My old manager tried the dumbest workplace power play I’ve ever seen, and watching it blow up in her face was absolutely beautiful.

I was the main person working on this massive project. The VP knew it, so he started inviting me to status meetings. My manager hated this because she wanted all the credit for herself, even though she literally did zero actual work on the project.

Her brilliant solution? She pulled me aside and told me to sit there and keep my mouth shut during meetings. Just take notes, say nothing, let her handle everything.

Fine. I’d do exactly what she asked.

Next meeting rolls around and I’m sitting there like a statue. Taking notes, nodding along, completely silent. Everything’s going smoothly for her until the VP starts diving into the technical details.

“How are we handling the integration issues?” “What’s our timeline for the database migration?” “Can we walk through the testing protocol?”

She just sat there stammering and deflecting. She couldn’t answer a single question because she was the only person “on” the project who never actually worked on it. I watched her face get redder and redder as the VP’s questions got more pointed.

The whole time I’m sitting there with all the answers, following her orders to stay quiet. This workplace power play was crumbling in real time and there was nothing she could do about it.

After that train wreck, suddenly I was “allowed” to participate in meetings again. Funny how that worked out.

From r/MaliciousCompliance (1,955 upvotes)