The line between enforcing rules and abusing power is thin, and sometimes it takes someone willing to test it.
That’s exactly what two students did when they showed their corporate course supervisor the dangers of being too rigid.
Read on for the full story!
My father and his friend were doing a course, which required them to adhere to some corporate standards.
Both of them already had well-paying jobs. They were just doing this course for enhancing knowledge and not for any other gain.
For a non-compulsory class, the rules were still pretty strict.
The course was divided into phases, and this particular one was for 18 days. You were only allowed one leave, and if you took more than that, you had to redo the entire thing.
Both men had dedicated significant time to attending the class.
Our city was around two hours away from the course center, and they traveled daily to and fro to attend it.
They mostly tried to be early, but one day, there was unusually high traffic, and they were much delayed.
As a result, they arrived around 10:15, about 10-15 minutes late.
It turns out, the supervisor was less than understanding about this.
When they reached the location, they were informed by the Course Supervisor (CS) that they would be marked absent for the half day.
They both protested, stating their reason for lateness and also pointing out that the class had not even started.
However, their appeals were dismissed.
That might all be well and good — if the lecturer wasn’t also late.
The irony? The lecturer himself was delayed by traffic, and the class didn’t begin until well after 11.
They were both frustrated about having a half-day marked absent for no reason.
So they decided if course leadership were going to follow rules to the letter, then so would they.
At 5 p.m. that day, they stood up in the middle of the ongoing lecture, packed their bags, and started leaving the class.
The lecturer was confused, and the CS was enraged and asked them what they were doing.
They had a quick response at the ready.
They replied, “Following the protocol. If we are expected to arrive exactly at 10, we should be able to leave at 5 too.”
Apparently, the CS wasn’t prepared for someone to follow their own rules to the letter.
Which royally ticked off the supervisor.
The CS began shouting at them, saying, “You can’t leave before the lecture ends. I will mark you absent for the full day!” But they just left.
They received calls from the CS and other personnel, threatening to remove them from the course.
But their threats didn’t hold much weight.
As I said, my father already had a job, so he wasn’t much bothered by the threats, and the same was true for his friend.
Before long, they had created somewhat of a reckoning!
The next day, they arrived exactly at 10, ignored the CS and his warnings, and left at 5 again. Other students began following their example and left at 5 as well.
This led to the Institute having to pay extra to the lecturers, as they had to invite them back the next day to continue the class.
The course supervisor learned that when you demand perfection, it might just come back to bite you.
What did Reddit think?
A little flexibility never hurt anyone…
This commenter sees this story as a larger reflection of society at large.
In the UK, they have a special word for people like this strict supervisor.
This commenter doesn’t think too highly of corporate education courses like this one.
A little power clearly went to this supervisor’s head, but two professionals with nothing to lose showed him that no one is above the rules!
Let’s hope this course supervisor learned a valuable lesson in flexibility.
If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.
