Worker Says She Was Fired From Her Job For Being 'Too Efficient' And Making Her Boss Look Useless
She stepped up and took on some of her boss' workload, but was punished for it instead.
PixelsEffect / Canva Pro A woman expressed her frustration after she was suddenly fired from her job because she was outshining her boss after stepping into a leadership role.
In a TikTok video, a photographer and art director based in Miami named Mariela revealed that she was suddenly fired from her job despite going above and beyond in her role, and it had to do with her boss feeling threatened.
Mariela was fired for being 'too efficient' and making her boss look useless.
"So, I got fired from my job yesterday, and one of the reasons why is because I'm too efficient. Here's an example of how I'm efficient," Mariela began in her video.
She explained that right before she was fired, her boss had been in their morning meeting and informed her that he was going to be setting up meetings with the director of sales.
He claimed that the meetings were to talk about events that they had coming up. Mariela informed him that she'd already done all of that work after logging into the website they use to track events.
When she saw all of the information she needed, she used that information to put that specific project in the project management software, effectively doing the work of her boss and cutting back the need to have bi-weekly meetings.
According to her, because she took the extra initiative, her boss immediately fired her.
She claimed that her boss' attitude toward her had first started back in the summer.
In a follow-up video, Mariela explained that her boss' attitude began to change in June when she took on some extra work that was initially supposed to be completed by him. She revealed that her boss looked at her as almost being a "threat."
She recalled that her boss had full trust in her to complete all of her tasks without being explicitly told to do them, which was marketing, social media, and email marketing. Mariela insisted that she never needed her boss to send reminders on certain projects that were due.
"It got to a point where he was kind of rendered useless because he had a lot of days where he wouldn't show up and I would just do whatever I had to do. I took on meetings and I answered people's phone calls, emails, and everything. I was doing his job because he wasn't there."
Mariela explained that it got to a point where her boss wanted to step back into his leadership role but it was already too late, as she had begun taking up his projects and tasks on top of her own.
"I kind of created a position in the company that did not exist, which I would say is art director."
Unfortunately, employees like Mariela are either quiet-quitting or being forced out of their jobs because of toxic and unsupportive bosses.
Much like Mariela's attitude toward her boss, who clearly didn't seem to have the skills to lead a team and be a fit manager at the company, other working-class adults feel the same way about their own bosses. According to a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 84% of U.S. workers say poorly trained managers create a lot of unnecessary work and stress.
Nearly six in 10 American workers (57%) believe managers in their workplace could benefit from training on how to be better people managers. Additionally, half of American workers (50%) believe it would help them improve their own work performance if their direct supervisor's people management skills were improved.
Funnily enough, managers have actually been getting less and less training to do their jobs. In a 2018 study by West Monroe, a digital consulting firm, 59% of managers who supervise one to two people and 41% who supervise three to five people "receive no managerial training at all." Over time, it's no wonder that employees will choose to walk away from a position because of the lack of a cohesive work environment.
Managers can't expect to have dedicated and hardworking employees but refuse to pull their own weight to make sure a team is running efficiently and properly. Mariela stepped up when she didn't have to because she had loyalty to the company and her job position, and instead of being rewarded for it, she was fired because of how much of a "threat" her boss assumed her to be.
Not only is this type of mindset unsustainable for a company, but it sends a message to all of the other employees that they aren't valued and can be let go the minute they are thought to have "stepped out of line." If a manager doesn't want their employees to be doing their job, then the answer is simple — do a better job at being a manager in the first place.
Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.