People Get Candid About Their Most Rambunctious Revenge
11. Bully Me For Asking You To Speak English? Get Expelled
“This happened a few years back in China, at one of the universities there. Here, I was studying the Chinese language and I shared my language class with some people from France and Belgium (the French-speaking part).
Our Chinese teacher was a really nice little lady that happened to also speak French. So often, whenever the French speakers had a question, they would ask it in French. Now, I didn’t really mind it all that much but at some point, it got to the point where about half of the questions in the class were asked in a language I did not understand.
Obviously, that is detrimental to my own learning experience since understanding the questions is important for me to learn the language. So I politely asked them if we could just do the class in English because about half of us didn’t understand what was being asked.
Laoshi (the teacher) was very nice about it and afterwards, asked the students if they could rephrase their questions in English when they asked them in French. But apparently, the French and Belgian girls and guys didn’t take it so well. They were constantly glaring at me, and whispering among themselves in French.
Well, I just shrugged and moved on.
However, outside of class, they were always sticking together in their own little group, doing things together. At first, they would just walk past me when I was sitting down having a beer with my friends, and they would simply glare.
But at some point, it came down to them cursing, talking crap about me to other students and spitting on my lap when I was sitting in the park. Obviously, I was seething so I might have called them a few words which were a bit too unsavoury.
Anyhow, they didn’t take it well.
So the next day, I found out that they scribbled all sorts of rude things on my dorm room. Obviously, I was livid, but I didn’t really know what to do so I reported it to the International Student Office.
ISO was really nice and understanding but told me they can’t actually do much unless I provide proof that something is happening.
Thus, I went on Taobao and bought a little recording camera (which looked a bit like a dashcam, it had the time and date and everything).
After the university had painted my room door over (they couldn’t get the markers off apparently) I hung the camera up in a corner of our dorm corridor and pointed it at my door. Then I left and made sure to loop around a little bit to walk past the group of French/Belgians so that they knew I was leaving campus towards the metro station.
I had some nice dumpling soup and a beer and when I came back, lo and behold! Once again they were hardly creative with their insults (just more of the same) but this time I had proof! I checked the video and I was very pleased: 5 out of 7 of the group were actually there, and all wrote down something on the door with a permanent marker.
One of the guys even kicked the door which caused a crack at the bottom (these doors were not very sturdy). They seemed to have a lot of fun doing it.
Now, of course, the school was properly livid when I showed them the video.
Normally the students would just get a stern warning but because ISO was aware that they were doing it before, and also about the fact that they were harassing me all the time (I reported everything to them when it happened) they were less than understanding this time and suggested the board that had to decide on this (no idea what their name was, I couldn’t recognize their name in Hanzi) to expel the students.
And so they were. All of this took place over the course of a couple of months, so we were nearing the end of the semester. The five students who scribbled at my door got expelled just before their exams, which meant that all the time they spent at the university was effectively worthless since they did not receive any credits for it.
But it gets even better. After this whole ordeal, I sent a neat (anonymous) letter in Chinese (one of my Chinese friends helped me write it) to the Public Security Bureau that these students had engaged in vandalism at our university. A few weeks later, after I had already returned home, I was told by a friend of mine who was on good terms with their group that some of them had booked tickets and hostels to travel in China at the end of the semester.
However, their visa extension was denied by the Public Security Bureau on the basis of their misdemeanour at the university.
I’m not sure if the second part was caused because of my letter, or simply because the university informed the police, but I like to pretend that it was the former.
So I was just laughing my butt off as they slaved away half a year in courses for which they would receive no credit, and had to cancel thousands worth of travel plans. That truly was a sweet, sweet feeling.”
10. Spread Rumors About Me To Prevent Me From Getting Promoted? I'll Get You Pushed Out Of Your Job
“I started working here in 2015. It is a hard job and the camaraderie of the team made it easier to handle. Tom, Mary, Tony, and I became fast friends as we worked so closely together doing this very emotionally and physically draining work. We would celebrate birthdays together, plan trips together, help each other move, have dinner at each other’s homes, confide in each other, etc.
After a year, we were all getting restless and were becoming a bit sour due to the lack of upward mobility. A management position finally opened up and Tony and I applied for it.
In the application process, Tom kept trying to dissuade me from pursuing the position, saying I will be bored with it soon and it wouldn’t be a good fit for me.
I told him thanks for the advice but I am capable of making my own decisions for my career. This was strange since he, himself was not applying for it but for some reason didn’t want me to have it. First red flag that this guy is on some other ish.
I am a couple of years older than the others so I have more experience in the work, including a long history of managing staff and leading projects… something Tony did not have. After 3 interviews, I beat out Tony and was the new Manager. I was also the first of my team to be promoted after months of all of us complaining.
Before I even began the new position, Tom told me that some of the people on the team that I will be supervising were mad that I was going to be their new supervisor. He refused to give me any names.
“What the heck? I haven’t even started, and they barely even know me.” I thought to myself.
Regardless, I started the position, introduced myself to the team, and did not let this impact my relationship with my staff. I take being a good supervisor very seriously and I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I promise this will be relevant later.
About a month goes by and my former supervisor, the head of my old team, resigns. Senior leadership is scrambling for a replacement and doesn’t have much of a clue what to look for. As my former supervisor left, he told everyone what a shame it was that I was given this other management position because I would have been the perfect replacement.
Next thing you know, I get sat down by the Senior Director and our Chief of staff. They essentially tell me that they want to take my current role and combine it with the role of my former supervisor, give me a Director title and a heck of a bigger salary.
As flattered as I was, I felt a bit guilty as this management position can go to one of my colleagues who desperately wanted a promotion. I also wasn’t sure I wanted to do that job as I’ve done it in the past and my current role was something new and challenging.
Finally, I know enough that doing both roles at the same time well would be impossible and I didn’t want to be hated and suck at my job. I am very passionate about what I do and I couldn’t live with myself if I was bad at it.
For these reasons, I was gearing towards turning it down.
I made the terrible mistake of confiding in Tom and Mary about this, including the part where I was leaning towards not accepting it. Mary became very upset and exclaimed that the position should go to Tony and it’s not fair because I already got a promotion.
I told her I didn’t want the position anyway but they were probably going to hire some outsider because, to be frank, Tony didn’t have any of the management or supervising experience they are looking for.
She became irate saying how unfair that was and how he deserves the position because he was rejected for the other role I got.
That’s not exactly how promotions work, but okay.
It got personal when she said that she wouldn’t want to be managed by me anyway. I asked her why and she just gave me a word salad of an answer. I asked again, adding that wouldn’t it be better to be managed by someone who knows this work inside and out, and cares about this team, than some outsider who could be complete crap and indifferent to our work?
She said no, anyone but me. No reason, just not me… And that was the end of our friendship.
A few days later, the offer was rescinded with no explanation. I found it rather strange and shady but whatever. Then I started getting the cold shoulder from not just Tom but from Tony and Mary too.
I found my texts getting ignored, my calls screened, and no longer getting invitations to hang out. I started to suspect that Tom said some crap to poison these people against me but why would he do that? That’s crazy, right?
By this time, a new colleague had joined their team who I got on with.
Let’s call him Andy. Andy was also becoming close to the dastardly trio, in particular, Mary.
All of my suspicions were finally realized this one evening Andy and I were drinking at a bar late one Friday night. We were laughing and having a good time when he changed his mood suddenly to tell me he has something very difficult to say.
He unloads everything. That Tom had been telling everyone on my former team that I was going to be their new supervisor, that I purposely screwed Tony over twice, and told them all that my current staff hates me because I am a terrible boss, and fearmongered the crap out of everyone… Hence the rescinded offer.
Mary who Andy had a crush on, knew how he felt about her and tried to use that to turn him against me which failed and he told me as much.
Andy said that he felt like the way Tom, Mary, and Tony were portraying me to others and the person he himself knew me to be was so mismatched that he decided to investigate these claims for himself.
And found out that my staff really respected me and enjoyed working for me. Everything Tom was espousing couldn’t be further away from the truth.
Tom, from the moment I was offered my initial promotion, calculated this entire rumor from the beginning to undermine me and added fuel to it when I was offered the second promotion, successfully turning Tony and Mary against me, successfully costing me a promotion I was going to turn down anyway, all out of sheer spite and jealousy.
I was heartbroken not so much about the promotion but more so that it was so easy to turn these people I once called friends against me and for what? Absolutely nothing aside from nonsense espoused by some jealous jerk.
From this moment, I vowed to make sure that he will never get the promotion he so desperately wants.
Two can play at this game, except what I had against him, was very much true. I made Andy promise not to tell anyone we had this conversation and he obliged.
Tom was completely unaware that I knew what he had done and still thought we were friends.
So anytime we would speak, I would indulge his indignation and egg on his frustration.
It was a lot of “Really man? They have you doing what? I would be insulted if I were you… you need to push back man! Not cool!”
Fed his ego constantly…
“Dude, you are so much better than this…” “Why are you letting them do this to you?” “You’re too smart for this.”
And boy did he…
He soon started becoming that annoying dude who complains all the time, soon people were getting sick of his whining and advised him to just quit already.
By this point, I had several loyal allies that were close to him and would unknowingly report back to me any terrible crap he would say about senior management.
I gathered all of this intel and sat patiently on it and waited for the right moment.
Finally, another management position that I knew he would want became available. I took this as an opportunity to speak to our senior Director about the concerns I was having regarding staff morale. She agreed with the concern and we spoke on the phone on a Saturday I remember.
I told her that I am concerned that these negative attitudes will impact my team and wanted to brainstorm some ways we can address these problems. She asked me to describe to her what were these negative attitudes per se…
Bingo.
I told her that there is a lack of trust in senior leadership and resentment due to the lack of upward mobility, I told her that this negativity is coming from a particular person and infecting the other junior staff members.
Without having to say much more, she knew I was talking about Tom given the attitude I’ve egged out of him in the last year. I then proceeded to tell her in detail, all the trash he says about her and the other senior staff members when he gets tipsy.
We spoke a bit more about how we can isolate his attitude and think of ways to highlight people with positive attitudes.
He didn’t get the promotion. A few months later, another position opened up and I did the same song and dance. This time I learned that he had been bad-mouthing our work to outside partners… sat on that loaded weapon until the time was right and “let it slip” in a meeting.
He was scolded and again passed over for this promotion.
I kept doing this until he eventually quit. I still see his punk butt everywhere, m**********r even tried apologizing to me at one point but it was too late, damage had been done from both ends.
I have no regrets and if that makes me a vindictive person, so be it.”
9. Try To Withhold My Last Check? Pay Thousands More On Top Of It
“I consider myself a decent person and an above-average employee.
I worked for a medical office directly under a doctor for almost 2 years and was consistently facing issues with him from the start. He was aloof, unhelpful, and didn’t want to train or help establish protocol. Just wanted me to run everything and take the fall for anything that went wrong.
He was married with children but flirted and slept with numerous patients and staff members. This isn’t unheard of in this field, so I often just kept my nose down and tried to do my best at my job regardless of his after-hour activities.
Problems started to arise more and more though as he hired people based on looks and his attraction to them vs their qualifications to do the job.
I tolerated a lot of bullcrap, but the last straw was when he wanted me to do some somewhat illegal activities financially and when I refused the games began.
I could sense that he was unhappy with my unwillingness to do whatever he wanted me to willy-nilly, but didn’t think he was upset enough to justify punishing me or trying to get rid of me in any way.
Then literally ALL HECK BROKE LOOSE after a minor procedure I had him do for me.
We were in good standing (or so I thought) and I thought nothing of having him do it at the time. What sucked royally is that he botched my procedure and caused permanent damage. That wasn’t even the worst part, the way he dealt with it was.
Instead of apologizing and offering to make it right to which I’m pretty understanding and would have accepted, he denied anything was even wrong or had happened under his care. He went into total ‘cover butt’ mode and methodically started to try to get rid of me without firing me (as it would definitely be wrongful termination) and the tension was becoming unbearable more and more each day.
I was hoping he would make it right and we could move on, but instead every day was full of scrutiny of my choices and work and even a write-up for a minor offense that I had no prior warning about. I could see the writing on the wall and realized he was going to wash his hands of me as quickly as possible to preserve his precious reputation which I could definitely disrupt now with his mistake with me.
I noticed shortly after while on a planned vacation he was advertising for my job. I decided to quit then and there instead of being fired. I was trying to fix the botch prior to quitting and hoping he would help financially, nope, not gonna happen.
Told him I was quitting and since we were under very abnormal circumstances that I would not be offering my typical two-week notice. He was LIVID.
He was late with my last paycheck in which he sent a snide letter telling me he was done with me and my care with him.
I noticed that the check was short for 2 sick days I had taken after the botch…we are talking around $275 but it was still enough earnings that I felt rightly owed. I had a TON of sick pay left and didn’t even give it a second thought until now and thought maybe he just forgot to add it.
Nope, he responded curtly saying I hadn’t accumulated enough time to pay for the days. I asked to see proof of that because I knew I had enough time. He changed the accumulation date to another month and said tough luck, wasn’t going to pay.
I told him blatantly that this was wrong and that I would have to report it to the labor board if he couldn’t show me proof. He just bullied me back and insisted it is what he says it is and again tough luck.
He even said to quit contacting him about it or he would report me for harassment to law enforcement. So I went to the labor board. I brought in my contract and asked them about numerous questionable offenses. They couldn’t believe how many skewed things were actually going on that I had accepted because I didn’t know or he had convinced me otherwise.
They had me file for all of the offenses and said they would send us both a letter letting us know the mediation date.
Got the letter in the mail from the labor board and almost fell over dead right then and there. What was originally a $275 offense with the other minor claims and now ‘penalties’ added from the labor board the total was now $6,500!!
I laughed hysterically and couldn’t believe it at first. I thought about him receiving the same letter that day and just reveled at the thought admittedly.
Keep in mind he didn’t know at this point that I had actually gone to the labor board as I promised. He didn’t think I would do it, he thought he had won up to this point.
Mediation day rolls around and he sits across from me with the mediator there and is steaming under the pressure now. We both share our sides (which he lied about numerous things of course) and then we talk separately with the mediator. She explains to me that my case may be hard to prove, being somewhat he said/she said.
She encourages me to kind of take whatever he offers. Before leaving the room with her I bring up one more thing to her that I was unsure of and didn’t ask about before. It involved him not paying overtime, and she lit up like a darn Christmas tree.
BINGO. With that type of offense and me being able to show verifiable proof he would have to pay the penalties starting at $6,000 and whatever the judge added after that. She went and told him of this new claim, and he fumed out of the building saying I shouldn’t be able to add anything at this point (not the case at all) and that he needed to speak with his lawyer.
I get a new claim in the mail with the added offense weeks later, the total is now $9,600! I die again laughing and just basking in the thought of him getting this new claim. There was no contact from him this whole time but now suddenly there is an email sent to me in the sweetest tone I’ve ever heard him speak.
He pleaded with me that he never meant to withhold anything from me and that he would like to settle all this peacefully outside of the court. OF COURSE he would I thought to myself.
I forwarded the email to our mediator and told her that I did not want to respond and asked her to deal with him and let him know I wanted to continue the no-contact he requested earlier.
Weeks go by, we are creeping closer to a court date….suddenly the offer rolls in $4,000 and he will settle (I was set on $5,000 because of all the hassle I had to go through up to this point.) I tell the mediator to tell him nope, $6,000.
Silence for another week or two….then the offer of $5,000 comes. That was my number so I waited a couple of days (just to shake him up a bit more) and the mediator let him know I’d accept it. I received the payoff within a week, and then I got to wash my hands of HIM in the end.
He thought he could be dishonest with me and bully me as I’m sure he has gotten away with it in the past. I gave him a swift lesson that could have just cost him $275 to do the right thing…but now I’m going on a vacation to Hawaii and will sip a Mai Tai on his dime for trying to take back what I had rightfully earned and more!”
Another User Comments:
“Doctors with their own practices are a strange breed. My mom began working for a married couple and within one week of her starting the FBI and IRS were seizing documents and bringing forth charges of fraud and tax evasion among others.
They had been doing shady crap for years and just didn’t think they’d get caught.” Birdgame
8. Don't Like Me? I'll Wait Until I Get Fired To Make Your Life Miserable
“Back when I still was in university, I used to work for a hotel to make ends meet. When I started the hotel very urgently needed new personnel. So I cut a deal with the old owner about getting to choose and pick shifts, so I could visit my courses and exams. Speaking some extra foreign languages I also got a little bonus each month on top.
The old owner was a great guy. He owned multiple hotels so I rarely saw him. But when he was in the house he always made a point to have drinks with the staff, chat with us, and if we were free, even invited those at the front desk to fancy restaurants who were not on shift.
Fast forward. I had worked in the hotel for a few years now and was nearing the completion of my studies. So it wouldn’t have been an eternity until I had to quit anyway. As I was of course more interested to work in my field of study.
As part of my deal with the old owner, I mostly chose to work night shifts. Allowing me to visit my courses at university during the day. To make up for my privileges I had picked up the habit of doing some extra work in the dead of night that other shifts would normally have to do when I in contrast could’ve sat around and stared at the walls.
People were grateful for the help in the beginning. And we became a rather tight-knit group. But over time people rotated in and out.
When the old owner retired and his b******e of a son took over the business as the new owner, I already feared the worst. The new owner didn’t like me very much.
I never found out the exact reason for that one. I was at that point nearly the sole veteran left from when I started. Among the tasks I had taken on was doing light clerical tasks to ease the manager’s job in the morning. For that, I generally had to use the manager’s network account.
One night while doing my lists, I logged into the manager’s account and email to do my job. Then I saw an email with my name in the subject line. I know it is not nice to snoop, but of course, I read it. Turns out the new owner wanted to get rid of me.
I still had my old employee contract with the bonuses for foreign language abilities and was allowed by my contract to pick and choose shifts. I can only assume these privileges are what made the new owner hate me. No idea if he had other reasons.
Because to be honest these seem very weak to me.
But he couldn’t fire me without cause. On top of that, I would be owed severance if fired. And generally, there were not enough bodies in the shift rotation without me. Though the new owner didn’t seem to understand that point as the emails told me.
I looked for more emails concerning me and found them.
There was an email chain between some of the employees, the manager, and the new owner. I was of course not CCed as I was the hated topic. The employees didn’t like me hogging the night shifts.
Because those paid better and for every night you worked you got paid the night bonus. The manager was the only one rather neutral on the matter and just curbed their enthusiasm to get rid of me, as they needed me to be fully staffed. The new owner and my colleagues actively conspired to make a hostile work environment so I would quit of my own volition.
I was furious. I thought about a variety of reactions. From egging their cars to burning down the hotel. But I settled on a less crazy method of revenge. I called my uncle at 2 am asking for advice. My uncle is a lawyer. So for sake of proof, I forwarded myself all the emails.
I made photos, printed them out, made copies, and filmed the whole deal just to be sure.
My uncle told me to sit tight and see if things got worse, or if it was just bluster. And so I gave it a few days. And things did take a turn.
Snide remarks about my looks, clothing, and so on were only the tip of the iceberg. Some of my colleagues were just as professional as before. But the conspirators always left extra work for me or pawned off crap duties they normally had to do on me.
I always kept a spare shirt and suit at work, just to have a change, which suddenly disappeared. One guy even started to threaten me with violence. But I kept clenching my butt cheeks. I would not give them the satisfaction of saving on the severance or giving in.
I am a big boy after all. I did, however, stop doing any extra work I was not obligated to do. Which in the end was the reason they used to fire me. They still had to pay me severance.
The next day my uncle with bundled proof of the email and all documented harassment by my colleagues served the hotel my lawsuit.
It started with wrongful termination and ended with harassment. Reportedly the manager went white as a sheet when he realized where the emails must have come from. The new owner had been on vacation and had to cancel his expensive vacation in France to deal with this.
Their council advised them to settle. So I accepted my severance and a hefty bonus on top. Enough pocket change to last me until the end of university without work.
But that was not all my revenge. I had gone after the new owner’s earnings.
But in the next step, I went after the hotel. I had used all my spare time during night shifts alone, to document every last violation of city, county, district, state, and federal law I could find. That went from minor things like some harmless mold under the kitchen sink to substantial violations like modifications to the building.
The building was under a limited form of historical protection by federal law, on the ground of being built and inhabited by somewhat important historical figures a few hundred years back. So every renovation or change in floor plans needs to be signed off on by a committee.
Which can take ages. There is also a grant paid to the new owner by the government for keeping the building intact as is.
So with my uncle’s help, I sent documentation of every violation I could find to the corresponding agency. In one month everything from health, building code, and fire safety to the finance and work police crawled over the hotel.
In the end, it was the building and fire inspectors that shut the place down. The new owner had done substantial renovations to the top-floor luxury apartments, which he used when he was in town.
So the new owner had to pay back the grant, pay fines for unauthorized alterations to the building, endangering his guests, because something wasn’t built right according to fire code, and had to close down shop until the building was fixed. I also tipped off a friend who had studied journalism and worked at a local paper.
The paper ran an article on all the violations accumulated. Which tanked the business once it had reopened, as the newspaper article had led to horrible reviews. In the end, to afford all the fines, repayments, and building costs the new owner sold the hotel.
As the cherry on top, all the jerks who had tried to harass me out lost their job. Granted the people who didn’t do anything to me lost their jobs too. But didn’t do anything to stand up for me or help me either. So I don’t feel too much remorse.
And the revenge cherry on top was, that the new owner, whenever he was in town used to bring home escorts. Which in my country is not illegal. But he was married. It took some doing to get that information to the new owner’s wife.
But one of my former colleagues, who had quit before this had all happened, had her email. So I let her know what the new owner was up to when he was out of town. I don’t know what exactly happened, but they did divorce in the end.
Make of that what you will.”
7. Steal My Identity? You'll Pay For It Behind Bars
He paid the price in more than one way.
“To set the stage, it was 2005 I was living on my own. Had a partner, my own apartment, and a paid-off used car. I was working as the assistant manager of a gas station.
I made a decent income for the time and was living comfortably, but I was far from being rich.
My younger brother, Kyle, was living with me at the time. He had serious behavioral problems (oppositional defiance disorder, ADHD, etc.) some of which were due to a shared rough upbringing (maltreatment of a serious nature).
He had nowhere to go as the rest of my family refused to deal with him. In their defense, he did lie and steal on a daily basis and had a substance habit. He even broke my arm deliberately once. I was trying to do the right thing and get him on track.
I got him a job and would take him to work, gave him some spending change, and allowed him to live rent-free. The rules were simple: I didn’t care if he smoked, but it wouldn’t be in my apartment. Illegal substances would not cross into my apartment.
One day, I decided to surprise my girl with Nine Inch Nails tickets at the Tabernacle in Atlanta for her birthday. They were her favorite band. I had this planned months in advance and ended up working a double shift the night of the concert and driving down there due to some sudden personnel issues at work.
When I got back the following morning (which I had off) I stopped by my work to make sure there were no more sudden schedule changes.
My manager, Bettyjo, saw me and had a look on her face I had only seen the day she got robbed. I knew it was bad.
She sat me down and explained that Kyle had tried to get a ride to a spot in town that was notorious for selling substances. Kyle admitted he was trying to sell a significant quantity of substances to a coworker which could have cost me my job.
I got up and peeled out in the parking lot headed for home which was literally 40 seconds away. He broke the rules. He knew it was the only way to get immediately removed. It was even in writing because I made him sign a letter stating the rules.
So I ejected him from the apartment that day despite his protests.
Fast forward four months. He would call me occasionally and update me on how he was doing. He said he got a new job making a ton. I congratulated him. I was saving since kicking him out.
I didn’t pay attention to my balance as I keep a running tally in my head. My girl decided we should go to the beach for the weekend as I had a rare weekend off. I went to withdraw $300 so we could have a blast. “Insufficient funds,” I thought there has to be an error so I tried again.
Same error. Went home and checked my bank statement. I was over $9,500 shy of where I should have been. I checked my statements, there were huge withdrawals every day up to the maximum allowed limit day after day after day. $900 at AT&T (an astronomical sum at that time), hundreds of bucks at liquor stores, clothes, dozens of transactions I never made, etc. I printed my statements and went directly to the large regional branch.
I was told it was definitely identity theft, and that it was unusual because it was in the north of my town. I was told to get anything back I had to turn the investigation over to the bank so I did.
A few days later I got a phone call from the officer investigating.
He asked to meet. He had a stack of printed photos almost a foot high as every transaction on an atm takes a picture. “Do you know this guy?” I informed the detective it was Kyle. Investigator told me Kyle had the big enough bucks to evade police for a long time if he desired and no stable address or job to be picked up at, so it would be a long shot of finding him.
I told my buddy, Rick from here on out, what happened. Rick was a gruff, 6’4″ Native American man who was well-muscled from a life of hard labor. Rick was a good person, but if you screwed with him or his friends he was devious and loved scorched-earth tactics.
You didn’t bring small problems to him. He immediately offered to help.
We became friends after I found out he was sleeping with Bettyjo, who was a little person (4’8″ in heels). He came into the store and I started laughing because the mental image was too much.
He said, ‘what are you smiling at?” We were friends ever since.
Now Kyle loved Rick despite the fact that Rick was a massive jerk to him on a regular basis. Kyle wanted his approval desperately. We concocted a plan. He would call Kyle, and get him to come over under the guise that I had a falling out with Rick over the way I treated Kyle.
Naturally, Kyle ate the story hook, line, and sinker. Kyle gave Rick an address to meet, an abandoned car wash in the north of town. We loaded up his truck, the trap was set.
Rick hops out of the truck and tells Kyle to get in.
I was laying down in the front seat so he couldn’t see me. He opens the door and I put him in a headlock and pull him in. We go back to Rick’s place while my brother visibly sweats and even cries at some points.
We cooked him dinner and calmly sat down, ate, and then cleaned up. The entire time Kyle had convinced himself he was about to get murdered in the woods.
We gave him a chance to explain himself. Naturally, as was his way, he lied, denied, and swore on everyone living and dead he had nothing to do with it.
I grabbed a stack of photos from the investigator and silently slid them across the table. Again, he denied everything. “This was a setup! You’re trying to make me a felon! I did nothing wrong!” I had enough.
I called the non-emergency number and the police came to pick him up.
We said he showed up unexpectedly and started to get violent. When they searched him he had an illegal substance (a felony) and he tried to assault me in front of the officer screaming about how we set him up and that all of this was unjust. He ended up getting arrested on something like 350 felonies as every transaction crossed state lines (this was pleaded down to 1 or 2 felonies).
Kyle ended up getting 5 years with early release in 3. I think this was because (despite his checkered past) his family never pressed charges so his record was clean. He has been in and out of five-star luxury federal resorts ever since for such wonderful things as the manufacturing and distribution of an illegal substance, child endangerment, theft, etc. I ended up with a full refund.”
6. Report Me For Breach Of Contract? I'll Take Down Your Company
Good luck ever closing a deal again.
“I own a construction equipment dealership, specializing in excavation gear. The main brand I carry has dealerships “every 2 blocks” to the point that there are over 800 in the lower 48 states alone.
They do this to keep prices down because dealers have to compete with each other.
My story starts in 2005.
The business was booming, I was making 15% on all new gear, and selling it by the truckload. I was one of the largest dealers in the U.S., and I was the largest in my region.
The factory provides us with the machine, as well as accessories for it. As a dealer, we are not allowed to sell nonauthorized aftermarket accessories if the machine itself is being financed through the factory.
I had many complaints about the lowering quality of accessories made by the factory, to the point that I was no longer comfortable putting my name anywhere near it.
I asked a friend of mine that deals only in used excavators where he gets all his gear, and he introduced me to a factory in China. Long story short, I go visit the supplier and was impressed, and from that day on only used after-market accessories.
I get around the financing issue by selling all machines with no gear, which means no quick couplers, buckets, or hydraulic thumbs, and getting that financed, then the customer has to pay out of pocket for the accessories. If that is an issue, I have a secondary bank that will finance them, just not at 0%.
In addition to a better quality product, I now can provide a much better price. For example, a 24″ dig bucket would typically sell for about $1,500, and we would buy it for $1,200. I’ll now sell it for $700, and pay my man in China about $300. This of course helped me get more deals, which would have gone to other dealers.
Now instead of being able to call up another dealer and take a machine in on trade if I don’t have it, I can only get them from the factory, meaning instead of needing to hold $1,000,000-$1,500,000 of inventory, I was having to hold about double that.
At one point, I sell a machine into the heart of another dealer’s territory, nonrestricted I may add, and the customer turns out to be the dealership’s owner’s neighbor.
This makes me so mad at the other dealership to no end, and he finds out where my price advantage is coming from.
His neighbor tells him that he didn’t pay for the accessories separately, and he takes this as he financed it all.
The other dealer turns me into the factory and implies that I’ve always used after-market gear and that I’ve always financed it through the factory, neither of which is true.
He made enough waves that the factory sent people out to inventory my lot, to make sure I actually had all the machines on my lot that I claim I do, and to make sure all the accessories I claim are theirs, actually are. They audit my sales for the past 8 or 9 years of our business relationship and go through everything with a fine tooth comb.
The kicker? They won’t let me use any financing they offer while they’re searching for a nonexistent error/scam on my part.
After about 2 months of having 2 or 3 men going through all of our paperwork, inspecting every signature, and calling over 150 different customers, I get the green light to keep selling, and they leave.
Unfortunately, this turns what should have been the height of the season, into one of the worst quarters I’ve ever had.
TIME FOR THE REVENGE
In 2008, as you may be aware, the world ended.
Dealers were getting ready to close down. I went from making 15% on the new machines to making 5%, and I went from over-doubling my profit on each accessory, to selling them at $100 over cost.
I’m proud to say I didn’t lose a single penny during this. I eventually had to cut back my sales staff, but we never lost a cent.
Anyway, dealers were trying to get rid of their inventory, because they didn’t want to have to pay for it when the flooring expired.
Well, flooring started expiring, and the dealers didn’t have networks in place to be able to sell them far enough, or suppliers in place to sell them cheap enough, so they were getting stuck.
At this point, I was selling everything cheap, but was still selling it, and still making at least $2,000 a sale, so I didn’t run out of flooring on a single item.
Once a dealer ran out of flooring, and couldn’t pay for their gear, the factory would be responsible for trucking it back to their distribution centers, and then they would be stuck with all the gear.
I struck a deal with the factory, and the short version is, the other dealers were now getting free extended flooring and weren’t paying for their machines.
If I needed it, or could sell it, they would pay my shipping expense, so I could sell it. The other dealers were mostly fine with this because I was freeing them of hundreds of thousands of debt every month.
Well, most dealers loved this.
Out of the 7 or so dealers in my area, I would only take trades from 6 of them.
That’s right, I stuck the dealer that turned me in with every single item he had. He tried to get me to take them, literally offering me thousands of dollars to do so, so he wouldn’t have to either pay the factory or lose his contract with them.
Well, it came to the point that our state had about $2,500,000 worth of inventory on hand, across all 7 dealers. Guess what? Nearly half of that was all on dealer 7, and his inability to sell them, and inability to pay for them, cost him his contract with the factory, and his dealership as a whole.
Once they started turning around, I had the chance to actually buy his location, building, land, shop, etc, but turned it down. Another dealership did buy it and actually hired him on as a manager. After a few months though, he got fired, as he just couldn’t close a deal anymore.”
5. Refuse To Pay Me? I'll Prevent You From Being In Business Again
“About 5/6 years ago I was doing my apprenticeship to become a mechanic. I managed to land my apprentice role at a classic car restoration shop. It was a one-man band operation run by an ex-Lotus technician (we’ll call him Slimy Git), and I thought it’d be a great business to be a part of and help grow.
Unfortunately, I was wrong. Looking back on it, SG clearly only took me on because the UK government has an arrangement with various trade industries that, if a company takes on an apprentice taking part in an official apprenticeship scheme (which I was), the government gives the company a grant.
They’re also allowed to pay apprentices well below the minimum wage as an additional incentive. During my 11 months at that workshop, I earned only $300 a month. So SG got free payment and also got to use me as dirt-cheap labor, but I was willing to put up with it for a couple of years and learn the trade on awesome old cars.
It didn’t turn out that way.
Whilst I was working there, SG asked me to do many questionable things, including removing parts from a customer’s car and using them to fix another car of the same model that we had in the shop and disassembling a large part of another customer’s car, before ceasing all work on it (I later found out that this was his tactic to put the car in an undrivable state, and then effectively hold it hostage so he could extort more from the car’s owner for repairs that, ultimately, we would never do).
I really wish I had wisened up to what SG was doing at the time, and I feel really awful for my part in his fraud, but I was a young, naïve apprentice, and I just did what I was told.
Then, one Monday in late 2014, I turned up for work in the morning, and SG didn’t.
After an hour of waiting, I drove home again and fired up my computer, and found an email from SG, saying that he was super sorry, but he was closing the business. That was that. At the time he was overdue with my wages by two months but promised in the email to pay them into my account before long.
That was the last I ever heard from him. He never replied to any emails or picked up his phone, and of course, I never got my last two months’ wages, leaving me $600 out of pocket. Not only that, but SG stole my socket set, worth about $100.
By the time I was able to get the landlord of the workshop to let me in to retrieve it, all the tools were cleared out.
I was totally freaking furious as you can imagine, but luckily my dad knows what to do in this kind of situation, so we started putting together a case for small claims court.
We basically assembled as much evidence as we could that I was owed, with a demand that SG pay me $700 (unpaid wages plus the socket set), and send it to the county court (I suppose similar to a district court in the US). The court accepted our case and sent it to SG to give him the chance to respond.
He responded basically saying that, because I had been employed by the company (that he was the sole proprietor of), and not directly by him, he didn’t have to pay me, as the company was no longer in existence. We wrote back to the court asserting that this was basically bullcrap, especially as I had an email from SG’s personal account promising to pay me.
The court agreed, and lacking any further replies from SG, automatically settled in our favor, slapping SG with a County Court Judgement (CCJ) ordering him to pay me the $700.
If you’re not from the UK, a CCJ is a real ball and chain to have on your name.
It can make it very difficult or downright impossible to do things like apply for credit cards, buy things on finance, get a loan or a mortgage, or start a new business. I’m not sure exactly how you get rid of one, but obviously paying the debt it was awarded for probably helps.
What it did do though, was give us the option to have government bailiffs forcibly collect the £700 from SG. One problem though, I didn’t know where SG lived, as he had moved out of his old house a month or so before, clearly part of his escape plan, and I didn’t know his new address.
We appealed to the same county court to furnish us with SG’s address, but they wouldn’t because of some ridiculous bureaucratic reason, I imagine to do with data protection or something. If I wanted to get my funds back, I would have had to somehow find out SG’s new address.
Short of hiring a PI, I had no idea how to do this, so, reluctantly, I decided to let the issue go, and chalk it up to experience, and hoped the CCJ would give SG grief in the future.
Fast forward to last year, and a letter drops onto my doormat.
It’s from a county court, this time in Kent, which is about 300 miles away from where I live. Turns out, SG had moved there, and applied to the court to have his CCJ dismissed, as apparently, he had tried to set up a new business, and had applied for a bank loan, and had been denied both by Companies House (the governmental register where all businesses in the UK must be registered) and by the bank, because of my CCJ against his name.
The court had contacted me to ask if wanted to oppose his motion to dismiss the CCJ. You bet your butt I did.
My dad and I got hold of all our original evidence from 4 years earlier, which luckily my dad still had on his computer, and trekked all the way to Kent to face this idiot in court.
Since CCJs and small claims stuff is fairly low level, lawyers are apparently not usually involved in the court proceedings, so SG and I were representing ourselves. The judge asked me first what the original CCJ was about, and I summarised it for him, stating that I was after my $700.
The judge then turned to SG and asked him why, after 4 years, he hadn’t paid the debt. SG then goes on a whiny little tale, giving the same argument that he gave 4 years ago, that I was employed by his company, not by him, that the CCJ was unfair, and that I was being “vindictive.” The judge asked for my response, and I simply told him that that was SG’s original defense and that if it hadn’t stood up in a different court 4 years ago, it shouldn’t stand up now.
There was a bit more back and forth, but ultimately, the judge agreed with me and gave his ruling.
Not only did the judge order SG to pay us not $700, but $1,000, to compensate us for interest and having to come to Kent to go to court, but also slapped the CCJ on him for ANOTHER 5 YEARS!
He actually said to SG “You are a deceitful man, who clearly cannot be trusted with a business or with employees.” As soon as we were done, SG just turned and stormed out of the courtroom, and that was the last time I saw him.
I waited for a cheque for my $1,000 to arrive, but of course, it did not. Luckily, however, this time we had SG’s current address from the court documents, so we contacted the court and arranged for bailiffs to pay him a visit. It took another two months for them to do their thing, and I had to pay a £60 fee, but I finally got my grand.
So finally, after years of waiting, I get my wages, payment for my tools, and then some, and the satisfaction of knowing SG won’t be able to scam any more customers or employees for years. Jerk.”
4. Disrespect How I Make Ends Meet? Good Luck Making Your Own Income
“I am currently in the town I grew up in, working. This crap town is hundreds of miles away from my home. I’ve been here much longer than I expected, and it’s been a more miserable experience than I could’ve anticipated. The house I’m at happens to be right next door to someone I grew up with, and their spouse.
This melodrama kicked off 2 nights ago when I went to grab some tools out of my work truck. The truck is an F550 with an 8-panel utility box on it. It’s a couple of extra desserts shy of 10 tons gross weight. And my tools are how I make my living.
I obtained a reverence for quality tools early on because of their ability to provide. I rarely loan them out, but when I do, it’s under-expressed conditions.
The truck has to sit in the driveway as it won’t fit in the garage. The edge of the driveway is inches away from the property line shared with my childhood acquaintance J1’s and their spouse J2’s house.
They rent the house. I’ve known S, the landlord of said house for my entire life. S and I have a very good relationship.
Back to the tools; I went out to grab something from one of the panels in the truck when I noticed a uniform extrusion of snow in the bed portion of the truck.
I discovered that under the fresh snow was my open, double-fold case of all of my priority sockets, wrenches, pliers, etc. The case itself I made as a project when I went to school for trade certification. The shell is aluminum, the inside is blow-molded plastic I made specifically for those tools.
I had to make the 1-off mold for the plastic. I pressed the hinges that I made from scratch. I hardened the cam of the locking mechanism myself. It was a final project for a class that received high praise from the instructor who was a veteran machinist. (By ‘high praise’ I mean he gave a critical scowl while inspecting, and finished with a grunt and “Not bad.”) The case received a perfect score.
It wasn’t just the case, open to the elements, left out for anyone to grab. It was all of those bare tools, buried in snow. I do not treat my tools like that. If someone treats their own tools like that, I judge them for it.
Mistreatment of my tools never happens because there is hardly ever an occasion where I’m not in control of them. But someone left my single most valuable piece of kit out to rust or walk off. That someone was certainly not me.
A few nights ago J1 texted me asking if J2 could borrow a cordless drill.
I said “sure” so long as he put everything back when he was done and locked it back up. He knew where the key was because I had grown to trust him over time. That came back to bite me, as it seems it always does.
After discovering my tools in that state, I took them in to clean and lube everything and calmed a tiny bit when I discovered the damage was mostly superficial. The jury is still out on a pair of digital calipers. I was still fuming over the disrespect though.
Yesterday I decided to do a complete inventory of the truck to figure out if anything was missing. It doesn’t take more than a half-hour since everything is indexed. There is a hook, clamp, or holder of some kind to keep all of my tools.
It’s a significant initial investment of time that doesn’t take long to recoup. I shave minutes off of my work every day because I don’t need to look for things. I know exactly where they are.
Once I had my list of missing tools I headed over to the Js’ house (cordless driver, a few bits, 2 batteries, a pry bar and a 4′ spirit level.) When J2 answered the door he was clearly tipsy, which was standard for that time of night.
He didn’t know specifically what he still had but promised me he’d check in the morning. I informed him that given the state I discovered my tool case in, tomorrow morning wasn’t good enough. He advised me to quit being a little witch about the matter and that he’d get to it when he found time.
My fury was only bubbling at a light simmer, so I gave him 1 last chance. I asked him explicitly if he was refusing to give my tools back. He instructed me to self-copulate and forcefully closed the door in my face.
I could’ve let it go and just defuse it over time and maybe get my tools back.
But that’s not something I’m capable of doing in a situation like that. I try to avoid confrontation because I don’t back down until the other person loses. It can result in a net loss for me as well, but it becomes about extracting that pound of flesh.
It’s a character flaw for sure, but I’m aware of it and do my best to mitigate it. Thankfully, this turned out to be far milder than I was prepared for.
So the next stage of escalation was one I really wasn’t looking forward to.
Police.
I was tangentially involved with several different LEAs, both privately and professionally, for almost 2 decades. My feeling about law enforcement started as a kind of ignorant reverence, which turned to fascination. But over time, through intimate dealings through several facets and several agencies, I developed a profound and righteous contempt for law enforcement.
There are otherwise decent people involved, to be sure. But as a whole, there’s not a single class of people I hold in lower regard.
And J2 required that I involve them.
So I called the non-emergency number to dispatch an officer, reference theft. Now, I knew perfectly well the cop couldn’t do anything because it was a civil issue but I had 3 goals.
Perhaps recover my property. Maybe J2 would become belligerent and earn himself a sleepover with the local drinkers and petty criminals. But primarily I wanted a call log to reference if I needed to file a small claim against the spouse of a family friend I’ve known for almost 40 years.
The cop showed up within an hour and I gave him the rundown. He was sympathetic but explained what I already knew. He still made contact to try to resolve the situation. Kudos.
J2 was doe-eyed at the appearance of a cop and was ready to surrender the hostage tools, but J1 was the one that became belligerent – throwing the bits and level off of the deck.
All while chastising me for such a betrayal. It turns out J1’s dad actually had my driver, batteries, etc. so they weren’t even around to be had. J1 informed me I’d be lucky if they could be found after such a betrayal.
I’ll agree, it was a jerk move on my part but I just wanted my pound of flesh.
(and my tools) The cop left and I went inside. Before bed last night I hatched my revenge. And after a brief chat with S (landlord), I could hardly get to sleep.
At about 5 this morning I plugged in the truck heater. At about 6:30 I started the truck, let it fully warm up for about 15 minutes, then backed out of my driveway, pulled around to the alley, and into the Js’ driveway behind their vehicles.
I dropped the bracing jacks on the truck and jacked up the axle on one side. I put jack stands under the raised side of the axle and used my pneumatic impact to remove both rear wheels on the raised side. I spun the impact until pressure was low enough that the veins wouldn’t engage to spin and went back inside where it’s warm.
Freezing moisture prohibited me from running the air compressor in near 0 degrees F weather, so pneumatics were now dead.
Their driveway access is from the alley, mine is from the street. Their driveway terminates just past the front of my garage right on the property line.
There is just enough room for them to park side-by-side, but they’re blocked in on 3 sides by most of my garage, their deck, and their fence. And at now the 4th side by my incapacitated work truck.
At about 7:40 AM I answered a furious pounding at my back door.
Surprise! It was J2! He inquired what in the copulation my truck was doing in their driveway – he had to get to work. I informed him I moved there for better access to the airline at the back of my garage, fed through the back window.
But due to the cold, the frozen moisture prevented sufficient pressure to remount the wheels. He was visibly shaking from anger and informed me I was “Screwing with his livelihood.” “Curious,” I replied, “tools are my livelihood.” At which point I repaid his forceful door closing with one of my own.
I received a flurry of texts and disparaging remarks from J1, peppered with a few vague threats. At just past 8 a cop car pulled into my driveway. Lo and behold it was friendly officer XX12. The same cop dispatched last night, looking a bit rough around the edges from working a double shift. I stepped out to greet him.
He looked at me, panned to the truck, back to me, and asked “What the heck is going on?”
I informed him of my attempted maintenance on my truck, but unfavorable conditions prevented me from finishing. I told him if I’d had all of my tools, I probably could’ve finished without issue.
Which of course earned me a withering look. All while J1 was haranguing us with her perception of the law and what exactly needed to happen, through the kitchen window.
I informed kindly officer XX12 that I had the property owner’s consent before attempting my labors.
J1 opined “It don’t freakin’ matter! She needs to give us 24-hour notice! You need ta blah, blah, blah…” As it turns out, notice is only required 24 hours before entry of the domicile. No notice is required for external portions of the property.
It just so happened that the tools I needed to finish were the tools J1’s father still had in his possession.
Officer XX12 inquired how far away they were and suggested J2 walk there to get everything if he wanted to make it to work at all today. J1 insisted the officer provide conveyance. He declined stating again, it was a civil issue.
15 minutes later I had my tools back.
I used the driver to run down all the lug nuts on the wheels but (of course) used a bar for the final torque. As it turns out, the tires weren’t leaking and the pressure was within operating range. So maybe un-mounting them wasn’t entirely necessary.
I put my tools away, moved my truck back, and double-checked the surveillance camera on the driveway… just in case.
While typing this J1 informed me I now owe them $ for J2’s lost pay (he’s salaried) and also $ for the speeding ticket he got going to work.
I can’t find words for the amount of vengeful glee I’m feeling right now.”
Another User Comments:
“Dude good job. Borrowing tools from someone else is a big ‘take care’ sign and as these idiots can’t be bothered to lock the other tools away after finding what they needed, they need a good slap as it is, but even worse they loaned the stuff out to their dad, which is even worse.
Glad you got your tools and revenge.
A word of warning though just in case this escalates as J1 wants change to cover her other half idiocy, go get a new lock for your tool chest, and don’t let them know where the spare key is.
Leave it in the house where they can’t find it easily. If they try to get it they will be entering the house without your consent.” igiveup9707
3. Exploit Your Employees? We'll All File Reports Against You
Easy come, easy go, Boss.
“This happened 10 years ago. I was 18 and this was during the spring period of my junior year.
I wanted to get enough saved up for a new mobile phone and a school trip to Austria, in order to practice my German (my major was Math and German). My dad didn’t want to give me the necessary 350 bucks for them, even though I was a 4.0 GPA student, calling me spoiled and selfish and asking me to get a job, just like all other normal teens at that time (actually none of my classmates were working, all were given the world by their parents for being in one of the most elite high schools in the city, but hey, you can’t choose your family).
So I got a job at a local shop. It was right across my block of flats, so it was taking me 2 minutes to run from my flat to the shop, no big deal.
The owner of the shop (B) was a short man in his 40s, a man with a good demeanor, or so I thought.
He owned 4 other shops and needed workforce. We initially agreed on a payment of 15 bucks a day, I would work 4 PM to 1 AM, 4 days a week, including Saturdays and Sundays, so I would not miss my schooling. He would pay me once every 2 weeks and even stated he would give me a raise after the first month.
The shop was selling smoking products, adult drinks, coffee, nuts, candy, chips, soda, and its products, etc. It allowed customers to get a cup of coffee that was freshly ground, as well as freshly squeezed orange or grapefruit juice.
So I started at the beginning of March.
I was working with two other people, a 45-ish-year-old fat woman with a whining character, who would usually take the morning shifts from 6 AM to 4 PM, and a 19-year-old beautiful girl (F). Also, I need to mention that, at that time, the store would share a toilet with a Courier service office, this is important for later.
There is one more thing I need to add – my country’s labor codex states that employees must get a double payment during official holidays and also have at least 12 hours of rest between shifts. This is also important for later.
So initially I was doing fine – I did a couple of days of training, and I learned how to operate and clean the coffee machines, the juice machine, the cashier, and the receipts (I needed to press Enter 3 times to enter the products in the system and take a receipt, this is important for later as well).
It was quite easy, because I operated fast with change and calculations, and overall was quite trustworthy. I had some small incidents with minors who came asking for drinks, but I would not sell the items to them, as it is illegal (my colleagues didn’t care about that, but I was taught to uphold the law).
Some of the frequent customers would also initially be annoyed with me as well because they were expecting me to know the brand of things they smoke. Yes, there would be conversations like “two packs of my smokes – which brand? – Marlboro, you are supposed to know that – sorry, I only work here since recently – well, I come here every day, you should have remembered by now…”.
Eventually, this stopped, but I got the stink eye from some of them from time to time, because I am a sworn non-smoker, for me, smoking is poison, no matter the brand and the strength, and they didn’t like that.
Overall, the job was not hard, and I had free Wi-Fi, so I would often bring my laptop to watch Youtube videos or listen to music online (at that time smartphones were expensive as heck and I had a regular mobile phone).
My first two fortnightly salaries were okay. I was supposed to get $120 each; I got something like 110, but this was because I would get a random snack from the shop when I got hungry, and B would deduct all from my payment, which was okay.
Also, B initially wanted me to add the tip to the cashier (the tip was the change (5, 10, 20 cents), which the customers would often not take, and in the end, it would add up to a few bucks), but we agreed for it to remain for me, as the other employees would also take it with them.
A month has passed. It was April, the days started to get warmer and B had permission to set a couple of coffee tables with chairs in front of the shop, so customers could drink their coffee and have a chat with a friend. I was instructed to take the tables and chairs back to the shop around 20:00, and a sign was posted on its front door.
So here started the problems.
After my first month I approached B for a raise, he said I was still a bit rusty and to wait at least 2 more weeks. He also gave me the contract to sign. I never got a copy, but, since this was my first job, I didn’t know I needed one.
I never got a raise as well, because I was “losing his customers.” Jerk.
I had good relations with our colleagues at the courier office, but once I had a problem with them, because I took out the trash, but forgot to clean the juice machine.
I threw the orange remains in the toilet, but one tiny piece of orange seemed to remain on the edge, so I was yelled at by B and was fined 10 bucks.
There were two other times I was fined 10 bucks, for forgetting to turn the outside lights off and for forgetting to put the daily report in the shop log, but this was my fault.
My second coworker would also report me for missing a trash bag or failing to put the items in the fridges in order, but she never took out the trash and never tidied up, so this actually went against her. I never had problems with F.
I had problems with some of the local customers, though. I live in a considerably poor neighborhood and there are different types of scumbags who live there. There is this group of 10 people, in their late 40s and 50s, who are drinkers and were sitting at the coffee tables until dark as if this was the local pub.
When I asked them to leave, because it went past 20:00 and I had to take the tables to the shop, I was yelled at by them jerks and later by B as well, because I was “losing frequent customers for being rude and disrespectful to them,” even though I almost ended up in a fight with one disgusting animal.
The cherry on the cake was the incident with an entitled mother because she had sent her child to buy her drinks and smokes and I refused to sell the items to him because it is against the law. I then got a fine of $30 by B and was pretty angry.
In the last week of my work, at the beginning of June, B asked me to go and work in other shops, stating there was a sick employee and he needed me there. It was Friday, I ended up working from 15:00 to 22:00 in the local shop, then he took me to one of the other shops, where I worked from 23:00 to 08:00 on Saturday.
Then he asked me to work from 23:00 to 11:00 on Sunday and wanted me to be at 16:00 in my local shop, but I refused because I was exhausted. He threatened to not pay me extra, and we agreed to go to the shop at 19:00, after I got some sleep (I was supposed to get at least 12 hours between the shifts, as I mentioned above, but he didn’t care).
After this exhausting time, B wanted to change me to another shop, but I refused due to my schooling and also because I wanted to remain in the same shop. But he got some new workers and said I would not be working until the end of the week.
Eventually, I understood he had terminated my contract and also refused to pay me for the last 2 weeks, nearly $200 in total with the extra shifts.
There are a few more things, which are important:
Some of my free days I spent with F. She was at work and I was in the shop with her, having a chat and being together because she had some mild form of anxiety and didn’t want to remain alone.
During this time I noticed she used a different combination to enter the products in the system – enter, enter, 1, enter. I understood that this would enter the items in the system, but would not send the information to the receipt machine, and this would not get a receipt, and thus the boss would not have to pay VAT for the items. I also understood later that he asked for everyone else to do it, everyone but me, because I wanted everything to be legal.
There was a new coworker, whom B liked and tried to seduce. He was overtly sexist and wanted to hire attractive girls, whom to pay more and to be more clingy towards them. I didn’t like that at all. So the new coworker ended up being very crooked and actually stole around 400 bucks, which B blamed me for, and said he had camera recordings, but this was all bullcrap.
So after all of this, I was angry and wanted revenge. Initially, I spoke to a friend, who advised me to report him to the local Labor Inspection office, which I did. It almost ended with a lawsuit and I was threatened by my boss this would cost me dearly, so I backed my claim, because I needed a clean legal certificate, because I was going to the Bulgarian Naval Academy in a year and didn’t want to jeopardize my future.
My dad got softer on me and paid for my phone and the trip, saying I earned them, because it wasn’t my fault for why I didn’t have the funds, it was the moron of a boss.
Years have passed. I got discharged due to medical reasons and came back to my hometown.
I got a new job and was living with my father until I get better. The shop was still owned by this jerk and he was going around town in a very expensive car, and I even saw him once smoke expensive smokes, which usually go 15-20 bucks a piece.
In the meantime, he was still paying 15-20 bucks a day to the shop assistants, and I understood he was desperate for workforce.
So I decided to turn all of this against him. I knew some of the workers, as we grew up together, and they complained how much of a crook B was.
I hated him for being so cheap on his employees and so large in personal spending. We started a rumor about how bad of a boss he was and to stay away from him. Word got out and he not only started losing assistants, but no one would want to ask him for a job.
One time police was nearby. Someone had broken one of the shop’s large windows with a stone and stolen a large number of smokes. The losses were for about a thousand bucks, from what I understood. B also had to pay for a new window, and that would cost him more.
Apparently, he had made a lot of people angry.
I also suggested to some of his former employees, whom I knew vaguely, to file individual reports against B in the local Labor inspection office like I did all those years ago. I explained they would definitely rattle his cage.
A lot of reports went in, and I understood there was a major inspection of all shops. They could also use my information, but I asked them to take me off the case, I didn’t want any recompense, only to watch him burn.
Eventually, B disappeared. What I understood, is that he ended up with a lot of problems, because he was charged with mistreatment of his personnel, violation of the labor codex, felony tax evasion, and a number of other charges.
So far I know that he is somewhere in the UK, while the business is handled by his brother and wife. His shops were cut in half due to the lack of workers, and I understood they were about to close another one as well.
His business is not as successful as before, and I also understood it is frequently inspected.
Now, I know B didn’t end up in jail, or at least I don’t know about it. But I don’t care. Sooner or later everyone gets what they deserve.
I will not be the person to put him behind bars, but most of those people still greet me with smiles and give me updates on the case. They also thank me for giving them the idea of filing reports and using their rights. I guess I am the mastermind behind all of this, and, to be honest, I will be extremely happy, when he gets what he deserves from being a crook and a piece of trash.
And the best part is – I don’t have to do anything about it.”
2. Try To Take Credit For A Project You Didn't Work On? Good Luck With Your Election
“Let’s begin this back in October 2018. I am a sophomore at university, and I’ve joined some student clubs. At this time, I wasn’t too active in the club that is the subject of this story.
But in October 2018, the president at the time, who we will call “John” since they are a close friend of mine now, was working on a project on campus. This project was to accommodate certain individuals on campus by allowing them to park in staff lots.
On our campus, parking in the normal lots for these individuals could mean a 10-15 minute walk with their temporary impairment. So, parking in staff lots makes a whole lot of difference.
After months of being tossed around by different departments, John ultimately got the approval by going to the university president directly.
In total, John had worked on this project for a little over a year. I was later elected, in Spring 2019, as the club historian, and then the president in Fall 2019. For a year and a half, things were going well. Our club asked about how well the project was doing since its initial start, and dozens of students with the particular impairment had been using it.
We were incredibly proud to have made a difference on campus. John was especially proud since it was basically their baby that they conceived for the campus. There was even a university and nationwide article published about it for our club.
Introducing Jane. Jane was a classmate of mine who was in political science and had aspirations for public office where we live.
They had been in some of my classes and was a well-known student senator on campus. Jane was pretty well known for being liked and popular. However, with those who have worked with Jane, like my friend John, Jane was infamous for being manipulative and a flake on things that didn’t benefit their own interest.
Lo and behold, this semester (Yes, this Spring), Jane did something remarkable: Jane took credit for John’s work. You see, our university newspaper publishes the biographies of each candidate running for student offices. Jane was running for President. You may think, “Why is this such a big deal?
It’s just a student popularity contest.” Yes and no. Yes to it being a popularity contest, but no because the students in office at our university control hundreds of thousands of dollars. The last reported number I saw was around $1-$2 million in a fully student office-controlled budget.
If Jane was elected, Jane would have real power.
Anyways, Jane had taken credit for John’s work. Again, John had slaved for over a year to get the program in place at our university, and Jane just grabs the credit for it, saying that they “Created” the program.
In addition, Jane was a nominal member of the club, having only attended a handful of meetings, and never attending events except in passing. John confronted Jane about it, to which Jane promised to change their bio (haha… I bet Jane wishes they did). After a few days of no change, John emails the editor of the university paper and asks if they can change Jane’s bio, while also giving due credit to John and the clubs affiliated with the actual work.
The editor informed us that because Jane was not requesting the change themselves, the most that the paper would do is place a note at the bottom of the bio saying that what Jane said was false. This wasn’t good enough. By now, the paper had been out for two weeks, and no one checks the online sources by now.
John confronted Jane again, now demanding that Jane not only change their bio but also publicly apologize and give credit to our club. Jane again promised, and we waited for another week, giving her ample time to make the change. By then, it was already election week.
On the election ballot, Jane’s bio had changed to say that she had “initiated”, not “created” the program. She changed one word. One. Word. John and I were furious. We had to do something. But who would take this seriously? The student elected officials are all an “in-group”, and there’s no way we can get this by without some hard evidence.
Then there was me. I spent a few days compiling text messages between John and Jane, emails by John from Oct 2018 to late 2019 to university departments, emails from John to the editor, and news articles officially giving credit to John and our club. Obviously, Jane was nowhere to be found in the email chains.
Not even the meeting minutes for the university senate had any record of Jane proposing the program to the student senate. We had her dead to rights on flat-out lying and stealing credit for work that she didn’t do. Unfortunately, I did not get the evidence compiled before the end of student elections – Jane was elected as the associated student president.
But wait… Something glorious happened. A day or two before I submit my findings to the student senate, a post on the university’s social media catches my attention. It couldn’t have been more beautiful. Right there was a screenshot of Jane DMing someone, saying that if they vote for them that they’d be enrolled in a gift card raffle.
Borderline bribery and incitement? You’re darn right. In a matter of hours, the post went viral on campus. Hundreds of students demanded an explanation, with no official comment by the student senate, campus administration, or external student affairs. The silence riles up the student plebs even more.
To add salt to the wound, a particular student senator defended Jane saying “It was approved, get over it.” Little did we know, this person would be VERY important later…
After about two days of no action, I finally have all I need. The emails, the texts, the bio screenshots, Jane’s promises to change the info, and Jane’s DMs to people bribing them to vote… My case file was complete.
I even managed to have John give me an official statement on the issue, which was approved by the National Headquarters of our club. I PM’d the Associated Students Office on social media, and I emailed their office manager (and a few student senators) all my findings.
I also CC’d the Chair of Student Affairs to make sure that they read my email, because whenever you CC upper leadership… They won’t be happy at seeing bad stuff being said about them.
A few days later, I got a response. All my findings were forwarded to the student court, which was the judicial committee of the student senate (I also had no idea we had one, but apparently they have a good deal of power).
Enough people were emailing complaints to the office that official cases were being brought up against Jane – two by Jane’s opponents in the election, and the other by me. Within the week, I was invited to make my case against Jane.
Trial day. Now, the rules of the Student Court are rather lax.
If you’ve ever been a part of a mock trial, it was a lot like that but with less formal rules on what you’re allowed to present to the court. To add to this, we had to have the court session over Zoom (the setup is a whole other story involving explicit imagery from a troll).
In the stupidity of it all, Jane had refused to show up to the online meeting, but was giving rebuttals via… email?
Before me, one of Jane’s opponents went against her. For the sake of simplicity, I will summarize both the cases against Jane by her opponents.
Basically, they argued that what Jane did was unethical. Even though no specific campus policy went against bribery (literally), they still argued that it was unethical and that the court should both recommend that the senate amend the policy and punish Jane. Introducing… Justice Simp.
Remember that student senator who defended Jane on the social media post and told us to get over it? Guess who one of the justices on the student court was? That’s darn right. Justice Simp. Conflict of interest? Yea. Definitely. For a solid 15 minutes, Simp was arguing with the other justices on whether or not to recuse himself.
However, due to a lack of solid evidence detailing the relationship between Jane and Justice Simp, he was allowed to sit on the court. Now, before each election, every student candidate is required to sign off on a form stating that they understand the rules – that they are accountable to all rules and regulations even if they do not get elected. For all intents and purposes, the candidates are members of the university senate policies.
This is important because Simp tried to argue a technicality – the student senate rules are specifically worded to include only active student senators/members and faculty. Justice Simp argued that because Jane was bribing students, but not as a president/senator, the rules do not apply to her (he literally said this).
Justice Hero wasn’t having any of it.
This entire time, Justice Hero and Simp were going at it, with Simp oddly defending Jane to the death, while Hero was just trying to get to the facts of right and wrong. When Simp’s argument for the technicality failed, he literally argued “How could Jane possibly know about the rules?” In comes Justice Beast, another Justice on the court who doesn’t have any of Simp’s crap.
Beast comes in strongly, reading verbatim the statement on the form that Jane signed when beginning their campaign, saying that they promised to comply with ALL university rules and regs. Goodbye vague loophole, you’ve been closed. When the court voted on whether or not Jane was guilty of bribing other students, the total was 4-1, with Justice Simp being the one guy who refused to accept the facts.
Now, my case was a little different. Where the other cases were about Jane bribing other students to vote for them, my case was about Jane breaking the policies of honesty and integrity. The student official’s code of ethics literally has a section about honesty and a section about fulfilling obligations that you promise AND not taking credit for work you didn’t do.
All the justices forwarded my case’s evidence, and it was my time to make my case against Jane. I presented all the evidence I mentioned before, elaborating to say that no one does anything like this unless you intentionally lie (including the literal change of ONE word).
My nail in the coffin was the official statement by John, which detailed the entire ordeal in a nicely approved letter by National Leadership. Upon being questioned, Justice Simp tried to trip me up, asking how I knew Jane was active or not in the club.
I, having a few years of mock trial experience, declared that it would be hearsay for me to answer, as I wasn’t an active member or officer during the time that Justice Simp was asking about. In order to get an answer, he’d have to ask John, who was the president at the time.
However, I did add that in the times I was an officer, I only saw Jane 2-3 times over the last year and a half. Nowhere near the levels of activity that Jane was claiming.
Nice try, Simp, but your crap isn’t gonna work with me.
Again, Justice Simp is stalling, trying to keep the court from voting on the issue. It’s getting late in the night, and we all want to leave. I am almost certain Jane was watching from a friend’s screen while also messaging Justice Simp. During the deliberation, Jane emailed the justices her “response”, basically saying that the rules don’t apply to her because she wasn’t acting in the office of a student official. Justice Simp read Jane’s response verbatim and still defended her.
Justice Beast and Justice Hero had enough of Simp’s crap, and call for a vote on the case. My case, being much more well-documented and based on concrete university policies, held up ridiculously well. Especially when Hero and Beast brought up the ethics code about only taking credit for what you did, Simp shut up really quick.
The end vote: 5-0. Even Justice Simp couldn’t deny that Jane had flat-out lied and stolen credit.
I celebrated that weekend by buying some beers and enjoying myself.
We are still awaiting the official punishment of Jane, but there is talk about removal from office as well as Justice Simp being investigated for conflict of interest in the cases.
I’ve never been more satisfied to ruin Jane’s campus political career, and it likely will ruin their future political career. I plan to email the evidence to politicians Jane has/is working with.”
1. Bully Me Into Quitting After Taking A Mental Health Break? I'll Break Your Career
“This happened around 2016. I’d (at the time 25/26M) been without a job for a while, looking for a better-paying job than I had before and I found one at a camera security company that was looking to hire someone for the ServiceDesk.
I went for an interview and got a call back later that day. If I wanted the job it was mine.
Now, my new manager was an ex-military. Specifically ex-army (not American, just pointing that out). He REALLY didn’t like having people disagree with or go against him.
A thing I was very unaware of when I took the job.
For 2/3 months everything was going well. The manager was cordial and seemed to really enjoy having me there. I worked my butt off every day, as the software we were working with was unknown to me, so I studied a lot and even went overseas to another country to follow a course and succeeded on my exams.
However, after that period my grandpa, who was like a second father to me, suddenly was hospitalized after a brain bleed. (aneurysm?) He was found in the shower, he had collapsed after he pressed his panic button.
This all happened on a Wednesday. The family came together in the hospital several times to show support and see grandpa.
However, on Friday afternoon, at 3 pm, I was called up by my father (my grandpa’s son) while I was at work and he explained to me that grandpa unfortunately passed away. I was in tears on the phone and in utter shock. It took me a while to calm down.
I went to my manager and explained what just happened and that I’m going home to be with my family. However, that day there was an event. The company was doing a charity event and this charity was going to be public news. They already announced the number of people participating and it would look bad if they were a person down.
It was basically just for good PR.
So he refused to let me go. I told him that by law he cannot deny me as my contract states I can take a day for a death in the family and that I was leaving now.
This was the turning point. He went from a nice manager to a manager from heck. Suddenly everything I did was wrong, I was told he couldn’t believe I was in this line of work for 6 years and was this bad at my job, he cussed me out and ridiculed me in front of my colleagues and even clients.
This all continued for several months and severely began to impact my mental health. I had a talk with my parents and my fiancée (I’d ask her to marry me in December 2016) and they basically told me that this was not okay, that I didn’t have to take this, and that I should give them my 2 weeks’ notice.
I agreed. The following day I went to HR and explained why I was leaving the company and that I couldn’t stand the idea of working even a single day more with that excuse of a human being.
HR showed interest in my well-being and even more importantly in what I was claiming about my manager.
They had received more complaints about him, but nobody had proof of his wrongdoings. So, they asked me if I had proof. I told them I’d be looking for a new job, but I’d gladly fit in the time to collect all I could.
For the next 2 weeks, I collected everything.
Memos, emails, voice recordings (when on the phone the calls are automatically recorded and the dumbo was stupid enough to cuss me out while I was on the phone, lucky me). Also lucky was that my colleagues at the desk had my back this entire time.
They’d been trying to cheer me up, said I was doing fine work and that they also didn’t understand this man’s behavior. So, when I came by and asked if they’d mind signing a document that everything I stated in the paperwork was true, they gladly did.
I had one last talk with HR and him at the same time on the last day I was there. Before he even walked in, I told the HR person who was mediating: “He’s going to walk in, say what he wants to say and I’ll be quiet and listen.
When he’s done, I’ll explain my side and he’s going to interrupt me, tell you I’m lying, and talk about a completely nonrelated subject matter to drag the conversation in another direction.”
She looked surprised at my comment, but had no time to respond as mister army man, walked in and began his spiel.
Exactly as I stated he’d blurt his side out and once I tried to talk he’d consistently interrupt me and try to pick fights.
Eventually, I got up, and told HR “I told you so. Here are the documents you’ve been asking for.” I placed a filled folder with several dozens of emails, plenty of memos, and a USB containing 3 phone conversations and even video footage of him yelling at me, in both voice and video recordings you could easily hear him cuss me out.
I gave the manager a big bright smile, who was smirking victoriously, and said to him: “I don’t think you’ll be smirking like that for long. Enjoy your little victory.”
His smirk disappeared into a confused scowl, but I slammed the door on him before he could respond and left the building feeling like a huge and I mean humongous-sized, planet-sized amount of stress fell off my shoulders.
Within a month, I was back to my old self.
Two months later I was working at a new job and out of curiosity, I checked my ex-manager’s social media. “Unemployed.”
I called one of my old colleagues to ask what exactly went down. My proof opened pandora’s box.
He was being disrespectful to the female staff, insulted the older staff, and on multiple occasions was less than cordial with our external hires. None of these complaints were acted upon because it was his word against theirs and there was no proof.
However, me providing overwhelming proof of his gross behavior towards me made all other complaints now to be taken as fact.
He was promptly fired less than a month after I left and they refused to provide him with any form of reference. In a field like his references mean a lot. So not getting one from a company you worked at for nearly a year is a huge red flag.
It’s now 2020, 4 years passed and according to his social media, he’s still not working in his field.
I’ll gladly admit that I felt rather wickedly satisfied and still do whenever I happen to think about it.”
Another User Comments:
“Even if it wasn’t against the law and in your contract that you could take off work for the death of a family member it is a pretty terrible move to not allow someone time off to grieve and prepare for a funeral. It’s general respect.
Just based on that without even considering the verbal maltreatment you and your colleagues faced from this manager, he got what he deserved.” Jess1r
