Supervisor demanded everything be done 'by the book,' then watched the department grind to a halt

Some bosses expect employees to follow every rule without questioning it, but it doesn’t always go well when their own rules backfire. Sharing a similar story on November 3, an employee described their supervisor’s hard rule to do everything "by the book," until it spectacularly backfired and left them embarrassed.

u/Any_Effective8727 on Reddit shared that they have been working as a lab technician in Milwaukee for the last nine months. His supervisor, named Derek, was described as someone who panicked easily. Sharing an instance, the author wrote, "Two weeks ago state inspectors came through and he completely spiraled. Started implementing all these new 'protocols' that are technically in our safety manual but nobody actually follows because they're outdated from like 1997." The next day, the supervisor sent a department-wide email stating that all workers must follow the rules "by the book" with zero shortcuts. "Anyone caught skipping steps gets written up," he added.

However, the author revealed that the lab consisted of six pieces of equipment, with them running 40 tests a day across all of them. Following the rules would mean less than 10% of work getting done in a day. So, on Monday, the author began the UV cycle for the first machine when Derek walked in and inquired why he wasn't running it on the samples first. The author pulled out the manual and the email he had received from the supervisor the previous day, explaining that he was doing what was instructed. He said, "His face went through like five different emotions. Tries to say 'you know that's not what I meant' and I'm like but you said everything by the book, zero shortcuts, remember?" The supervisor called the department head and learned that the protocols were supposed to be updated in 2015, but they weren’t. "Nobody noticed because nobody followed it," the author added.

Soon, the non-emergency testing had to be shut down, while Derek never made eye contact with the author again. In a 2017 study authored by Ian Chipman, it was noted that policies that are overly specific and controlling can backfire. "Control clauses tell you what you can and can’t do at work, while coordination clauses help you align expectations," the researcher opined. In other words, coordination clauses let workers know what employers want, while control clauses tell them how to do it and, quite often, what not to do.

Soon after the post gained traction, many online users expressed their views. u/Agent-c1983 wrote, "If you have a written safety protocol that nobody is following, that’s a major lawsuit risk. But if you’re not updating your manuals in almost 2 decades with updated safety  proceedures, that’s a whole other thing…" u/Think-Committee-4394 commented, "This dear friends shows exactly why you make sure your documented process is updated regularly & industry compliant." u/beetlebeetle77 shared, "OP, as a CAP inspector who went to med school in MKE, I am curious which lab this is since my parents live there… I don’t want them getting tests done there."

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