Supervisor tries to track phone calls to 'tighten things up' — instead, wrecked a system that ran smoothly for 30 years
Her new approach broke what was a 'really chill system' for 30 years.
A new supervisor’s idea to "tighten things up" completely unraveled a system that had worked smoothly for three decades. The story, shared on Reddit by u/Common_Employee, gained 3.8k upvotes, described how one ill-thought-out performance policy turned a well-running department into chaos. For years, the team had operated on trust, with everyone pitching in by handling phone calls, emails, tickets, and even printer jobs, without tracking anything. "We have a really chill system that actually works," u/Common_Employee wrote. "Everyone helped where needed, and the manager trusted us to get the work done." That approach had kept the department efficient for about 30 years, until now.
"Then my new supervisor comes along and I guess decides she wants to tighten things up or increase accountability or something," the employee wrote. The supervisor told the team, "From now on, I’ll be tracking phone calls for performance metrics. Make sure everyone’s doing their job and no one’s slacking." When someone asked about tracking emails or tickets — which made up most of the workload — she said, "Well, there’s no way to measure those right now, so we can’t really track that."
The team did exactly what she asked. Every time the phone rang, they dropped whatever they were doing — emails, tickets, or printer tasks — to answer calls. "So naturally, emails start piling up in the shared mailbox, tickets sit untouched in the internal portal (which management still doesn’t know how to run reports on), and the printer starts piling up paper in front of it," the employee shared. People from other departments and even customers began asking if the team was "backed up."
When management asked what was happening, the employees reiterated the words of their supervisor, "Focus on the phones since that’s what matters." A few days later, the supervisor was called into a meeting with the boss. When she came out, she looked frustrated and sent a message on Teams saying, "Please remember that all work types are important, not just phone calls." The new rule disappeared just as quickly as it was introduced, and the department returned to doing things the way they always had.
It wasn’t the first time a well-meaning attempt at control ended up hurting the very system it was meant to fix. A 2022 study titled "Detrimental Implication of Micromanagement" found similar outcomes in real workplaces. Researchers surveyed 186 non-teaching staff in Nigeria and discovered that excessive oversight lowered morale, slowed productivity, and increased stress. The authors noted that while managers often believe close tracking improves control, it usually creates frustration and weakens overall performance
The story struck a nerve with many Reddit users who’d seen similar management moves fail before. u/Strange_Compote_2951 joked, "'Coworker got promoted to a new supervisor position for all the wrong reasons (she’s besties with the boss and gives him relationship advice on the side).' I’ve been reading this exact same sentence in at least 5 posts in the last 10 days…" u/Long_Pig_Tailor pointed out, "Wants to track performance, but refuses to learn how to track performance via tickets — kind of the entire reason a ticketing system even exists. Yeah, checks out." u/WarlikeAppointment penned, "The kind of person who wants to be a supervisor is always the wrong person to supervise." "Wouldn’t be the last time I’ve heard of a manager making decisions that have zero to do with the job expectations," added u/JGCii.
More on Scoop Upworthy
Woman starts reporting to new boss every 5 minutes until he realizes that his orders were ridiculous
Boss' strict dress code backfires when employees find genius loophole to outsmart her
Share on Facebook
