People Confess Their Fiery Revenge Stories
21. I Moved His Car Every Day For A Week
“Was in a relationship for two years, two years too long. He was an abusive heavy drinker that was lovingly manipulative when sober. Broke up with him after having to call the police on him after a rather rough night.
Two weeks later and I’m staying strong, telling him he has to be sober for at least a year before I would ever consider giving him another chance. For the first time, I stuck to my no, which was new for him and he very much so did not like it. Cue him then spilling that he had been two-timing me for two months anyways with a girl he had sworn he was just friends with.
Two months later I’m going through a junk drawer of mine and I found I still had his spare car key. I am not an angry person and I honestly don’t even wish anything bad towards him. I did however move his car two blocks every morning for a week. And on the last day, after what I’m sure was a week of being late to work and feeling on the verge of insanity, I left his car where he had parked it.
I did also though turn the volume to max and move everything movable slightly. Do I think it was healthy? Not really but it did feel great.”
20. Lie In Front Of The Principal? Get Suspended
“There’s a kid who was in my class from the beginning of Middle School until we finished high school. I was a bit of a nerd in middle school; to the point where my mom took me to boxing lessons because I was pretty athletic but also because she was worried someone would try and bully me.
Well, one such bully who thought he was a big deal had the misfortune of discovering how effective these boxing lessons were.
So, one day, I was playing basketball with a few friends and he decided it’d be a good idea to take our basketball away and throw it across the gym. Stuff like that had happened before, so I just bit the bullet and ran across the gym to grab the ball so we could keep playing.
Well, I got back, and he took the ball again. I asked for it back, and he responded by chucking it at my face. Luckily I was able to catch it, so I just responded ‘thanks’ and we kept playing.
The third time was strike three, however. He took the ball, and I grabbed it out of his hands. He proceeded to take a swing at my face, but I blocked it with the basketball, and then gave him a huge uppercut right to the nose.
So, of course, I get called into the principal’s office and we have a talk about what went down. Luckily for me, a teacher saw what had happened and explained the whole situation after the other kid had already blatantly lied about the story. So, I got an in-school suspension that would be erased from my record if I maintained my Honor Roll status through Middle School (I was High Honor Roll so that wasn’t much of an issue), and he got suspended for 3 days because he not only started the fight but also lied about the story.”
19. Try To Frame Me? I'll Catch You On Camera
“This story happened around 6 years ago when I worked for a retail company I will call no-op. Jay was well known to be a thief by the base staff and some of the lower levels of management. Unfortunately, she was a golden girl to Mo and Travis, and we never had any solid proof; we also didn’t get pay docked, etc. unless it was over a certain amount (which it never was,) so staff never had a real incentive to try and find proof.
One of Jay’s favorite things to steal were vouchers for shopping because you were just supposed to rip them up and put them in the safe; there was no official way of counting these to return them to the company, so she could use them again in a different store and get away with it.
This particular day was Halloween, and I was on ’till 4′ – the only till with no cameras on it.
Mo came up and paid for her shopping with some gift vouchers she had received at a store manager’s meeting because the store was doing really well. I served her and no one else touched my till all day because I was the main person on the tills for this shift. We closed up for the night and Jay took the registers to be cashed up, I went out to the pub with friends and had a good night not knowing what was coming.
The next shift I’m on, Mo calls me into the office and tells me that the vouchers she used were not in the safe and she knew that it was my till. She wanted me to return the vouchers and would not press charges or put anything on my file if I just returned them immediately, I of course did not have them and testified as such, but she didn’t believe me.
I went looking everywhere, the bin under till 4 and the bins outside, under the tills, and on the floors around the tills – just in case I had dropped them or put them somewhere dumb while trying to sort out funds. etc. Roughly an hour later, Jay comes in, hears what’s going on, and offers to look as well. She ‘finds’ them in 30 seconds flat, somewhere I had already looked. I essentially hissed out, “What a coincidence that as soon as Jay looks there, she finds it immediately, how coincidental,” seething with white fury as I knew she was now framing me for her own theft. She could have ‘found’ them in the office and made it a simple mistake but no, she made me the fall guy for her own idiocy.
I tried to plead my case to Mo and Travis, stating that I wouldn’t be dumb enough to steal vouchers that I knew were Mo’s because I was the one who served her; one of the other Team Leaders (Paul) knew fine and well it was Jay and tried to tell Mo and Travis that I was being set up, but… She was the golden girl and could do no wrong while my name was mud as far as they were concerned – heck, they thought Jay had caught me in the act.
This meant war.
Over the next few months, I got really friendly with Jay, flirting outrageously with her and basically pretending like I really respected her and that we were good buddies. It took me a while to work my way into her trust, but once I was there, I knew I could catch her stealing and prove it. We wasted off a load of Christmas chocolate products that hadn’t sold, and I put them in a bag to be put in the bin.
Jay said we should take them home (against company policy and seen as stealing) because they were just going to waste otherwise. We were stood underneath a camera, just outside of its range, so I said, “I don’t want any, but if you want them, you can have them” and put them on a trolley just inside of the camera’s range (I had studied the camera angles in great detail preparing for a moment exactly like this), I saw her look at the camera, down at the trolley and back to the camera before walking off to get her stuff.
I warned my colleagues not to take any of the chocolate even if offered and had an evil grin on my face which my colleagues commented on. When Jay came down she nonchalantly picked up the bag as if it was her shopping, offered chocolate to everyone, and walked out the door with it.
Gotcha.
The next morning I arrived for my shift and put on the most somber face possible as I approached Travis, “You should check the cameras on the back door at approximately 22:21; I think you’ll find what you see very interesting.” He asked me to explain further and I looked over towards where Jay was (not even 5 meters away) and looked back, “I can’t go into further detail right now, but I would strongly suggest you go and look at the cameras for that time now.”
Travis begrudgingly walked off to do just that, and within 10 minutes, Jay was called into the office and her bag was searched, within the hour she was suspended pending investigation and within the week she was fired and barred from the store.
I got a full apology from the managers who didn’t believe me, who explained they genuinely believed it was me and had no idea Jay could have possibly been a thief.
Their jaws hit the floor after I explained that every member of staff knew she was a thief but that we didn’t feel like we could do anything about it. After going around asking people if this was true, I got another apology. Six months later, I was offered training to become a Team Leader myself. I took it but ended up quitting for a white-collar role in a different company before I finished my training.”
18. That Left A Bad Taste In My Mouth
“Until April this year my husband, let’s call him Mike, worked in a warehouse for a big, international furniture company in southern Germany. He liked the work, even if it was hard labor carrying 150kg (330lbs for the Americans) pieces of furniture around.
Because of this, the staff turnover was pretty high. One of his colleagues, we will name him Steve, started at the same time as my husband. They weren’t friends as Mike didn’t like him, but he respected him as a hard worker.
Due to customers coming in all the time, the warehouse staff didn’t have required breaks, they just took their lunch break when it was possible.
Some used the break room with the basic kitchen, some went out to eat, some went to the supermarket on the other side of the road, or did errands in the 60 minutes they had. But either way, you had to clock out and back in. This will be relevant later.
Soon they realized that brought-in lunches went missing from the fridge in the break room, as did sweets they had bought to share and also drinks.
Since it was rare that two of the workers took their break at the same time, they weren’t sure who stole them. They also were not allowed to bring up a camera. So Mike and the warehouse manager decided to take matters into their own hands.
Once in a while when it was slow, they decided to order food. Mostly pizza, sometimes burgers. And my husband (me too) loves hot, spicy food.
I’m pretty sure that there is no blood in him, that has to be hot sauce flowing around. Anyways, we have a nice assortment of powders and sauces, ranging from a little tickling to ‘will turn your butt in a Johnny Cash song if you don’t get that surgically removed right now!!’ Hubbs of course had some of the sauces at work.
You all know where this is heading, right?
When the thefts got more and more regular, they decided to order pizza – just Mike and the manager, the others didn’t want to or had something else. The pies got delivered and smelled delicious. Miraculously, both my husband and his manager were able to take their lunch at the same time and enjoyed their pizza, but didn’t finish it. Mike took out one of his sauces with a scorching 2 million Scoville (for those not familiar: regular Tabasco has about 2.500-5.000 Scoville) and distributed a generous amount on the leftovers, which blended in great with the red tomato sauce.
Then they left to have a smoke and continued working.
They hadn’t had a chance to clock in again when Steve emerged from the break room, running for the bathroom, head in a very nice shade of red, gagging. When he came back out a few minutes later, he was white as a sheet, reeking of vomit, and left without a word to get something to drink from the supermarket.
Just then the local store’s manager, the boss of the warehouse manager, happened to drop by. He noticed Steve is absent and did not clock out – the big no-no. What nobody knew: Steve had already two write-ups for being absent without clocking out. If you get three write-ups (‘Abmahnung’ in German) for the very same reason, you can be terminated without notice. When Steve returned, clutching 3 packs of milk closely to his chest, the third write-up and the termination was already printed and ready to be signed. Steve left immediately.
He now works in another warehouse, where a good friend of mine is employed, too. None of their food has gone missing yet.”
17. Try To Stiff Me? Get A Mechanics Lien
“I was starting my side business doing IT work for businesses and had some successful jobs for a few companies. I found word of mouth was the best way to gain new clients because entrepreneurs tend to network with other business owners. Tony was one such client who had heard I had done some work for a client and called to see if I could help.
His company’s needs were to stop using a semi-accounting service that they had been paying a percentage of their profit to process payments, purchase orders, and billings/receivables. He brought in an accountant to work on a new product (pretty well known). They wanted a server to be accessed remotely, and had already paid their ISP for a static IP for the server but needed the actual server, redundancy UPS, and firewall device.
I explained that for the product they had we could probably set up a workstation and not a server and it would run approximately $3500 total and would be easy but no the owner wanted a full-blown server system with all the bells and whistles. He explained that he would likely be using the server for a CRM and a few other systems later on.
Overall the entire cost for the system would be $8000 not including a few other services that needed annual billing (VPN/Remote service).
The equipment cost was $7500, my labor charge was $500. UPS was $1500, Server was $3800, and ‘refurbed’ firewall (CISCO ASA) with programming by a 3rd party specialist was $1800, and a spare rack was $400. I got my contract signed, put an order with my distributor (I have net 45 setups with them) and the firewall specialist, and got to work 1.5 weeks later when the firewall came in last. I finished the job on a single weekend, and got everything up and going after a call to the ISP who did not like the firewall appliance I installed. For some reason, they had to tweak things on their end and finally allowed the traffic to go through once more.
I confirmed the function with the owner who verbally approved and was happy.
I sent my invoice promptly on Monday. Left it as in, they had 1 week to pay. When I saw no reply, or payment after 4 days I messaged Tony and asked if they had received my invoice. To my surprise, he replied the server was not working and proceeded to call me and tell me that the whole thing was a total waste and I should have never done the job.
I of course apologized and informed him I would be on the way to fix whatever the problem was. When I got there, they refused to let me in to see the server claiming they had someone coming over to fix my mishaps. At that point, I informed them they still needed to pay for the equipment, and we could maybe discuss my labor after I figure out what’s going on.
Tony refused to let me in and was pretty upset.
At this time I was pretty upset. 2.5 weeks had passed since I ordered my equipment and my distributor was needing to get paid within 45 days. I was getting very nervous and was thinking of taking it to small claims court until talking with a friend. He informed me I could pull a mechanics lien. I informed him this was for IT, and he stated that mechanics lien where I live can be pulled on various industries and IT was one of them.
So I started the process to fill out and file a mechanics lien on Tony’s company. Much to my surprise, there was no court date. All I needed to do was provide considerable proof to clerks, and later to the constable.
After filling out the mechanic’s lien and serving him notice, I once again allowed him to pay the $8000 owed. By this time I had spoken with my distributor and he switched my account from Net 45 to Net 90.
He refused via phone call and got him on text. I took the information I had and went to the local constables who after seeing the mechanic’s lien and proof set up an appointment to meet me at the place of business to take back my server, ups, and firewall. I went in on Tuesday which I had learned was the day the accountant came in to start the week00.
Constable and I arrived at 7:30, right on opening time. At first, they refused entry until Tony came by and was informed I was enforcing my mechanics lien and would be taking back my equipment. He immediately got riled up and claimed I could not take the equipment because a new person had replaced it all.
The constable asked if I had serial numbers and models for the equipment which I did.
We go in and find my server, UPS, and firewall all in the same way I left it. The server showed it had been online for the entire time, no real changes were noticed, and as far as I could tell no one had worked on it. Tony began to chuckle when I shut the server down and said, ‘how are you going to take the system when it’s BOLTED TO THE GROUND?!
Bet you didn’t think about that did you, you idiot!’ He did not realize that rack-mounted equipment is not permanently attached to the mount. I guess he thought he had me beat because it was all one system that you cannot take apart and not something that was put together. His jaw dropped the moment I removed the server and loaded it onto the cart after removing a couple of bolts.
He started panicking and started telling the constable that he would sue him if he didn’t stop me, the constable simply stayed calm and ignored the owner.
I guess after a bit he informed Tony that he needed to get out of his face and step back but when Tony refused to back down the constable undid his holster’s safety harness and put his hand on his firearm.
Tony’s face was exquisite. Full of fear, and eventually a dawning sensation that this was going to happen one way or another. At first, I did not understand why he was so riled up and now had a panicked face like his world just collapsed until a bit later. I wrapped up my server/ups/firewall and left the rack. True to Tony’s word undoing the bolts proved difficult to impossible with the tools I had, so I told Tony he could keep IT for the new server he tries to set up.
It didn’t take more than 2 hours before I got a call from him stating that he had talked to his attorney and he would be suing me for damages and I would be going to jail for trespassing. I informed him he did not pay for the equipment, his equipment was repoed thus there was nothing to sue for. As far as trespassing, I was servicing a mechanics lien with a law enforcement officer thus it is not trespassing.
He then starts hemming and hawing about how he needs to bill clients because he hasn’t had revenue in a week but his accountant can’t do anything because she has no access to the accounting software and they have no copies. I informed him it was not my problem, I would NOT be giving access to the server nor data contained and he should have paid for the equipment instead of trying to screw me over for $8,000.
He then offered to pay me if I could install the server back the same day, but that ONLY if I did it that same day otherwise he’d find someone else. I informed him that our original contract was null and void. I would be returning the equipment to my distributor but first I had to wipe the storage by DOD standards, which means 0% chance of recovering files unless he somehow had NSA-level funds.
He starts freaking out and resorts back to what he usually did: threaten me to the lawsuit, make my life miserable, etc. So I hang up and text him I am going to proceed to delete his data that evening and that I was NO longer interested in working with him.
He called me at least 50 times, I just silenced my phone and talked to my friend later that night, the friend who had given me the advice.
He then tells me why I was returning the equipment if I had the ONLY copy that has EVERYTHING from client names, contacts, phone numbers, billings, receivables, etc. He asked me how much revenue did the company generate, I informed him I was taking a wild guess but it was somewhere in the ballpark of $58,678.21 for the last month. He laughs and tells me, why don’t you charge them double the price to get his equipment back, and have him pay you before you start?
He was right, I was taking my petty revenge and walking out with $1800 in a firewall I had to pay in advance, and a $500 unpaid labor charge. Why not take it a step further to get sweeter revenge and get paid a ton.
The following day I messaged Tony, I apologize for the way I behaved yesterday, it was not professional. Unfortunately, your trash attitude and attempts to screw me over got the better of me.
The server has not been wiped yet. I would like to reconsider a new arrangement so we can salvage this sour experience and turn it into sweet honey. Are you interested in working with me to get your equipment back, I must warn you it will be extra since I would be doing double the work. Let me know.
Tony immediately called me and immediately his jerk ways came up.
‘I knew you would change your mind and come crawling back, yes I want everything back but I am only paying $8050 and not a dime more. The $50 is me being generous to give you a 2nd chance to do things right.’
I immediately informed him that I still have all the equipment, and it would only take maybe 20 minutes to complete the job however I had a different idea in terms of the price.
The new price was $15000 to be paid in full. He immediately starts yelling and hollering. I keep talking and inform him he has 2 weeks to decide if being able to get paid by his clients was worth it if not the equipment was going back and that would be that. No hard feelings. I hang up.
About 2 days later I get a call from Tony informing me he agreed to a new arrangement to please set it up and install it asap.
I tell him I can go Friday but I would need to be paid $15,000 before I even unload a single bolt from my vehicle. He agreed. I could hear a lady talking tell him he needs to get this resolved because they had not had revenue in nearly 2 weeks. This was on Wednesday. On Thursday I get a call from his daughter, who is the accountant, and the lady who was telling him to resolve it!
She is cutting a check and needs to know my name. I inform her I would not be accepting checks, and I had told Tony specifically it would be in full. She says ok and tells me if the amount of $12,000 was correct. I once again correct her and inform her the correct amount was $15,000. She said in satire ‘Of course it’s $15,000, I will go make the withdrawal and have it ready tomorrow.’
Sure enough Friday morning true to her words she and Tony were there with $15,000. I counted it in front of her and Tony. She makes a comment saying that I was a lifesaver because they could not go back to the service they used before to get paid, and they urgently needed to get some PO’s sent out. I placed it in my vehicle, locked the glovebox, and unloaded the equipment.
True to my word it took me 20 minutes to place the server, firewall, and UPS inside the rack mount. Connect the cables. Power on the server and ask them to test it out when they get a chance. If anything was wrong, do not contact me and have a good day. (I had tested it out already before I left their ‘server’ room, despite my pettiness at times I am still a professional).”
16. Dad Teaches Jerk Coach A Lesson
“My Dad is a very large man. We’re talking 6’7” 300 lbs big. He would always tell me this story to cheer me up when girls would be jerks to me:
He was pretty chubby in high school so he played football and was good at it, but just really loved playing basketball.
So his freshman year he tried out for the team and didn’t make it. The coach, who was a history teacher at the school, stated his weight as an issue. Fair enough, he worked hard to lose some weight over the summer blah blah blah.
Enter sophomore year: ends up having the coach as his history teacher. Great, he thinks. He can be a good student and hopefully get on the team.
Wrong. This ADULT MAN decided to call my father names related to his weight and harass him in front of the class. Not cool but my Dad was too proud and never said anything. Ended up making varsity his sophomore year because of a coaching change.
Fast forward about 5 years my Dad was working as a bouncer at a bar in a nearby town to where he went to school.
It was a regular night when who walks in? Jerk history teacher. Perfect. He thinks ah I’ll let it go, be professional. Until he recognizes my dad as ‘the chubby kid who was a coward.’
My dad looks at him and says ‘Sir, I think you’ve had too much to drink, it’s time for you to go home.’ The coach is saying no no I’m fine, etc, etc. My dad grabs him by his shirt and says ‘no. It’s time for you to step outside, you have had too much to drink.’ The coach decides to swing at my dad and that’s when he loses it.
He states ‘this is for all the kids you’ve called fat you piece of work’ and proceeds to beat the tar out of him.”
15. Trashy Dude Thinks He Owns My Family
“One of my bullies was this kid named Patrick. He physically tortured me and eventually, I moved in with my father and didn’t see any of my old bullies again except for a few. Some have been relatively nice and some are jerks.
During high school, I filled out a bunch and took some martial arts classes (tae kwon do). I was always a larger kid but too timid to fight back but martial arts helped me overcome that.
Fast forward to a year or two after high school and I go over to visit my mother. She had moved in with a real idiot who was into God knows what. And guess who’s there? Patrick. He’s now almost a foot shorter than me, skinny as a middle school girl, and was undoubtedly on substances.
We end up talking and I tell him about how I have sinus trouble because of the beating I got from him and his friends.
He laughed.
I looked around at my younger brother (who had become VERY skinny from not eating) and sister, the environment they were in, and right then I made a decision. I turned to my mother and said ‘I don’t care if this is the kind of people you want to be around (indicating the piece of work next to me) but we are leaving.’ So I piled my siblings in my car and brought them home with me.
They shortly moved in with my father officially and have been much better off since.
Patrick made a comment about me ‘disrespecting him and my mother’ and I told him he had no respect for himself so who is he to talk like that. He went to hit me and I just stared at him. He dropped his fist quick after I stared him down for what felt like an hour.”
14. Make Fun Of Me In Front Of Everyone? I'll Make Fun Of Your Family
“I was one of those unfortunate, awkward boys that got bullied by a teenage girl half my size. It was in seventh grade, and there was a girl in my art class who, shall we say, developed early. I was coming along a bit more slowly, what with the gangliness and the uneven whisper of a mustache gracing my upper lip. We sat at a cluster of tables together and for some reason, this girl decided to make this class miserable for me.
In terms of popularity, this girl was a big deal and I was a cold dribble of diarrhea. She and her friends would mock my constant attempts at drawing dragons and robots and armored knights. They were only too happy to point out how I looked like I had pooped myself when I ended up with clay all over my pants during the pottery project.
In essence, all the usual middle-school nonsense. And because of my raging hormones, there was never enough b***d left in my brain to construct a decent comeback when it was happening. It was miserable.
One day about midway through the year, we were working on individual sculptures. She had a group of friends around her, giggling fiercely at whatever she was working on, occasionally glancing over at me.
I tried to ignore them, working on my ugly dragon sculpture. I had just about finished when she leaned over the table and placed her small sculpture atop my desk. ‘Look, it’s a scale model of your peepee!’ she squealed in delight. A lot of people looked over. And then the laughter began. The teacher, who’d witnessed the exchange, tried to calm them down, but to no avail.
An inappropriate joke in middle school is hard to recover from. Something clicked in my head. The withering laughter awoke something in me. Something dark and terrible.
You see, in between her taunts, she and her friends would talk about their lives to one another, always within my earshot. And I had learned things. ‘You know, I think you’re just annoyed because your dad’s in jail,’ I said.
The class fell silent. She and her friends stared at me, open-mouthed. My tormentor sputtered and mouthed something, but her voice had left her. Tears had begun to form in the corners of her eyes. With a wracking sob, she fled the room. I sat down to quietly finish my dragon. The girl, whose father was in and out of jail on a regular basis, moved to a desk far away from me.
I was required to see the school counselor, but thanks to my stellar grades and the fact that this was the first time I’d ever acted out in class, I escaped punishment. True, she was a girl with a bad home life acting out in frustration, and I’d made her cry. But sometimes even people in nasty situations need a harsh reminder not to lash out.”
13. Lie About Being Divorced? I'll Ruin Your Reputation
“Jake was 42, recently divorced (or so he told me), and had a kid that he would see over the weekends.
We met online through a poetry website where both of us used to write. He was very aloof and stern in his comments and not very popular on the website because he used to always come off like an arrogant jerk, but I really liked his poems regardless of his personality, and that’s how it began. I commented on one, and he instantly pm’ed back praising my writing and asked me if we could collaborate on a duet together.
I’ve already done it a thousand times with a few friends and people on the site that I respected, so I said sure. So long story short, we met on Hotmail messenger (this was nearly 11 years ago, kids, so no WhatsApp; although, we did chat on social media too. This will come relevant later.)
Long story short, we instantly connected. He was funny, handsome, and really sweet underneath all his bravado.
And his dark sense of humor was right up my alley. We spent months pulling all-nighters just talking and writing together.
Not humble-bragging, but I was pretty popular on the site because I won a few awards so, by association, he became popular too. People started to reading Jake’s poems and commented, and obviously, he got a huge head about it, but I digress…
Our relationship became more serious after he confessed that he was falling for me, and I was smitten. So I went along with it. We talked about my recent breakup, and he assured me that he would never lie to me because the (of course he used that) “witch of his ex-woman” two-timed him, and he was devastated until he met me. I was shocked about how bad the ex was but assured him that I was all in.
And I meant that.
One important detail about our turbulent romance is that he was in South America (he’s from there), and I was still living in Italy, in my hometown.
So, after almost 2 years of excuses for how tied up on work he was. I decided to surprise him with a visit.
I bought my ticket, and it literally was like a dream.
He picked me up, we kiss, hug, and he took me to his beach house (which would have been my first red flag, but I was dumb, young, and in love). Saying that it would be so much easier and fun for me doing touristy stuff on a beach port than staying in his suburbs house with no car. Because I told him on such short notice that he didn’t have the time nor the means to take time off (which again blatant lie because he was one of the partners of the company), but again, I bought it, and off I went on my own almost for the entire week that I was there.
He only spent one night with me and the rest of the week just picked me up from wherever it was that I ended up wandering to, and we hang out for a few hours, make love, and then he would just drop me off at the house. I know that most of you are thinking, “C’mon, OP, just get your head out of your butt and realize what a bunch of nonsense that is!”
And believe me, now writing this, I realized how much of an idiot I was.
But it gets better… The day before I have to get back to Italy, he took me to dinner… With his 6-year-old son and his sister.
I was super happy to meet his family and son but got caught off guard when he just introduced me as his “friend from Italy dropping on the town for tourist attractions.” Her sister was super sweet albeit a bit awkward, and his son was adorable.
We ate, talked, and off we went.
He picked me up first thing in the morning and dropped me off at the airport.
Now, that you got the full story, I’ll get to the good part.
Two days later and still a bit jet-lagged, I got a very interesting email. FROM HIS SISTER DANA.
Her email was short and very simple. “Dear Gina, I know that you might think I was weird and maybe a bit rude when we met, but it was only because I was tricked by J to join the dinner with his kid.
He never mentioned that you guys were seeing each other, but after confronting Jake, he confessed and begged not to tell anyone, or his marriage will be ruined. But you’re such a sweet and young girl that doesn’t deserve his deception. Jake IS STILL WITH HIS PARTNER AND NEVER LEFT THEIR HOME. Don’t take just my word for it.” And Dana sent me pictures of his REAL social media profile, and surprise, the perfect little family.
I thanked her and shut down my computer. I was devastated. I really thought Jake was the love of my life and was seriously considering moving there! I spent all night crying and drinking until I gave myself the worst migraine.
But, the heartbreak lasted about 12 hours. At 4 am, I got up, showered, made a pot of fresh coffee, and started planning my revenge. I was hurt, yes, but also so angry that he not only deceived me but dragged his sister and his innocent child in his lie.
I was on the other side of the world, and I couldn’t pay someone to kick his butt or egg his car.
But as my Sicilian father would say to me: “If someone slaps you, don’t turn the other cheek… Cut off their freaking hand!”
And so I did.
I sat down at my desk and turned on the computer and logged into his Hotmail.
I didn’t have the password, but I knew him well enough to answer his 3 security questions on the section “forgot password… “1, 2, 3 bum baby… I’m in, and holy smokes… This arrogant piece of human trash was not only seeing me but two other girls. I quickly logged onto his social media too because he had everything linked (the naivety), so I quickly changed all his passwords to, I’M A JERK, and discovered that his personal email was also connected to his work account.
I dug through his emails for two hours (this idiot never erased anything, so he had more than 5,000 emails). Until I found something very interesting: the girls he was also seeing and their very hot email exchanges. Dirty pics included.
So WHAT did I do? You guessed it. I crafted a very lengthy and explicit email with pics and chat logs attached confessing to Jake’s partner (posting as him, obviously).
Begging for forgiveness and declaring how much of a horrible person I was and as proof of my willingness to change, I was sending this email to the girls too. that I did it only because I was in the closet and thought that being a player would help me forget how much I really loved guys. That I was sick of pretending and hoped she could move on and maybe be friends.
But not only to them… I freaking copied his entire list of contacts (including the CEO and partners of the company he worked for, his parents, and D of course). This email was perfection. All the pictures and chats (myself included) he ever exchanged with any other women. I copied myself on the list obviously as a countermeasure and moved on to part 2 of my plan.
I changed ALL of his social media and declared that I was so relieved that people finally knew the real me. The pride flag was his new wall picture, and his profile picture was a photoshopped picture of two guys kissing.
I created 5 different accounts on gay websites with ALL his info, included his phone number, and started to chat with a bunch of guys until out of nowhere, this guy sent Jake a message.
Tony was his old uni friend that had always been secretly lusting for him for years, and although I felt bad for this later, I set up a time to meet.
One week after this massive internet blowout and his family and friends angrily calling him all sorts of names (and getting fired because his bosses didn’t want the bad press), Jake was trying to make amends with his family and friends for a bbq for his bday.
But I would have paid one year’s worth of salary just to see his face and his guests when in the middle of their celebration, Tony appeared with a bottle of champagne to “celebrate” privately as I asked. Apparently, there was a huge fight, and everyone left Jake, flustered and angry. Crying because “some psycho wanted to ruin his life.”
I blocked him and forgot about everything until 6 months ago when he out of the blue sent me a message on Instagram asking me why I disappeared and didn’t support him when he was at his lowest. And oh boy, the satisfaction I felt when I only replied back: Sorry Jake, but I think everything you got was karma for all the lies and time wasted you fed me… Good luck.
Oh, and by the way, IT WAS ALWAYS ME.
I then blocked him and made my account private.
Jake did try to call a few mutual friends to try to get them to give him my number, but they ignored him. They also got the infamous email. So yeah… I got my revenge and it was worth every single hour.
I know. I’m very petty.
And for those who think making him appear gay was wrong of me, let me tell you that it was only because of his very machismo attitude and homophobic personality. I am 100% with the LGBTQ+ community and love and support them dearly.
Let me clarify a few points. I never outed Tony. He was very much outside the closet since he was 12-years-old, and at said bbq, he was never beaten, or in danger.
The blow-out and the fight were Jake’s family and friends, blowing up at HIM. Tony left safely as soon as he realized the setup. 11 years later, he’s happily married and has a beautiful child, and lives in Europe. Can’t say which country, but just know he’s happy, and we’re still friends on social media. I apologize to him a few weeks after the bbq, and although, he was hurt, he forgave me and even laughed at all the things I showed him.
I acknowledge that what I did wasn’t much better than what he did to me. I was selfish, reckless, and stupid. And I did feel bad for it, and actually, after all that blew up, I reached out to Tony and apologized to him for dragging him into my petty revenge. He was upset, but after hearing my side, he was glad I did.
He only wished I was upfront with him. We didn’t end up best friends, but he still always sends me updates on his life.”
12. Don't Care When I'm Sick? Talk To My Lawyer
“A few years ago, I quit my career in the tech industry. This was after the company I was working for went public and everything went downhill. I was sick of working for the rich and needed some time to live life.
I proceeded to spend a few months traveling, working on home projects, and doing whatever I wanted. One day, about 4 months into my freedom, I was having lunch with my best friend and she told me ‘You need to stop being lazy and get a job’. She had recently been hired at a company in the construction industry and mentioned there was an opening. The opening was for a job I had zero experience in, but a change of career was appealing.
I applied and promptly was given a phone interview. I spent a little time researching everything about this position and after many interviews managed to fake my way in. Turns out this position was wildly different from anything I had done before. It taxed me in ways I had never experienced. Not only was my job stressful, but my boss also turned into a nightmare.
He had worked there since the company was founded. He was a part of the ‘good old boys club’.
Now… for everyone that doesn’t know, the construction industry has basically zero HR. This was close to a billion-dollar company and was still the same way. My boss was a narcissist, misogynist, liar, and downright jerk. Weirdly, most of that was directed towards others and not me.
My best friend was one person that took the brunt of it. It killed me to hear what he would say to her. All of this took its toll on me.
About 3 months into my employment, January 1st hit. I wake up at 2 am in the morning with pain in my chest and my head racing a million miles an hour. Luckily, my roommate was a paramedic and happened to be home.
I rush over to her room and yell that I think I’m having a heart attack. She comes out, takes my vitals, asks some questions, and determines I am most likely having a panic attack. Sure enough, I calm down and manage to not die. I had never had a panic attack up until then. Throughout the following week, I continue to have flare-ups of chest pain and heart palpitations.
I figured something could be wrong so I go to my doctor. He does a few tests and determines it’s most likely some acid reflux. He prescribes some meds and the following week is better. Then, one night when heading home from dinner with my sister, BOOM, I get rear-ended at a stoplight by a wasted driver. No skid marks. Didn’t even attempt to stop.
I felt a bit of tightness in my back so decide to go get checked out at the hospital to be safe. I get there and they take my vitals. My b***d pressure was on the moon. Like 180/100. They take it about an hour later and it’s still high. They recommend I go see my doctor again. The next couple of weeks waiting for my doctor’s appointment is brutal. I am having daily ‘panic’ attacks, chest pain, trouble breathing, massive fatigue.
The whole gambit. Finally, get to the day of my appointment, let my doctor know what’s going on, and he determines I should go see a few different specialists and get all kinds of tests done to be safe. Throughout the next couple of months, I have everything poked and prodded. Because of the number of tests that needed to be done, I missed a good bit of work.
This turned my boss on me. He constantly complained about me being gone. All the while not an ounce of work was dropped. With my tech background, I also took it upon myself to start making reports and collecting data that I would present to him on ways of improving the department and company. I later found out, he would take these reports, which at times could save the company hundreds of thousands to potentially millions of dollars, and present them as his own to the owner.
This made me furious and didn’t help with my physical issues.
However, slowly I made it through all of the prescribed tests and they couldn’t find anything physically wrong with me. Turns out, all of the issues were caused by stress and anxiety. Something I had never had an issue with before. My doctor referred me to an amazing counselor that helped me learn how to manage the problems I was facing and get back to a reasonable state of mind.
Although, this never got to an acceptable level because of my boss. I started to email HR with my issues with him and things I have witnessed with others. Most of this was met with an unwillingness to help in any way.
A dear coworker whom everyone loved and respected decided to quit out of nowhere. She too worked under my boss. In her exit interview, she gave the sole reason for quitting as my boss.
She finally hit her breaking point and enough was enough. However, because she was so well-liked, this prompted some questions from the owner and other senior management. They wanted to know why my boss was the reason for her leaving. They had HR set up a meeting with us in the department and our boss to go over our issues with him. We all were excited to finally, hopefully, get the people that matter to listen.
We have the meeting and we all lay out the issues with our boss and give a multitude of examples. I went a bit overboard and had an entire presentation. Turns out this was all a charade to cover my boss’s mistakes. He was ‘prescribed’ some management counseling which I’m pretty sure he never did and things continued on their merry way.
However, now… with the knowledge my boss had of our issues with him, he turned the volume up to 11.
The constant berating, yelling, write-ups came flowing out. It got bad enough that I started to secretly record every meeting with him. I saved every single email and documented every interaction with him. I continued to push for help from HR, but again, his status in the company kept him immune from any response. Thankfully, throughout all of this, I managed to keep my mental health in check thanks to my counselor’s tools.
I get sick, but this time it’s with a real cold and lasts a few days. All of which are covered by government-mandated sick time. I come back to work and not even a week goes by and I get called into my boss’s office with other senior management. I knew this wasn’t good. My boss let me know that they are firing me for attendance.
I am gobsmacked. I have never been fired in my life and I know I was an asset to the company’s success. I didn’t slack off, I didn’t miss deadlines, the attendance excuse appeared to just be what my boss thought would be easiest to get rid of me with. Now… I live in an at-will state. You can be fired for basically any reason except for a bad one.
They presented me with a meager 2-week pay severance. I declined to sign it, packed my stuff up, and left. I knew the whole situation didn’t feel right, especially because I was familiar with the recent state laws that passed about sick time and an employer not being legally allowed to fire you for using it. Because of this, I went to my mom whose been in the law field her entire life and got a referral for an employment law attorney.
The day of my appointment with the employment law attorney couldn’t come quick enough. I had gathered everything I had collected from my time at the company and presented it to him. The recordings on my phone, the emails, the documented interactions, everything. After showing the attorney, he pushes back from his desk and says ‘Holy mother of God. You have one big case here.
They messed up bad’. A wave of relief flows over my entire body. Me thinking the only blatant violation was firing me for using sick time, I was taken aback when he proceeded to explain that the company made 4 huge violations. The sick time violation is not even being anywhere near the top of the list. Some big things I learned from him:
The meeting I had with my boss, HR, and the rest of the department where we went over all of our issues with him was a key piece of evidence for one of their biggest violations.
I learned this type of meeting is considered protected concerted activity and covered under the National Labor Relations Act. The act protects against retaliation for having this kind of meeting. According to my lawyer, all of my boss’s activities following that meeting can be considered retaliation.
When it comes to health issues and how they affect you at your workplace, make sure you document every interaction with your employer.
It’s important to show that you made an effort to let them know of your complications and how they may affect you at your workplace. I sent countless emails to HR letting them know of my mental health issues and their failure to make accommodations was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Having recordings and documentation on how your employer interacts differently with females and males is important to prove a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
After all of this, the lawyer stated I had three options. Option one, I could retain him and we could file a lawsuit. He explained that would be expensive and take a lot of time. However, would most likely result in a good sum. Option two, I could file claims with all of the departments that cover the violated Acts. He explained that some of these departments can take years to investigate and process the claims. However, for some of them, especially the violation of the National Labor and Relations Act, the investigation can be an absolute hassle for the employer.
This would probably be the biggest screw you to the employer. Option three, I go back by myself and renegotiate the severance. This being the quickest and easiest option. This option sounded very appealing, I didn’t want to drag this out for multiple years. I told the lawyer that option three is most likely my choice and he mentioned that I should probably start negotiations at 9 months of severance and full benefits.
After consulting with people close to me, I decided to go with option three. I met with HR and Senior Management, explain that I consulted with an employment law attorney, stated all of the acts that he feels they violated, and ask for 9 months of severance. After a couple of weeks negotiating with their attorney, we settled on six months of severance with full benefits.
It’s been a few years since this has happened and it still makes me feel overwhelmingly happy thinking about it. In the end, I found an amazing job in the same industry. My ex-boss ended up being moved to a position that wasn’t in management. And hopefully… Nobody will ever have to go through what I and others went through at that company again.”
11. Don't Pay Me? Get Rejected After 20 Years
“In my young 20s, I moved to a new city to try to start my career and life.
I wasn’t very well off, but I was confident I would get things up and running.
In my job search, I came across a promising opportunity at a small firm. Instead of offering me the job, the owner said he would like me to come in for two days and work. If it was a fit, they would hire me, and if not, they would pay for the two days.
I figured taking the bus to and from the job was a luxury I could not afford and walked an hour each way to get there.
I did good work both days and worked very hard, but it was not a fit. The owner then tells me, “I know we said we would pay you, but it’s just too complicated to set you up for just two days, so you will just have to be happy you got the experience with us.” The way he acted really rubbed me the wrong way.
I was mad, but as I was trying to find another job, I figured it was not in my best interest to make waves as word may get around I was ‘difficult.’ I did however decide that someday, someway I would get my revenge on the owner.
I did find a good job that led to a great career. But I always kept tabs on the owner looking for the time and place to get some revenge and even a few times considered some more juvenile methods.
Just short of twenty years passed… and now I was very senior in my chosen profession, but instead of working for a small firm, I was a leader in a very large national company that hired firms. As it turns out, we had a large contract come up that I was the lead executive on the procurement team in the area the firm operated in.
Things have changed a bit over the years, but bidding on these contracts was at the firm’s expense at the time. However, to safeguard them, the bidding would be in stages. Well, sure enough, the owner and his firm put in an exploratory bid. They were not perfect for the job, but they could actually do it, so I assisted in them moving to the next stage, and the next stage, and then the final stage.
The easiest thing I could have done was shut them down right away and got a bit of revenge, but there would be no fun in that. There was some risk to letting them go through to the end though. Though I was the lead, it was a team decision, and to be honest, if they had the best proposal despite my thirst for revenge, I would vote for them.
The proposals and presentation came in and luckily the other firm was a bit better, and we went with them. Normally the executive lead didn’t deliver the bad news in the bid process, but I volunteered to take on the call.
It was fun to call the owner (who had no idea we met 20 years ago) and tell him, “We were impressed with your proposal, but it is just not the right fit.
I know you must be disappointed to not get the contract, but at least you got great exposure to our process.” (I know I should have used his own words from 20 years ago, but I could not bring myself to do it.)
The firm must have done about 200 hours of work on their proposal, so I figured that was payback for my 16 hours with 20 years of interest.”
10. Won't Let Our Company Out Of The Lease? I'll Get Your Building Condemned
“Our company was moving a remote site to a new building. As the IT guy for the company, I was asked to look at the new building and get network ports marked out. The landlord refused to put in any low voltage lines, and we got quotes, but they were thousands of dollars. Enter me, my car, and 4 boxes of cat 6 plena. It’s about an 8-hour drive, and I was doing about 30 drops.
Not a ton, but still, a few days work in someplace that’s already built up, and its drop ceiling with insulation on top. Messy, itchy work.
Day 1. We get there Monday morning at the start of the month. It’s actually a cool summer morning, and we’re from further south, so no one notices the AC not working for about an hour. Slowly, the building begins heating up.
It gets to 80 by noon, 85 at 3 PM. The rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows are greenhouses. It’s miserable. We’ve been told by the workers still on site that the leasing company was told there was no AC in our building 3 weeks ago. The other thing is there are STILL WORKERS ON SITE. The building isn’t completed. So much for being ready for a handover on day 1.
Day 2.
We’re getting agitated. It’s 80 degrees in the AM when we first walk in. It’s sweltering. The other guy that came up with me is the facilities manager. He’s screaming at people over the phone to fix the AC. We’re all exhausted from the heat by 3 PM. I found a 4-foot hole in the ducting when I opened the ceiling tile. The AC was blowing, but there was no cold air.
We are told the compressor is broken.
Day 3. More of the same. Miserable in the morning, I’m finally getting the last lines punched in on the patch panel. The AC guys arrive about 10 AM. They finally fix the unit at 2 PM. We ask them what they did. They said ‘A lot of things.’ We again said ‘what did you do?’ The reply was ‘we can’t tell the tenants’.
RED FLAG ALERT! We contacted our realtor, she said she would look into what was done. She sends an email later that night that says ‘they changed the refrigerant from r22 to r410a.’ I tell the facilities guy ‘No way dude. That’s like putting gas in a diesel motor, they’d have to change out the entire system. They didn’t do that in 4 hours.’ They duct-taped and wd-40’d that thing back together and it will run poorly for a month or so, then give out, and we’d be stuck with a replacement.
Day 4. Still no running water to some areas, still workers on site, the AC can’t keep up with the noonday sun, and it still hits around 80 by the end of the day. AC runs continuously. We’re packing up all the stuff we moved in and moving out. I notice all the fire sprinklers look like they have moved, and the metal protection around the drop tile has fallen to the floor.
The sprinklers are no longer protruding from the tiles in some places, in others, they are quite a bit lower than they were. Yep, the AC fools STOOD ON THE FIRE SPRINKLERS to fix their lousy ductwork. We are looking for a friendly way out. We contact the landlord and say ‘You haven’t delivered a finished building, we’re moving out, the lease is broken.’ The landlord has a 36-page lease.
The landlord won’t let us out of the lease, it’s 5 years. This is NOT starting well.
We get in contact with the corporate lawyer and the realtor, they both agree we’re kind of screwed. We are desperate for any way out. I start looking at the fire system (I used to run all kinds of low voltage lines, fire, security, etc). There is no fire panel in our portion of the building.
No smoke detectors are hooked up to anything. More red flags. One of our employees that was moving the heavy gear says ‘Oh yeah, I meant to mention, I never saw any building permits anywhere’ DING DING DING. They did this buildout, including demolition, running new plumbing and power lines, and destroying the fire system — WITHOUT A CITY PERMIT. Cue the call to the city inspector’s office.
Day 5. I wasn’t here for this part, but the facilities manager told me this: ‘The city inspector pulled the permits for the building. There weren’t any. He finds multiple violations of the city code. Red tagged our area, removed the certificate of occupancy. When I told him to check the fire system as you said, he just goes ‘Oh no, no, no, I have to make a call.’ He calls the fire marshal.
Day 8. Fire marshals arrive on the scene. Find no active alarm system in our portion of the building. Red tag. Find the sprinkler riser for the ENTIRE building in our area. No water pressure. Condemned the entire building.
They wouldn’t let us out of the building because we signed a lease, even though they never delivered a building in any semblance of working order. Called the building inspector, got them smoked, who then called the fire marshal, who condemned the entire building.
They are still trying to fight us over it, but we’re pushing for them not only to refund our deposit and the rent, which they have already done, but for all the time spent moving gear in and out, and all the wiring. Our lawyer says they don’t have a leg to stand on, and he’s happy for them to pay his fees as well.”
9. He Had No Idea I Know Jiu Jitsu
“When I was a kid, I was fat. I used to get picked on all the time by this kid at church named Rusty. He was about five years older than me and every couple of weeks he would beat me up.
I moved away when I was about 14, and thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with him anymore.
When I went to college, I decided to get my act together and get healthy.
To that end, I started taking mixed martial arts. I did it for about two years and lost about 40 pounds.
When I graduated, I moved back to where I was from and started looking for a new MMA gym. I went to the most reputable ones, and who should be there, but Rusty. It sounds too good to be true, but I swear to God, it happened.
He hadn’t changed a bit. The first thing he said to me was ‘Finally trying to learn to defend yourself, huh?’
I had called ahead and the instructor knew my deal and had arranged for me to come to watch. I left my gear in the car. At the end of class, they do free rolling; Jiu-Jitsu sparring.
Rusty comes up to me, having no knowledge that I am the least bit experienced, and starts begging the instructor to let him spar me, so he can ‘show me the ropes’.
After all, he’s been in MMA for three months now, AND he never misses a UFC pay-per-view.
I went outside and changed. Long story short, we sparred, and I gave him foul three times. Afterward, I signed up for classes, he grabbed his bag, left, and never came back.”
8. He Paid For A Year's Worth Of Membership
“A few years back I was the assistant manager at my karate studio. It was a slow, quiet day when in walked Paul, my old bully from public school. I wasn’t sure at first, it had been a long time, and it was hard to tell.
I didn’t say anything. Paul was interested in joining the dojo, and I showed him around, discussed pricing, etc. I didn’t treat him any differently than I would any other potential client.
At the end of the tour, Paul decided to join our dojo. We sat down in the office and he filled out the paperwork. When he wrote his name out on the application, I knew for sure that this was, indeed, my old bully. The guy who used to torment me every single weekday. Who made me kneel in poop.
I still didn’t say anything until after he pre-paid me for an entire year’s membership.
As I walked him to the door, I smiled.
‘I’m looking forward to training with you,’ I smiled.
‘Thanks, me too,’ Paul said.
‘You don’t recognize me, do you?’
‘No, should I?’
‘Yes. We went to school together, Grade 3 through 8. You bullied me every day and made my life miserable. Can’t wait to see you in class.’
Paul went white and walked out without another word.
And never walked back in. He willingly threw away a year’s membership payment, almost $500, rather than have to be in the same class with me.
I found that to be the most cathartic, healing, and downright pleasing outcome possible.”
7. Create An Insulting Rap About Me? See You In The Principal's Office
“When I was in 7th grade, my family moved from one small town to a small redneck town. Needless to say, I was constantly harassed and bullied for being the new kid.
In the 8th grade, there was one particular menace that seemed to take a liking to me. His name was Andy, and he was a short, pudgy kid who only fit in because he was a Cartman – he made fun of others in order to be accepted.
I had shop class with Andy, and every day he would make up some stupid rap about me and beatbox his way down the aisle to my drafting desk. One day for whatever reason I had enough – I grabbed the drafting ruler off the desk and started hitting him with it. The shop teacher broke us up and sent us both to the principal’s office.
I was so scared. My mother was an abusive heavy drinker and I was afraid she would freak upon hearing about a suspension. As Andy and I were both waiting outside the office, me shaking in fear, he with a menacing grin on his face, I overheard the shop teacher inside, telling the principal that Andy had been bullying me the entire semester and he’s honestly surprised it took me this long to do something about it.
I was in shock, and Andy’s smile dried upon his face.
When we were called in, the principal lectured me on the appropriate way to report bullying behavior, then sent me back to class. He kept Andy for the rest of the period, and I found out later he was suspended for two days. He never came near me after that, except once. My uncle lived in this town before we moved there.
He invited me to go with his new fiancee and her kids to a kiddie park, to which I excitedly agreed. He pulls up in a minivan with his fiancee and her four kids – three girls and a teenage boy. Named Andy.
He didn’t speak to me the entire time we were there and avoided me like the plague. My uncle was a vet from the Vietnam war, and he was a quiet, lumbering beast of a man who could get very angry.
I think Andy was scared for his life if I told my uncle what he had done.
I never did share it. I’d like to think I bought myself some good karma that way. My uncle did marry Andy’s mom, and I haven’t seen that side of the family in over a decade.”
6. Unlucky You, Your Boss Is My Roommate
“This girl was ‘the prom queen’ basically – the stereotypical mean girl going out with the football player.
My opinion of her was always that she was just spoiled, worthless, and dumb. I don’t usually take joy in other people’s misfortune, but I felt schadenfreude in unparalleled amounts the day I walked into Buffalo Wild Wings and saw her standing behind the counter. This is maybe 10 years out of high school, she looks the same. Put on some weight, maybe, but hair is still done the same, still looks like she got Effie Trinket to do her makeup, so on.
You can tell at a glance that she’s never mentally moved past 8th grade. I asked how she’d been, tried to politely talk to her because hey I want people to do well. She was a jerk, was like ‘Ew, you’re OP!’ I just raised my eyebrows at her and let it go.
Long story short, her boss was my roommate. I asked him about her – single mother just got kicked out of her mom’s house, he just hired her like 2 weeks earlier.
He confronted her about talking down to customers and wound up firing her. Felt like justice.”
5. Screw Me Over? I'll Take Away Your Position
“For 18 months I’d been working from home (as most of us had). From a work perspective, this has been great; I’ve been more productive than when I’m in the office, been able to work more flexible hours, and have saved a ton by not commuting.
My workplace had an agreement that those working from home can do what hours they want, so long as we are able to answer urgent calls in core hours and we get all our work done.
Fair enough as far as I’m concerned. For 16 months this worked great, as above. Then over a few weekends, I had a clear out of the house and took pictures of all the items that are in good condition but we no longer want, with the idea to give them away to whoever wants it.
One day while I’m working from home I take my lunch break, make a quick sandwich and post the items that I’m giving away on one of those local social media free pages.
I didn’t know it at the time but one of the managers – called Shambles henceforth – from my work was also signed up to that page and he saw my post. He then took it upon himself to go to the owner of the company and tell him that I was slacking off and posting on social media during work hours.
For context, this wasn’t my boss (who was super-chill so long as everything was done on time), nor was the complaint to my boss, but the OWNER of the company.
We’re a big business so there’s a lot of people in the chain of command between me and the owner. And to top it off I’d been doing a lot of work for Shambles, he’d outsourced the running of entire projects to me over the last 18 months (all of which I’d executed well and he’d taken ample credit for) and this was the only time in 18 months I’d posted ANYTHING on social media (because I never post).
So the owner contacted me, and to be fair he’s a decent guy, the conversation went like this:
Owner – ‘I’ve been told you’re posting on social media during work hours. Just be smart about it, it doesn’t look good when colleagues see it.’
Me – ‘Completely understand, just so you know I posted that during my lunch break.’
Owner – ‘I was told you were posting at noon.’ (the company lunch break is usually 1-2)
Me – ‘I did but that’s because when I’m home working I always take my lunch 12-1.’
Owner – ‘Okay, I don’t have an issue with that, just keep your head down.’
Like I said, a decent guy. I wasn’t really in trouble and the owner didn’t seem to care, but then I started to think ‘wait, who has gone to the owner with this in the first place?!’
Long story short, a coworker (who was working on-site that day) heard that Shambles had been ranting to the owner about me and how I’m always on social media when I should be working. (I only have one social media account and I only use that for messenger 99% of the time).
As I said before, Shambles likes to outsource work to me, I never minded this, the work was varied and it broke the week up, plus my boss didn’t mind as I always had my work for him done on time.
However, I never got recognition for this extra work. For 2 years I managed a sub-department completely on my own because he ‘didn’t have time to do it’. I didn’t get a penny more for it, but it was a good group of people and I enjoyed getting experience of management. Well, after this every time Shambles came to me with an issue I would say I was super swamped but that I’d try to deal with it if I had time.
The projects he tried to outsource to me I immediately rejected, saying that I had a full plate from my actual job. And that sub-department I ran… We’ll get to that. Over the next couple of months Shambles starts missing his deadlines, issues come up with existing projects that he hasn’t fixed and employees are complaining that every time they go to him with an issue it doesn’t get resolved. It dawns on me at this point that I’ve basically been doing this guy’s job for him for years.
I set up a meeting with my boss and put forward my arguments for why I should be promoted (or really, why I should’ve been ages ago). I point to all the projects I’ve successfully run as well as the sub-department I’ve managed for 2 years. He completely agrees and says he’ll take it to his boss. Now somehow, I don’t know how, but when I go to the next meeting with my boss’s boss, Shambles is there too.
He’s on the same level in the company as my boss’s boss. A little phased, but not willing to give up, I put my arguments forward to them. Shambles lets me finish then proceeds to tell me that I don’t know enough about our work to manage, I don’t have the required people skills and then he tells me, and this is verbatim… ‘besides, people here don’t respect you.
They respect me. I know I’m a good manager. If you really think about it, you know you wouldn’t be.’ I forget what else was said after that, but I was completely destroyed. Boss’s boss comes up to me afterward and tells me that Shambles is a jerk, but unfortunately he’s got the approval of the higher-ups so what he says has too much sway for him to go against him.
I tell boss’s boss that if that’s the way it is, I’m going to look for other employment. He sighs and says ‘I don’t blame you.’
During the time it took me to look for and apply to other jobs I have time to think about how I can get back at Shambles. He’s used me for years and is now blocking my promotion.
I’d already stopped working on his stuff and his projects were going from bad to worse, but I needed something more.
I’m an accredited internal auditor for our quality systems.
I ask if I can be assigned a couple of last audits before I leave ‘to help them out.’
I carry out these audits, and using my intimate knowledge of Shambles’ projects find every single issue I can.
A number of people also hate Shambles and give me more dirt on him.
Someone gives me breakthrough information that Shambles has been forging signatures and bypassing multiple company procedures to make his KPIs look better.
I write up the report, with tons of evidence attached, and send it off.
The report gets flagged at the highest level because of what it shows.
Shambles get dragged over the coals.
I wish I could say this story ends with the Shambles getting fired but (obviously using all the connections he has) he keeps his job. I later found out though that he was due a massive promotion (as in, catapulted to the top of the company, running whole divisions kind of thing). That never happened though, with his declining numbers as well as an audit showing all the shortcomings he’s basically told he’ll never progress beyond where he is and that he’s lucky to have a job at all.
He still works there and I’m told his ego has been taken down a whole washing-line worth of pegs.
As for me, I’d love to say I got a better job with a massive raise. That’s half true. I decided to pursue my dream job (literally, since I’ve been a kid dream job) in a totally different industry. All the experience I had counted in my favor and although I took a bit of a pay cut I’ve never enjoyed work more.
Oh, and that sub-department I was running. They knew that when I left Shambles would take over running them again, so in my last month at the company, I gave them all tutorials on how to search for jobs and pass interviews (I’d worked in recruitment previously). I’ve heard from a number of them since that they’d landed better jobs and thanked me in part for it.
Not the perfect ending, but I’m very happy with it.”
4. Be A Pain? Time For You To Deplane
“This is my mom’s story. She’s been a flight attendant for almost 35 years now and has earned numerous accolades from her airline and high-level frequent fliers for her phenomenal service. I’ve never met anyone who works harder or who loves his/her job more.
She is an extremely patient person as well, and can usually diffuse a tough situation and calm folks down (her thinking being hey, everyone just wants to take off and get to Boston/Anchorage/Honolulu on time).
Technically, however, post-9/11 the FAA granted flight attendants a lot more jurisdiction over whether Passengers Acting Like Jerks fly or not. My mom hardly ever exercises this authority (certainly not as much as other flight attendants), but the jerk canoe in this story earned it.
My mom was working her favorite trip – Portland to Maui – and was greeting passengers on a Thursday morning flight boarding in PDX.
The airline had recently begun flying to Hawaii, so things were festive (Hawaiian music playing, free Mai Tais, even new Hawaii-themed uniforms for the flight crew). Everyone was in a great mood, passengers and crew, until this guy boarded.
He’s immediately rude, loud, crude, and obviously intoxicated. Behind him is his exasperated young wife, towing a horse-sized diaper bag and their two young, tired-looking kids.
The guy remarks to my mom ‘You gonna get those drinks comin’, hun?’ and laughs like a loon as soon as he steps foot on the plane.
Once they get seated (the guy refuses to sit down or help his wife get their two kids situated), this guy will not shut up. He begins calling friend after friend and has the ‘Yo bro, guess where I am right now?’ conversation with each, complete with LOUD profanity.
There are a lot of families and young children on this flight, including his own.
All his antics so far are annoying, yet no reason to kick him off the plane. That comes when the guy refuses to put away his phone, meaning my mom can’t close the door, meaning a delay, meaning less time my mom has on the ground in Maui to snorkel (she LOVES her some snorkeling).
Another flight attendant had asked him politely three times, the third request receiving a ‘Jesus, calm down!’
Oh heck no. My mom PAs the crew in the back galley saying she’s booting him. This guy will only get more wasted, and any aggression towards flight crew is not tolerated. She prepares to go into the cockpit to get approval from the pilot to deplane the guy.
Pilots can be notoriously uncaring about what happens behind the cockpit door — ‘just take care of it’ is a common response to complaints — so my mom was prepared to have to argue her case.
But she remembers this flight’s captain is Steve, a seasoned pilot who’s flown with my mom for 30+ years and has always been famously protective of his flight crews (he always buys dinner for the crew at the hotel, and he gives my mom a Christmas present every year, and his connections in Seattle helped me get my first job).
Awesome guy who won’t let anyone do anything to ‘his girls’ — and says so again to my mom. She heads back to deal with Jerk McGee.
She informs him, simply and quietly, that his behavior has thus far been unacceptable, that the captain has deemed him a security risk, and that he must deplane. This guy naturally goes wild, screaming things like ‘So you’re gonna ruin my kids’ vacation?
What the heck!’ My mom maintains her composure and tells him that the airline will book him on the next flight, provided he deplanes peacefully (without security) and sobers up.
The guy continues his tirade when my mom sees his now crying wife starting to pack up the toys around her kids who had finally calmed down. Seeing the distraught look on her face, she tells her, ‘Ma’am, there is no need for you or your children to deplane.
Your husband can meet you in Maui if he takes this evening’s flight.’ The wife looks a bit torn for a second, then turns on her husband with a look of pure ice. ‘Don’t ruin this.’
My mom’s been divorced, so she and plenty of other women know that look. They also know that ‘this’ could mean anything from that flight to their entire marriage.
My mom also lives fully to the mantra ‘Don’t you dare screw anything over for your wife.’ Whatever it was, it worked; the guy grabbed his carry-on, muttered ‘Man, this is nonsense’, but deplaned. They were able to take off only 10 minutes behind schedule.
While the kids cried a bit at their dad leaving, they soon settled down. My mom ended up talking to that woman quite a bit and comped meals for her and the kids.
The wife was embarrassed and extremely apologetic, but the flight crew and even neighboring passengers consoled her. My mom gave the woman a bottle of wine from first-class when they landed.
A few weeks later, my mom got a call from her supervisor. Two separate high-level frequent fliers on that flight had written to the airline commending her for how she handled the situation. My mom got a congratulatory letter from corporate and a small bonus (almost unheard of for flight attendants nowadays).”
3. Mess With My Hours? Good Luck Running The Store Without Me
“So this happened a few years ago, I was working at a thrift store, however, I worked in the production backroom where everything was organized, prepared, and processed to be put out on the floor or thrown away.
But I didn’t do any of the processing or things like that, no my job was all by myself. You see I came into work when the entire production crew left, it was my job alone to clean up the entire warehouse in the back.
My job was a necessity because of the mess created in the back and the fact that we had trucks coming in with more donations. My job was so important to the store having a functional day that even when I was sick and puking I would come in and just have a trash can dragged around with me for when I couldn’t hold it in anymore.
(Let me tell you that my manager was very very nice to me that day.)
Anyway, I had a lot to do in 8 hours of work. It doesn’t seem like a lot but just organizing 1-ton carts, taking in donation trucks, sweeping, organizing stations, making sure the carts are stacked correctly and making sure all the hangers are put back up and not snagged on one another.
(I HATE HANGERS) Hangers took at least 2 hours by themselves because there were thousands of them EVERYWHERE even on the floor from the rush of the day. They were just a pain. And making sure that all of the trash is compacted and the clothing not put out was compacted and tied with metal wires to be stacked, etc, etc. Also if I somehow did get done early I would help out the front shopping area so the Front Manager loved me because I was not lazy.
Now here is the thing to keep in mind, my job was physically demanding so you were always running around and there was not much time to relax but at the time I loved my job. I got muscle gain from all of it, and got paid about 1 dollar over minimum wage and I could just stick my headphones on and do my job without being watched over like an idiot.
But I GOT MY JOB DONE. So when the crew came in the next day they could get right back to work and not have a mess to deal with on top of it.
Anyway, it is also worth noting that I was the ONLY one in the entire store that knew how to do my job. No one else was cross-trained or even WANTED to try and learn it because it was demanding and the store didn’t really have the staff to start firing people because they didn’t want to cross-train in other areas.
Apparently, the Assistant Store Manager needed to cut some hours, 20 to be exact which came all the way down from corporate as far as I was told. So where did they take them? From me. ALL FROM ME. Since The Assistant Store Manager made the schedule no one knew about it until the next day. As in I walked in to find out 20 of my hours had been cut.
Now let me tell you how not only was it impossible for me to get all my work done with only 20 hours a week, but I needed those hours to survive since I paid for my apartment and car and everything all by myself. So I of course go to find out why I was getting cut hours, so I end up talking to the Assistant and Store Manager in their office about it.
I explain to them how impossible it would be for me to get everything done but more importantly, I NEEDED those hours to survive. I was a young single adult paying my own way.
Both of them didn’t really care, they told me to just get it done and that I was not guaranteed full-time hours despite being hired full time. I don’t really know what the laws were at the time but I didn’t feel like they could just do that.
Also, I thought the store manager would be on my side, I think they just took me for granted right there.
SO WHAT DID I DO?
I looked at them for a moment, holding in all of my anger from all of the hard work I had done for them, all of the extra help I gave when I could and I never complained but they are just going to treat me like I am not important?
Fine.
‘I quit.’
The look on their faces almost took away all my anger and made me laugh.
‘What do you mean you quit?’ Asked my now ex-store manager.
‘I mean, I am going to find a job that actually gives me full time when they hire me full time, I don’t need to be treated like this. You didn’t even give me notice that you were cutting my hours.
So I QUIT.’
At this point I was just mad, I should have not really quit without having another job lined up but I really really wanted to screw them over, and the best way to do that? Quitting right then and there.
They tried to get me to stay telling me I could just get another part-time job and that I couldn’t just quit without notice.
I laughed when I got out to my car, that they would have the gall to try and guilt me over quitting without notice after just taking half my hours without any warning. By the way, I found a new job, not even a week later. I had a lot of experience so finding a job was easy for me actually. (I had been working since I was 14.)
I got a call from my Production Manager about a week later, we were actually good friends at work and the only one I actually miss. I would work for that lady any day, anywhere for how well she treated me. She told me that the place was an absolute wreck since no one had any idea how to do my job properly. The store had to shut down for 2 days because of the mess they had to deal with, with donations just thrown everywhere.
The Assistant Store Manager got their schedule-making duties taken away after making this grave mistake. And the Production Manager was FINALLY allowed to make their own separate schedule. And they had to hire someone quickly to learn to do the job. The first person they hired didn’t last that entire week before quitting and now they had to find someone else. The managers were apparently having to take turns doing my job for me on their own time since NO ONE WANTED TO OR COULD NOT DO IT.
So needless to say it makes me so happy that they just treated me like I wasn’t worthy of my 40 hours but they soon found out that if I suddenly left (which I did) they would be in for a RUDE awakening. I don’t know how well the store is doing after all these years but I know it took them at least a month just to get back to somewhat normal production after what happened with me.
I did go back in there for my last paycheck and some of the old ladies (that hate the management there) that work at the registers gave me hugs and told me that they would miss me so much and they were happy that I could screw over the store in a way they never could.
I have a better job now and get paid a lot more but please, don’t mess with my hours.”
2. Think You're Already A Pro At Your Job? Let's Take A Ride
“So I got this guy over to my lift, we were short-staffed so we had a guy at the top and me at the bottom with this new guy on his first day of training. For the first 5 hours, we were both at the bottom and this new kid was doing great, he picked up the job almost instantly.
The only issue I had with him at that point was that he was very cocky and seemed to think that within 5 hours he had become the greatest lift operator in history, even going so far as to lecture me on things he thought I was doing wrong.
Before this whole first 5 hours, I taught him how to start the lift. On this lift, part of the opening procedure was checking the reading on the hydraulic pressure gauge on the tensioning system. This involved climbing up a 15-foot ladder and walking across a catwalk above the loading area. This was the only thing the kid had a hard time with, as it was obvious he was badly afraid of heights.
For the next 5 hours he was constantly running his mouth and acting like he was ready for everything, making my job of training him much harder, but the whole time I was just constantly thinking about the sweet sweet justice that was soon to unfurl.
Eventually, some of the afternoon shift guys came over, so they were able to take care of the new guy and the lift while I took my lunch break.
I got back and could tell after half an hour that the afternoon guys already couldn’t stand this cocky idiot, although he did the job well enough that they just left it all on him.
At this point, the guy said something along the lines of ‘I could run this whole lift myself’ and something about the other guys being dumb as bricks. This is when I asked him if he was ready to go up.
‘Up?’ he says, to which I replied ‘Well yea, the guy at the top wants to take his break so let’s go up there and I’ll train you on that.’ ‘The top?’ ‘Yea, you did notice you’ve been running a chairlift all day, now we have to go up to the other end of it.’ ‘You mean we have to ride this thing?’ His jaw dropped and it looked like he had just taken a punch to the face.
So I got another guy to take over bumping chairs while the two of us went for a fun little journey to the top, a ride I had been waiting 5 hours for. We’re maybe 10 feet off the ground when he grabs the safety bar, slams it down, and is sitting white-knuckled in fear as we climb to our eventual altitude of 30 feet above the snow, although it can give a false perspective of appearing higher.
This kid is absolutely terrified, meanwhile, I’m just sitting back enjoying. The lift stopped, as it often does, and despite the fact that he himself had stopped this lift countless times earlier, he started freaking out ‘why did we stop, what is going on here?’
This is when I told him to just look up and take his mind off it. So he’s looking up at the sky and the cable and starting to calm down when the lift starts moving again.
We come to a support tower, so I point out how everything works, and how each sheave wheel has only about 3/8″ of rubber and 1/4″ of steel keeping the cable from running right off the side (as well as a whole lot of tension). Then I point out the grip, this is where the chair attaches to the haul rope (cable), I point out how it’s not really attached, it’s just kind of clamped on there and designed to be loose enough to slip a little bit at a time.
Then also notice that 1″ steel bolt sticking out the side of the grip, see how it’s just held on there with a nut and that dinky little cotter pin? That’s literally the only thing that’s preventing us from free-falling 30 feet and crashing into the solid ice below.
The rest of the day he didn’t say too much, nor did he return for work the next day or any day after that.”
1. He Didn't Get To Say Goodbye To Grandma
“This story takes place 18 to 20 years ago, during my freshman through junior years of high school. I had moved and changed schools during my 8th-grade year, had just gotten braces and had really bad acne, and hadn’t hit my growth spurt yet. Needless to say, I was an easy target for bullies (I’m a guy by the way).
Two bullies, in particular, made my life miserable, their names were Jeremy and Nate (names not changed, because screw Jeremy and Nate).
They would trip me and beat me up in the halls, they dumped an entire bottle of superglue into my backpack with all my stuff in it, just in general were pieces of work that treated me horribly. This went on all of freshman year and some of sophomore year. After that, we didn’t have any classes together, and they would just occasionally accost me in the hallways when we crossed paths.
During my junior year, I was an aide for our school’s office. It was a chill gig, I mostly just hung out and read books and occasionally had to run a note out to a student or teacher. One day, an emergency call came in for Jeremy. His grandmother was on her deathbed in the hospital, and they needed him to get there ASAP. They wrote out the message and handed it to me to deliver to Jeremy.
I grabbed the note, headed out into the halls, and promptly threw the note in the trash, and walked around for 10 minutes before returning to the office.
By the time his parents got a hold of him several hours later, his grandmother had already passed. I heard him crying the next day about how he felt horrible that he wasn’t able to say goodbye to her before she died. To this day, I feel zero remorse about what I did.
Bad things happen to you when you are a bully and treat other people like trash. The office didn’t keep track of who took what messages or when, so no one knows I did this, until now.”
