Very few people assigned the title of “manager” can also be described as a leader. Even fewer of those people seem to ever want to be in that job in the first place.

Though every once in awhile, some good folks can pleasantly surprise you.

One corporate employee recently shared a devilishly good MC story where their heroic manager triumphed in a battle of wits against HR. Let’s see how it all played out.

Work my wage.

I work in a 200 person sized company.

Have been here for 9 years.

Department colleagues are great, other than 1 person (but that’s for a different story).

Sounds intriguing, let’s hear more.

My manager is among the best people I’ve had the good fortune to ever meet, and both department heads I’ve worked with are fantastic too.

This particular incident happened during Covid.

I was assigned to a project for a specific role which was typically for managers.

However, this government project also required someone to submit sensitive documents for approval, and you needed to have government certifications.

A high stakes job, this should be good…

To get these certifications you had to attend courses and training that were usually for managerial levels.

They were also not cheap, a couple of thousands.

I got these from a previous job that unfortunately went bankrupt.

I wasn’t a manager in my current job, but due to having these certifications I was assigned the role.

My manager has been trying to get me promoted for awhile now, but HR constantly provided excuses.

“No available position, not the right time, he needs to prove himself etc”.

Typical, but certainly irritating behavior.

Manager figures this is the perfect time, and goes to HR again with my HoD’s blessing.

HR again rejects the proposition, and my manager instead argues for a pay raise then.

HR says that I’ve already hit the cap for my position, tough luck.

He’s now angry, and thinking of the next plan.

HR then sends him an email reiterating everything, but adds “he should be working his wage anyway”.

He just smiles, and starts his MC by telling me he’s taking me off the project, as well as informing the project lead.

These people are not CEOs!

Project lead informs HR that they need to fill the slot, either by sending someone to train for the role, or to hire someone.

HR is appalled by the price and instead chooses to hire someone instead. This is where crap starts rising.

Seems like an expensive hill to die on.

Remember I mentioned that this was a government project. That means if we fail to meet deadlines we get fined.

With no one submitting required documents for approval the project grinded to a halt.

First month, HR did nothing, not even putting out hiring ads.

At the end of the month, we were fined 5k.

HR finally realizes that this was serious, and finally started putting ads out.

However, they offered basically intern tier of pay, lowballing the hardest I’ve ever seen.

What kind of weird workplace bureaucracy is happening here?

There was no shot anyone with said certifications ever taking up the offer.

Month 2 ends, we get slapped by a 25k fine as listed in the contract.

HR panics now, raising their offer, but again still way too low.

Month 3 ends, we now get an additional 50k fine.

C suite are now all involved, especially the CEO.

CEO questions project lead why no work was done for 3 months.

Lead sends him to HR. HR tried to throw me under the bus, but my manager and Head produced HR’s email.

Always get everything in writing.

CEO pulls me into a meeting with my manager and Head, asks me to return to my role.

In addition, he guarantees me a promotion, including back pay since the start of the project.

He even sends an email with his official business use signature stating the offer.

I agree.

In the end, 1 HR member got fired, and another demoted.

CEO also started a separate progression path in the company, for those who aren’t interested in managerial roles.

In fact, I got 2 promotions for that path, and I currently earn slightly less than a manager, and also getting more responsibilities as per the role.

Thank goodness this all had a happy ending.

My manager and I sometimes joke that I upgraded from being a bronze cog to a golden one, but honestly I don’t mind, as I know I would absolutely fail at managing.

Hmm, well not sure if this last part is all that true. It sounds like the original poster is highly valued in their workplace (by everyone except HR), let’s see what the comments had to say.

All in all, most folks agreed.

Other people decried the unfair power imbalance.

And agreed that managerial tasks are LARGELY overrated.

Though they did command the bravery of the few good ones out there.

The main takeaway was that largely, priorities seem to be unbalanced in today’s working environment.

It really shouldn’t be this hard to get paid what you’re worth.

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.