October 4, 2024 at 2:22 am

Boss Micromanages Employee’s Private Property, So He Gets Locked Out Of All Of It

by Laura Ornella

Source: Reddit/MaliciousCompliance/Pexels/Malte Luk

Micromanaging never works, especially when it’s controlling an employee’s personal property.

That said, there are a lot of managers out there who want to try it for themselves.

Read how one Redditor follows their boss’s order and then some.

Boss told me how to organize my tools.

I have been a mechanic for nearly 15 years. I am the lead tech in my shop, and my company just sold recently to a different corporation and with that came a new boss.

A little bit of history about new boss, he is 22 and the son of one of my older bosses, so everybody suspects a bit of nepotism at play.

Nepotism just never seems to mean good things for other people, does it?

The older boss was ruthless and a jerk, and really put a dent in my confidence about being a mechanic, so I may hold somewhat of a grudge against the family, but I try to do my best to move on and just do my job.

The new boss and I have had some minor issues already in the three months he has been here, but I’m the type of person who can generally put my feelings to the side, if the money keeps ending up on my paycheck.

Today, however, that changed.

I will admit I am not the most organized person.

I have ADHD, and at 33 years old, am still learning to function without the medicine that I weened off of at 26.

My toolbox is normally cluttered, but I keep all my tools in my area or on top of my box. It’s the system that works for me.

That’s fair — if you know where your belongings are, it shouldn’t matter if it’s organized.

This morning, I clocked in and was about to unlock my box when the new boss came up to me and said, “You will not be working on cars today until your box is organized.”

I said, “My box is organized in the way that it works for me.”

He shot back with, “Not good enough for me or the company. I need to be able to find tools when I need them, and it needs to look neat and orderly for when corporate comes through.”

I paused for a second and said, “So you are telling me that you need to be able to find MY tools that I have purchased when YOU need to use them? I don’t remember signing that agreement.”

Good point! This is personal property we’re talking about.

He nodded and muttered something about insubordination and that he would be passing off all the work to the other technician until it was completed to his satisfaction.

I had assumed he was bluffing until three cars came in and all three tickets were handed to the other tech.

I don’t have any problem being told to clean up, and I would have even done it his way, but I had a problem with his tone, and this was messing with my paycheck.

Whoa, so now this person is literally losing money because of their lack of organization?

So while he was in the back doing tire inventory, I opened the top drawer of my toolbox, spread my arms, and swept every single thing into the drawer that I could. I repeated for the 2nd and 3rd drawer until the top was clean.

I used the same process for both of my smaller carts until each one could be closed and locked, then I clocked out for lunch.

I am currently sitting in my car in the parking lot eating lunch and browsing job listings while watching him try to open all of my drawers to use my tools, because 3 more cars came in and the other tech can’t handle six at a time.

Wow, this boss is gonna be hard up for help.

Let’s see what Reddit thinks on the matter?

There were some Redditors who knew mechanics who would be just as angry.

Source: Reddit/MaliciousCompliance

Others agreed they’d leave on the spot.

Source: Reddit/MaliciousCompliance

One commenter mentioned he can use the tools — if he pays.

Source: Reddit/MaliciousCompliance

And another advised the mechanic to start perusing job listings.

Source: Reddit/MaliciousCompliance

This boss is a control freak.

Personal property is not for a company’s public use.

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.