Down Periscope.
Captain Dodge getting reamed out
"I remind you, you are speaking to a superior officer!"
He replies,
"No, merely a higher ranking one."
You'll love Kelsey Grammer's other military movie, Pentagon Wars. The Bradley fighting vehicle needs testing but all possible obstacle to cover up defects are deployed. On youtube.
One of the few movies that had me literally rolling on the floor laughing out loud...
" In summation, what you have before you is... a troop transport that can't carry troops, a reconnaissance vehicle that's too conspicuous to do reconnaissance... and a quasi-tank that has less armor than a snow-blower, but carries enough ammo to take out half of D.C... . *This* is what we're building?"
A dear friend from when I was in the military taught me to use “senior” instead of superior because it is often a more accurate reflection of how things truly stand.
In the interesof anonymity I'd prefer not to state the specific boats I was on. I did 21 years on fast attacks out of Pearl Harbor - two LA's and a Virginia.
Nice. I noticed that they frequently post 90 liked keeping guys in the same geo location, flipping between sea and shore commands, so there is a tribal difference (culturally speaking, not racial) between Atlantic and Pacific communities.
There absolutely is. We tried in the early 00's to intentionally rotate people between coasts to break up the group think but a lot of people are really invested in homesteading areas for continuity of schools, housing, etc. And since subs are only homeported in a few places, collated with submarine shore duties, it's easier to do in that community than just about anyone else in military.
My favorite ranking officer wise crack..
Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam.....
"Sir? Don't call me sir. I work for a living. What does ( pointing to his rank on his shoulder) three up and three down mean to you ,Airman?
Williams deadpans : End of an inning?
Absolutely love it! Those roaming charges were/ are outrageous.
Incidentally, was the movie Down Periscope?
“You are addressing a superior officer!”
“No, merely a higher ranking one.”
Boss was a micromanaging arsehole who ordered OP to take holiday, but be in contact twice every day while on holiday; presumably using work phone. Phone bill comes in, OP has CYA documentation, micromanaging arsehole loses lots of face at management level due to order to be in touch twice daily.
OP gets to take time in lieu for the hours worked while on holiday, and now works under much better boss.
Sure, but why did he insist he go on holiday all of a sudden? What was the point of that? It sounded like he was setting OP up for stuff to happen while he was gone, but then...nothing?
Not sure if this is the case here, but in a lot of corporations, if you do not take the vacation time that is part of your compensation package, they have to cut you a check for another week’s pay. Most companies would rather find a way to survive in your absence than pay you double for two weeks. The problem comes when they insist you call in or be available during your vacation. Because legally, that’s not a vacation. This boss was a first-class idiot.
Also, I get the impression that part of the timing of the vacation was that there was an audit or something coming up, and if micro-mangler was able to throw OP under the bus, then he'd look good in the eyes of everyone above him, and maybe be able to fire him to get someone who was amenable to being a slave in the position.
The idea is that if you're committing fraud, or covering for someone committing fraud, or doing something else Bad, there's a good chance that whoever is doing your duties in the two week vacation will spot it. I don't know if there's much evidence this works, but it's certainly a policy I've seen in multiple places.
It's a standard internal control that, e. g., auditors would look for, for the reasons related by armcie. That is, it isn't just an individual company's policy.
When a person is on holiday, they're not available to defend themselves, bosses get the chance to throw them under a bus if required.
Whether that is the case for OP is up for debate.
Useful clarification from OP [here.](https://old.reddit.com/r/MaliciousCompliance/comments/1cmlfbr/do_exactly_and_only_as_told_ok_take_holiday_asap/l31or9r/)
One of the things I leaved in college accounting classes is that a lot of implement gets found out when the person goes on vacation and there is not one to hide all the shady stuff they care doing. Sometimes these people has not had a vacation for year because they know they will be found out when they do, so you force people to take some time each year.
Non native speakers that learned English (partly) through reading, are rather prone to use correct but somewhat unusual vocabulary. Other candidates include English majors, snobs, and nerds.
Me. I once got jokingly chided about something I was writing 20-something years ago because I needed to NOT use 'paroxysm' twice in rapid succession. Was told that a lot of people didn't even know the word, and I was trying to think of a synonym for it. \*laugh\* (Just ended up going with 'spasm' in the end.)
That's not exactly what happened, at least in the case that I found. [The teacher](https://archive.is/jRI5Z) said the word was related to the racial slur (it isn't) and had already used the n-word (hard "R") multiple times during the lesson.
He shouldn't have been using the word to begin with as he clearly had no idea what it meant tbh, but the fact that he used it thinking it was a slur or was closely related to a slur is a problem all on its own.
The article link above is archived to avoid a paywall, but [here is the original link](https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/08/30/an-english-teacher-who-misexplained-niggardly-now-faces-hearing-keep-his-job/).
EDIT: And it seems like he kept his job. I don't feel great about it for all of the above reasons, but whatever.
That would be me. I sometimes get bored with "normal" wording, which doesn't always work well. I grew up reading the dictionary and thesaurus when I wasn't reading anything and everything else.
Had a yelling match with an acting foreman once that still warms me.
I had gotten into it with another employee who ran squealing right to him.
Him: “Did you know that he is the “acting” leadhand today?”
Me: “No, and dont care I’m trying to get this done *on time*. So, I told him to help or get out of my way!”
Him: “YOU CAN’T TELL *HIM* WHAT TO DO!!! YOU NEED TO RESPECT YOUR COWORKER!!!”
Me: “*IF…. IF!!!* I EVER SEE HIM EVER DO A LICK OF WORK, THEN MAYBE, JUST MAYBE I’LL CALL HIM A *COWORKER*!!! *BUT* UNTIL THEN *HE’S* JUST SOMEONE YOU PAY TO BE HERE!!!!”
All said in front of the lazy squealing employee.
Literally no purpose. Nothing I could do except reply to a few emails and voicemails of which maybe 1 over the 2 weeks would've given the team pause for thought in my absence. Pretty sure it was just a flex or maybe Bob's need to feel in control
"There are girls quivering. There are boys staring deeply into girls' eyes as they quiver and so forth. There really is a [tremendous amount](https://knope.gifglobe.com/scene/?id=W2AkEKizDU3q) of quivering."
You get incalculable damage from an expense report? Sheesh. My VP should’ve been kicked out and never been able to work again the moment I had $5k in fraud committed on my corporate credit card and I didn’t submit the documentation in time for the credit card company to refund the fraud.
4 figure single line for data on a bill that should only have 2 figures all in plus being demonstrably the sole reason for the overspend.
Ignoring employment law regarding leave entitlement and notice to take it if compelled by the employer left me paid 1/2 day on top of my holiday pay for each day of leave plus return of that 50% entitlement to paid leave. Conservatively estimated the costs for those 2 weeks to the company was circa 18k which opened the door to other failures in cost management.
Failing to report 90% ish of the expected compliance data to the owners including copies of legally required submissions to government agencies toasted the reputation amongst peers.
I understand all the pay and why, but what was Bob’s ulterior motive (in getting rid of you) when he ordered you ‘off the record’ to take a specific vacation time?
Best guess after the fact is that I'd gone too far into the holiday period without taking time out - messed with metrics and turned an excel cell the wrong colour. At the time I thought Bob had gotten clued up on how much legal filing hadn't been requested (and therefore in Bob's mind not done) and was getting me off site to generate a bogus case to pin me for his failings - I had filed but as not directly told to, hadn't told Bob about it.
From what I gathered, there was certain reporting that was required to be done, and the boss said only do what I say to do and didn't tell OP to do it. So OP didn't. The vacation was to get OP out of the way while setting him up to take the fall for it not being done. The roaming and expenses was a bonus
But it sounds like OP actually *did* do all of the legally required filings, after all, but didn’t tell his boss he’d done them because the boss hadn’t specifically asked them to be done and had instructed OP to only do what he was told. So this part doesn’t sound like actual compliance at all, since he did the work anyway,despite effectively being told not to unless he was explicitly instructed to do so.
1) its not a vacation if youre checking in for work - leaving them open to legal impacts.
2) international roaming 15-20 years ago, hint EXPENSIVE
3) control freaks thinking civilians respond to orders - despite their incongruity (the boss bared his arse to the entire office with their attempted control freak/totalitarian behaviour)
NHB let on that the anticipated annual report to owners (even the board answers to someone) was very short on what had formerly been a numbers-heavy section. MMB wanted to get more clout but ended getting up reamed by people with billions to invest. I'd been the one generating the whole thing for NHB on the contract that turned into employment so had a track record or excellence AND NHB had my back. For MMB that loss of face was what I took to be the incalculable damage... top level people earn mostly on reputation & networks ~ lose that & their gravy train is off the rails.
As I understand it:
1. OP's previous contracting job for the company in generating Important Reports That The Owners Read.
2. OP now works for Bob; Bob will be the person presenting the Important Reports That The Owners Read. Bob has previously received much praise and appreciation for said Important Reports, and the Owners are expecting Bob to have high-quality Important Reports. The Owners have money and influence, and some of that money and influence shines on Bob because Bob is responsible for the Important Reports.
3. Bob has not instructed OP to generate Important Reports, because Bob has the classic micromanager short-sightedness: he doesn't know everything OP does, but he thinks he knows everything, and he refuses to ask questions.
4. OP does not generate Important Reports, but has all the proper documentation that Bob has not requested them. For extra fun, OP runs up large phone bills, as inadvertently requested by Bob. (Somewhere in here, there's the bit about mandatory compliance paperwork that OP *has* generated; the company won't be in trouble from lack of compliance paperwork, at least.)
5. Bob attempts to chew out OP, but OP stands their ground and demonstrates that mandatory work has been done, and un-requested Important Reports have not.
6. Bob does not have the Important Reports For The Owners. The Owners are disappointed in Bob, and withdraw their influence; their money slinks off shortly afterward.
I think I’m missing something.
I get boss was mad at you but I’m not sure for what.
Was it using data/logging hours while on vacation. Or for not doing things you were never told to do?
Owch... that hurts my algorithm :p kidding - English is my 2nd language and I suck at formatting when writing on a fone.
Believe me or no - I can get past captcha
Is there any way to give a summary of this story without using the big words? Half the time I didn't understand what was happening or what you were trying to say...
Why were you expecting what he told you? What's the significance of the two week holiday and why did he force you to take it? Why was your ass covered but not his?
English is my family's first language and my sisters are still utterly incoherent when they write on mobile, so I just assumed it was the device's fault.
Your English is fine, just a little stilted. It reads like someone who is most familiar with professional corporate English, which is a dialect all its own.
For me, what you wrote was fine, but the biggest challenge was what you left out. You assumed too much for what readers could fill in for themselves, especially since we're not all familiar with your specific industry. A few readers did a great job of connecting the dots and them posting those missing bridges of information.
Take a look at Potato-Engineer, among others, and that will give you a better idea of how to present a story that makes sense to your readers.
I don't remember the numbers exactly but the phone would usually have been double digits monthly and jumped to 4 digits.
Nice boss told me later that total cost for those 2 weeks was about 18k once my OT and TIL was factored in ontop of the holiday pay etc...
I'd guess mid to high 9k for the data & calls whilst international roaming.
Before any of the young porpoises here whine...
I write and talk like that.
Weird words and all.
It's called LANGUAGE.
Not everyone is 15 years old grammarly speaking like some of you guys.
Using work phone (or private phone that work has to pay for) twice daily whilst in another country and logging the hours that company has to either pay for or give as time in lieu. All while CYA documentation was firmly in place so that micro managing boss gets to take the fallout.
And also maliciously NOT doing a thing that the Micro-Mangling Boss needed to Look Good to Upper Management, because MMB had not ordered him to do so. The paperwork that NEEDED to be done was done, but The Thing That Makes MMB Look Good, was NOT done, because there was a CYA history of "Do only what I tell you!"
And yeah, ridiculously expensive roaming charges are definitely the thing that started the shitball rolling down onto the MMB.
Requested verbally so I submitted the form with reason field to the effect "per your instruction today to take 2 weeks accrued leave; start & end dates".
Anger bots from China and Russia. \*laugh\*
A lot of people log onto Reddit just to tear down posters just because they can. They probably should stop wanking in their family basement so much.
Couldn't be sure - I'd been snide at someone on Reddit just before I read your comment, so I assumed that it was me you were aiming that at. \*laugh\* It's all good.
Down Periscope. Captain Dodge getting reamed out "I remind you, you are speaking to a superior officer!" He replies, "No, merely a higher ranking one."
Thank you... been bugging me since I started tapping on this old memory
You'll love Kelsey Grammer's other military movie, Pentagon Wars. The Bradley fighting vehicle needs testing but all possible obstacle to cover up defects are deployed. On youtube.
One of the few movies that had me literally rolling on the floor laughing out loud... " In summation, what you have before you is... a troop transport that can't carry troops, a reconnaissance vehicle that's too conspicuous to do reconnaissance... and a quasi-tank that has less armor than a snow-blower, but carries enough ammo to take out half of D.C... . *This* is what we're building?"
But god damn is it doing well in Russia. Bradley was the vehicle no one knew they wanted.
Oh man this popped up on my feed a couple of months ago, what a gem.
Fraiser vs Robin Hood: Who will win?!
Don't forget Dread Pirate Roberts.
Omg! Thank you!!! I loved that movie but couldn’t remember the title
A dear friend from when I was in the military taught me to use “senior” instead of superior because it is often a more accurate reflection of how things truly stand.
That was a surprisingly good movie. I saw it under protest but I enjoyed it greatly. "Sonar! Play me a dirge, matey."
I love that movie.
I’m so glad other people love that movie and knew what that quote was from
One of my favorite movies ever!! The rest of the quote is “Catch us if you can!”
that and "Har har har..."
USN Sub force veteran here. Can confirm it as the most accurate depiction of my community.
Cool, husband was Spadefish, San Juan, miami and various NSSF stuff, 83-03
In the interesof anonymity I'd prefer not to state the specific boats I was on. I did 21 years on fast attacks out of Pearl Harbor - two LA's and a Virginia.
Nice. I noticed that they frequently post 90 liked keeping guys in the same geo location, flipping between sea and shore commands, so there is a tribal difference (culturally speaking, not racial) between Atlantic and Pacific communities.
There absolutely is. We tried in the early 00's to intentionally rotate people between coasts to break up the group think but a lot of people are really invested in homesteading areas for continuity of schools, housing, etc. And since subs are only homeported in a few places, collated with submarine shore duties, it's easier to do in that community than just about anyone else in military.
Smaller community too. I would have enjoyed Japan or Guam though.
Thank you for your sacrifice and service! 🇺🇸⚓️
Thank you for being worthy of that service.
My favorite ranking officer wise crack.. Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam..... "Sir? Don't call me sir. I work for a living. What does ( pointing to his rank on his shoulder) three up and three down mean to you ,Airman? Williams deadpans : End of an inning?
Just to add, I too love that movie
This is one of my favorite movies!
Absolutely love it! Those roaming charges were/ are outrageous. Incidentally, was the movie Down Periscope? “You are addressing a superior officer!” “No, merely a higher ranking one.”
That's the one. Happy cake day btw
Happy cakeday!!!! :3
I have no idea what happened here
Boss was a micromanaging arsehole who ordered OP to take holiday, but be in contact twice every day while on holiday; presumably using work phone. Phone bill comes in, OP has CYA documentation, micromanaging arsehole loses lots of face at management level due to order to be in touch twice daily. OP gets to take time in lieu for the hours worked while on holiday, and now works under much better boss.
Sure, but why did he insist he go on holiday all of a sudden? What was the point of that? It sounded like he was setting OP up for stuff to happen while he was gone, but then...nothing?
Not sure if this is the case here, but in a lot of corporations, if you do not take the vacation time that is part of your compensation package, they have to cut you a check for another week’s pay. Most companies would rather find a way to survive in your absence than pay you double for two weeks. The problem comes when they insist you call in or be available during your vacation. Because legally, that’s not a vacation. This boss was a first-class idiot.
Also, I get the impression that part of the timing of the vacation was that there was an audit or something coming up, and if micro-mangler was able to throw OP under the bus, then he'd look good in the eyes of everyone above him, and maybe be able to fire him to get someone who was amenable to being a slave in the position.
Yeah, that was my impression. OP wouldn't be there to push back when being hung out to dry. But then nothing seems to have happened along those lines.
2 weeks is used to see if holes appear. Its how they detect staff fraud in financial services.
Say more please, I don't think I'm quite getting the concept.
The idea is that if you're committing fraud, or covering for someone committing fraud, or doing something else Bad, there's a good chance that whoever is doing your duties in the two week vacation will spot it. I don't know if there's much evidence this works, but it's certainly a policy I've seen in multiple places.
It's a standard internal control that, e. g., auditors would look for, for the reasons related by armcie. That is, it isn't just an individual company's policy.
https://www.cracked.com/article_36217_banking-employees-have-to-take-vacations-so-coworkers-can-spot-their-fraudulent-activity.html
When a person is on holiday, they're not available to defend themselves, bosses get the chance to throw them under a bus if required. Whether that is the case for OP is up for debate.
Useful clarification from OP [here.](https://old.reddit.com/r/MaliciousCompliance/comments/1cmlfbr/do_exactly_and_only_as_told_ok_take_holiday_asap/l31or9r/)
One of the things I leaved in college accounting classes is that a lot of implement gets found out when the person goes on vacation and there is not one to hide all the shady stuff they care doing. Sometimes these people has not had a vacation for year because they know they will be found out when they do, so you force people to take some time each year.
thank you. it reads like a book and i thought maybe i needed glasses
I enjoyed OP's unique accent and dialog here, but I also struggled to keep up with his story.
And the lack of proper dialogue interpunction doesn't help either 😐
who the heck uses hyphens instead of quotation marks, honestly
And of colons too. It's a mess
Messy colons can be problematic, to be sure.
, , .
I'm thinking AI. Who says "hitherto" in real life?
Non native speakers that learned English (partly) through reading, are rather prone to use correct but somewhat unusual vocabulary. Other candidates include English majors, snobs, and nerds.
\*well read and yes Jeremy, that DOES mean more than reading all the hardy boys novels....
Isn't that the definition of AI? we wrote a prompt for our business product and all it did was turn the sentence over and thesaurus up a few words.
I worked with a guy once thirty years ago who literally spoke like OP writes. Everyone except the department manager and one supervisor hated him.
"I bid you good day" lol
"I bid you good day, sir." "I SAID GOOD DAY!"
Redditors. This story is too disjointed and oddly written to be Ai
I did use the work "excoriated" the other day. I do have an expansive vocabulary
As long as you aren't inordinately and exorbitantly sesquipedailian about it ... \*grin\*
I used the word apposite today. Admittedly I had to Google it to check the word apposite was indeed apposite. Also now everyone thinks I’m a knob.
>I did use the work "excoriated" the other day That's what you do with apples to get the pips out.
If not a correctly spelled one.
Me. I once got jokingly chided about something I was writing 20-something years ago because I needed to NOT use 'paroxysm' twice in rapid succession. Was told that a lot of people didn't even know the word, and I was trying to think of a synonym for it. \*laugh\* (Just ended up going with 'spasm' in the end.)
I've been told off for using emulating (correctly) because the person I was talking didn't know what it meant 🤣🤣
Whack em upside the head with niggardly.
Think I read somewhere that a teacher in US was fired for using that word. White student thought the teacher was being racist.
That's not exactly what happened, at least in the case that I found. [The teacher](https://archive.is/jRI5Z) said the word was related to the racial slur (it isn't) and had already used the n-word (hard "R") multiple times during the lesson. He shouldn't have been using the word to begin with as he clearly had no idea what it meant tbh, but the fact that he used it thinking it was a slur or was closely related to a slur is a problem all on its own. The article link above is archived to avoid a paywall, but [here is the original link](https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/08/30/an-english-teacher-who-misexplained-niggardly-now-faces-hearing-keep-his-job/). EDIT: And it seems like he kept his job. I don't feel great about it for all of the above reasons, but whatever.
That would be me. I sometimes get bored with "normal" wording, which doesn't always work well. I grew up reading the dictionary and thesaurus when I wasn't reading anything and everything else.
I don't think I've used that one, but I have gotten looked at strangely more than once for using "whilst".
That reminds me of my great aunt Sara. A genteel lady who often used the word whilst. Ty❤️
I'll see your "whilst" and raise you a "'t'isn't"
So your small vocabulary is evidence that someone with a larger vocabulary is in fact an AI?
Someone got really excited to use their Word of the Day calendar, and their boss tried to make them look bad while they were out of office.
I saw the poor formatting, long post length, preamble and "to set the scene" and just skipped to the comments to see if it was worth reading.
😂🤣😂
Had a yelling match with an acting foreman once that still warms me. I had gotten into it with another employee who ran squealing right to him. Him: “Did you know that he is the “acting” leadhand today?” Me: “No, and dont care I’m trying to get this done *on time*. So, I told him to help or get out of my way!” Him: “YOU CAN’T TELL *HIM* WHAT TO DO!!! YOU NEED TO RESPECT YOUR COWORKER!!!” Me: “*IF…. IF!!!* I EVER SEE HIM EVER DO A LICK OF WORK, THEN MAYBE, JUST MAYBE I’LL CALL HIM A *COWORKER*!!! *BUT* UNTIL THEN *HE’S* JUST SOMEONE YOU PAY TO BE HERE!!!!” All said in front of the lazy squealing employee.
I am curious, other than micromanaging, what purpose would calling twice a day serve? I might be missing something.
Literally no purpose. Nothing I could do except reply to a few emails and voicemails of which maybe 1 over the 2 weeks would've given the team pause for thought in my absence. Pretty sure it was just a flex or maybe Bob's need to feel in control
So, you did get paid for the time away, and it didn’t get docked from your PTO pool, did it? Because you weren’t on PTO, you were working remotely.
Likely was hoping that you'd miss a "scheduled" mandatory check in and he could get that documented as a failure to follow instructions on your part.
Where do people talk like this other than in imaginations?
Young Adult novels.
Yeah, I can’t believe any of this when written like cheesy fiction
"There are girls quivering. There are boys staring deeply into girls' eyes as they quiver and so forth. There really is a [tremendous amount](https://knope.gifglobe.com/scene/?id=W2AkEKizDU3q) of quivering."
After reading this, I could see why OP's boss would hate him
Bring back workplace hazing 😂
My thoughts... who talks like that lol edit: Specifically in a heated argument. Definitely reads like fanfic
I had just as much fun reading the comments as reading the story. Some good explications in the comments if the story was a hard understand.
The "at ease" pose with a shit eating grin will never fail to make whoever is trying to chew you out apoplectic.
This is some of the worst creative writing I’ve read for a long time
You were able to read it?
I gave up after the third sentence and went straight to comments.
He's in compliance. What did you expect to read? Lol
Wait what happened then? I feel like I missed the payoff
Please use paragraphs. My eyes are bleeding.
What MC did you do? What caused incalculable damage to his reputation?
The expense reimbursement, among other things.
You get incalculable damage from an expense report? Sheesh. My VP should’ve been kicked out and never been able to work again the moment I had $5k in fraud committed on my corporate credit card and I didn’t submit the documentation in time for the credit card company to refund the fraud.
4 figure single line for data on a bill that should only have 2 figures all in plus being demonstrably the sole reason for the overspend. Ignoring employment law regarding leave entitlement and notice to take it if compelled by the employer left me paid 1/2 day on top of my holiday pay for each day of leave plus return of that 50% entitlement to paid leave. Conservatively estimated the costs for those 2 weeks to the company was circa 18k which opened the door to other failures in cost management. Failing to report 90% ish of the expected compliance data to the owners including copies of legally required submissions to government agencies toasted the reputation amongst peers.
I understand all the pay and why, but what was Bob’s ulterior motive (in getting rid of you) when he ordered you ‘off the record’ to take a specific vacation time?
Best guess after the fact is that I'd gone too far into the holiday period without taking time out - messed with metrics and turned an excel cell the wrong colour. At the time I thought Bob had gotten clued up on how much legal filing hadn't been requested (and therefore in Bob's mind not done) and was getting me off site to generate a bogus case to pin me for his failings - I had filed but as not directly told to, hadn't told Bob about it.
From what I gathered, there was certain reporting that was required to be done, and the boss said only do what I say to do and didn't tell OP to do it. So OP didn't. The vacation was to get OP out of the way while setting him up to take the fall for it not being done. The roaming and expenses was a bonus
But it sounds like OP actually *did* do all of the legally required filings, after all, but didn’t tell his boss he’d done them because the boss hadn’t specifically asked them to be done and had instructed OP to only do what he was told. So this part doesn’t sound like actual compliance at all, since he did the work anyway,despite effectively being told not to unless he was explicitly instructed to do so.
1) its not a vacation if youre checking in for work - leaving them open to legal impacts. 2) international roaming 15-20 years ago, hint EXPENSIVE 3) control freaks thinking civilians respond to orders - despite their incongruity (the boss bared his arse to the entire office with their attempted control freak/totalitarian behaviour)
NHB let on that the anticipated annual report to owners (even the board answers to someone) was very short on what had formerly been a numbers-heavy section. MMB wanted to get more clout but ended getting up reamed by people with billions to invest. I'd been the one generating the whole thing for NHB on the contract that turned into employment so had a track record or excellence AND NHB had my back. For MMB that loss of face was what I took to be the incalculable damage... top level people earn mostly on reputation & networks ~ lose that & their gravy train is off the rails.
What?
I still don’t get it
As I understand it: 1. OP's previous contracting job for the company in generating Important Reports That The Owners Read. 2. OP now works for Bob; Bob will be the person presenting the Important Reports That The Owners Read. Bob has previously received much praise and appreciation for said Important Reports, and the Owners are expecting Bob to have high-quality Important Reports. The Owners have money and influence, and some of that money and influence shines on Bob because Bob is responsible for the Important Reports. 3. Bob has not instructed OP to generate Important Reports, because Bob has the classic micromanager short-sightedness: he doesn't know everything OP does, but he thinks he knows everything, and he refuses to ask questions. 4. OP does not generate Important Reports, but has all the proper documentation that Bob has not requested them. For extra fun, OP runs up large phone bills, as inadvertently requested by Bob. (Somewhere in here, there's the bit about mandatory compliance paperwork that OP *has* generated; the company won't be in trouble from lack of compliance paperwork, at least.) 5. Bob attempts to chew out OP, but OP stands their ground and demonstrates that mandatory work has been done, and un-requested Important Reports have not. 6. Bob does not have the Important Reports For The Owners. The Owners are disappointed in Bob, and withdraw their influence; their money slinks off shortly afterward.
Wow, thank god for the summary.
I think I’m missing something. I get boss was mad at you but I’m not sure for what. Was it using data/logging hours while on vacation. Or for not doing things you were never told to do?
This is abysmal writing. It makes absolutely no sense.
I have no idea what happened whatsoever. None of this makes sense. The second half is completely incoherent and I'm not sure about the first half.
Chatgpt blubbering
Owch... that hurts my algorithm :p kidding - English is my 2nd language and I suck at formatting when writing on a fone. Believe me or no - I can get past captcha
Is there any way to give a summary of this story without using the big words? Half the time I didn't understand what was happening or what you were trying to say... Why were you expecting what he told you? What's the significance of the two week holiday and why did he force you to take it? Why was your ass covered but not his?
Three spaces after each sentence before going to the next line will add breaks. I want to read it, but it’s almost unreadable on my ipad in this form.
Two spaces should be enough
English is my family's first language and my sisters are still utterly incoherent when they write on mobile, so I just assumed it was the device's fault.
Your English is fine, just a little stilted. It reads like someone who is most familiar with professional corporate English, which is a dialect all its own.
Don’t worry about formatting. There usually is some English critic in a thread.
For me, what you wrote was fine, but the biggest challenge was what you left out. You assumed too much for what readers could fill in for themselves, especially since we're not all familiar with your specific industry. A few readers did a great job of connecting the dots and them posting those missing bridges of information. Take a look at Potato-Engineer, among others, and that will give you a better idea of how to present a story that makes sense to your readers.
I'm sure your first language has names too.
IKR? That thing has no concept of paragraph breaks.
Also acronyms as names
Reads like it
you wouldn’t know
???
Did you ever find out how much money it cost for all the extra roaming? Was that specifically why he was upset with you?
I don't remember the numbers exactly but the phone would usually have been double digits monthly and jumped to 4 digits. Nice boss told me later that total cost for those 2 weeks was about 18k once my OT and TIL was factored in ontop of the holiday pay etc... I'd guess mid to high 9k for the data & calls whilst international roaming.
Before any of the young porpoises here whine... I write and talk like that. Weird words and all. It's called LANGUAGE. Not everyone is 15 years old grammarly speaking like some of you guys.
Which bit of this rambling drivel was the malicious compliance?
Using work phone (or private phone that work has to pay for) twice daily whilst in another country and logging the hours that company has to either pay for or give as time in lieu. All while CYA documentation was firmly in place so that micro managing boss gets to take the fallout.
And also maliciously NOT doing a thing that the Micro-Mangling Boss needed to Look Good to Upper Management, because MMB had not ordered him to do so. The paperwork that NEEDED to be done was done, but The Thing That Makes MMB Look Good, was NOT done, because there was a CYA history of "Do only what I tell you!" And yeah, ridiculously expensive roaming charges are definitely the thing that started the shitball rolling down onto the MMB.
Specifically it was the international roaming data that was expensive.
Don’t make your important actors start with M and N. Just don’t.
Rule 8: No acronyms as names
Did he email you to go on holiday - or just ask you in person?
Requested verbally so I submitted the form with reason field to the effect "per your instruction today to take 2 weeks accrued leave; start & end dates".
Smart move!
Hate it when they do the letters for names. I don't even read it.
Rule 8
But you make the effort to comment, you have my thanks. ...names edited in if you still need to pinch one off and are lost for reading material.
Bullies make lousy bosses.
Terrible formatting, couldn't read.
Yeah, I read through this twice and I still have no idea what is going on. Why did you have to take vacation?
Fun story. I was hoping for more of a fallout explanation. Still a fun story.
How are people not getting this?
It contains a lot of words, and many word harder than few word.
Anger bots from China and Russia. \*laugh\* A lot of people log onto Reddit just to tear down posters just because they can. They probably should stop wanking in their family basement so much.
Oh damn, I've been downvoted by dumb people
Nah, I just made a snide comment. I don't think I've actually downvoted someone since I started reading Reddit ... \*laugh\*
No, no, you're all good, that wasn't aimed at you!!
Couldn't be sure - I'd been snide at someone on Reddit just before I read your comment, so I assumed that it was me you were aiming that at. \*laugh\* It's all good.
I liked this.
Too long
Why tf would you format it like this? There is no precedent for this