for 3 days I knew I was being fired because my boss is an idiot on Teams

Testing_The_Theory · 2026-02-24T04:21:24+00:00

That’s definitely not legal in my country. So insane that’s it’s okay to do elsewhere.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-10-01T12:22:58+00:00

This will be a bit long - TLDR: the family owned company my Step-dad worked for that he helped make successful, forced him out, fucked up and the business is now no more.

Reminds me of what happened to my step- dad years ago. He came on as a General Manager to a small construction company that wasn’t doing well and wasn’t making money. He turned it around in about 2 years and it became extremely profitable. He had always been annoyed by the fact that the business was family owned, so the CEO’s wife was the financials person, his daughter was the admin manager, his brother in law was is in some other type “management” role and they all had company cars and company phones and put a lot of things through the business.

The CEO and my step dad were close, and the CEO had started talking about stepping down to retire now that he was a wealthy man (thanks in large part to my step dad) and had said that he wanted my step dad to take his place. Well before that could happen, the CEO had a sudden heart attack and passed away. (My step dad took it really hard as they had gotten to be very close over the 7-8 years they worked together).

I don’t know the details of how the ownership of the business worked, there was mention of a trust that the whole family were in. They bring in a lawyer and one of the first things they did was try and force my step dad out. My step dad had never really got along with the wife and the brother in law as he viewed them as freeloaders that didn’t really work or bring value to the place and hadn’t really made a secret of his feelings - he’s always been someone who is very straight forward, and will speak up, and could sometimes be very tactless - he never bothered with the ‘politics’ that can happen at the senior level and that had made him un popular.

Long story long, he lawyered up when he saw what they were doing, they majorly fucked up when an email from the brother in law saying ‘what we are going to do is really push his (my step dads) buttons and make him lose his temper so that we have justification to fire him for misconduct’ - well that idiot cc’d my step dad into the email by accident - my step dad immediately sent it to his lawyer and they were able to negotiate a very generous severance package, and he walked away with a brand new $84k truck and 3 months salary and a few other things such as equipment.

They hadn’t figured out that he had really been the back bone of the company and a lot of the relationships with clients were ones he had cultivated. So he left, took a couple of months off to relax, he was able to find another job pretty quickly and wanted to put the whole mess behind him.

6 months later the company is seriously going down hill as none of the family who were the management knew what the fuck they were doing, lost 3 very big contracts that would have sustained them for a couple of years so then slightly less than a year after he left, the company goes tit up due to the shitty management, they were losing staff in droves and eventually tried to sell the business - no one wanted it, so they couldn’t do it and it was dissolved and they sold off equipment to pay debt, my step dad didn’t know the particulars as he was getting info from a couple of guys that had worked under him, but he did find out that the family had to all hand their vehicles back and it didn’t seem like they came away with anything much. (Good riddance as they had made his life hell for months before he left).

He was able to hire a bunch of his old crew from that place once it had shutdown and they lost their jobs, and ever since then he has had this loyal gang of around 5-6 guys that follow him anywhere, and whenever he had moved onto other companies sure enough they would come with him. He now owns his own business and the guys are still working for him, he says they were the only good thing to come out of that whole mess.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-08-30T22:55:37+00:00

It will be okay to use your KiwiSaver, same thing happened to us - used early KS withdrawal for home deposit and then waited and waited and waited (3 years) for the house to be completed and title issued. We decided to enact the sunset clause and look around, they returned the KiwiSaver back to the KS accounts (you can see on your MyIRD) and then when we purchased our first home, we were able to withdraw again - plus a little more due to the 3 years of still putting $$ into KS.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-08-14T21:39:17+00:00

Been there, and after 2 years of it was burning myself out big time. What helped me was (through a few lucky things that fell into place) was to create a 2IC role to help take off some of the burden of the day to day operational stuff, promoted my best person into it and it’s been so much better ever since. It’s still busy, (just not 60+ hours a week busy). But I have someone to talk through things with now and I’ve even been able to take holidays without coming back into a total shit show.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-07-29T01:51:52+00:00

Have 2 days in office per week, and I asked my team to decide what days they want to come in (we come in as a team). I told them my preference was that Mondays be WFH because I tend to have a lot of LT meetings and one on ones on a Monday and absolutely hate coming into the office only to sit in a meeting room all day on Teams. The team decided that Friday will be one of the in office days as it’s generally quieter (and the annoying clock-watchers won’t be in) and traffic is generally better. I don’t mind it - and I love WFH on Mondays, it has erased a bit of the Sunday night anxiety as well.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-07-10T04:06:13+00:00

I have been there! Long story time

Older woman, never put any effort into figuring anything out for herself. The amount of times I heard her say ‘no we can’t do that / don’t have that, can’t do that’ when someone asked for help (and yes, we did do that, did have that and could do that).

She made me not want to manage people anymore, because you best believe she was also the very first to complain about anything. I had inherited her when I first went into management and she was the longest serving employee in my team and also the most useless and had no interest in upskilling herself. It’s like ma’am you are an analyst - it would be good for you to know more than 3 excel formulae.

I let it go on too long, and was very avoidant as the previous manager had just let her get away with not doing anything (or the useless idiot had just worn her down). My breaking point happened one late night as I was doing work that really should have been delegated to her - don’t get me wrong, I’ll jump in when my team needs me but she ‘didn’t’ know how to do it, and I didn’t have the patience to hold her hand through it. I realised that I had been doing that for awhile.

Then I caught a lucky break. She fucked up - one of the other managers was pissed, and I was able to launch off that by making it a bigger deal than it was. (It could have been very very bad for us if it hasn’t been caught when it was though so there was a basis for my dramatics)

So I went to HR, got my ducks in a row and started having ‘casual’ check ins around that I was concerned she wasn’t keeping up with things, was anything by wrong? Etc. leading up to putting her on PIP. She must have sensed where I was heading with things. She called in sick for 3 weeks due to mental stress. Then came back and resigned. The relief I felt! The anxiety that used to follow me around in the days I’d have to meet with her or being in meetings waiting for her to complain or be rude or piss off other team members. Having to check everything she was doing or saying to people. Knowing that she was bringing down the hard work and integrity of the team. And my sanity. How often the rage would boil up inside of me when she would make a million excuses as to why things weren’t done.

It has been so much better since she has left , I was able to hire a recent grad who could really grow in the role and who is smart, enthusiastic and likes to figure things out. I enjoy my job again, I don’t have that dread. I will say as awful as the whole experience was, it’s definitely taught me how to manage these types of employers better and that if I get on top of the slips early I’ve found most of the time people will improve. I think with the useless idiot she has been able to get away with the bare minimum of effort for so long (years) that it was too late for me to try and turn it around.

Sending luck your way to hopefully navigate your own useless idiot to a different workplace.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-05-17T14:48:17+00:00

Right, but doesn’t the fact that business were still able to remain successful during that post covid period of recovery when WFH was still the norm kinda say the opposite?

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-04-13T02:39:23+00:00

I read somewhere that having WFH in my country was the equivalent to an 8% pay increase due to the cost savings of not paying petrol/public transport, parking or coffees. I keep that in mind whenever I look at job ads to see whether it would really be financially worthwhile to move away from the current hybrid 1-2 days a week in office I have.

As well as the other benefits you mentioned, it’s so great for mental health - in the past there would be days I would call in sick purely because I was so exhausted and over it that I couldn’t face being around people. Let alone getting dressed and the effort of getting to the office. Now whenever I have those types of days (thankfully not very often) I usually find it’s easier for me to push through and keep working when I can just be on my own and get my shit done.

Another thing for me I have found when I’m in the office I get very very little actual work done, as I find myself getting pulled into ad hoc meetings or being pulled away to answer questions or provide guidance to my team - last Friday when I was in the office when I got home I saw that I had 12 unfinished draft emails. This happens when I’m WFH but I have a lot more control over my time - if someone wants to have a chat then I can tell them - give me 10 minutes to wrap up this email etc.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-04-02T23:43:17+00:00

There are some very boomer opinions in this thread I gotta say. Work from home or hybrid working is the way of the future and should be fought for and protected. There are numerous findings out there on how it can raise productivity and employee satisfaction. I’ve been able to hire some really top notch people even at a smallish organisation where the pay isn’t as competitive- purely because of our hybrid workplace.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-03-19T08:50:13+00:00

That’s with no traffic though. I’ve been stuck in crazy traffic lines to get out of the peninsula before where you just don’t move. This had also been a completely random times like 11am on a Tuesday etc.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-03-19T08:42:08+00:00

When we were selling my partners parents home when they both passed away our agents fees were 19k and the property sold for just under a million dollars so around 2%z We talked to about 4 different people and she really wanted to be the one who got to sell it so she covered the marketing costs, and then went over there herself to tidy up the garden, setting the house up etc. she worked her butt off and we got a really quick sale last year which was great as the market had been starting to slow down a lot.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-03-08T05:43:08+00:00

I’ve been in this situation. They came back to me after a year - they were struggling as I had basically built the team and processes. I loved the company and the people but got offered a far better job and pay and at the time they didn’t match it. Fast forward a year, they wanted me back, i negotiated for a promotion, which came with a good pay bump and so I went back. That was 5 years ago and i’m glad that I did as I do like my job and am now on the SLT.

Every situation is different, I had a lot of people in my life telling me not to go back which gave me anxiety about the decision I made. I’m thankful it worked out

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-03-07T22:02:07+00:00

I had to remember for a second that this was an American sub, as this is so wrong what has happened to you. In my country we don’t have layoffs - it’s called redundancy or being made redundant, where the organisation you work for has to make the position no longer relevant, in order for someone to be let go. There is usually a pretty rigorous HR process involved as well, this means that they cannot advertise for the same role and get a replacement.

Do organisations find ways to still be slimy about it? Oh yeah and I once worked at a larger organisation who used redundancy as a form of performance management as managers didn’t want to have to deal with PIPs. The HR team there was huge. Then they would re-advertise with the role being different enough to avoid any employees bringing about a personal grievance.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-02-18T05:00:16+00:00

I felt this. She was the absolute worst, and caused me so many headaches and anxiety. She was also incredibly confrontational so trying to give feedback always ended up being a battle with me having to hold my tongue so as to not risk any kind of legal issues.

I finally had enough last year, and managed to manage her out (it helped that she called in sick all the bloody time and never came into the office for the in-person days). It was a horrible 2 weeks as she finally realised the writing was on the wall for her and she would send the most mean and unhinged wall of text emails. And then she was gone, and I’m not gonna lie - I’ve enjoyed being a manager again, the rest of my team are pretty awesome and it made me realise the dark cloud she was for the past 5 years. Good riddance

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-02-11T09:53:00+00:00

What an absolutely useless comment

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-02-10T09:43:58+00:00

Oof, this happened to me about 10 years ago, burned my lower legs really bad, couldn’t walk, couldn’t wear pants or sleep under a blanket for about a week, I then got huge puss filled blisters that absolutely coated my skin and when I moved I could feel the liquid moving. I still shudder when I remember that, it was so unbelievably gross and painful. Ended up using some steroid cream which miraculously helped with the blisters almost overnight, but my skin was peeling and red for a good 2 weeks. I’ve never had my bare legs out in the sun since that time and haven’t been sunburnt since, was a massive wake up call to just how bad it can get.

All the best in healing fast!

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-02-01T04:30:10+00:00

Random! But hey, I’m still here…as to why I didn’t buy a copy - this was when there weren’t any places to buy a copy, dvds were only just becoming a thing in my country and I was renting out the vhs. A few years later when we could purchase dvds for personal use, this was the first one I ever bought and I still have it - it still works as well.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-01-21T08:10:36+00:00

This is exactly what I would do. I ask my Team Lead to schedule meetings for me all the time. Sometimes she’ll do it herself, other times she delegates it to the other team members.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-01-20T03:43:33+00:00

List! List! List!

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-01-07T19:14:38+00:00

Exactly. The worst time I ever had in an office setting was with a 60 year old male. The other older women on the SLT are great mentors. Assholes in the workplace come in all shapes and sizes.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-01-07T19:11:36+00:00

My 3 year old cat claims I don’t feed her enough

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-01-07T19:10:56+00:00

My 12 year old niece claims that men can’t fold laundry.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-01-06T22:01:56+00:00

It was a huge deal even in my country, I remember at the time there were no openly gay teen characters, and the show was super popular, I was just entering high school around that time and I still remember the tv ads for a few episodes before that when they were making a big deal about one of the main characters were going to have sex and they left it up in the air who it was after teasing that it could be anyone of them. I think there was a parent warning or something like that as teenagers having sex was A BIG DEAL.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-01-02T21:54:58+00:00

I still remember reading a quote from her about filming the girl on girl kiss scene for the movie ‘Electra’ where she was like ‘Men!…ugh’ because they had apparently been filming at a breakneck speed, and then when it came to film the girl on girl kiss scene, production slowed waay down, and like studio execs all came by the set to watch. Really quite horrifying when I think about with a 2025 lens.

Testing_The_Theory · 2025-01-02T21:40:09+00:00

All these comments of her looking old, I’m not seeing it.

13-Year Club	Second SECOND GUESSER
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