young woman in sweater

@shayleeraye/TikTok

‘If you can, leave when you’re able. It will not get better’: Worker tearfully shares interaction with boss after not understanding term

'Just start using a bunch of Gen Z slang that he doesn’t understand.'

 

Linda Hamilton

IRL

Posted on Jul 20, 2022

A worker tearfully recounted an interaction she had with her “blunt manager” after failing to understand a term she had never heard before.

In her video, Shaylee @shayleeraye ponders starting a new series about “all the awful things my boss says to me.”

She says she started the job a month ago and referred to her manager as “blunt” in the caption of the TikTok.

“I literally get told how terrible of a person I am and how unsmart I am,” she says before sharing an example.

Shaylee, who notes she’s 24 in her TikTok bio, says the CEO at the company she works for emailed to plan a trip to the Utah office to meet Shaylee to see if she is a “ringer.” She notes she wasn’t sure what a ringer was after finding definitions online that didn’t “coincide” with the conversation. She says she resorted to asking in the work group chat what the term means. 

@shayleeraye Does anyone have blunt managers? #toxicworkenvironment #managersbelike ♬ original sound – ShayLee Raye

“‘Hey instead of messaging things, like, ‘You don’t know what a ringer is,’ look it up,'” she recalls her boss messaging her. “‘It’s a very common saying. … I just want you to adjust and be more resourceful. … It will help you come across as more serious and educated.”

Shaylee says she let him know she did look it up but that the definitions “didn’t really coincide with how the conversation went.”

Her manager, she says, wrote back explaining that a ringer is “someone who enters a competition and ends up being, like, a pro.”

“‘Next time ask for help,'” she says he told her.

Shaylee captioned her video with a #toxicworkenvironmment hashtag. Her video was viewed nearly 2 million times since July 7.

Viewers were clearly on her side in the comments section, validating her feelings and frustrations. They pointed out the term is not as common as her boss thinks and urged her to leave the company when she can.

“Next time look it up instead of asking for help but also, next time, ask for help. Homie what?” one questioned.

“If you can, leave when you’re able. It will not get better. I’m sorry,” the top comment, with over 22,000 likes, reads.

“Literally never heard of a ringer, it sounds like a boomer term,” another said.

Others agreed, urging Shaylee to “Just start using a bunch of Gen Z slang that he doesn’t understand.”

The Daily Dot reached out to Shaylee via TikTok comment.


Today’s top stories

‘Fill her up’: Bartender gives woman a glass of water when the man she’s with orders tequila shot
‘I don’t think my store has even sold one’: Whataburger employees take picture with first customer who bought a burger box
‘It was a template used by anyone in the company’: Travel agent’s ‘condescending’ out-of-office email reply sparks debate
Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.
Share this article
*First Published: Jul 20, 2022, 12:52 pm CDT