Rude boss mocking employee’s letter format left embarrassed after realizing she was criticizing her own from years ago

An employee recently shared a workplace story on Reddit describing how a manager repeatedly criticized their reports, until they decided to use the manager’s own past work as a template. The post, written by u/MerryMisandrist, detailed an experience from nearly two decades ago at State Street Bank in Boston, where the user said their supervisor, Paula, constantly found fault in formatting and wording, even when the numbers were correct. The post has garnered 34,000 upvotes.

In their post, the person explained that the role had initially been presented as a high-visibility mini project team handling complex financial operations. "In reality, it was a mushroom farm, with Paula keeping you in the dark and feeding you sh**," they wrote. One of their main responsibilities involved preparing weekly updates on oil warrants out of Nigeria. The reports tracked agreements to buy oil at fixed prices, at one point $30 per barrel, when market prices reached $90. According to the user, the financial stakes were high, and accuracy was essential. The numbers were never the problem.

"Week after week, Paula would review and rip me a new one over the format, verbiage, and every stupid thing not related to the actual numbers being right," they wrote, describing the feedback as "total ticky tack stuff." Research supports how damaging that kind of management style can be. According to Gallup’s 2021 "State of the Global Workplace" report, employees who strongly disagree that their manager provides meaningful feedback are nearly 4 times more likely to report frequent burnout. The report also found that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in team engagement, linking inconsistent expectations and excessive oversight directly to higher turnover.

One day, the employee stumbled upon something unexpected. While searching old network folders, they discovered archived reports from a similar project that Paula herself had written before becoming a manager. "So, I decided to use her format for everything," they wrote. They mirrored the structure, reused the language from her old cover letters, and adjusted only the updated numbers and relevant data.

When the revised report was submitted, Paula "absolutely lost her sh**." She asked what had happened to the previous format and called the new version "worse than before" and "probably the worst I submitted." That’s when the employee told Paula the formatting and language came from her own past reports, used "verbatim." "She just looked at me and had this dumbstruck look on her face," they wrote, before Paula signed off and said to send it as is despite calling it unreadable moments earlier. Anticipating retaliation, they saved the files locally, and when older folders disappeared from the network, they said they had created SOPs from her past work because it seemed "like a logical thing to do."

In a follow-up comment, they added that they had been upfront during the interview about expecting a child and needing work-life balance. "I was told that was part of her management style and not to worry. Another lie," they wrote. Employees were expected to stay until Paula left — often 8 AM to 7 or 8 PM — and she became upset over time off for the birth of their child, family funerals, and even errands for a first birthday party, once keeping the team in during a snowstorm. The author said they eventually scheduled an exit interview directly with HR and, on their last day, refused Paula’s handshake, telling her she was "the worst boss/leader" they had ever encountered before walking out.

Readers were equally pissed and annoyed by Paula. "Paula is a goblin who likes to spread misery around," u/Stop_The_Crazy wrote. "I hope you’re having a bad day Paula! You deserve it!" u/gilbeys18 added.

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