Employees use office manager’s micromanagement tactics against her and turn the tables on her

Imagine being constantly scrutinized and your every task being micromanaged like it’s a life-or-death situation at the office. Working under a boss who hovers over every move can easily turn your workday into a constant battle for control. Under such circumstances, creativity takes a backseat. While most employees silently endure the pressure, fearing job loss and financial survival, few have subtle ways of fighting back at workplace exploitation. A similar incident was highlighted when an employee (u/possible_seaweed4815 on Reddit), shared how their coworker, Tom, brilliantly flipped the script on their office manager's micromanagement, turning her control freak nature into comedy gold. 

The worker started the post by describing their mid-sized company, where the department had a simple supply closet. Employees could grab whatever they needed, as long as they avoided hoarding and kept the space tidy. Everything ran smoothly until the new manager arrived. "She was obsessed with cutting costs. She’d swoop in like a hawk every morning, inspecting the supply closet. If a box of pens was a little lighter or the post-its weren’t perfectly aligned, we’d get a stern email about 'unnecessary consumption.' She even implemented a sign-out sheet for supplies. Want a highlighter? Better justify it in writing," the worker revealed. 

Already frustrated with the extreme micromanagement, the workers were dealt another blow when the manager took things a step further. She locked the supply closet and became the sole keyholder. Now, if anyone needed something, they had to email her for "approval" before they could access the supplies. "This was, of course, on top of her other duties, so getting a new pen could take hours. Needless to say, productivity started to suffer," they shared. While everyone followed the new rule, Tom, a coworker, had a brilliant idea to teach her a lesson. "He decided to test her new system to its limits. Every time he needed anything, no matter how small, he emailed the manager. Need a single paperclip? Email. Need to replace a dried-out marker? Email. Stapler jammed? You guessed it: email," read the Reddit post.

Tom's idea quickly caught on, and before long, "the entire department was flooding her inbox with individual requests." Meanwhile, the manager was overwhelmed with the sheer volume of approval requests. As productivity continued to suffer, management stepped in to address the "supply chain fiasco." Although she tried to defend herself by saying the workers were wasting resources, it was clear that her micromanaging was backfiring. "They not only revoked the manager's authority over the supply closet but also gave her a formal reprimand. The lock was removed, the sign-out sheet disappeared, and we went back to the honor system," the author revealed. The Reddit post received an overwhelming response on the platform.

For instance, u/flaky_run_9440 wrote, "Absolutely amazing! Nothing better than consequences rolling down on those who deserve them! And it even returned to the common sense system! Unheard of you lucky dog!" u/academic_nectarine94 commented, "That's great! As a tool guy, it would have crossed my mind to just remove the lockable piece altogether, but this is much better!" u/gkm72 commented, "I once worked in a place where to get a new pencil you had to return the stub of the old one to prove you had used it up as much as possible."