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'He shorted himself': Electronics specialist inadvertently gets petty revenge on new entitled boss when he corrects him in front of a big wig, boss gets transferred

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    "Everyone went silent until [the big wig] spoke up... He instructed me to continue doing what I was doing and told [my boss] to wait in his office."
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    Inadvertent Petty Revenge tl;dr: Old boss respected my understanding of electronics; new boss did not. New boss embarrassed himself during a show-and-tell. C-level types had him removed from the project. Details are a bit fuzzy, since this was several decades ago.
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    Setup The manager who got me hired right out of university was a kindly, grandfatherly type who held several radio licenses and a PhD in Physics. He was a process-oriented ("Good work yields good results") sort of manager. We often conversed about electronics theory and practices, and he mentored me in several technical areas that were not covered in detail during school.
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    Well, he retired, and his replacement held only a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor's degree in General Science (BGS). He was a goal-oriented ("I don't care, just get it done") sort of manager. He also micro-managed our activities, even though he did not seem to understand exactly what we were doing.
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    We repeatedly argued over the meanings of "phase" and "polarity". In AC circuits, polarity is in constant flux, needing to be expressed in amplitude, frequency, and phase. In DC circuits, only the amplitude is important. He claimed that AC and DC circuits both had constant polarity, and any discussions of phase and frequency were not needed. (How the did he get the job? I really have no idea.)
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    One of our clients was given a walk- through by a C-level person. When they got to me, they asked for a short description of what I was working on. One of the points I brought up involved getting the broad-band phase coupling just right. Mr. MBA jumped right in and announced that all I had to do was match the polarity and everything would be okay.
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    Cue the Inadvertent Revenge "But sir," I said. "This is an AC circuit. Phase, frequency, and amplitude must be taken into..." "Excuse me, but we have already had this discussion. Now stop around and just match the polarity." Everyone went silent until Mr. C-level spoke up. It seemed his degree was also in physics, plus he had several radio licenses to his name. My old boss and he had gone through school together. He instructed me to continue
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    doing what I was doing, and told Mr. MBA to wait in his office. Epilogue Mr. MBA was transferred to the warehouse and Mr. C-level became our interim manager. I finished the project ahead of time and received a pay bonus. Old Boss and I kept in touch until he passed away.
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    Piddy3825 12h ago petty revenge - best served in phases... → 102 ⇓ Reply crabcancer • 10h ago And the positive thing was the TLDR at the start 33 Reply Coolfarm88 · 7h ago Because it amplifies the result. 21 Reply
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    • Kinsfire 12h ago And the wonderful thing is that he did it to himself! Ө ↑ 28 ⇓ Reply swampopawaho . 8h ago Perhaps, he shorted himself?! ↑ 6 ↓ Reply
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    Dan_the_bearded_man • 12h ago I don't understand these kind of bosses. If you don't know about the job your workers are doing stfu and try to learn the basics from them. → ↑ 26 ⇓ Reply SeanBZA 10h ago • Because they do not want to be seen as superfluous, and contributing nothing real to the actual business, so they will micromanage and insert themselves into every process, even if they do not even understand that they are actually damaging, and that they actively are impeding things, and are not
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    LordFawkes1987 · 12h ago Ah the sweetest revenge! ↑ 7 3 Reply Cold-Excuse5777 5h ago Wow, sounds like Mr. MBA was totally out of his depth! It's great that Mr. C-Level knew his stuff and you got that bonus. A well-deserved happy ending! ↑ 2 B Reply
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    upset_pachyderm 2h ago That's hilarious! Having worked in electronics for over half of my life, I'd just have fallen over laughing (which I'm sure wouldn't have helped my job prospects). At one point our lab manager was an MBA, but at least he was willing to learn from us. 213 Reply
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    sowokeicantsee • 53m ago Bit of a shocking post. I'm a little stunned at the c suites reaction. It seems like the bosses are switched on. Hopefully the old boss can jump start his career 41♡ Reply

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