New Director Hosts A Meeting At 8 AM, Despite The Line Manager’s Warnings Regarding The Process, Causing Production To Stall
When joining a new company, it is very important to respect the rules and contribute to the creation of a healthy office environment. If the new person comes into a managerial position – it is better to analyze the already existing office culture and not make drastic changes right away.
A Reddit user, who goes by the nickname Marcbmann, turned to the Malicious Compliance community with a story, well, to be more specific, a story from his girlfriend about her new director who came into the workplace and decided to start organizing.
More Info: Reddit
Have you ever had a new manager who immediately took control of the organization in the company? Well, it is not always going to lead to better results
Image credits: Alexander Isreb (not the actual image)
The new director decided to organize a meeting early in the morning, despite requests to postpone it to 9 a.m. for better time management
Image credits: u/Marcbmann
As expected – the employees were waiting without work all because the author’s girlfriend was “busy” in the meeting
Image credits: Kampus Production (not the actual image)
The Redditor starts the story with the information that his girlfriend has a few lines that she manages at her work. This information is important for the development of the incident as these workers gather in the morning to wait for their assignments which need to be prepared by her. Surprisingly, one day, a new director shows up who wants to take control and starts organizing and basically – takes over the company’s culture and their everyday morning routine.
The first thing he initiated was a mandatory daily early morning meeting at 8 a.m. The OP’s girlfriend requested to delay the meeting by at least one hour later – otherwise, the workers will be doing nothing and waiting for their assignments. However, the new director assured her that the meeting would not take more than 15 minutes and, in addition to this, the other workers agreed to have a meeting first thing in the morning.
As you may guess, the new director’s idea led to the expected mess – the workers were waiting for the OP’s girlfriend’s (who is the manager for the people who work on lines) instructions and additionally, a 15-minute meeting turned into a 45-minute conference.
Needless to say, the manager eventually found out she was the most important person on the floor, and hence, meetings now start at 9 a.m.
Image credits: JESHOOTS.com (not the actual image)
From the situation, it is clear that the problem occurred when the new director refused to listen to the advice of people who were in the company for a longer time. It is clear that the employees, in this case, OP’s girlfriend, know better what works for the company’s management and what problems may come up with new “installations” such as – daily early meetings.
However, it is not a shocking situation that the manager immediately wants to take control and show that he/she is the boss of the company. According to Edgar Schein, who is a professor emeritus at MIT Sloan School of Management, when students were asked what it means to be a manager – “tell others what to do”, they answered without a doubt.
According to Totaljobs, nearly 50% of UK employees have left a job because of a strained relationship with their manager. One-fifth (18%) of respondents stated they couldn’t trust their supervisor, and 28% said their line manager was their “enemy at work.” One in four experienced nightmares about their boss, and one in four (26% of respondents) had sought help for mental health difficulties. It is visible that arrogant managers can negatively influence the whole company’s dynamic and lead to a toxic workplace environment. So, as it may start from simple daily meetings without discussion regarding a suitable time for everybody, it may lead to much bigger corporate problems in the office.
Unfortunately, many people in the comments could relate to the OP regarding the situation. In addition to this, Redditors shared some of the stories from their office life and horrible managers’ decisions. And some people read the story with relief – “I am so happy being retired.”
What did you think about this story? Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation?
The incident sparked a variety of perspectives in the comments, but the post received more than 11k upvotes and numerous reader stories
Image credits: Tan Krukau (not the actual image)
This is not a story that needed to be written up and posted. Nothing even remotely interesting happened. 🤷🏼♂️
"The meetings will continue until production improves." That is pretty much what all company meetings boil down to. At least 90% of all meetings could be handled in an email. I've seen some that if you came to one and then came back 5 years later, you would fell like you hadn't missed a thing. As for OP's GF, at least he showed up on time. I used to have to go to one every Monday. We were all in there at 8. The owner on the otherhand.... One day he said something along the lines of "we need to be more organized and get started sooner" and one smarta** salesman looked at him and told him "we've all been here since 8, you're the one that's always late." Meetings got closer to starting on time after that.
This is not a story that needed to be written up and posted. Nothing even remotely interesting happened. 🤷🏼♂️
"The meetings will continue until production improves." That is pretty much what all company meetings boil down to. At least 90% of all meetings could be handled in an email. I've seen some that if you came to one and then came back 5 years later, you would fell like you hadn't missed a thing. As for OP's GF, at least he showed up on time. I used to have to go to one every Monday. We were all in there at 8. The owner on the otherhand.... One day he said something along the lines of "we need to be more organized and get started sooner" and one smarta** salesman looked at him and told him "we've all been here since 8, you're the one that's always late." Meetings got closer to starting on time after that.
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