A woman says she was fired for being 'too efficient' at her job and outshining her manager

• A woman claims she was fired for being "too efficient" at her job.
• She believes she outshined her manager, and this led to her termination.
• Young workers are struggling with outdated hierarchies and a lack of managerial ambition.

A woman believes she was fired from her job because she was "too efficient."

Mariela Henriquez posted a TikTok this week where she said she had been fired the previous day.

"So I got fired from my job yesterday," she said. "And one of the reasons why is because I'm too efficient."

Millennial and Gen Z workers are in a career bind. They are struggling with little desire to become managers, while also sometimes feeling the hierarchy above them is out-of-date and ineffective.

The popularity of terms such as "lazy girl jobs" and "quiet thriving" shows young workers' ability to complete their projects with minimal effort. But even then, those like Henriquez may find their talents work against them.

Henriquez gave an example of what she believed put her in the firing line.

She said she had been in a meeting with her boss, and he told her he would be setting up a meeting with their sales director to talk about preparing graphics and closing sales before upcoming events.

"And then I say, oh hey, I've already done that work," she said.

"I logged into the website that they use to track events, and I saw that we were closing in April, and I already put that project in our project management software. I've already done all this work, and it did not require to set up biweekly meetings."

She concluded: "So, yeah, I got fired because I'm fucking good."

In the comments, people agreed Henriquez may have put a target on her back for showing her manager up.

"You didn't allow for the micromanaging he wanted to do," one person wrote. "That micromanaging was his ticket to his gold star."

Another said: "Never outshine the master."

"Jobs don't want you to work efficiently," one commenter wrote. "They want you to work how they want you to, efficiently."

Some people said they thought there must be more to the story, so Henriquez posted a follow-up explaining that the situation had been brewing for months.

"This started back in June when my boss decided that I became a threat," she said.

She said he sat back and let her do her job without much input, which effectively rendered him "useless."

"He had a lot of days where he wouldn't show up, no call, no show." she said. "And I would just do whatever I had to do."

She added: "I was doing his job because he wasn't there."

Friction occurred when he wanted to step back into a leadership position, Henriquez said, but it was "too late."

"I was already flying solo," she said.

Business Insider has reached out to Henriquez for comment.