People Share The Most Crushing Revenge They Got On Their Mean Boss

We were all told, “Treat others how you’d like to be treated” at some point in our lives. But really, we don’t always stick to that piece of advice. Bosses of both big and small companies are no exception. Employees around the world complain about their higher-ups for different reasons, but one of the top reasons is because they’re too demanding, critical, and controlling. Maybe it’s the build-up of stress or simply a power trip that makes some bosses mistreat employees. Either way, we can all admit it’s not right.

Regardless of the fact that it’s not right, there’s still an abundance of rude, incompetent, lazy, discriminatory, and unfair bosses in any industry. The following stories make that loud and clear – but don’t worry, revenge came for each of them – in ways they couldn’t possibly seen or predicted!

Included below, there are stories of employees getting their mean boss fired or demoted. Some even take their boss’s place. Another gave their boss a serious stomachache, and oops, there’s no more toilet paper left in the building! Read on for a great deal of satisfaction and giggles.

19. A Laxative Shake And No Toilet Paper

“I’ve been waiting a while to document this one.

Back in my early 20s, I worked as a delivery driver at a bar/pizza joint close to the main college drag. After about 4 months of working there (just enough time to get in good with the rest of the staff), the owner hires a friend of his to manage the joint as the current manager had just left.

This guy was the epitome of “power trip for no reason *****” ********************boss. He would call you out for little mistakes, make you stay late to help do his job, throw you under the bus when talking to the owner, always bail early, AND was convinced everybody liked him – the real deal.

We even caught him stealing from our tip jars a couple of times but the owner never did anything about it.

Anyway – I had planned to go out one night with a girl I had just met and wanted to get off work a bit early, go home and wash the pizza smell off me. I asked, we’ll call him, Donnie if that was possible and he lost. his. ***. You would have thought I asked for a raise, bonus, and a 6-month vacation.

Despite the fact that 3 drivers from the next shift had shown up already, he started shouting “What, are you stupid?? We have 3 deliveries up!! You can stay until your shift is over.”

“That’s cool,” I thought.
He is well within his, albeit *****, right to make me stay until my shift is over with. I sucked it up and started getting the last deliveries together. However, when he saw where I was taking one of the pizzas, he ordered (not asked) me to pick him up a chocolate shake from a drive-through joint close by.

I flat out told him “No ****** way. You expect me to do you a favor when you won’t do me one?*******.” I grabbed the pizzas and stormed out, Donnie yelling from the kitchen something like “Haha –  Awww – i think he’s mad…”

Granted his past behavior had factored into how angry I was over something pretty minor but, I was ****** furious.
The universe had reached its ****** quota and beckoned to me to teach this *** a lesson.

As I was driving away from the last delivery, I called the store, got Donnie on the phone, apologized and said I would get him his milkshake, even pay for it. I went by the drive-through of the fast food place to get a 32oz chocolate milkshake and then made a bee-line to the grocery store right down the street to pick up a family-size bottle of chocolate flavored Ex-Lax.

I poured half of the shakeout (for me to enjoy later, of course) and mixed in 13-15 oz of Ex-Lax.

Remember: 2 tbsp (or whatever) will give you a healthy case of the runs. After giving it to him, he said something about it tasting funny but still managed to inhale that son of a **** like a true fat boy. He didn’t even say thanks…

Fast forward three hours or so – date-lady and I are cruising the bars and head into the bar/pizza joint I worked at. Instantly, the cook makes eye contact with me and comes rushing over, practically falling over patrons.

Barely able to contain himself, he tells me, in hysterics, “Donnie is having uncontrollable, violent, blow ****.
He’s been in the bathroom since you left, has sh*t his pants already, and is making this place smell like an open sewer.” I go back to the kitchen and Donnie is nowhere in sight. Right as I start to talk to a fellow pizza slave, though, he comes rushing from the bathroom, pants half on/half off, one hand out in front and one hand holding his balloon knot shut.

He had exhausted the entire restaurant’s toilet paper supply and was heading to the bar next door.

Best part? He lived about 40 miles away and continued sh**tting himself periodically throughout the trip home.
Despite everybody knowing the true story, though, he never figured it out and blamed the fast food joint for his wild ride on the Hershey Highway. I think the whole ordeal humbled him a bit because he ended up turning into a decent guy.” Reddit User

18. He Lost His Employee And Got Covered In Milk All In One Day

“When I graduated High School, I moved about an hour north of my hometown to attend a small Community College and got a job at a local Walmart, and despite three years experience at Radio Shack (which at the time was basically just RC Cars and Verizon Cell Phones), was assigned to their Dairy Department.

Working Dairy at Walmart is probably the worst job I’ve ever had. When the job goes as planned, you should be spending about half your time ‘throwing’ milk, and the other half refilling cheese/eggs/yogurt/etc. However, when I got hired, the Dairy Supervisor (We will call him Bill) was from what I understand, new and very, very slow; Which caused a lot of people to quit or ask to be moved to other departments. Eventually it got so bad that I was actually the only person in the Dairy department besides my manager.

‘Throwing’ milk is the worst part of the job, because about 1 in 20 gallons of milk are defective, and leak onto other gallons of milk.
When you have a room with a couple of hundred gallons of milk, it means a pool of milk in your work area, which gets in your shoes/socks, and on your pants, which smells fantastic at the end of an 8-hour workday.

People quitting at Walmart wouldn’t normally be interesting (most people @Walmart call it “Friday”).

But a week after I started, the only two other grocery stores in the town went on strike. Now, this Walmart served about a 50-mile radius of probably about 200,000 people. Back in 2003 when this happened, the statistics were that for every 10 people that walked into Walmart, 6 walked out with a gallon of milk.
Meaning that I was now solely responsible for up to 120,000~ people’s milk needs. Basically, my job became ‘throw milk for 8 hours’.

I could start throwing as fast as I could from one end, and by the time I got to the other, the side I started at was empty.

While that would have sucked enough, as it so happens, it’s a requirement in the retail world that you be an idiot to advance to management; And Bill had that in spades. This ***** would come screaming at me that I needed to fill the eggs/yogurt/etc, but wouldn’t help me or get help for me for the 120,000 needing their freaking milk.

After 3 months of getting yelled at for putting in 100%, you tend to get a little bitter, but also pretty good at whatever you’re being yelled at for. I developed a ‘style’ of throwing that involved grabbing two gallons at a time (each crate holding 4 gallons), and using my knee to kick off an empty crate. I also happened to develop crazy upper body strength from this repetitive motion.

Anyway, I get a call (while on break) from Corporate Radio Shack that they spoke to my ex-boss, and really wanted to get me on board to help open a new store in a mall.

After I confirmed this was a job offer and not just an interview, I told them I’d be available in two weeks after I resigned from Walmart, and they agreed.

Fresh off-break and in a great mood, I decide to finish the shift and put in my two weeks after. But not 60 seconds after I clock back in, I’m told by someone in inventory that Bill is looking for me and is ‘p*ssed’. No **** are given, and I get back to work, tell the inventory guy to let Bill know I’m back on the clock and in the fridge.

About 5 to 10 minutes later, Bill slams open the door to the fridge, “Where the f*ck have you been?”, to which I reply I was on my break, and go back to double-fisting gallons of milk like a champ.
“Don’t ****** ignore me!”, to which I reply with:

“Know what Bill? I just got offered a job from a Corporate Office. I was going to finish out my two weeks, but instead I’m gonna put in my two milk notice.” And I softball underhand two gallons of milk about 40 feet at Bill, which hits the concrete floor and sprays him from the thighs down.

As I was walking out, I could watch the look on his face move from rage to terror, as he realized his new job was now ‘Throw milk for 8 hours’.” IrishTek

17. Fail To Pay Us On time? We’re Serving Free Food

At least several customers got to enjoy a free meal as well.
“This story though is by far my best revenge.

When I was 17, I moved across the country with my then-boyfriend (now husband). I was pretty psyched when I got a job at A&W because it was my first real job and the pay was really good (great compared to my former province, *** compared to the pay scale in this province).

I was working a day shift and my manager told me it was very important to keep my own record of my hours because the computers didn’t work to log in.

After getting my first paycheck and being short 8 hours I realized why it was so important.
But the owner assured me the hours would be on my next check.

I had worked there for about 2 months before being promoted to evening manager, with a fairly substantial raise of about $4/ph.

I was still owed about 24 hours of payment. Technically my boss always put my missing hours on the next check, but then I would be missing even more hours from the current pay period.

Things started getting really ***y. Some of our kitchen staff quit and instead of replacing them he just moved around the 3 remaining kitchen staff so that we only had one person in the kitchen per shift.
We were also really short on staff so I ended up working the counters in the mornings (7-10) alone and then coming in for my regular evening shift (3-11).

Apparently my raise was only in name because my last 2 paychecks had my former salary on them, my boss assured me that it would be on the next check.

Then came the stampede. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Calgary Stampede, it’s the biggest event in the city. It’s a week-long rodeo and festival where thousands of people flood the city, drunk and wearing cowboy hats. Our A&W was right downtown so needless to say it was a very busy week.

We still only had one kitchen staff and me working the morning shift, the day manager came in early to help with the counter and we tried all the staff to see if we could get extra bodies but only one staff came in.

Breakfast was a nightmare. A&W breakfasts are real breakfast made to order, eggs, bacon, French toast, none of it premade and there was no time to premake it anyway because the store was packed pretty much round the clock, so with 1 person full time in back and one floater it was taking 8+ minutes per breakfast and the store was lined to the doors and the drive-through lined up right into the street.

We called the owner and told him he needed to come in right now because we needed him and his wife to help us. We were drowning in angry customers.

30 minutes pass and we call him again. “I’ll be there right away” is his famous line. Another 30 minutes and he’s not here, we call his house and get VM so we assume he is on his way. This is great because he doesn’t live far so he should be here in 10 minutes at the latest.

It’s now 10am, 2 hours since we first called and no answer on his house phone or his cell.
We’ve had lots of people walk out, we’ve had people demand refunds and leave but the store is still packed and there is still an hour left on breakfast, but we haven’t had a chance to prep lunch, not even cut up the veggies for burgers so we were still ***ed come to lunch.

I look at the day manager and said *** it, I quit.

He says “you know what, *** this I quit too.” We call the boss again and leave a message on both lines telling him we quit (along with 2 other staff, the only one that doesn’t is the 1 kitchen staff) and we will stay for another 30 minutes to give him time to get here but then we are walking out.
30 minutes pass and no word from the owner. We lock the doors and tell the customers in the store that their breakfast is free since they all have been waiting for so long and we are closing the store once all of them are served, but they have to take their meals to go.

We serve at lease 50 free breakfasts (at around $10 apiece) once the store is empty we do our cash out, drop it in the slot under the tills and get ready to leave. People were still coming in the drive-through and trying to get in the door, confused as to why the store would be closed in the middle of the day during Stampede.
When I went in to return my uniform I made sure to get the money that we were allowed.

He paid us out of the till in cash because we refused to leave until he paid us. It means that I ended up with about $200 cash that was tax-free so that’s a bonus.

I didn’t get a call until 2 hours later (after the lunch rush) from my former boss claiming we owed him all the money he lost while the store was closed/for the free breakfasts. I told him he was well informed about what was going to happen, we knew he got the message because we had filled his inbox and couldn’t leave any messages but when we called to tell him he store was closed the inbox was no longer full.

He shouldn’t have tried to call our bluff because we weren’t bluffing.

He probably lost out on $15,000 worth of sales or more from the store being closed for 3 hours and missing the lunch rush (which on a normal day brought in about $5G but during stampede could easily bring in $10,000).

This being Calgary in 2006, I got another job the next day. Working as a secretary at Parks Canada making $17/ph and never having to deal with cheap bosses or angry customers again.” she-hulk

Another User Comments:

“You are a bada** and a warrior for people who are over-worked, under-paid, and under-appreciated in the service industry.

I think I speak for everyone who has ever worked fast food or had cheapskate bosses when I say keep being totally awesome.” KatieAmazing

16. Enjoy Your Case Of Head Lice!

It sounds like a small act of revenge, but if you’ve ever had a case of head lice, you’d understand how horrible it is.

“I worked at my previous job for over 3 years. It was there that I met the worst boss on the face of the earth, who we’ll call Ariel.

Ariel wasn’t that bad the first year and a half I worked there. She was very narcissistic, could not stand being wrong or anyone doing better than her, and could be very belittling, but overall once you got to know her and her ways you could kind of deal with it.
It wasn’t great, but I loved the work I was doing so I put up with it. At the year and a half mark, I got promoted! Ariel was still my boss, but I had more responsibility and authority over the coworkers I had previously been working alongside.

All of them were very happy for me! Everyone except Ariel. It’s like a switch turned inside of her, and her crazy, micromanaging, narcissistic behavior increased tenfold, basically only directed at me.

She would straight up lie to me, steal (impressive!) ideas that I had floated to her and take credit for them, and look for any excuse whatsoever to reprimand me or talk down to me in front of her boss (“big boss”) to make me look bad.

Reflecting back on it, I don’t really know what her problem with me was. The best guess I could come up with was that she felt her job was threatened by me moving up in the company? I was very good at what I did, and do know how to do a lot of the things her job involves, but it also comes with several responsibilities I had no interest in and she knew all of this.

Aside from that, she’s been with the company for nearly a decade, all the higher-ups loved her (and were not wise to how she treated her subordinates since she put the fear of god in all of us and since no one wanted to be on her bad side, no one spoke up) so she really had no reason to feel so threatened.
Since the promotion, I had been dealing with her unprofessional and outright terrible behavior of me and taking it all in stride.

I really liked my job, I could handle things. Then, *** got worse.

First, remember how I said she lied? Well, I had a very important client coming in for a meeting with me. It was absolutely imperative client was informed of XYZ before they came in. This was part of Ariel’s job. The day of the meeting comes along, and I am reading through an email correspondence between client and Ariel which Ariel forwarded to me (literally the morning of an afternoon meeting, as late as she could possibly send me the information).

I notice that XYZ is not mentioned. We do often have phone conversations with our clients, so figuring this is what happened and wanting to verify that, I call up Ariel. I ask her if she is absolutely sure the client knows about XYZ?

In a snotty ‘are you a moron’ voice she tells me “Of course I did. Did you not read the email I forwarded?”

I explain that yes, I did, and the lack of it mentioned in there is what prompted my call.

She practically cuts me off to say “Oh, yeah. Client called. I told them over the phone.”

I was super skeptical but I trusted her.
She knew how incredibly important it was and surely she couldn’t be this much of an *****. (Spoiler alert: she could!)

I went into the meeting thinking client knew about XYZ. He did not, and him having to find out at what was essentially the last minute made him (understandably) very angry. He also had lost trust in us, because here I am, talking to him like he knows about it and is just as surprised as him when he doesn’t.

We lost their account. This reflected badly on me because I was the one meeting with him. Unless I personally spoke to big boss, and then their boss, and accused Ariel of lying, it would just be assumed I screwed up as there was no way Ariel would defend me or admit her lie.
We had spoken about it over the phone too so there was no concrete proof she lied.

Another one of her shining moments came a few months later.

A meeting was scheduled with an important potential client, which would be handled by big boss, Ariel, and myself. I don’t want to be too specific but the company had created a new product, and it was Ariel’s responsibility to explain to me the functions and limitations of it, as was usual protocol.

Big boss was essentially sitting into the meeting so her seniority made the client feel important, Ariel and I are running the show.
Meetings run by Ariel and I were pretty usual, big boss being a part of them was uncommon.

I go to explain to the client how this new product cannot do this one specific thing, which Ariel specifically told me it could not, when she swoops in and corrects me that it does, in fact, do that thing, as long as you turn this knob first!

I was livid. She made me look as if I had no idea what I’m talking about, like I’m an utter idiot, in front of not only the client but big boss! It was such an incredibly simple thing too, and big boss loves Ariel, so it wouldn’t have even crossed her mind that Ariel didn’t properly explain it to me, let alone straight-up lie about it! And even then, if I called her out on it, it would again just come to a he-said-she-said thing.

That was my breaking point. This was ridiculous and I had to get as far away from Ariel as I could. She was sabotaging my career. Thankfully about a month and a half later I accepted an offer from a great job with better pay and even a better commute! I gleefully put in my two weeks notice.

On the morning of my second to last day at the company, my brother calls. My niece has lice, and both he and his wife have it too.

Knowing I spend a lot of time with her they called to tell me to check myself out.
Lucky me, I also have lice.

It’s like an hour before I have to start work, I do not have time to go get a lice treatment and deal with this right now, so I Google and find the best way to prevent spreading it is to pull your hair up into a neat, tight bun and spray with a barrier of hairspray to decrease the chances of stray hairs flying around.

I do so, and head into work to deal with getting rid of the lice when I get home. I wanted to prevent the chances of anyone else contracting lice, because if you’ve ever been unlucky enough to have it, you’ll know that it is a **** to deal with.
Pain in the a** treatments that have to be done a few times (which are extremely harsh on your hair), lots of washing clothes and spraying down furniture, because even just one tiny little nit could reignite the infestation.

One thing you should know about Ariel is that she absolutely loves her hair. It’s this beautiful shade of auburn, long, and perpetually has the most perfect relaxed wave to it. As much as I hate her and hate to admit it, she really does have gorgeous hair most women dream about. Honestly, she looks like Disney’s Princess Ariel. She is obsessed with it and does everything she possibly can to maintain it’s beauty.
She even goes so far as to keep some dry shampoo, hairspray, and a brush in her desk.

I know, because I’ve seen her pull them out and use these things many times.

Well, that morning she was extra sour and in supreme **** mode, probably because my leaving caused a lot of work to fall on her shoulders until they found someone qualified to replace me. I was already leaving for a much better and more peaceful job, but I was and still am astounded at how she treated me. So, when she left to go to lunch, I quietly made my way into her office, took out my bun, shook my hair out, and ran her brush through my lice-infested hair.

I hope she enjoyed constantly itching her head and lice treatments causing damage to all that beautiful auburn hair.” PettyPettyPatty

15. I Became His Boss

“I had the boss from **** back when I worked for a logistics company (We will call him “David”). This particular company did not hire directly for dock workers, you had to go through a temp-to-hire service; and Logistics Company had a 90-day window in which the dock super, in this case David, could call your temp agency and tell them your stint at Logistics Company is over.

The temp would be called into the office where David would look at them and say would a large, sh*t-eating grin: IT’S JUST NOT WORKING OUT.
This pr*ck would ridicule new temps about the way they dressed (industrial temp workers usually are quite poor), talked, mannerisms, you name it, in front of everyone at shift meetings. When a new batch of temps would start, he would pick an unlucky one out and ride him or her until they quit or made some minor mistake that he would chalk up to the temp agency as the reason this person is not working out.

David was married to some big-shot at a hospital in town; she was the breadwinner so he had no problems with keeping some low-level super job; to top it all off David was also the only minority with a supervisory position so Logistics Company didn’t want to fire him (EEO FTW!).
David was simply a shift super for the dock, had no desires to be promoted because he had absolutely no responsibilities except to post a end-of-shift report, which he had one of the receivers do for him (that was my job).

For 2 years I typed this ****** nightly reports, knowing full well he never witnessed any of it going on; he just sat in his office eating or riding the dock on a golf cart looking for reasons to fire new people.

Anyway, I hired in as a temp, kept my head down through David’s horsesh*t and eventually got promoted to head of a different department away from him.
3 years later Logistics Company decided that receiving (David’s department) was lacking direction, and decided to hire a department head for them.

I got the job. I was now David’s boss.

He turned pale when it was announced the next day at work. I thought he was gonna die on the spot. He knew that for years I witnessed every bit of the terrible things he had said and done to the temps. I showed up nightly for 3 months on his shifts to “monitor” how David ran his shifts, watching him make stupid mistakes one after another; any one of these things I could have easily terminated him for, but held out and documented everything.

When It finally came time, I called him into my office, armed with months (years, really) of *** to fire him for, but I simply looked at him and told him “David, it’s just not working out.”” BakedPotatoTattoo

14. Treat Him Like Garbage? Careful, He’ll Steal Your Company And Your Dream Girl

“My cousin. His boss was the CEO/Chairman of the company.

He wasn’t necessarily a bad person, but my cousin held a deep grudge against him.

Many incidents took place, which I won’t go into detail.

Sick of office politics, my cousin uncovered many of his boss’s career failures and succeeded big time in accomplishing those achievements.
He made very significant contributions to the company in those areas where the boss had failed. It resulted in doubling profits and establishing a great company reputation. My cousin secured complete control over it.

The boss was forced to promote my cousin to the second most important position in the company and give him a personal cabin and near-absolute authority over other top employees.

For a while, things were going great, but the boss began to dump many important responsibilities and expectations on my cousin, while he himself was doing whatever he enjoyed and felt like doing:

My cousin took the following measures to make himself indispensable to the company operations:

Began to work overtime and avoided holidays like plague.
He completed several projects

Did everything near single-handedly.

Took all the projects off his boss and completed them on time. This way, his boss had virtually nothing to do except laze around.

This stripped the latter’s business abilities and acumen.

Repeated the same with other top employees.

Took all major decisions on his own and handled all departments (strategy, finance, marketing, sales, Business Development, etc.)

Cut off all communication lines between the boss and other branches of the company. They were redirected to my cousin. He also undermined his boss’s leadership.

Created new developments which improved the functioning of the company, but did not tell the boss about how exactly they worked.

Major company policies now revolved around my cousin.

Ran the company as if it belonged to him. In short, my cousin became a company.

Result: The boss eventually was forced to give my cousin ownership of 50% of the company as a partnership. He was also the next CEO.

The final insult: The boss had a crush on one of the prettiest female top employees. He was partial to her and gave her costly presents and special treatment. He invited her to a romantic candlelit dinner and proposed her.

She flatly rejected the boss. That night, she personally proposed my cousin for marriage. He accepted.
The boss threw a hissy fit when he came to know of my cousin and the girl. He could do nothing.

My cousin and his wife are happily married for 20 years.” Quora user

13. Fine, Fire Me, But My Success Is Going To Make You Green With Envy

Sometimes the most appropriate revenge is to simply work your way up in life.

“I was working as an electronics maintenance technician for the Globe and Mail Newspaper in Toronto, Canada.

My married boss was an absolute bully. He started having an affair with his married secretary. After 6 months, a young and very good looking girl came to be interviewed for a job.
She was sent around to be interviewed in several departments. At the same time, the married secretary and her husband had a conversation and they decided not to mess around anymore. So she stopped having *** with the boss (somehow she seemed to feel she could confide in me).

Well after seeing the new girl being interviewed, I knew he was going to dismiss the present secretary and hire the new girl. She was very young and very beautiful and probably was single. So perhaps he was hoping.

The next morning I came in and saw the secretary cleaning the dust off a line up of about 100 monitors that had been sitting out in the open collecting dust.
This, of course, was not her job. She had a bucket of water and a sponge.

She was on to her third monitor, feeling thoroughly humiliated and in tears. I asked her what was happening and she told me that the boss ordered her to do it. I took the sponge she was using, filled it with water and squeezed it into the monitor. Then I went into the office and said “Why the **** is she doing to the monitors?” she is soaking them with water. Bossman jumped out of his office and asked me to call her back.

Well, that was the end of the bullying for her.
Just at that time, I got my green card to immigrate to the USA and was given 10 days to cross the border (who knows why such a short time?). All over Canada companies bought electronic equipment from the USA, the same with the Newspaper. We bought all the electronics equipment from the USA. The most complicated and exciting and advanced system was sold by a company from Santa Monica, California.

Every tech there wanted to get hired by that company to work on the equipment. Bully boss found some excuse to fire me. So he is sitting there with the lead person as a witness and said he was firing me.
Well I was just about to leave anyway. So I said, “That’s ok. I will go to Santa Monica and work for XYZ company.” He was speechless. He was a control freak and if he had thought of that he would not have let me go but would have tried his best to make my life miserable.

I was an engineer and he viewed me as a threat because he was a boss and I knew more about electronics than he did.

Well I had to prepare to leave for the USA. That night it was snowing heavily. I painted For Sale on a piece of plywood nailed two sticks to it and went outside to plant it in the snow facing the traffic.
Just as I was bending down to plant the sign, a car stopped with his headlights on me.

The driver gets out and wants to see the house.. hahaha… OooKKK. Well, he looks around and asks the price. I had already determined that the price was 5K more than what a broker told me he could get for it. He does a tour of the house and says I am bringing my uncle to see it. Well, Uncle comes over and asks the price. I told him and he makes a move to walk away.

That’s the Italian method of negotiating.
It is a good approach. Hey, hey wait a minute. I want the house, I agree to your price. Ok, start the paperwork tomorrow. OK. He leaves and picks up my For Sale sign to put it in his car. I laughed and said not until the contracts are signed.

Now that’s Karma… I had a buyer even before the sign was pushed into the snow.

Needless to say I packed my bags and went and left my wife to close on the sale of our house etc.

Coming to the USA was a wonderful thing for me. I was an electronics engineer and there were very few jobs for people with my skills in Toronto.
My house was paid for by the grace of my wife’s aunt and my mother in law. The income I was making was insufficient to pay for our expenses even without rent or mortgage. I had two little toddlers and a wife to take care of. If I lost my job I did not know where our next meal was going to come from.

We had 30K in the bank and yet I was living in constant fear and insecurity. I did not consider my savings as something that we should live on. I had to be earning a living.

I arrived in Los Angeles on Friday.
Spent the better part of Saturday at the movies downtown Los Angeles. 4 movies for the price of one at the Roxy theater. By the time I walked out my brains were buzzing and I could barely see straight.

I bought a car on Sunday morning. Went with a broker house hunting on Monday and put an offer on a house on Wednesday. On Tuesday I went to visit a friend of mine. He calls his brother. Hey Ed, Jack is here. Oh WoW, we are looking for engineers, bring him over. The Director of Engineering interviewed me and hired me on the spot.
When can you start? I said, I need a few days to get settled, I just arrived here on Friday.

Oh Ed told me you were new here but I did not realize that you were that new. A few days later the boss bully called my wife and said he wanted to speak with me. She told him that I was not in the country and had a job in the USA. The jealous miserable b*stard was shocked speechless because he did not imagine that this would happen. So he lost control of me and I already had a job here that paid better than the one I left.

Within 3 months I went into partnership with 2 other guys from work and we bought 2 apartment buildings. Before we collected the first rent the broker we used to buy the properties, brought us an offer on both the buildings. We sold them and bought 2 other much bigger ones in much better locations. Each building gave us a great net income right off the bat.

Karma is really GREAT when it is on your side.” John Conrad

12. Fail To Me Pay? I’ll Get Two Checks Out Of You

“I worked for a tire shop years ago that was in the midst of changing corporate owners.

I was 17 at the time and since I was young and inexperienced, I was basically the shop ****. I didn’t mind much since everyone was the shop **** at one time….you gotta pay your dues.

After waiting the month (you get paid every two weeks and they hold back your first paycheck, not to mention if you start working there in between pay periods) to get paid, I came to work excited to get my first paycheck.

The end of the day arrived and the supervisor couldn’t find my check in the stack. I was broke as ***. I was told that there was a mistake in payroll and that they’d get it sorted out and I’d get a two pay period paycheck next week.
The next week rolled around and the same thing happened. I complained but wasn’t taken seriously because of being a 17-year-old kid I guess. The 3rd week came and no checks.

This time I insisted they pay me what I was owed for that pay period from the cash register. This took some approval from corporate and some smooth-talking. I also had to write my name down on paper so I’d pay them back when I got my check.

The following 2 pay periods came and no checks still…they paid me from the register those 2 times. The last payday came and no checks.
They paid me from the register and I told them I wouldn’t be back.

I was told that my missing 2 checks would be mailed to me.

About 2 and a half weeks later, I opened my mailbox to find a paper-clipped stack of 7 paychecks. They had sent me all the checks I missed despite them paying me from the cash register! I cashed those b******** that day.

A few days later I get a call from the district manager who says that he knows I got all the checks and that he’d like to be paid back.

Being a young pr*ck that I was, I told him that I never got any checks and that I had no idea what he was talking about.
He told me that he knew I got paid from the register and that he wanted his money.

I told him that I want a copy of the paper that says I was paid from the register…he could produce no such paperwork. I never heard from them again.

Apparently, when the place went from being “Tire Shop A” to “Tire Shop B”, they remodeled the shop.

They also threw away a bunch of old paperwork…the paperwork that proved I owed them money was tossed out too.

Working 8-hour shifts every day in your jeans and ruining pair after pair with oil and grease the only clothes you own, spending money you don’t have on gas to get to work is bad enough when you have to wait more than a month for your first check…but then being denied a paycheck and treated like it’s no big deal week after week is straight *******.

*** those guys.” KMFDM781

Another User Comments:

“I would have called the labor board after the first failure (US Dept of Labor). They are legally required to pay you. Not whenever they want, either. If they’re making mistakes and not getting you your paycheck, then they HAVE to. Not just tag it in with next pay day’s payroll, but ASAP, usually involving figuring it up special, cutting the check, and FedExing that **** to you.

People, learn your rights!

Also, *** yeah I’d not have given a dime back.

Take those handwritten agreements to court. Nope, not my signature, your honor.” pirate_doug

11. Slam Me In A Door? Your Business Is Gone

Even better than a personal injury lawsuit!

“This happened about 7-8 years ago.
I was working at a small cafe, which was owned by a young woman in her mid-twenties. She was a lot of fun to work with, I put my best foot forward, and it had a great sense of community – almost every customer was a regular.

It was in a small town near a lot of car and boat repair shops, and directly next to us was a family-owned business. They were very religious and very kind. I loved the environment there, and the customers; it was a regular thing to be given flowers and little things like that.

Anyway, my boss didn’t really have it in her to run the cafe – business was great but it took up a lot of her time, and she was young and didn’t want to be tethered to it.

She sold it pretty easily, and the new owner, a big guy we will call Albert, was gregarious and laughed a lot, told jokes. He wanted me to stay on; I knew how to run the place and how to make all of the sandwiches and so forth. I thought this would be great, even if I would miss my old boss.

The first day with Albert, he was immediately impatient with me. I couldn’t do anything fast enough, and he hated the way I prepared food.

Usually, one person ran the till and took orders, and the other prepared said orders.
It was a fast process with me and my old boss – with Albert, he ***ed up every time and blamed my short-form way of writing out orders. I started writing everything out (‘Chicken on focaccia. Tomato. Lettuce. Sundried pesto spread.’) which he would still *** up. He accused me of patronizing him, and finally of sabotaging him. During close-up, he would berate me further.

I dreaded coming to work, which was too bad because he had me working every day but one. His wife was frequently there helping out, and she was always friendly and funny and liked me. Albert didn’t treat me any better when she was around – he snapped at me a lot in front of our customers, and a few of the guys had talked to me about it.
He treated her with a lot of contempt, too.

One day, maybe after a month of this, I couldn’t take it anymore. He called me stupid for some reason or another, then why wasn’t what mattered to me – up until that point, he’d talked to me like I was an idiot but hadn’t actually called me a name.

I told him “I’m not your wife, you don’t talk to me like that” and he flipped out. He grabbed me by my apron and dragged me toward the back door, yelling at me “get out, who do you think you are” etc; I shouted for him to get his hands off me, and while I was struggling to get my apron off he shoved me outside.

He still had hold of the apron, then let go just as he stepped back and tried to slam the door – it was a heavily reinforced door with a panic bar for unloading stock, alley access, so on. My leg was still inside, and the minute he slammed it on me and I screamed and fell back, I think he knew he had f*cked up – he shut the door on me and locked it.

I was shaking with adrenaline and crying some, but more than anything else I was p*ssed. I got up from the ground, and the father of the family business next door had heard me shout, and met me as I circled around to the front.
I wasn’t really that badly hurt, but because I was crying and shaking, he immediately assumed it was much worse than it was. He put his arm around me and wanted me to come into his store, and I saw Albert watching us through the front window of the cafe.

I laid it on thick. I cried harder, I told the dad what happened in big gulping sobs, I held my leg and was overall pretty pathetic. Albert saw the whole thing. Eat it up ***********.

After that performance, I went right home. I contacted my old boss before anything else; she still had to deal with this guy and I didn’t want to cause trouble for her.
She had pretty much finished up her business with him save for a few details, and told me he had gotten belligerent with her on one occasion in a way that put her hackles up.

She didn’t like the idea of me contacting the cops, but since I didn’t see a way it would impact her at this point, that’s exactly what I did.

The cops gave me a few courses of action. I could press charges – and I was pretty young and now unemployed, so I didn’t really want to do that – or the cops would go have a long heart-to-heart with him.
I thought that was a pretty good start.

They took pictures of the bruising on my leg just in case. I bruise easily, and it looked a mess for maybe a month or so.

A couple days later, Albert starts texting me like mad. He wants to meet me to give me my last check; I told him he could mail it. He refused and kept insisting I come to the cafe in the morning before opening so we could talk. This back and forth went on way too long, so I cut him off and told him to mail it to me or I’d come by with the cops during a lunch rush to get it.

After I got my check, I decided I wanted my record of employment, too. There is no reason I needed it at that time, but I just wanted it. I dogged him for days until he sent me one – it had correction fluid on it. That’s not allowed. I dogged him yet again until I got the replacement; I already had another job at this point and just wanted to needle him.

Two weeks after the dance in the doorway, I go back to the neighborhood and stop by the garages and shops to say hello to everyone.

They’re glad to see me, they wondered where I went, Albert told them I quit to work elsewhere.
They mention the cafe has been pretty slow lately (it turns out the dad from the business next door had mentioned what happened to a few people already). So I share my side of the story with everyone. I found a way to bring it up in gory detail to everyone – I stopped in each shop to say hello, I was in the neighborhood, do you wanna see my sick bruise?

Maybe six months later, I’m in town and take a wander to check on the cafe and say hi to the guys.

It was always tucked way back from the main road – nobody driving by would notice it and think to stop in.
The local businesses around it were its lifeblood. Without that, *********** had closed the cafe down pretty fast. Everyone had stopped going.

In a small way, it was sad to see it closed and dark and empty. I had a lot of fun there, and losing the cafe and moving on to another job basically meant I lost contact with all the guys.

I think if I hadn’t lit the fire, Albert would’ve eventually ended up killing the place anyway. It still feels delicious that I beat him to his own failure, though.” bornavoorhees

10. I Got Him Kicked Out Of My New Store

“My boss doesn’t like service dogs

So, after leaving my job with my horrible boss, Mike, of almost a year, I found a job in the other grocery store across town.
This new store that I worked at was a discount grocery store; which basically means that we would get overstock from other stores, stuff that didn’t sell, outdated items (not insanely outdated, we still had some standards on the food we could sell), etc, etc.

Anyways, we would still order regular stuff from the vendors and since we would usually buy some of their overstock and outdated stuff as well, we would get a little bit of a better deal on whatever else we bought. Getting a better deal, meant that we could pass on some of the savings to the customer.
My old boss would occasionally send some of the managers from the other store in to scope out our prices so that they could see if they could beat it and sell more than we could.

Normally, my new boss “Ralph” wouldn’t mind, he would always just let it go. Eventually, he started to get a little upset about it and told me to ask them to kindly leave. I had been hoping for this ever since they started coming in and scoping prices, so I went out to 2 of our assistant managers “Paul” and “Larry”, and I kindly asked them to leave.
Before I move on, here’s a little background on the two grocery stores I worked at.

The first one (AKA the one with the horrible boss), was a chain store, therefore, anybody below a manager really had no power whatsoever.

The new one (AKA the one with the better boss), was only three stores, and the owner of the stores wouldn’t really take much crap from others, so we had quite a bit more power than I used to have.

Anyways, they inform me that I’m not allowed to tell them to leave since I’m not a manager and that anybody can shop in there.

I laugh and tell them that my manager had told me to ask them to leave, and that if they didn’t, I would call the police to have them escorted out of the building. They leave without more incident, I’m happy since these 2, along with Mike, made my life **** for the past year. I go about my job (warehouse attendant), and start running the forklift and trying to rearrange the warehouse.

I get called up front to go carry out some groceries for an older lady, and as I walk back in, who else would show up? It’s lovely old Mike! He asks me why I kicked out his two managers, and I informed him that if they wanted to come actually shop here, they were at perfect liberty to do that, but if all they were going to do was scope out prices so they could beat it, then they were not allowed back in the store.

And if he was going to cause trouble, he shouldn’t even enter the store.

I turn my back on him, walk back in, and tell our checkers to call me if Mike comes in and starts trouble. I go to the back, and not even 60 seconds later, I get a call from my checkers telling me that he’s scoping out prices as well, and that my boss Ralph was gone, and they wanted me to take care of it.

I walk out from the back, see Mike write down some prices from something and approach him.

Me: Mike, if you’re going to be scoping out prices, you can leave now too.
Mike: You’re not a manager, I don’t have to listen to you, and you can’t even kick me out anyways.

Me: My boss gave me permission to kick out anybody from (Old store name here) if they’re just going to come here and scope out prices. I can tell that’s what you’re doing so you need to leave.

Mike: I’d like to see you make me.

Me: I’ll give you about 10 seconds to start walking to the door and if you don’t, I’ll call the police to escort you out.

10-15 seconds go by where we just glare at each other with as much contempt as we can manage.
I pull out my phone and call the non-emergency line for our local police department.

PD: This is (City name) police department, non-emergency line, how may we help you?

Me: Hi, this is Bravesfan417, I’m over at (new store name), and I have a customer here who’s causing troubles and that we have asked to leave, but he won’t.

Can I get somebody over here to help, please?

PD: Bravesfan417? I hadn’t seen you over at (old store name) in a while! I was wondering where you were! Anyways, it’s a small town, who is it? Maybe we can just talk to them on the phone to get them to leave.
Me: It’s Mike from (old store name {OSN}), and he’s scoping out our prices, my boss has given me permission to kick anybody out from that store who is just coming over to scope out prices, and that’s all he’s doing, so we would like him removed.

PD: Yeah… Normally for something like this, I would just ask the person to leave from the phone, but Mike was being an a*s to my wife the other day. I’m on my way.

5-10 minutes pass by where I help out a few customers while Mike scopes out more prices. Police show up, the cashiers tell him where I’m at, and we walk over to Mike.
PD: Mike, you’ve been asked to leave. You need to leave.

Technically, you’re trespassing.

Mike: This is a free country, I can go where I please.

PD: Unfortunately, you’ve been told that you’re not allowed on these premises, therefore, no, you can’t go where you like. Leave, or I’ll escort you out with handcuffs.

Mike: Do you think you intimidate me Officer “Jones”?

To clarify, Mike is between 6’3″-6’6″, and 250-275 lbs (190.5-198.1cm, 113.5-124.9kg), while our officer is roughly 5’10” and 175 lbs (177.8cm and 68.1kg).

PD: Mike, I’m going to ask you once more, and then if you don’t leave and try to intimidate me more, I’ll taze your a*s, you’ll p*ss your pants, and I’ll drag you out.

I’ve had enough of your ***. Let’s go.

Mike looks at the tazer on the cops belt, gives both of us the dirtiest look he can come up with and leaves.

We both crack up laughing, and the cop ends up giving me his direct number. Neither of us like Mike, and he wants to be the one to deal with him if anything should arise again.” Bravesfan417

9. I Called The Fire Brigade On Him, And He Got Fined Big Time

“I used to work as a developer for a company that makes EDI software.

My boss was a paranoid, penny pinching, micromanaging **** knob gob***.
He said to me, “I know your contract says you can take an hour for lunch, but most people take just 15 minutes and I think you should too” and “I don’t see any reason why you should not make a habit of coming in 30 minutes early and leaving 30 minutes later.”

My main beef with him was that he refused to give me time off to be with my wife when her mother had only a few days left to live.

Our office was in a converted factory that was split into several units, my boss’ brother owned the building. Within that building, there was us, a karate studio and a creche.
I had noticed that the fire alarm panel at the main door to the building never had any lights lit on it. It looked like there was no power going into it.

So I called the fire brigade.

The surprise inspection came 30 minutes later due to the fact that there was a creche in the building.

The building owner got himself a conviction and a €10k fine (I had hoped it would be bigger) and had to pay a *** load to get a new fire alarm system installed.

A few months later, when I was made redundant in questionable circumstances, I told my boss who called the fire brigade.
It was a lovely feeling watching the color drain from his face.

I then launched a legal claim against him for unfair dismissal and my case will be heard by the employment appeals tribunal in a few weeks.

I have enjoyed punishing him for the d*ckish way he treated me.

I should point out just how beautiful it was to watch the inspection. The fire brigade sent round two young ladies, who looked more like salespeople and nothing like fire safety inspectors. They came into our office and asked to speak to the building manager. My boss came out of his room with a big Terry-Thomas grin on his face to greet them.
“Hi, I manage the building for my brother,” “Great, we’re from the Dublin Fire Brigade and we are here to have a look at your fire safety systems.” His jaw dropped.” MmmmBisto

8. I Walked Out On The Job, And He Got Fired

“Worked in a bakery slash luncheon sandwich shop slash coffee bar.

I worked in the back as a baker. I took the orders from all the smaller coffee shops around town that the local chain owned, and baked all the bagels, cookies, muffins, wraps, etc.

Occasionally, we had catering orders to do which added a significant chunk of time onto my day.
My ***** boss didn’t feel it was necessary to tell me about them until the last possible moment. There’s a lot of prep work that goes into making a thousand ham-and-cheese sandwiches.

Prep work that can be done days in advance. Things like slicing all the cheese and meat, or mixing our own mustard. He didn’t give a *** if I stayed until 3 am on a school night (I was in high school).

Most of the time I didn’t care that he broke child-labor laws…. I kind of wanted the job, but finally, the straw that broke the camel’s back was the 3rd catering order he didn’t tell me about a week in advance like he should have.

It was a huge, important luncheon for the company itself. Feeding over 3,000 people. I had to make hundreds of baked goods and sandwiches, and about 30 quarts of 3 types of soups. He told me about all of this 18 hours before it had to be loaded into a truck and delivered to the event.

I sighed at him and said I’d take care of it, but I called him an ***** for not telling me a week in advance.

I can make the soup and refrigerate it…. all sorts of things to cut down on my workload. I had a test the next day and I wanted to study.
This was at 5 pm the day before. He left for the day. I was the only one capable of making all the food that was on staff. I told everyone else on staff what he did, and since there’s a mutual hatred among my co-workers, they all agreed not to tell him the next thing I did.

I walked out without preparing an ounce of food. I left a note on the table in the back, calling him an inept moron incapable of managing a simple lunch diner and incapable of being a social person. I suggested he be more considerate and kind to his employees, should he demand such respect from them.
I walked out and quit. Not even 2 weeks’ notice. *** that guy.

When I came back for my paycheck a week later he tried to intimidate me in his office while hand-writing my check.

He said, “You know, that’s not the best way to make friends.”

I replied, “Yep, I generally try to make friends by being nice and respecting people. You should take lessons from me.”

I was a smarta** kid.

As far as I know, he got fired for letting 3,000 people go hungry at a huge corporate event.” probablydyslexic

Another User Comments:

“Did ever call him on his *** before getting him fired? Maybe if you talked to him before then he might have not been a complete d*uche.” IGoRawrs

Reply:

“Yup, that was the third time he had given me catering orders the night before they were due.

All in all, I did 7 or 8 catering orders total. The other times he gave them to me with a day or two notice. One we gave me the day before but it was so small it didn’t matter.

This was a huge huge deal and he knew that. He knew it months in advance and had the full order 3 weeks in advance. No one else was responsible for it but me. He knew what he did.” probablydyslexic

7. His Vacation Plans Got Cancelled Because Of Me

“I’ve worked at the same company for over 6 years.

I was a loyal, good employee with a perfect track-record.
Over the 6 years I’ve only called in sick twice. I had the best results, the least amount of errors on paperwork in the whole region and quite possibly the whole country. My new boss decided that that wasn’t enough. He minimized my hours (they get a bonus to keep labor low), expanded my workload and never had anything nice to say. He seemed to think ruling with an iron fist is the way to go about this.

Even after all this, I’m the one who kept his head above water, fixing his errors along the way.

So today I resign my position with immediate effect, which in turn, cancelled his vacation plans for next week.
On top of that, there is no one to fill my position. As soon as I mouthed the words “I quit” you could see the terror in his eyes. He realized how f*cked he was without me and tried to do whatever he could to keep me for at least another week.

I’ve never felt such a sense of instant karma as today. I never meant to cancel his vacation, but I wasn’t going to put his needs before mine. I have bills to pay. I’d feel bad about it if he wasn’t such a ***. But he’s a ***.” barrygibb

6. Say Hello To Your Demotion

“My very first job was at Target, in Houston Tx.
I worked in the snack bar flipping burgers and working the fryer.

It was a summer job, and I was 14-15 years old in 1978.

I worked evening shifts and was the last person in the snack bar at the end of the evening. My job was to clean the grill until it shined, sweep and mop the floor, and take out the garbage. Then I was supposed to call the section manager over to check off my work, so I could clock out and go home.

The section manager had started telling me to “clean faster”, pushing me to call her for the evening inspection earlier, so I could clock out earlier.

But I had the same amount of work, and I worked quickly – the snack bar manager (my boss – and the one who trained me) said that the section manager was leaning on me to make things harder for my boss. My boss also told me that I was doing fine, that I was supposed to finish at 11pm, just like I had been.

School was starting up soon, so I had given my two weeks’ notice.

On my last night there, I finished cleanup a whole 30 minutes early – at 10:30 ~ a personal best!

I paged the section manager over the intercom to have her check my work so I could clock out.
No answer.

I paged her again.

Someone else in the store got on the intercom and said, “You need to come back to the break area.”

Before walking back to the break area, I walked to the front of the store. My mother was waiting outside to take me home.

I told her (through the front window) that something was going on, and I’d be right back.

When I got to the break room, I punched out, and met the night manager. I’d never seen him before. He told me his job was to manage the cleaning crew, and that they were locked in from closing until morning – that way Target could be sure that they didn’t steal anything.
He told me that the section manager had left at 10pm, without mentioning that I was still working in the snack bar, so the evening manager had locked the store and went home.

The night manager told me that he could pull out a cot for me to sleep on, and that I could leave at 7:30 the next morning when they opened the store.

I told him that I’d talk to my mother, waiting for me at the front of the store. He walked up there with me.

Mom… well, she’s mom, you know? She just saw red. “What do you mean he can’t leave?”

She told me to just walk out of an emergency exit, and she’d drive around and pick me up.

The night manager said that the emergency exits were chained and locked!

Seriously! I don’t even know how they could get away with that – but this was in the 70s, so maybe they could get away with it back then.

But Mom had a solution. She pointed at our truck, a Ford F250.

“See that truck? If you can’t figure a way to get my son out of the store, then I’m going to drive it through this window! Then I’m going to take my son home.”

She was serious, and the night manager believed her.

He went back to the break room and started making phone calls.
In the next 45 minutes, the district manager for Target shows up and unlocks the front door.

He asked me why I hadn’t left – didn’t I know I was supposed to be out of there by 10? That’s when I found out that the section manager was supposed to be helping me during the final clean up! She was supposed to be scrubbing the grill right along with me!

I think he started to understand why we were not clocking out on time too.

He shook my hand, was very charming to my mother, told her I was a hard worker (but how did HE know? Tonight was the first time I’d ever seen him!) and then we were on our way.
A few days later, I was in Target again to pick up some school supplies. And I saw my old section manager working on the floor, dressing a mannequin. That’s when I found out she’d lost her position. She was demoted down to regular worker.” calladus

5. Want Me To Leave Mid-Project? Okay, Joke’s On you

Technically, they could have offered to finish the remainder of the project, but why do that when your boss is a total jerk like this one?

“Worked at a place as I was finishing up university.

The boss paid me less than minimum wage pulling some ******* excuse about how the job role “wasn’t defined” and could pay me what he wanted.
I was desperate for money and my town had a real shortage of jobs so I couldn’t do much about that.

I worked on a sh*tty low-end PC that kept crashing, so I asked for an improved one, the boss bought a brand new amazing PC, which he installed in his office, and gave me his old one, which was EXACTLY the same as the one I already had, “but you got a bigger screen now.” I walked in on him “working” on the computer a few times, and he was always watching adult content.

He also said I was too fat and needed to start going to the gym (my job performance had nothing to do with weight or fitness, it was a desk job), he bought a 600 dollar membership for me but started taking it out of my pay.
He was going to hire some girls to start working, but installed security cameras pointing at their desks, he said “to prevent theft”, but I found out from a girl who used to work there he took her on a “business trip” out of town and tried to *** her, then left her at the hotel when she told him to *** off.

He also made me work 6 days a week, but only paid for 5. He gave me “coupons” for local businesses for the 6th day, I was a month away from graduation so I agreed to this really stupid idea.
I needed the… “money.”

I graduated from university and found a job 2 weeks later thanks to my degree and experience in the field.

I was in the middle of a project for him when I quit, and I tried to do the good thing about it, I said, “I start in 2 weeks, so I’ll finish up this project or at least prepare it for a new employee.” He said to me “no, you’re leaving now, give me back my boots” (he made me buy steel-capped boots for safety, again, nothing to do with my work), I told him to *** off.

Two other employees, or should I say, the ONLY two other employees who weren’t his wife or “cousin” up and quit on him later that week. The personal project I was working on never got finished, but he published it on the web anyway, in its sh*tty half-finished form that doesn’t work properly.

6 years later, every time I feel stressed at work, I open the crappy project, that is STILL online, to remind myself how far I’ve come, and how little his sh*tty business is barely hanging on.” Milhouse_is_a_meme

4. They Failed To Pay Me, So I Got The Government Involved

“My first real job was as a junior engineer for a startup out in White Rock, BC.

It was this iTunes-like content delivery site that specialized in talk-radio type stuff. It was an interesting idea when I found it: take AM Radio style talk & commentary and bring it into the 21st Century. I figured “why not? it’s a cool-ish idea and there’s not a whole lot going on for an audio-editor type right now in 2003” and applied.

I got the job with the condition that I would have a 3-month internship trial period.

I was living at home, just finished high school and would be going to college in two years so I was like “meh. sure, whatevs.” and did the trial time.
I was fun-ish for the most part. I had a workstation and a little office/studio I shared with the web developer and while he fixed bugs on the site and coded up new features, I would edit & upload the talk shows. They paid me a tiny bit over minimum wage, but I wasn’t doing a whole lot other than hanging out with friends at night, so I didn’t really care about the pay.

The guys at the studio were funny and we operated just off of Marine Drive, had a view of the ocean and we’d go down to the strip and have lunch at the pub most days.
For six months, it was great!

And then one day they came in and said they needed to relocate and the payments would be a few days late, so it was best to not come in for a few days. Apparently the lease had run up on their condo/studio and didn’t want to renew.

So we all grabbed our desk trinkets and things in the fridge and waited for their call.

Then I got a call a week later, saying that the studio was being set up and that it would be about a week until it was all up and running and at the same time the paychecks would be coming, then.
After a month of waiting, I called them and they said, “oh.. yeah.. sorry. we don’t need your services any longer.

please don’t call again.” and hung up. Right then and there, I called the Labor Relations end of the government and told them what had happened.

Flash-forward six weeks and I’m in a hearing boardroom with some vicious government lawyers practically growling and foaming at the mouth at the owners of the startup sitting across the table from me who had only thought to bring their suits and smiles. After getting us to present our sides of our stories they separated us and had the labor relations folks talk to us separately.

Mostly them, though. I was told that my case was pretty simple: I was owed wages and they were refusing to pay for no good reason. and I was completely right in going to the government.

After 15 minutes the lawyers came back in and said “Okay.. so.. they don’t have any money. They blew through their venture capital in the first year of operations and when they couldn’t ignore that they spent it all, they fired everyone and have since been doing all the work themselves, hoping their investors wouldn’t notice.

They can’t pay what you’re owed at once, but you could take an item of equal value from the company.
Do you want a car?”

I said no, and that I just wanted what I was owed. They went back to talk.

After another 20 minutes they came back in and said, “okay.. so we had a chat and explained how unimpressed we were at them basically ripping off honest young people and as punishment, they have been ordered to pay you what would be the equivalent of a full-time wage for one full year to you in bi-weekly increments.” I then decided that then was a good time to move out and go to college.” Reddit user

3. Most Of Us Resigned, Now All He Had Were Deadbeat Workers

“I once worked in a restaurant.

It was supposed to be a temporary thing. But the hours were good, the tips were good, and I met some of my best mates there. Working 8-10 hours a day with your best mates is quite all right. I started as a waiter, and since I took any shifts I somehow went from the assistant chef, to head chef and shift manager. The boss at that time made sure I was rewarded for my efforts.

He couldn’t pay me more than my small raise because of corporate, but he made sure I somehow got a small gift from time to time.
He once bought me Starcraft 2 when I was annoyed that some bills prevented me from picking it up at release. Seriously, thanks Chris.

We went from losing money to making quite a lot. I even heard some employees saying they checked the shift list to check if I was working. I treated them like fellow human beings, and it really feels great when people trust you enough to talk about their problems, both work-related and not.

They knew I would do what I could, within reason. Fast forward a year, and my boss quits because he wanted to study for his dreams.
I was already doing pretty much everything that wasn’t administrative, so getting the new boss went smoothly. And then he started to change everything.

For him, money was a top priority. He tried to short-change employees on their overtime. He took over my ordering duty, and then he sliced the quality on several products.

He also ordered the bare minimum, so weren’t out of critical ingredients all the time. He cut critical shifts, sometimes leading to three employees holding a Saturday rush. Every single thing I had fought for, he undid in a short time. I made it very clear to him that treating everyone like that was not acceptable, and his cutting on quality was not even negotiable.
This *** had to end now, or he would have my resignation.

He promised to fix things. But no, he just made things worse.

A few days later, he told me that he didn’t want me to call in for extra help if things went to ****. I saw red. Apparently it’s better to have customers walk right out because they’ve been waiting for ages, rather than just pay for one extra employee. Oh, and he wouldn’t pay me and the waiter overtime for the weekend since I hadn’t authorized it with him.

I had a resignation letter ready in my pocket for around a week.
I wasn’t bluffing. Gave to him right there. What happened next was what really touched me. In a matter of two weeks, 9 of 14 employees resigned after hearing I did. Apparently they only needed a little push. The only four who remained were deadbeats who barely bothered to the waiter. No chefs remained.

He ended up using months to fill in enough employees and training them.

He had to work insane amounts. The reputation of the restaurant went straight bottom, and last I heard it’s considered just closing the whole thing. 7 of those employees used me as a reference and ended up getting better jobs.
One went to study, and I never found out about the last one. As for me, I ended up as a technician for a company that often ordered overtime meals from us. Just as recently as yesterday my current boss told me “I’m really happy to have you here.”” DuckGod

2. Won’t Listen To Us? You’ll Lose Millions Of Dollars For Production Delays

I mean, they weren’t really wrong for not working.

“I work for a company that makes batteries. Not your everyday small ones but big, “industrial-size”, batteries.

I do what most of the employees do. I operate the machines that create the parts that make up the different types of batteries.

We are not responsible for big maintenance-type operations. Only the day-to-day cleaning and small adjustments. But being around these machines all day you get quite familiar with how they work and learn the little quirks and tricks to make your job easier.

The people higher up the chain generally refuse to listen when we inform/complain about a machine not working properly and dismiss it with a simple “…we’ll fix it later, just keep production going”

Well. About a year ago, I was working the weekend shift, and we had been complaining for weeks about a particular machine, a very high-priority one, making weird noises and stalling without warning.

As per usual, it got completely ignored.

I was standing on the far side of the room operating another part of the process, with in-ear plugs and protective cups over those, (these machines are VERY loud mind you) when I heard it break.

We’re talking 60-70 tonnes of pressure, rotating parts, and other things to keep your fingers away from. I ran over and found my buddy (who had been operating this particular machine) pale as a ****** ghost, leaning on the wall, no harm done to him but scared sh*tless. We called our boss, informed him of the situation. Mechanics arrive at the scene.

They all stare at this (now) heap of, essentially, scrap metal.

We spent that weekend in the lunchroom, playing cards and having food delivered.

The company lost millions in delayed production, all because they wouldn’t listen to the guys (and girls) on the factory floor.” iArsonist

1. He Had To Pay Me Over $30,000 As Punishment

“I worked for this small business IT Consulting firm for seven years. Owned and operated by a person we will call ***.

First two years things were fine. Occasionally this guy would take things a little too far, he was just passionate about his opinion and always had to be right, so I’d always give him that.

I don’t have to agree but I saw his need and left it at that.

What I started to discover however is the turn over for the company is a couple of years and I began to realize why. The Boss (***), picks one worker and makes it his life’s work to make that person as miserable as possible. I’m guessing the reason, ego purposes?

For months I’d hear him shouting all the time at this one guy.

The co-worker after leaving the meeting would go back to his office from where I had a view and I could just see the stress and misery in his face.
Till finally, I said to him, “what the **** man? He’s always giving you a hard time here lately, what did you do?”

He didn’t seem to know. He confided in me right there the level of **** he’s in and some of the things *** has said or done.

I couldn’t believe some of the details he shared on what *** both said and did. I felt things were embellished because people just don’t do some of the things he said. I would realize much later he was telling the truth as crazy as it sounded.

A few months later he finally found another job and left.
I talk to him couple of times a year and he always said it was the best choice in his life he ever made.

***’s sights then narrowed on to me. I can take a lot. So for the next five years, I took it. He would insult me pretty much every day, each day more and more colorful. I didn’t really care or take it home with me so it wasn’t a problem for me, for *** I would learn it was.

Unrelated, five years in I put in my notice because he asked me to get a couple of certifications and if I did he would take care of me.

Once I did what was requested he backed out of the agreement and played coy. Once he received my notice a couple of months later he called me up within a minute, begged me to stay. It’s important to note he only asked for two certifications, I not only obtained those but an additional fourteen on top of that. Each time he would tell me “Great job, you will be well taken care of”. He lied 16 times in total on this matter.

He matched the offer and increased my Salary up another 15k. Not looking forward to starting a new job I decided to stay.
What I learned is I was a fool to do that and money isn’t everything. Go where you’ll be the most happy. Best life advice I can give after this experience.

He left me alone for a couple of months after that, he wasn’t in the office much either. Then a day struck his fancy to start things up again only he ran out of material.

My work is solid and he had no opportunity to criticize that.

The only method he had was bashing his ego and sarcasm around but he realized it had no impact on me. Here is a brief snippet of any given day of what it’s like to be selected as his target.
He would communicate a problem he was having in length. Let’s say he complained about his cell phone. After he finished his story you would provide a helpful suggestion or advice from your experience.

In turn, he would ask with an entitled and sarcastic tone if you were an expert on the matter and wanted to see those credentials. I learn fast, just never speak unless spoken too. Any comment or insult he made I would respond without emotion and just say ok.

Because *** wasn’t able to get a rise out of me the old fashioned way he decided to create fictional content for a new direction.
Our small company would go out to eat as a whole, or just order in on Fridays.

I ate half my sandwich and wrapped the remaining to take home. He saw me with leftover food and claimed that I was taking home dinner on his dime. Any time there was any leftover, even a single French fry he’d be there with a magnifying glass for inspection to find any conceivable way to yell.

So on Fridays I started packing my lunch, I’d order a beverage and aside. I’d finish the beverage and the side.

Then eat what I brought, if I didn’t finish it he had no opportunity.
You could see his look of disappointment when he would scan my plate.

This went on a couple of weeks, he had no opportunity and couldn’t complain. He realized he failed again. So then he came up with the next item.

The Bathroom. I actually did a little research on and couldn’t find anything legally I could do. But anytime anyone would use the restroom he would blame me for the smell.

Instead of hello when passing on the highway he would say “Did you use spray” or “Did you light a match” as hateful as he could, but that was his normal.
It went much deeper than this, more then I care to share. But I honestly believe *** has a fetish on this topic which is why I looked into it legally. It was just always on his mind and a little too important to him, let’s just leave the rest unsaid.

I must have visually tipped him off I didn’t approve of this because he never got bored with it. However, I did at least get him to stop asking if I used the spray. Anytime I used the bathroom, even to take a p*ss I’d use the entire can of air freshener.
This wasn’t an easy task as I’d have to mask my face to empty that entire thing. It takes a while surprisingly to empty an entire can in a session.

One thing is for certain when I was finished, someone used the “spray” and *** was buying a new can. Took about five weeks but I think he figured it out spending so much on the spray, he stuck to just asking about matches after that. He even provided them in the bathroom.

One day we were out with a client. The current topic at this moment was “what is your favorite meal? My answer was “hot wings, I could eat those every day!” *** jumps in, his comment “Just think how bad the bathroom would smell.” Most at the table wouldn’t get the context and direction of that comment, but I knew.

He did this in front of a client, in public, while people are eating.

I almost walked out. Then I remembered he drove and it’s a long way back. Plus *** is over 60, what kind of person knocks out a senior? I had to chant that in my mind to keep control. I never get p*ssed but after years this was the last straw! I seriously pleaded with myself all day not to do it because I’d go to jail and he would win.

During this time period, he also started playing with my money. Behind 4-5 months with reimbursement, a week late on paychecks, stuff like that.
You ask where it’s out, he says “next week” you explain he already said that last week, then he’d play coy.

I finished out the day without reacting somehow. I took everything I had but I’m not going to allow this to be unanswered. That was dangerous and too close. If he wants trouble, I’ll give it to him! I will get even in a lawful way, somehow.

Then the idea came to me that night, did my research and odds was in my favor that it could work. I’m just going to mirror him until he fires me. When he fires me he will have to pay half my current salary of 65k until I get a new job.
You know what? I can live perfectly fine on 32.5k. Why not make him pay out of his pocket 32.5k for everything he had said and done? He would have to pay this over the course of six months or until I found a new job.

So my goal was to make him pay me $32,500 to be exact over 6 months as restitution for what he said at that table.

I read up on all the rules in my state for Unemployment. Each state is different. But basically, to qualify for it, it can’t be your fault if you were fired.
So If I stood there and told him where to put it, that’s a no go. However, if I was laid off I would qualify.

So I hit him where it hurt first, his favorite thing in the world is meetings. Because he loves to hear himself talk and take you to step by step through his thought process with a noble tone congratulating himself for his thinking and why his way is the best way. So I started speaking up and illustrated a more efficient way that cost less.

He would argue, sometimes red in the face mad. Especially if others in the meeting liked my idea.

He knew he was wrong but he would dismiss them and demand it be done his way.

I then started talking about him within earshot on purpose. I’d say things like “Make sure you perform that **** way, takes longer but it’s better than him releasing the Kraken”. It would make everyone laugh, but it wasn’t a direct insult.

Trust me when I say this guy has a massive ego and I was counting on this for p*ssing him off.

I laid it on thick, in time it took its toll. I knew it did because of what came next.

His retaliation was the kitchen sink, he had nothing so he started accusing me of things, then playing coy when it came to reviewing the details or facts.
He would put words in my mouth, I’d state he was wrong and then he would tell me I was. All he was doing was opening the door so he could play a revengeful sarcasm game.

I know it’s a game so I decided to take his new toy away from him by just going along with whatever it is he said. Which further made him mad because what he was doing had no effect on me.

Fast forward six months, yes I’m STILL working here. But were only receiving a couple calls a day which are fifteen minutes each. This was due to **** bad business discussions.
While I took delight knowing he was hemorrhaging money for months, I was hoping for a lay off to execute my plan.

Nothing. I have to make him want to fire me, it’s the only way. I have to beat him at his own game while providing the illusion he is in control.

So I turned up the heat. I was asked to travel to a client by the 2nd in command. I said “I’m sorry man, I haven’t received reimbursement in six months for travel expenses and I just had my work cell phone service turned off. With the way business is right now things aren’t looking good, I’d be stupid to take on more expenses, and I’m owed over two thousand dollars as it is.

Once that’s paid in full I’d be more than happy to continue on a week to week bases after reimbursements”.

That day *** had a meeting with me and set up a payment plan to pay the money back. After three weeks it would be paid. So I said to *** “understood, after three weeks I’ll be on the road again, cool” just making sure he understood because he wanted to play games and not pay the amount in full *** is now going to pay me my salary for three weeks to do nothing until the reimbursement fee is paid.

Guy has a several million-dollar house, goes on vacations has boats, etc.
Out of all the things I’ve done so far, this had made the most significant impact. Because I out whit him at his own game, it embarrassed him in the eyes of others. Why? Because the second command was instructed to drive me anywhere I was needed. So I had my own personal Taxi driver for the few calls we had over the next two weeks.

Two weeks he paid two people, me and the admin to drive and watch me work. I was friends with the admin and he knew exactly what I was doing and he loved every second of it.
Then in the third week, three days until the final payment, it happens. *** enters my office, and gives me the filmier demeaning dog wave gesture to follow him without speaking. We sit down and he asks me what the problem is?

I told him the problem is he needs a new hobby.

In one hand you have someone sitting here that busted his a** for the last seven years, in the other your need to bash someone’s face in the dirt with your ego. The problem with me is I won’t conform and provide both.

He asked for some examples. I said you know what I’m talking about and even if I did review them you’d play coy.
He then played coy about being coy, I laughed.

After a pause, he said if you feel that way why didn’t you speak to me about it? I reminded him that I did twice and both times you humiliated me for it and said: “this is I.T!” What the I.T Career that I’ve done the last twenty years had to do with his ego I’ll never know.

He responded with I’m behind the times, my work has been poor and out of the kindness of his heart, he gave me a raise after I demanded it. I responded with Ok.

Then he finally said what I wanted to hear “I want to call it quits”.
I remained professional and communicated I’m sorry things didn’t work out and spent the next two hours reviewing stuff with co-workers on how to handle certain things. I shook his hand with a smile and left without saying anything negative.

The fruit of my labor will do the talking for me shortly.

In route on the way home, I called family members to tell them the good news. Everyone was so happy for me. It finally happened.

When I arrived home I promptly adjusted the dates on the unemployment forms I had filled out already in wait and submitted them. I called the state and confirmed everything was documented on my end accurately and now it’s the waiting game.

My plan wasn’t realized until my boss receive the letter in the mail about a week later stating he’s going to have shell out my Salary for the next six months or until I found a job.

Panicked at this point he realized what I set him up for. So He claimed he fired me for poor work performance. The state said, ok prove it. In this state, it’s the employers’ burden to prove it. My record had no blemishes and he couldn’t use a client because a number of people at any given client would vouch for me and the truth as they all liked me and appreciated my work.

Realizing the *** storm he’s in now I’m told from the admin friend he was on the phone with them quite a while twisting and turning the fake stories out. Bottom line, the state needed to see documented verbal and written warnings, signed so he couldn’t fake them. He called his lawyer and his lawyer told him he’s screwed.

Later my boss told co-workers he felt bad for me that I couldn’t find work and he decided to give unemployment to me to save the face of his ego.

That made official that his ego was effected, he didn’t want anyone to know the truth.
At this point he realized I got the better of him when I fought back and I won, big!

In a last-ditch effort, he lied about how much I made. The state sent me paperwork stating this fact and asked me to prove my salary. So I gave them copies of checks and pay stubs for the last six months. After that things went easy, he was flagged for lying which made the reaming steps effortless the state rep told me.

For the reason I was terminated I said “*** the owner made some poor business discussions that impacted the company losing business and clients.
He let me go as a business discussion, in his shoes I’d of done the same and understand.”

I wrote it that way for a reason. But *** didn’t realize why. I knew what his reaction would be. The state saw a down to earth guy that was honest and understanding on paper. Then they saw ***s predicted response of being a ***, most likely yelling and of course lying.

I had no doubt that would seal the deal simply on the evaluation of the character before the facts even entered into it.

His reaction being, his ego had to take it up the ***.
Once for failing as a businessman, another for me saying so on state paperwork, and lastly accepting that I got the better of him and all this time I have been coaxing him to make this move.

The only thing left to do is pay me, every single week.

And his money goes to the state first then the state sends it to me, so he can’t play games with my money or the state is coming after him.

Over the next six months, I took that time to enjoy myself, pursue hobbies and lived life to the fullest on his dime as a reward for his comment.
Once the letter came to renew unemployment, *** would no longer have to pay or only a parentage I forget, the important thing to know is taxpayers would have to pay after six months not ***.

So I declined the renewal. Three weeks later I had a new job.

It was either that or knock him out during that lunch, It wasn’t easy, took work but I’m proud of the way I handled it. I feel vindicated, it’s pretty rare the world is balanced, evil often wins. But not this time. This time it cost ***, 32,500 dollars to be exact. All in all, I can say 10/10 would do it again.
Due to his age, I can’t imagine that it would be a humbling experience at this point.

But it was for me, money isn’t everything, there is only one thing of true value, your happiness. A year later, I’m very happy now, I enjoy my new job and my new boss. I discovered myself again, who I really am. The goofy friendly guy, my light is no longer dimmed by a dark presence and I can be myself without punishment.” Divine_Squire

 

Reading these experiences really got me thinking, “Wow, there are actually bosses like this in the world?!” I think I just got lucky to have only had great bosses!

Do you have a bad boss story you want to share with us? Did you ever get revenge on them, or did Karma ever do the dirty work for you? We’d like to hear it! Type away in the comments below.