Employee 'sabotages' his boss' team building escape room by solving it too quickly, 'let others contribute.' AITA?
"AITA for sabotaging my boss’s 'team-building' escape room because I solved it too quickly?"
So, last week my boss (42M) organized a mandatory team-building exercise for our department at an escape room. I (29F) LOVE puzzles and escape rooms—I’ve done like 20 of them, and I’m really good at them. The thing is, my boss is kind of the "control freak" type who loves being the smartest person in the room.
At the start, he made it clear he was "leading" the escape room and told us to follow his instructions. Fine. But the thing is, he wasn’t exactly great at it. He kept overthinking the clues and barking out bad ideas that were going nowhere. Meanwhile, I had already mentally solved half the puzzles but kept quiet because I didn’t want to be that person who takes over.
About 15 minutes in, the rest of the team was getting visibly frustrated. People were just standing around while my boss argued with himself over a clue I’d already figured out. So, I casually solved a few puzzles and unlocked a door while he was rambling. He immediately got annoyed and said I was “ruining the team experience” and needed to “let others contribute.”
At that point, I backed off, but the team kept stalling, and we were running out of time. Finally, with only 10 minutes left, I couldn’t take it anymore and solved the last major puzzle, opening the exit door. We beat the room, but barely. Everyone cheered except for my boss, who was clearly upset. He muttered something about how the point was to "work together" and not "show off."
Later that day, he pulled me aside and said I’d "ruined the team-building experience" by not letting the group figure things out on their own. I told him I was just trying to help because we were falling behind, but he accused me of undermining him in front of the team.
Now my coworkers are saying I did nothing wrong and we would’ve failed if I hadn’t stepped in. But my boss is still giving me the cold shoulder, and it’s making things awkward at work. AITA for solving the escape room too quickly and stepping on my boss’s toes? Should I have let us fail to spare his ego?
Here's what top commenters had to say about this one
Beeni69 said:
NTA. Your boss is a d.
HoneyBuckets6 said:
You are guilty of being smarter than your boss, NTA.
HottiexXxDuchess said:
NTA, your boss is the one being a bit of a baby here. Sounds like he needs to learn to put the team before his ego.
SecretaryPresent16 said:
NTA. Your boss is just a control freak and obviously can’t deal with anyone else being better at something than he is. What’s the point of organizing something like this if he’s going to suck all the fun out of it by demanding that he “lead” the group?
This should be a situation where he is he NOT the boss for once. he’s also being a total hypocrite by accusing you of “not letting the group solve it on their own” when it sounds like HE has the one who didn’t want anyone else to solve it.
Careless_League_9494 said:
NTA. Your boss is just being a pissy child, because he didn't get to play hero in front of everyone. I'm sure the fact that you are over a decade younger than him, and a woman, is also playing a part in his toxic masculinity tantrum.
Pippet_4 said:
NTA, but I’d start looking for a different job. This guy has now gotten it into his head that you are smarter than him and therefore a problem. His ego won’t allow you to be successful where you’re at. It is not worth it to work for somebody like this. Please start looking for a new job now, so that when you need to quit, you can.
FairyFartDaydreams said:
NTA your boss is an AH. This was not a group activity. You might want to look for a job with a better boss