Boss called employee 'replaceable' on a Zoom call but soon found out the hard way that he wasn't
During a team meeting, the user’s manager forgot to mute himself while speaking to someone in his office.
A Reddit user who goes by u/GrimHedgehog shared how a simple mistake on Zoom revealed exactly what his manager thought of him, and how he decided to respond. In the October 17 post that garnered 22k upvotes, he explained that during a Monday team meeting, his manager forgot to mute himself while speaking to someone in his office. "Yeah, Jim’s doing fine, but honestly? He’s easily replaceable," the manager was heard saying. "If he starts asking for a raise, we can just find someone else who’ll do it for less."
According to the post, the entire team went quiet after the boss's statement. According to the employee, it "takes him 10 seconds to realize what happened, his face goes white. 'Oh, sorry everyone, technical difficulties.'" The employee wrote that the so-called "technical difficulties" were actually "not knowing how to use mute while talking shit about your employees." "I’ve been grinding for this company for two years," he added. "Never missed a deadline, stayed late, covered for people, took on extra projects. And this is what they think of me?"
Turns out, managers or bosses often underestimate employees or undermine their abilities. In some workplaces, that attitude stems less from indifference and more from insecurity. A working paper from Harvard Business School titled "What Drives Managers to Sabotage Talented Employees" by Zaman & Lakhani (2025) finds that, in competitive workplaces, managers may deliberately undermine high-performing subordinates because they view them as potential threats, essentially underestimating or blocking their advancement to protect their own status.
The employee said the slip-up made it clear that it was time to leave. "I was already planning to ask for that raise, and now I’m definitely making myself 'replaceable' before they get the chance. Two years of my life, and I’m easily replaceable. We’ll see how easy it is when I’m gone," he said. The post gained traction, with other Reddit users chiming in about similar experiences and how they handled them.
u/ErgoProxy0 wrote, "My boss likes to do this every time he gets in a disagreement with an employee. And I have to remind him how even our 'newest employees' have been here over two years, and our team is great. So stop having that 'if they don’t wanna do this, I’ll find someone else' attitude." u/maydayvoter11 commented, "I’d get a new job and leave with no notice. Remind them they don’t need notice because of how easily replaceable you are." u/Cake-Over shared, "One of my bosses loved to use sports analogies. One day I told him that when a team truly sucks, the first person to get let go is usually the coach."
u/SenorDos added, "'Thank you for the feedback. It helps to know where I stand with the company.' Then act your wage while looking for a new job." u/Super_Mut said, "Report him to HR. Turn this into a huge deal for him and the company. Lol, hire an attorney to sue for hostile work environment if possible. But while doing all that, search for a new job — and if you find one, leave without notice." u/Internal-Disaster-61 chimed in, "Would have been hard for me not to respond right there, 'Actually, I feel like I'm not easily replaceable, but we can discuss this one-on-one after this meeting.'"
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