The guy was new, and was going to the various departments educating himself about the way the company operated. He came to my department, which was electronics and electronic design. Just walked in without warning, and introduced himself. Wanted to know what sort of things I was working on.
I showed him a circuit board I was working on right that minute. I showed him the problem, which had to do with the way the vendor had made the plated-through vias. When I flexed the board a little (it was long and skinny), the circuitry went nuts. Before I could explain to him about the plated-through hole thing, he immediately said "oh, so you need a thicker circuit board."
Not as awful as your story, but still kind of funny and makes me smile even today, 35 years later.
Good thing you weren’t working on flex circuitry. You were probably stunned and too polite to laugh out loud.
One of my Haaavahd MBA big bosses wanted us to eliminate one of the bakes in the photolithography process to save a half hour in the step.