Boss overruled a worker’s concerns about the store layout — freaks out as customers couldn’t even get inside
'My beautiful shop floor is now a three foot high sea of red plastic, with barely a single square foot of floor space to stand in.'
Some people will never realize their faults until someone points them out, while some don't realize it even then. When u/Izzy-of-Albion was working as a store manager in the early 2000s, they encountered an issue with their boss regarding the cramped layout of the store. Despite explaining the story behind the inconvenience, their boss was immovable and didn't offer help. So, the manager finally decided to comply with upper management's demand. Safe to say, when they realized their mistake, they instantly regretted it. Sharing the story on January 6, the Reddit user's story has gained over 1,200 upvotes online.
Had to comply before my boss would see that an idea was so stupid it would prevent customers even entering the store.
byu/Izzy-of-Albion inMaliciousCompliance
u/Izzy-of-Albion used to work as a retail manager from 1997 to 2004 at a chain of record stores. He described himself as a diligent and responsible manager who took pride in his job. Everything seemed to be going too well until October 2001, when he received a consignment of "trestle tables." He wrote, "They were folding wallpaper pasting tables. I thought there must be some mistake, but no, it was addressed 'care of [me]' and to my branch." The author, who was concerned about losing store space, spoke to his regional manager, Greg, about the safety hazard, especially since most customers complained about how cramped the store already was. However, when his manager dismissed it, stating that it was a "brilliant" plan to gain more customers.
After much heated discussion, and an appeal from the author's end trying to make the manager understand how their idea was absurd, the employee finally gave in. He even stayed back all night just to arrange the tables. "It took me over two hours, cost me my back and many cuts and bruises, but I managed to get 18 of them in place, complete with 'tablecloths' stapled to them," he wrote. He also added, "My beautiful shop floor is now a three foot high sea of shitty red plastic, with barely a single square foot of floor space to stand in." The store was so cramped that the author had to "army crawl" his way to the exit to lock the store by the end of the day.
The next morning, when the manager arrived, he stood in "stunned disbelief." When he inquired what the author had done, the author replied, "Exactly what you asked for. Exactly what we talked about yesterday." Having finally understood his mistake, the manager and the author began folding back the tables, which took them 40 minutes, resulting in opening the store late. A 2025 report by Forbes emphasized the importance of listening to one's employees. The report highlighted that when managers fail to value employees' feedback, it results in damage to trust. The report also mentions that when employees are heard, it increases their trust in their leader up to six times more than employees whose feedback is ignored. According to Gallup, only 8% of employees strongly believe that their employer acts on the feedback they provide. What's the point of the exercise if upper management continues to ignore them? Nobody knows. In fact, employees who feel heard are 4.6x more likely to give their best and stay in the company, a Salesforce study revealed. By ignoring the author's feedback, the regional manager failed to understand the problem and be a good leader, which only resulted in backfiring.
Soon after the post went viral, many users expressed their thoughts. u/jack_o_all_trades wrote, "As someone who has worked in marketing, you listen when stores call up and say. 'Yeah that ain't gunna work.'" u/GonpostIsscott shared, "Gotta love when new upper management has these fantastic ideas to improve everything, without a thought of implementation and effect." u/Metalsmith21 wrote, "Yeah should have had him come on down to show you how to set them up because you don't want to interfere with his 'vision.'"
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