New micromanager enforces strict office hours, employees comply leaving West Coast clients scrambling: 'Management said we had to work 8am - 5pm (ET). So we did!'

It's common practice for micromanagers to swoop in at the end of summer and start enforcing stricter policies at work. This can range from tracking employees' progress more closely to scheduling more check-ins that inevitably waste time. 

This CEO  happened to be new at the company. Rather than take a moment to scope things out and see what the folks on his team needed to properly succeed in the workplace, he decided that what was of the utmost importance to him was seeing his employees in the office at 8:00 AM. Previously, some employees began work later because they worked far later than the traditional end of the workday in order to touch base with clients on the West Coast. This was considered normal, and most employees were entrusted to follow an honor code that still adhered to a normal amount of working hours per day. However, when the CEO came to the office one morning and noticed no one was there yet, he assumed the worst and decided to enforce new strict rules regarding everyone's start times.

His biggest mistake in doing so was not thinking about those West Coast clients. So when their CEO created a mandate forcing employees to come into the office at 8:00 AM and leave at 5:00 PM, they obeyed those rules very closely. So closely, in fact, that they left all those clients hanging after 5:00 PM. That's what you get for messing with people's time, sir!