attention to him. Trevor had become buddy-buddy with the director by spending all his time in his office and going drinking with him at the driving range.

I was heartbroken, I wasn’t aiming for the job until my boss suggested it to me. I had gotten my hopes up only to be crushed.

I tried to shake it off and get back to work.

Until one day when the manager’s team informed him he wasn’t their boss and they were told not to do their part of a project like they always did.

I oversaw department projects. I had one that required thousands of entries on an Excel sheet. I assigned our staff to the project and did my share.

At the end of the day, I had gotten the sheets back from everyone directly under me, but nobody on Trevor’s team had emailed me theirs.

I went to one of their desks and asked about the project. The person I asked shyly told me that Trevor told her not to do it. When I asked her why he would say that. she told me that he said I wasn’t her boss.

I was shocked. This is how we had done every project since we had opened the department. What was he thinking telling people not to do it?

OP was shocked, but decided to see how things went in the next meeting instead of tattling directly.

I could explain the small ways that Trevor constantly was trying to undermine me, or the almost jealous behavior he displayed toward me, but this story is long enough.

I’ll just say, while shocking, it wasn’t out of character for him. I had always been able to keep him from causing damage in the past and this didn’t need to be any different.

Then I realized what a golden opportunity this was. I decided to maliciously comply. I just nodded and thanked her for her help.

It worked like a charm.

The next day, the director called the manager and supervisors into his office. He asked me why the project wasn’t completed the day before. I shrugged and told him I had sent it out to the team like I always do and had even done a chunk of it myself.

I looked at Trevor. The look he gave me. He was pale and looked at me as if I was about to sentence him to death.

When Trevor eventually tried to explain that he told the staff under him not to do it, the director asked everyone but Trevor to leave.

The project had been related to payroll and Trevor had royally messed up the payroll staff.

Our director was livid. He was in there for over an hour. I heard the director raise his voice more than once, which was wild.

The doors and office walls were glass, so when I passed the office a bit later, I saw Trevor with his head down while our director was shaking his head and moving his hands in a very animated manner.

OP ended up getting that promotion after all, and the temporary manager went right back to his old desk job.

A week later, the other supervisor returned, and Trevor was asked to return to his old position under her.

I was offered the position of manager soon after, which I gladly accepted.

Poetic justice, right?

The top comment says this guy is obviously not too clever.

This person is musing on what the guy figured might happen.

But this commenter points out that none of this really makes sense.

This guy definitely wouldn’t have made it on Game of Thrones.

Then some people thought we were giving him too much credit.

Some people just have to FAFO.

At least sometimes they actually get what’s coming to them.