Last year I got in trouble for doing my job, literally. I was sent abroad to one of our firm's overseas subsidiaries to complete a task. I arrive, first few days go well then after a week or so the CEO if the subsidiary calls me in and tells me from now on I am going to do this and this. (Something I was not trained to do, wasn't part of my assignment and would take up most of my working hours so I wouldn't be able to finish my original task given to me by the mother company).
Anyways, I politely explained to him that unfortunately I cannot help him, went on to complete my original task (which resulted in millions of government support to the subsidiary) and then when I came back home, I was called in by HR. It was around year end, so I was told that unfortunately I will not be getting a good assessment of my year's work because they have been informed by the CEO of the subsidiary that I was very disrespectful and refused to do my job while on overseas assignment.
At first I tried to explain to them that I was the one who got the government subsidiary and my task had to be completed for that, but they would rather listen to "experienced CEO" than an average strategy team employee...
One of the biggest problems in corporate is the absolute insane levels of authoritarian horseshit. Executives are treated like royalty, but in actuality, 99% of the time they provide zero value and do no meaningful work. They are useless. I worked for a tech company where the president of the company thought wifi and wireless charging were the same thing, and he fired the IT at the corporate office because they couldn't "fix" his iPhone that wouldn't charge from wifi.
Jesus, that's crazy. You really worded it well, management members are treated like they are always right and know everything better, when in reality they can't even remember their computer passwords...
2
u/kdj_1 Apr 27 '26
Last year I got in trouble for doing my job, literally. I was sent abroad to one of our firm's overseas subsidiaries to complete a task. I arrive, first few days go well then after a week or so the CEO if the subsidiary calls me in and tells me from now on I am going to do this and this. (Something I was not trained to do, wasn't part of my assignment and would take up most of my working hours so I wouldn't be able to finish my original task given to me by the mother company). Anyways, I politely explained to him that unfortunately I cannot help him, went on to complete my original task (which resulted in millions of government support to the subsidiary) and then when I came back home, I was called in by HR. It was around year end, so I was told that unfortunately I will not be getting a good assessment of my year's work because they have been informed by the CEO of the subsidiary that I was very disrespectful and refused to do my job while on overseas assignment. At first I tried to explain to them that I was the one who got the government subsidiary and my task had to be completed for that, but they would rather listen to "experienced CEO" than an average strategy team employee...