When you’ve been working a job for some time, you have certain ways of doing things.

You develop a kind of synergy in the role, an awareness of what works and what doesn’t, and how best to hit your targets and goals.

So when someone tries to mess with this, it’s frustrating beyond belief.

And when the guy in this story was subject to a reshuffle, and his new manager tried to mess with his process, he was understandably irritated.

So he showed the manager just how wrong he was in the best way possible – by complying fully.

Read on to find out how this changed everything.

IT wanted process over results. I gave them process — and panic.

A couple of years ago, I got shuffled out of the business side of the company I work for, and into IT during a re-organisation.

The official reason was “better alignment with software delivery.” The real reason? I’m expensive, I don’t do sales, and IT has a bigger budget.

Also, and this is educated speculation, I kept not approving IT’s builds for not meeting specs — which, apparently, makes me “difficult” and not “solution oriented.”

So now I report to the executive I had previously challenged over the quality of his team’s work.

Uh-oh. Let’s see how this situation panned out for him.

Since joining IT, everything has to be a ticket. It doesn’t matter if it’s a question, a clarification, or divine revelation — no ticket, no work.

Project managers handle ticket creation and prioritization, which sounds fine in theory, except my actual job is to consult with business analysts and developers.

I know more about the rules, regulations, and use cases of our software than anyone in the company and my work doesn’t easily fall into a ticket as it’s more of a problem solving role for existing tickets.

Still, no ticket = no work. Bureaucracy over brains.

So he tried to work the system in the best way that he could.

Clients — especially senior ones — tend to reach out to me directly because I can actually answer their questions. Normally, I’d just respond and, if needed, make a ticket afterward for tracking.

But management didn’t like that.

After one particularly “spirited discussion” over delays to close low priority tickets in lieu of responding to high priority client emails, my boss told me to stop responding to client emails altogether.

I was to forward them to PMs, who would create, prioritize, and assign tickets.

Read on to find out how he reacted to this new order.

I explained, patiently, that these emails often come from executives and need quick turnaround.

My boss’s response? “Follow the process or we won’t know how overworked you are.”

Okay then, boss. Let’s follow the process.

A week later, I get an email from the CFO of one of our biggest clients asking for details about a customized build.

Normally I’d get an estimate out in a couple of hours. Instead, I cc’d my boss and PM, confirmed I’d received the request, and politely asked them to create and assign a ticket.

But that didn’t go down so well with the client.

A few days later, the CFO followed up: “We need this by Friday.”

I replied again — cc’ing everyone — apologizing for the delay and asking that the assigned resource take note of the urgency (knowing full well no one had assigned the ticket.)

Behind the scenes, I had already done the estimate and informed the client what was happening. Spoiler: nothing.

Suddenly, my boss is frantically pinging me: “Why haven’t you gotten back to the CFO?!”

Let’s see how he responded to his boss’s sudden interest in the situation.

I calmly reminded him that: 1. He told me to only work on assigned tickets; 2. He was cc’d on every email; 3. He’d have to ask the PM for a status update.

There was a long, delicious silence before he finally replied: “Okay, you don’t need a ticket for everything. In the future, if it’s from an executive, just respond and make a ticket afterward.”

Sure thing, boss. Glad we cleared that up.

I sent the estimate, everyone was happy, and peace was restored. And better yet, management now puts results over process.

Sometimes, the best way to refute an unfair situation is to comply, and comply hard.

It’s a shame that this knowledgeable employee wasn’t being taken seriously by his management, and it’s even worse that this approach was the only one that would get his manager to listen to his concerns.

Bringing in additional admin work is not only annoying, it’s also not effective in terms of time or resources.

And this guy well and truly proved that!

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

Many Redditors could relate to the frustrating situation this employee found himself in.

Though some could see both sides of the story.

Meanwhile this person, who had been thorough something similar, empathized with the Redditor.

It must have been tough for him to eat his words.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.