‘I refuse, and say if I don’t get paid, we can do it tomorrow.’ This Person Taught Their Controlling Boss A Lesson By Making Sure Absolutely Everything Is In Writing

“My new manager at work is one of those people that absolutely has to be in control.

Even when you’re exceeding every scorecard measure, keeping you head down, not putting a toe out of line, she still asks you to come to a meeting room to discuss some minor issue or another. Recently, she pulled me into a meeting to discuss me being late from work.

Protocol is to call in, say we’ll be late, then submit a schedule adjustment request when we arrived. She accused me of not calling in or submitting a request but was able to prove I did, only instead of leaving it at that, she insisted I now needed to call her and explain why I was late. That’s not the process, I told her, and she said she was making a new one. So now I call her at 6am on her day off to let her know if I’m gonna be late.

She also had a meeting with me because my scorecard for a stat was 99/100, with a target of 50 – she had to point out the 1/100 I missed. She also did the same for a handling time issue where I am hitting an average of 600 seconds with a target of 1500 – she needed to tell me about a call I took too long on. Suffice to say, complaints have been raised to her manager.

Following an incident where she was asked to follow up on something for me, and claimed ‘if it’s not in writing, it didn’t happen,’ I’ve been asking for everything in writing and repeat that mantra back to her when she claims to have told me something.

Last week, she asked me to see her after my call. I walked over and she wasn’t there, so went back to my desk. She asked me why I didn’t stay around, and I reminded her of the time she put, in writing, that I wasn’t to spend more than one minute waiting for her if she asked to see me and was to go back to my desk to take calls, not wasting time.

She asked me to come over again, and when I did, she wasn’t there. This repeated twice more before my shift was over. Each time I documented “Logged out at 14:14:35pm, came to your desk, you were not there, spent 45 seconds waiting, returned to desk and took another call at 14:16:38pm” in chat.

She messages me to ask what time I finish. I tell her it was two minutes prior, and she says we can catch up now. I tell her that my shift if over, and ask if she’ll approve an overtime pay for an out of hours meeting. She tells me not to be silly, and it’ll just take 10 minutes. I refuse, and say if I don’t get paid, we can do it tomorrow when I am being paid.

She’s typing, then not, then typing, then not, choosing her words. I know she’s angry at being challenged, and she decided to employ one of the tactics she used when she managed a team for a company where this was standard practice: “Okay, well, if you’d like to go home now, I can always make it a formal meeting?” A ‘formal meeting’ where I work is code for a meeting with HR, documented on your record, for misconduct and repeated issues.

She thinks she’s won. “Not a problem. Make a formal meeting, ensure I have 24 hours notice, send a formal invite, and I will bring a support person with me.” I log out and leave, but not before grabbing screenshots and saving a copy of the chat logs.

Next day, she’s called my bluff and has a meeting scheduled. I send it to my union rep, and she comes in on the day. HR sits down with us and opens with “So we’re here today to discuss some concerns. Your team leader asked you to attend an off the cuff catch-up three times, and for some reason you refused?”

I quickly clarify what actually happened. My manager claims otherwise, and I repeat her mantra – if it’s not in writing, it didn’t happen. Then I supply receipts – her demands to put things in writing, her chat, my timestamps, my call logs, and her message to me afterwards.

My union rep stares at the two of them, with a small smile, and asks “So do you maintain the position that employees should attend meetings unpaid, and that misconduct investigations are a good use of resources if they refuse?”

HR said there may have been a miscommunication, and that I could return to work. I have it put in writing that I am not accused of any misconduct, and have been cleared of any false accusations, with nothing documented on my staff file.

Yesterday, my team was advised that our team leader had decided to pursue opportunities outside of the company and we were getting a new manager.”