People Admit Their Diabolical Revenge Stories
20. You Want To Break Up Over Air Pods? Okay, Your Loss
“My partner (F22) and I (M25) had been seeing each other for almost a year now.
She’s in university, living in the university residence. I work full time and have my own place. Her residence has some very strict rules such as no male guests aside from parents and a strict curfew, this will be important later (we’re not in the US by the way).
Before the Easter holidays a few friends and I planned a road trip, I invited her but she declined.
The day before my road trip I decided to get some new earbuds for the trip. My partner came with me to the shop. Once there my partner decided that she would like a pair of Air Pods.
I relented and bought her a pair and got myself some Bose earbuds since I preferred those and I do not have an iPhone.
On our way back to the university she mentioned that she liked my earbuds since they looked better than her Air Pods.
She took them, paired them to her phone, and started playing around with them, I didn’t think much of it until she said she wanted them and wanted to trade her Air Pods with my earbuds.
I told her no because I didn’t have an iPhone so Air Pods would be useless to me (found out later that they work pretty well on android) and that we can exchange hers when I get back since going back now would make her late for curfew.
She kept insisting saying that it would make her happy, I told her I needed them for my trip in the morning which seemed to be the end of it.
We got to her residence and as I was parking she threw her Air Pods at me and said, ‘thanks for the trade’ then jumped out of the moving car, still wearing my earbuds!
I was shocked and it took me a second to realize that she had just run away with my earbuds. I parked and then ran after her, but I wasn’t fast enough, she had already entered the building.
I stood at the entrance with two very burly guards giving me the stink eye while I shouted for her to come back, she just blew me a kiss and went upstairs.
I shouted a bit more until the guards very ‘politely’ asked me to leave.
I was livid.
She had just robbed me and there was nothing I could do. I stalked back to my car fuming and cursing.
However, I started laughing when I got to my car because, there on the ground, near the passenger side door, was a lovely white box.
It seems in her mad dash to run away she had accidentally dropped the charging case.
I picked it up, my day suddenly brighter, and drove back to the shop. I exchanged the Air Pods and got new earbuds then blocked her and the next morning went for my road trip.
I unblocked her when I got back yesterday ready to deal with the crap storm and called her.
At first, she was sweet and asked about my trip. Then she asked if she had left the charging case for ‘her’ earbuds in my car. I told her that I had returned the Air Pods and exchanged them for new earbuds and that since my new earbuds didn’t work with ‘my’ old charging case I had thrown it away because I didn’t need it.
That triggered her and she started shouting at me, calling me a jerk, and demanding that I get her a new pair of earbuds or we’re done.
I said ‘Ok, I guess we’re done,’ then hung up.
I’ve been laughing ever since.”
Another User Comments:
“My buddy broke up with his partner because she turned off his PlayStation in the middle of a game when she wanted to talk to him. Obviously, that wasn’t the real reason they broke up, there was a bunch of other stuff but it was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.
There’s a lot OP didn’t say, but the way he said what he did is how you can tell this wasn’t really about the ear pods. The ear pods were just the straw that broke the camel’s back.” screechypete
19. Throw Out Everything In The Room? You Got It, Boss
“A few months ago, the two owners at my work had a huge disagreement which has escalated to full-blown screaming matches in the middle of the office and nearly into several physical fights. It came to a head last Friday and owner A decided to pack it all in and leave effective immediately.
After lunch owner B called the warehouse manager up to the office and pointed at owner A’s office (situated just off the main open plan office) and said ‘I’m too stressed to deal with this so I’m going home. Bin everything in that room. I don’t want to see a shred of evidence that owner A worked here when I get back on Monday morning.’
The warehouse manager looked at the offending office and back to owner B. ‘Are you sure you want to bin everything boss?’
Owner B looked ready to explode already and apparently, this extra bit of clarification sent him over the edge. ‘Did I stutter?
Get rid of everything in there or you can clear out your desk too.’
And so owner B stormed off and our warehouse manager took out his walkie-talkie and summoned up two of his warehouse staff and relayed the instructions. The warehouse workers questioned it and got the same answer: yes, absolutely everything.
And so they got to work, owner A’s personal effects were put into a box and sealed up to be taken to him by one of the purchasing staff who lived nearby. Everything else was bagged up and put into the bins. The paperwork and stationary were boxed up to be shredded and destroyed. Next, the monitor and printer were taken to the bins, followed by the desk and chair.
When I left at 4 pm, the warehouse workers were just starting to take down the wall-mounted bookshelves.
I would have expected them to stop there, but when I got in this morning there was nothing in the office. The curtains and blinds are gone, plug sockets and light fittings taken off the walls leaving exposed wires, the tiles removed from the ceiling showing the ductwork and wiring above, and the carpet that owner A requested be put in was torn up leaving the underlay.
Even the door with owner A’s name plaque on it was taken off the hinges. It looks like a construction site in there.
Owner B came in at 10 this morning, took one look at the bomb site and started screaming his head off, and demanded to see the warehouse manager.
He wanted whoever did it to put this right and then get off-site as they were fired. If no one owned up, then the whole warehouse shift was fired.
Our warehouse manager, never one to give a crap, just peered into the office and said, ‘You said bin everything boss.
Looks like they did.’ And walked off.
Owner B looked like he was going to burst a vessel.”
Another User Comments:
“Reminds me of last winter I threw out a 200 dollar huge thick entrance winter mat for soaking and holding in dirt and water.
Midwinter it was looking gross and I asked as the manager was leaving if there was something I could do with it? ‘Just toss it’ Toss it? ‘Yeah, just toss it..’ oook. The next morning I get a call ‘where is the big entrance mat?’ You told me to toss it so it might still be in the trash but the garbage people come every morning: ‘I MEANT TOSS IT IN THE BACK TO BE WASHED!
THAT WAS LIKE A TWO HUNDRED DOLLAR MAT!!’ Oh, sorry. You said to toss it and I did ask for clarification…” Reddit User
18. Demanding A 10 Per Cent Discount? Alrighty Then
“This is why you never make the first offer!
My job is in customer service at this fancy door and cabinet hardware manufacturer. It’s all bronze or brass alloys that are designed to look distressed and hand-made. Because metals keep getting more expensive, we do a yearly price increase and discontinue anything that doesn’t sell.
To make sure all our distributors are on the same page, we send a mass email 30 days in advance. These emails go to every single person we do business with. From salespeople to purchasers and warehouse managers. If you bought a toilet paper holder from us ten years ago, you get an email from us.
2021 being the dumpster fire of a year that it was caused some problems. So many people quit the overseas factory that we had to start from scratch. Instead of discontinuing a few items or collections, we had to get rid of an entire patina (fancy word for color).
This was the Antique Bronze. It was the closest we had to gold at the time. We simply did not have enough people working at the factory that knew how to make it. And when they did, it came out with black spots that looked like dirt.
So we bit the bullet and removed this patina at the same time we announced the yearly price increase (otherwise we would’ve had to print new catalogs without the Bronze Antique option).
We needed to get everyone to change their orders from the Antique Bronze to absolutely anything else.
We pretty much said so in the mass email. The incentive was a 20% discount. Before you think of this company as generous, I should point out that the yearly price increase was 10%. Still, our larger projects were for entire mansions, hotels, and parade homes. So the 10% amounted to several thousand dollars for our biggest customers.
Enter Ana from Montana. Ana was known as a credit card customer. As in, she better have a credit card on file if she expects us to ship this truckload of hardware halfway across the country to her. Her purchase orders always had errors, she constantly requested return authorizations, and her clients mysteriously canceled their orders at the last second.
But the cost of living and running a business must be low in Montana because she would pop up every few months with a new order. And, she never read her emails. Not the order confirmations, not the delivery updates, and not our yearly prices increase/notice of discontinuations.
Now here is the story:
‘This is Hardware Company, how may I help you today?’ I say in my best customer service voice.
‘It’s Ana from Montana. I got your voicemail. Can you please explain to me what is going on with my order?’
‘Yes, we haven’t been able to process it because all the hardware is in the Antique Bronze. We discontinued this a few months ago.’
‘What?! Why didn’t anyone call me?! I just spec’ed this entire home in the Antique Bronze. You must have some Antique Bronze left. You have to!’
There was more ‘woe is me’ from Ana while I explained what I wrote here. Eventually, she switches tactics.
‘Well if you don’t have the Antique anymore, why do I need all these displays? Your Antique Bronze is everywhere. That’s why my client chose it for his entire ranch.’
Our displays take months to build, are technically our property, and are annoyingly fragile, and we make a point to keep them updated. We had a schedule to send new hardware to replace the Antique. Until then, the displays were a huge liability and Ana knew it.
‘You can keep the displays and mention to your clients that the hardware is still available in a different patina.’
‘I don’t want them here confusing my clients. I’ll just ship them back to you.’
‘Since they’re already assembled, we would prefer that you didn’t.’
‘I’ll take a screwdriver and do it myself.’
Now I’ve been in this job long enough to understand when someone is clumsily looking for a discount. It’s really annoying. People make a mistake when quoting a project and make it our problem. This usually ends with us expediting a shipment and flying it out to the customer on our dime.
I found it strange that Ana was doing this since we were already offering a discount and we physically couldn’t make what she wanted. Then she hits me with this:
‘The least your company can do is give me last year’s prices on this order.’
It was then that it all clicked for me. Ana had not read the email update. Not a word. She was going off last year’s catalog that still had the Antique. The cherry on top? She didn’t know we were offering a 20% discount to switch.
She was essentially asking for 10% and leaving thousands on the table.
‘We can do that, Ana, if you change to another Patina. Give me a few moments to check with the manager.’ I muted the phone and had a laugh with my co-workers. They knew Ana too.
So Ana hangs up thinking she got one over on us. I personally see that the order is processed with the changes and bird-dog it until it leaves on a truck for Montana. I saw the invoice and saw that it was around 10K after the discount.
I calculated she left 1K behind because she didn’t read the email. My manager had a laugh about it but unconvincingly warned me not to do it again. She was trying not to laugh the whole time.
I wish I could say Ana kicked herself in the butt when she realized she had negotiated a terrible discount for herself.
But my guess is that Ana simply hung up the phone and called her client to decide on a new patina and bragged about the discount she got.”
17. Take My Schedule Issues Up With The Manager? Sure Thing
“I work in the stock/dairy department at a supermarket and for context, because my store is a union location, every worker at my place of employment submits an availability form denoting when they’re available to work that managers must adhere to when making the schedule.
So a few years ago my department got a temporary manager (our normal manager had taken a temporary job in the company’s corporate office that was going to last a year) in November and during the holiday season, he followed everyone’s availability forms. However, come January he started scheduling most of the crew outside of their availability.
At first, no one really had any issues with the scheduling changes since it was stuff like switching a Monday shift to a Wednesday. But then he started doing things like scheduling some of the high school students on the crew to work 12-5 pm shifts on weekdays, ignoring all day off requests, forgetting to file vacations in the computer system and he even scheduled a 16-year-old to midnight to 5 am shifts because he ‘wasn’t used to having workers under the age of 18 on his crew’ and ‘forgot’ that minors can’t work overnight shifts.
For me personally, he started scheduling me on Tuesday nights, which was an issue for me since I had college classes until 9 pm. So after a month and a half, I submitted a new availability form writing on it that I had school until 9 pm on Tuesdays and for two weeks my schedule was fine but then he started putting me on Tuesdays again.
When I asked him about it he just shrugged and said: ‘You’re going to have to take that up with the store manager because he’s been making the schedule.’ And he used that line on anyone who tried to confront him about the scheduling issues.
One day about a month or so later I had been called to the manager’s office for amassing 5 no-call no-shows the previous month and was facing a write-up at the very least. I decided to take my manager’s advice. So I explained that I had been scheduled on Tuesday nights for nearly three months when I had explicitly told my manager that I couldn’t work Tuesdays because I had school.
I also explained that while I did try to call, I would always have to hang up after being on hold for upwards of 25 minutes because class started. The store manager asked me: ‘Well, did you talk to your manager about it?’
And I told him: ‘Well, he told me you were making the schedule and that I would have to take it up with you.’
The store manager leaned forward in his chair and said: ‘Interesting. Well, I made the schedule for two weeks at the beginning of last month but that was it. Did you have any issues for those two weeks?’
And I responded ‘No, those were the only two weeks my schedule was normal since the beginning of the year.
And I’m not the only one who has been having scheduling issues, he’s been doing it to everyone. Every time someone asks him about it, he tells us to take it up with you and there’s nothing he can do about it.’
The store manager then nodded and said: ‘Thank you for bringing that to my attention.
I’ll talk to him and the rest of the crew and we’ll work things out. Don’t worry about the Tuesday shift and I’ll get rid of the no-call no-shows in our system.’
The aftermath? The following week, everyone in the department was back to their normal schedules, and a week after that, that manager was sent back to his usual store and we got another temporary manager who followed the availability forms to the letter.”
16. Make Me Rewrite Your Exit Paperwork? Sure, I'll Do That
“About ten years ago, I worked for a famous wholesale club that usually prides itself on good working conditions and treating their employees well.
You know the one. The specific location I worked for happened to be a rather large exception to that rule, as it would turn out.
I worked in the suburbs west of Detroit for this Wholesale Club in the deli department for the better part of two years.
My job was, among other things, skewering the chickens, preparing entrees, and performing the nightly cleaning procedures. If you know anything about this Wholesale Club, you know that they have very detailed and very thorough procedures for just about everything because they care about their customers and they care about doing the right thing in general even when no one is looking… or so I thought.
During the two years, I started noticing certain patterns that felt not just unfair but possibly dangerous or hazardous to the well-being of employees and/or customers. A couple of examples, among dozens of others, were being told to look past off colored/bad-smelling raw rotisserie chickens and to just do my job, being written up for clocking out one minute over my shift even though I was rushing to complete all of the sanitation tasks in the prep area, and getting in trouble/written up for requesting the Wholesale Club’s company policy/deli guidelines about how fast a satisfactory employee should be expected to go when preparing entrees and cleaning the deli (my manager bucked the official guidelines and would always make me perform 10% faster than my previous week’s performance, probably so she could cut more hours and send us part-timers home sooner so it’d cut down on expenditures and she’d look good).
Given my place in life, I absolutely needed this job and couldn’t afford to lose it. So I tolerated everything that I felt was odd or perhaps egregiously unfair about the work environment…but I wrote everything down in a journal when I came across an instance where I thought ‘that doesn’t seem like the executives of this company would approve of that.’ But now, at the point where I had another job offer, I felt slightly more confident and less likely to slip into my subservient spineless worker façade.
About two or three days after I had tendered my two-week notice, one of the lead people of the store called me to the main office while I was working in the deli. I walk up to see what they wanted. I was given a packet of paperwork that was tantamount to an exit interview.
It had questions many of us have all seen before in an exit interview. It also had a space for extra comments. In this space, I put that I had some concerns about some of the safety practices, disciplinary measures, adherence to corporate standards, and general demeanor of and the worker morale within the deli department.
That’s all I put.
I didn’t get salty, I didn’t list examples, and I wasn’t even mad. I was just a naïve younger adult in my early twenties who thought some companies really cared about certain kinds of feedback regarding well being and safety of the employees and customers.
I handed in the paperwork and returned to my department.
About two days later I get called to the main office again. Oh boy, maybe they want to hear my feedback and concerns, I thought. When I arrived at the office, the same lead person who originally handed me the paperwork had a puzzled expression on her face.
She told me to step into this super tiny office where they had the security camera monitors stored. Inside was a small desk and three store leaders: the assistant manager, the store manager, and this lady. They all told me to take a seat and shut the door of this super-tiny room.
All three of them got really close to me from across the tiny table.
The store manager was first to speak, ‘OP how many years of experience do I have being a manager?’
Me: ‘Probably a lot. Seems like you know how to run the store.’
Store Manager: ‘Right, I’ve been here (points to nametag) since some year in the late 1990s. So would you say I have what it takes to know how to reflect on all of the things needed to operate a Wholesale Club like this?’
Me: ‘Yeah, likely that you do.
What are you getting at?’
Store manager: ‘How many years of management experience do you have, Mr. OP?’
Me: ‘None.’
Store manager: ‘Ok, how many years of deli management experience do you have?’
Me: ‘None. I work as an associate.’
Store manager: ‘Right! So let me ask you: how would you know how to run a deli if you don’t have any experience as a deli manager?’
Me: ‘Never said I did know how.’
Store manager: ‘Well apparently you think you do because I have what looks like very disgruntled paperwork here I believe you filled out that says you have ‘some concerns’ about certain ‘safety practices, disciplinary measures, adherence to corporate standards.”
Me: ‘That’s right.’
Store manager: ‘How can you know what is truly a concern in the deli department if you have never had experience as a deli manager? You just told me you have no experience as a deli manager.’
Me: ‘…’
Store manager: ‘The reason we called you in here today (everyone in the room folds their arms in unison) is because we know you overthink stuff. We don’t pay you to think. We pay you to show up and work. And while you may think your comments and so-called concerns are legitimate, I can assure you that your remarks instead come across as disgruntled and highly out of line.
It would be a shame if a future employer called us for a reference check and we had to tell them Mr. OP was a highly disgruntled employee. Therefore, we are going to give you this opportunity to rewrite your paperwork and we will pretend like we didn’t even see this paperwork so you can rest assured we don’t have to mention anything about you being disgruntled to any future employer.’
One of the other people slides me a fresh copy of the same paperwork. I agree to rewrite it. They leave me alone while I begin to rewrite the paperwork.
When I get to the comment section, I write, ‘Everything was absolutely perfect about my experience here and there is nothing but good things that I have to say…and this was what the three managers told me to put after bringing me into a tiny room and giving me the ‘opportunity’ (offer I couldn’t refuse) to rewrite this paperwork after my former paperwork, which pointed out that I had concerns about the deli department, would be interpreted like I am a disgruntled employee if I submitted that copy of the paperwork.’
I turn in my new paperwork without saying anything and walk back to my department. I didn’t return to work after that night.
Fallout? Came back for a shop a few weeks after starting my new job and the store had entirely different management and the deli manager was long gone.”
15. Scheduled A Meeting With Senior Executives On My Last Day? Cool, But You Made Me Return My Equipment
“For background, I recently changed jobs; I wore two hats at work for 18 months and when year-end reviews came around I got a ‘meeting expectations’ and a 3% raise.
Everyone else on our team of 6 got promoted. Needless to say, I felt the love… and found a new job.
So I got my offer and accepted, but before putting in my two weeks, I realized I had accumulated personal days to the tune of 8 days.
I scheduled vacation so that for my last two weeks I’d only have to work Monday and Tuesday; I made sure it was approved in our system and then tendered my resignation effective in two weeks.
Now I know this is kind of a crap way to do it, but I wasn’t worried about burning bridges and they don’t pay out personal days, only vacation days – so I wasn’t going to lose those days.
Anyways! Over the weekend, I get emails, phone calls, and texts from my manager… some angry, some in disbelief, some accusatory, it was a lot. Come Monday, what do you know, there’s a meeting with my manager and the ED (executive director) first thing in the morning.
The call goes EXACTLY how you’d imagine. I’m called unprofessional, I’m leaving them in a bad situation, why didn’t I talk to them if I was unhappy (I had), blah blah blah. We finally get to the point where they just flat out ask me what it’s going to take to get me to stay; so I reply ‘permanent WFH and a promotion’ to which the ED chuckles and says that’s not going to happen… and then I add ‘and give me a 50% increase; which would be 2% more than what my offer was…’
You could hear the crickets through my noise-canceling Plantronics Voyager headset!
Long story short, they are both irate at this point and tell me I need to return all company property (laptop, badge, etc.) as soon as possible or I won’t get my last paycheck.
Cue malicious compliance.
You see in my line of work, our teams collaborate, but we become the experts in our particular area of focus… and we were due to present to our C-suite and high-level executives on my area of focus on a Friday… the same Friday that happens to be my technical last day… that also happens to be the last day of my paid vacation.
I saw my manager schedule the meeting a few hours after our lovely call and accepted. I did my work the rest of the day, and Tuesday as well; signed off, got in my car, drove to our office, and returned all my stuff to HR.
They logged the return and told me I was all set.
Now I start enjoying my paid vacation and as the next week starts, I figure mid-week I’ll get a text about the meeting, ‘reminding’ me about it despite being on PTO. Sure enough, that Thursday evening I get the reminder text, to which I don’t respond.
Come Friday. 15 minutes before the meeting I get another text ‘Are you ready for the call? I don’t see you signed on.’
I respond this time: ‘But jerk-face (not her real name) I can’t sign on…you told me to return all my equipment ASAP or I wouldn’t get my last paycheck, remember?
So I did what you said and returned it to HR last week… did they not tell you?’
She never responded, but a coworker I still keep in touch with called me a few days later to spill about the call and how no one knew my area, and someone high up at one point said ‘You’re a team lead… but can’t explain what your team was doing?’ Turns out she’s been demoted and moved to another department… and I am two weeks into my new job, happy as a pig in mud.”
14. You Want To Take Me Back? You Can't Afford Me
“So, I used to work for a restaurant chain in the UK, I started out as a barman but eventually got promoted to the point I was offered an assistant manager position at another unit.
I had worked and am qualified in IT. So I take the job at what I now know is a ridiculously low wage of 16k a year. And yes I could earn more in IT but I really enjoy hospitality so I just roll with it because I enjoyed the work.
I settle in with a few hiccups but because I’m really good at customer service I sort of become the head of dealing with complaints. We would get emails from corporate and I’d email or write letters back, usually without giving away free stuff, which was the norm.
Identifying the issue and explaining what I would do to resolve it as opposed to the usual just comp them.
After a while, I am the manager on duty, and the restaurant is running fine when we get a big table. 10+ people, everything is going fine and the shift is running smoothly.
I keep checking in with the party, not because my server is incompetent but it’s a big spend and a huge tip for her so I want everything to be ok.
One of the party joins late as the rest of the table has their main meals, this guy I’ll call Richard rocks in late and orders a rump steak med well.
No problems. I make sure the chefs get it out quick and bear in mind by this time I’m also kitchen trained so I know what’s what, and I have a good rapport with the chefs.
I take it out and before it even hits the table, Richard looks at me and says this steak isn’t cooked med-rare and is overcooked. ‘Ok sir,’ I say, ‘I’ll have a replacement out straight away.’
So I mosey back over to the grill, explain to chefs and they remake the meal. I take it back out and Richard looks satisfied and eats everything. The table has desserts, tighter drinking, etc. and everything seems fine.
NOT THE CASE, when it’s bill time the head of the table, instead of just asking for the bill approaches me to pay, he’s happy and just wants to pay so the others don’t argue about who’s paying or splitting, etc. Richard however is NOT HAPPY.
He approaches and tells me he isn’t being charged for HIS meal because he had to eat it after the main table….? I explain he came in late and then refused the first meal without even checking and that, the fact he was late he was never going to eat with them anyway, but he’s not having any of it.
By this time everyone is listening and I confidently explained to him that he ate the meal and that I was not willing to comp it for his lateness and the fact he hadn’t even checked the first meal just barked it wasn’t good enough and wanted a new one which we served and he ate.
He insisted he wouldn’t be charged. By this time I had been there a while and I’m used to professional complainers as I call them and I’m having none of his nonsense. I regularly worked 60+ hours a week and my wage often put me on an hourly rate less than the servers and they got tips.
I straight up tell him, NO, you pay or I’ll call the police and report you for theft, IT’S YOUR CHOICE. The guy paying is trying to resolve it and he backs down and they pay and go on their way. All are happy but Richard and they tip the waitress generously.
End of story? Nope.
A few days later I get an email from corporate, THEN a personal phone call from my Area Manager.
It goes along the line of ‘WHY didn’t you just comp him, he’s complained to corporate and now they’re comping the WHOLE BILL?
Why would you do that for the cost of a rump steak dinner?’
I explain the situation and say ‘look I’m in the right here back me up please.’
Nope.
I get in trouble.
This is where malicious compliance comes in and I can’t believe I actually have a story here because I’m buzzing.
For the next three weeks when there’s the slightest complaint while I’m on duty…. Comp the WHOLE TABLE, no matter how high the bill is. THREE WEEKS.
During this time, I stopped getting complaints from corporate, emails, etc. as I told my GM it’s not my job and that Area Manager had an issue with the handling of my complaints.
I got a call from Area Manager begging me to stop comping tables as refunds were through the roof. Ultimatum, yeah sure I’ll deal with complaints but next time you back my judgment as I have a pretty decent record.
They gave in and I resume normal duty but it still makes me smile.
The best part was I left for another company and one day was visiting my old colleagues, and there was a new manager. She approached me as I was drinking in the bar side talking to old regulars who loved me and asked me to return as they’ve heard great things about me.
I told them they couldn’t afford me and she said name your price, 25k minimum and no more than 50 hours and they took me back in a heartbeat.
Side note as a manager I had a waitress there at the beginning, we are together 16 years and married 13 this year.
8 kids.
I think I won.”
13. My Major Revenge Turned My Office Into A Vacation Home
“This was maybe 6-7 years ago. I was the only full-time IT person at a $100+ million/year sales company. I worked 55-65 hours a week between on-site and at home, this is important to remember. I reported to the controller and everything was fine until he quit and they hired the new guy.
The new guy was the youngest controller ever hired by our site or any of our sister sites and man did he think he had something to prove.
The first thing he does is pull me into his office and inform me that, ‘My team will be the first ones in the building and the last ones to go home.
I expect to see you in your office any time I am in this building. I don’t care what you do. Just make sure you are here from 7:30 am to 6 pm.’
I tried to argue why that was a bad idea. He was having none of it.
My response is a collapsed ‘Okay,’ as if I tried to make it a single syllable. Anyone that worked with me knew they were now screwed. I was literally the only guy with the keys to the castle. Literally untouchable.
Malicious compliance: Met with the OSHA lead to see what appliances I could run in my office safely (no electric kettle).
Met with HR and informed them I would be making a spreadsheet of my daily work activities just in case I needed to prove my productivity for any reason in the near future. They thought it was a joke and said ok. Then I set up my second home.
Over the course of the next few months every day I showed up to work at 7:15. Went to my office. And worked until 3:30. Then I would start my vacation. I brought in raspberry pie and played games, brought in crock pots of food, and invited key members in to graze and chit chat.
One day I set up a panini press bar and invited all the engineers in for sandwiches, watched movies, listened to music and e-books, tried to get a dartboard approved by the safety lead (said no before I could finish my request). Basically, I did all the things I did at home, at the office.
People would stop in after 3:30 pm and ask for help and I would tell them no. Explain what I was told and tell them to stop in at 7:30 tomorrow which was a moot point because the site was an 8:30-4:30 place and if possible immediately go back to slacking off while they were standing there asking for help.
This lasted about 2 months. Then HR called me and we had THAT meeting. I explained everything. Showed my spreadsheet of work and I included all the times I spent doing 0 work and what I was doing to slack off during that time. I was averaging around 35 hours of work a week.
Between breaks and lunches that is normal. They were mad at me and even more mad at the controller because they knew my productivity tanked and as a by-product so did multiple departments. I was told to go back to doing what I was doing before he started and I would start reporting to one of the departments that needed me the most instead of finance.
Everyone in the office pieced together that their life got harder for those few months because the new guy deemed it so. He ended up relocating shortly after because no one wanted to work with him. I ended up working more ‘normal’ work weeks (around 45 hours) and everyone was just happy to have me back to help when they needed it.”
12. Dealership Told Me To Sue, So That's Exactly What I Did
“This all started December of last year and just finished last week.
So I bought a car from one of those buy here and pay here places.
I love the ‘car’ it’s a Mazda 5 from 2014, basically the smallest minivan I’ve ever seen.
Well on Christmas we drove to some family for dinner and celebration. When we went to leave the car would not start.
We checked everything and found out the horn wasn’t even connected, any fuse that wasn’t absolutely needed was simply missing and the tires were the original tires…
Beyond that, we hooked up to the computer and it read several errors but the one getting in the way was the immobilizer. I had never known the van had one.
I called AAA and set up towing but because we were in the middle of nowhere AAA couldn’t get a tow truck to us under our membership (free) so we had to call a tow truck and then submit the bill to AAA after the fact.
So family let us borrow their car and the van was towed to a shop. A few days later and the shop calls and tells us what’s wrong. I live in Texas, a single-party consent state and I record all my calls thanks to an app on my phone.
The long list of car issues isn’t important, the point of this van is a basic work van. The only issue they found stopping it from running is the immobilizer is active and they can’t touch it without talking to the dealer.
I 3way call the dealership and the shop and we talk for 17.43 minutes.
During this call, the dealership acknowledged we were not behind and everything should be working unless it malfunctioned. The dealership also gave permission for the shop to bypass it and we would be reimbursed for the towing and repairs.
All the shop needed to do to get the van running was bypass the immobilizer and a couple of days later we picked up the can and paid the bill.
Both bills came to just under $300 and we started calling the dealership. The first few conversations go well and the phone rep seems interested in helping. but mostly I end up getting tossed around from department to department and then disconnected.
That went on for some time and I of course took to Reddit to find out options.
As almost always happens Reddit users know some crazy facts and how to get stuff done.
So I followed their advice and kept calling eventually getting to a supervisor. The first supervisor said he’d get it taken care of and we ended the call. Two more days go by and nothing is heard.
So I call back, get tossed around, and then get another manager who says ‘We are not responsible for mechanical issues’ and hangs up. I call back now quite annoyed and eventually get back to the same manager. I explain I have all the information and call recordings including the repair shop three-way call.
He cuts me off and says ‘What, are you going to take us to court over $296.47, I don’t think so but go ahead and sue. We will win and if that small amount is worth suing to you, you probably don’t have the resources to actually sue.’
This of course made me quite upset. So off to a justice of the peace and explain what’s happened. They give us a small claims form and explain the process. We can fill it out and pay for a constable to serve the dealership or fill out the paper and take it to the dealership unfiled and explain everything to a manager in person.
We chose the cheaper route because the manager on the phone was right, we didn’t have the funds to have it served, only filed. So we transcribed the phone calls. Found out how to fill out the paper, the hardest part was finding the agent, we didn’t know what that meant but we again turned to Reddit and learned. We gathered the bills and all the paperwork and made our way to the dealership’s payment center.
I wait in line and see the name of the manager is the same as the manager on the phone that told me to sue. I wait in line and when it’s my turn I ask to talk to John and he comes over and sits across from me, after making introductions and I confirm it’s the same guy I start to explain the situation again.
As I’m explaining I see when he recalls talking to me on the phone. He starts to dismiss me and I explain that he asked me to sue and I’m here with all my evidence and the unfixed suit. Giving him one final chance.
He starts to look over the papers and asked if I still had the recordings.
I said yes, I could email him a copy. We sit and talk for about an hour as he reads, then I sat with a slightly aggravated tone, if something isn’t done today not only am I going to head right back to the courthouse and file as well tack on as much for emotional distress and whatever else the clerk hinted at, (The clerk was very open-mouthed with ‘ideas’) as well as send a copy of everything to every email on the corporate website.
At this, our conversation drew the attention of a woman in a power suit who rushes over for a recap. I find out she’s John’s boss’s boss and she’s none too happy about how far things have gone.
She assured me that all would be made right and gave me her cell number and email.
I gave her the papers and left.
The next Monday at 8:00 am I got a call asking if credit being applied to the account would be acceptable. I say yes and she explains they will credit $500 to the account as payments (the payments are only $155 every two weeks).
I agree and we talk for a few minutes when I ask why it took this much just to get things done. She laughed and said ‘it shouldn’t have and certain people are no longer employed at the company.’
Well, today was Wednesday and the day of the payment but when I went to make the payment it was already done.
Thank you power suit lady.”
11. Must Garnish Every Drink? Sure Thing, Boss
“So this happened last night and it made me laugh. Please keep in mind that I’m an insomniac and the day before I got 0 sleep and only got about 4 hours before being at work all day. Now I work in a restaurant as a bartender, where I make the drinks and put them on the counter for waiters/waitresses to take to customers and I was tired as all heck.
The restaurant was busy since it always is on the weekend and I was getting swamped with drinks. So sleep-deprived, busy, and having no help whatsoever I, of course, forget things sometimes or make a couple of mistakes, the main one (which I did literally twice) was not putting garnish in the gin.
As we all know drinks get garnished with lemons, limes, oranges, and strawberries – in my case because we have strawberry flavored gins. First time I missed off a garnish on a gin: ‘OP, I need a garnish on that gin. Every gin gets a garnish, remember’ and I quickly plop a lemon in the drink, and off it goes.
At this point, things are calming down a bit.
The second time I miss off a garnish on a gin, ‘Christ OP it’s like talking to a goldfish, remember. Every drink gets a garnish! You must garnish EVERY drink!’
I smile sweetly and nod at my boss.
Malicious compliance.
I just got an order of two shots, this gross lemon-flavored shot that according to most customers tastes like dishwater. I pour the shots and even though it makes it overflow a little, put a lemon wedge straight in the shot glasses.
My manager rushes past. Stops.
Turns to the shots I poured and rolls his eyes ‘very funny’.
‘You’re welcome!’ I say with a smile and carry on making my next drink.
I hated that shift.”
10. Hold Up The Elevator On Each Floor? Enjoy Stopping On The Way Down
“So yesterday, I was returning home with a heavy bag of groceries.
As I approached my apartment building, I saw a delivery man with a parcel trolley waiting at the door. I decided to open it for him so he could get in while I checked my mailbox.
As I entered the building, I heard him get on the elevator, he must have heard me enter the building as well but he didn’t bother to hold the lift for me. No big deal, I’ll just wait for it to come back down.
The elevator stopped on the 4th floor, and I noticed it stayed on the 4th floor for a lot longer than it normally should, almost like it was stuck.
After a moment, it started moving, except instead of going down to me, it was going up, and stopped at the 5th floor. Again it was stopped for an unusually long time.
It was at this point I realized the courier must have been holding up the elevator doors with his trolley, so that they couldn’t close, meaning the elevator won’t move on.
Annoyed because I have a heavy bag of shopping, I live on the 7th floor, and we only have one elevator, I was even more incensed when I saw the elevator carry on going further up and holding at other floors. At this point, I’d been waiting a good couple of minutes.
So I decided to take the stairs to the 7th floor. However, I ran as fast as I could. Why? Because the elevator was coming down from the 16th floor and on my way to the 7th floor, I pressed for the elevator on each floor I passed. If he enjoyed holding up the lift, he could spend extra time in them on the way down.
I waited in the stairwell, and listened to the elevator stop on my floor, doors open, doors close, stop on the 6th, and so on. When it hit the 5th, I could just about hear the courier say ‘for goodness sake’ as he realized no one is getting on the elevator.
I was out of breath and had a good sweat going on but it was worth it in the name of pettiness.”
Another User Comments:
“Long ago when I was a kid (10,11), the elevator in my building had a ‘glitch’ where if you tried to slide the door open to the elevator shaft, it would pause the elevator’s movement.
So whenever anyone would get on the elevator and not hold the door for me, or delivery people holding the door for extra long (or neighbors too) on another floor – I would ‘punish’ them by pulling on the door for about 15 seconds to give them a bit of a fright while they were stuck in the non-moving elevator.” frostrambler
9. It's Not That I Can't Play Chess, It's That I Choose Not To
“So, I learned to count because I wanted to play cards with my brother. He was 10 years older than me and I thought that the world revolved around him. Because my father was narcissistic, it wasn’t until years later that I realized what a positive male role model he was.
My brother was games-obsessed. We would play hands of rummy that went on for weeks. Game after game of monopoly that lasted months.
When I got to about 8 I had the chance to join the school chess club so the summer before I begged him to teach me to play chess.
It was then that I discovered that most chess players, out in the wild, like to take time pondering their moves. Me, I like to play a game, finish it, learn from it and then play another. For me, it was quantity and quality that taught me.
By the time the year was out I had a decent ranking in the school chess league but my heart wasn’t in it.
I put my chess set away and focused on playing blackjack with my brother. It seemed that my knack for numbers and a mild case of synesthesia where numbers and cards have personalities made me a natural and I loved the game.
We also played a version of whist where we would bid on tricks and these became our go-to games.
As time went on, I would avoid playing chess because it just didn’t grab me. If asked by anyone I’d say, no, I don’t play.
Then came the day when a significant other wouldn’t take no for an answer.
This guy had the biggest chip on his shoulder, so much so that it caused a permanent stoop.
I’d self-financed my further education but I’d managed to do that because ‘your social class gave you all the breaks’. I’d got a good job through working hard but that was because ‘your social class gave you all the breaks’, I got promotions through self-financed study, in my own time but that was because ‘your social class gave you all the breaks.’ You get the idea,
So, he decides that he is a chess champion. He was undiscovered because… you guessed it, his social class as a child had stopped him.
He comes down for the weekend with a chess set so he could sit and study the board.
He asked me if I played chess and I gave my standard answer – I know how to but I don’t play chess.
Well, this must have eaten away at him. Here was an opportunity for him to show his superiority to me by beating me at chess. He’d been beating all his friends. Now he could wipe the floor with me.
On and on he went at me about playing a game.
I kept saying that I don’t play chess. But he wouldn’t let it go.
In the end, I gave in.
He sets the board up and announces that he will be white. Yep, you don’t do that but I just wanted it over.
He starts, standard opening.
Game goes as predicted for the first few moves.
Now as I said, I was a quite competent chess player. I just don’t like all the humming and ah-ing and so on. I find it a bit pretentious. I’m not a great player so never took it to the level where timed moves would have made it more fun but I’d studied a number of games as part of the chess club and because I have great visual retention these things stayed. A few moves further and I can see what he is trying to do.
It’s a standard gambit. Played it a number of times.
About 10 moves in and I’m bored. I’m really, really, really bored. It’s 40 minutes. I’m moving a piece immediately. He’s doing all the things I hate. So I stop concentrating and start moving pieces by instinct.
And, you got it. I sacrifice a piece and I can see the gloating on his face. He thinks he’s got me. He checks me. Two moves later and I’ve put him in mate.
He throws the board and pieces across the room.
Him: ‘You said you couldn’t play chess.’
Me: ‘No, I said I didn’t play chess, not that I couldn’t.’
Him: ‘Well, if you don’t like playing chess you should have let me win.’
Me: ‘That’s not how it works.’
Him: ‘I deserved to win.’
Me: ‘That’s still not how it works.'”
Another User Comments:
“When I was a teenager, I used to hang out in a couple of cafes where speed chess was one of the common activities. I was never great, but good enough to hold my own most of the time.
A couple of years later I was down in Texas and met a pretty redhead in a cafe who had a chess set on the table.
I asked if we could play a game to which she replied ‘I don’t really play, but we can if you spot me a couple of pieces.’ As I recall, I spotted her a bishop and a rook, and she proceeded to wipe the board with me.
We became friends and were quite close for the next decade, but she would never play another game. She’s still the only friend I have who has a 100% win rating against me.” MalleusMaior
8. You Don't Like It? No Problem, There's The Door
“This is my own, personal story that took place in Belgium, circa 2015-2016.
Context, in my mid-20s I worked in accounting with 4 other mid-20s guys. We were a solid, well-oiled machine that ran flawlessly, and yet we had way too much work and needed an extra person.
We had taken over in one year from the previous team, who seemingly quit for no reason.
At the end of the second quarter, we crushed through the mountain of work with a collective 4 weeks of OT between us. Boss was ‘happy’ and ‘allowed’ us to finally go on vacation (more like he knew we had accumulated too many recovery days), and gave us the bonus we were promised if we reached the goal.
We’ve been unhappy with the situation for some time and have been complaining about it. Clearly, there’s enough work to justify hiring an extra person, so we go tell the boss.
As soon as we explain why we’re asking for an extra person, he goes ballistic.
How dare we, employees w****e terrible at our jobs, ask for an extra hand when all we do is screw around for the entire day and we’re costing him money.
In his screaming, he points to the door and says ‘I’m not holding you hostage, if you’re unhappy, I suggest you walk out!’
We’re stunned, what the heck did he just say? We came in to ask for help and he’s telling us to screw off? We ask him to explain what he means.
He literally says ‘I don’t need you, I don’t need any of you, quit if you don’t like it!’
I wish I could say we did, but we were stunned because we thought since we’d crushed our workload, we would be in his good graces, so we shut the heck up and let him continue his tirade.
Come January, crunch time is coming. Boss gathers the entire company in a meeting room and goes on to explain how we’re horrible workers and can’t do anything properly and we’re costing him money.
He then goes on to say the company made 1000% profit compared to last year. If we’re so bad at our jobs, how come we multiplied profits?
He goes on to say that from now on, no more bonuses, because we’re crappy workers and we’re expected to stay in the office until our work’s done, no matter how long that may be.
No exceptions, whoever doesn’t comply will get fired. He reminds us he can replace us at any moment and that we need to ‘prove’ we ‘deserve’ our jobs.
The thing is, I knew I was the best employee there. Not just the best accountant, but the most innovative, most charismatic, most resourceful, and on top of that the rest of the team and a lot of people from the other departments kind of relied on my upbeat, seemingly light-hearted joker attitude.
And so, tired of his crap, and extremely scared of the mountain of incoming work, I get up and just say: I quit. Boss doesn’t understand what I mean and continues his meeting while I go to clear my desk.
I’ve cleared my desk by the time he’s finished the meeting and while I’m walking out past him, he understands what I’m doing.
He immediately starts yelling that I’m abandoning my post and that it’s unprofessional and there will be consequences.
I’m calm because I had already made up my mind. We’re in front of everyone, including the rest of my team. I simply tell him: Boss, we all heard you say that I’m free to leave at any point because you don’t need me.
Isn’t that right guys?
No one answers, of course, because they’re all (boss included) stunned that the ‘nice guy’ who’s always polite and keeps his head down is being assertive.
Before boss gets a chance to snap out of it, I tell him that he mistook my tact and diplomacy for acceptance and that I’m only doing what he said.
Maybe he should choose his words carefully next time.
The rest of the team quit within 3 months (they knew where stuff was going and they spent their time at work looking for work anyway), the other teams quit within 12 months, and he was bought out within 16 months because most clients had stopped paying and sued him since he had no one to do the actual work.
All because he thought I wouldn’t comply with his own malicious request.”
Another User Comments:
“Worked a property manager job in a mobile home park and lived on-premises. My boss was abusive and told me multiple times ‘if you don’t like it pack your dogs, pack your stuff, and leave!’ So I did.
Later heard he said I ‘snuck away like a thief in the night.’ Nah. Just following orders.” Capn_Of_Capns
7. Cut In Line Twice? You'll Get Drinks Thrown On You
“I was in another country going to a pretty widely known Theme Park and was about halfway through waiting for one of the best rides in the park.
Because it was one of the best rides and it was still school holidays the park was packed and the lines ranged from 45 minutes for the kiddie rides to 2 hours for the big ones.
So there I was with my Mum and two sisters when I noticed these 3 women maybe late 20s or early 30s loitering in the fast pass lane.
A fast pass for those of you who don’t know is a pass that allows you to walk straight to the front of the line with minimal wait, but they are very expensive (at this park it was $150 per person).
They were acting really suspiciously and looking around, then I saw one of them sneakily step over the chain fence into the normal line, effectively cutting out a full hour of the line (they needed an actual fast pass to keep walking through the fast pass line).
I started calling them out saying ‘Oi what do you think you’re doing, nah, get back you ain’t supposed to be there,’ etc. and the women looked a bit spotlighted before one of them came directly up to me in the line, distracting attention away from her friends and onto her, then with a super cheeky smile said ‘I’ll just wait here with you then, ha, ha, ha.’
I was just like ‘Ha, ha, ha, no, get back there or I’ll call you out and be successful this time’ (because nobody around had really noticed or cared enough to take my side). She just put an infuriating cheeky smile on and walked back to her friends (who were still in the line where they had cut in).
At this point, I didn’t really care and just let them sit back there with about an hour left of waiting.
About 40 minutes later after sparking conversation with people in the line and playing on my phone I absently looked around for the women to realize they weren’t behind me in the line anymore and I was just like ‘You.
DIDN’T.’ I speculated that they hopped yet another chain and put themselves further up in the line, which at this point would put them in the next room and out of my view.
I talked about this with the people in the line around me (all of which had been waiting for about an hour and a half at this point), and one mentioned that he thinks he saw these same women cutting in earlier that day.
WELL… when we finally got into the room where you get on the ride I was just in time to see their ride begin to start and I, naturally, pulled the finger at them. Well then one of them notices me, taps her friends, and with the most infuriating crap-eating grin they do a little wrist wave at me and say ‘Cheerio!’ in the most snarky and cheery way before their ride zooms away.
I was fuming but I was just like, eh, probably won’t see them again what are you gonna do.
WELL… when we got off the ride I split up from my group and went to get food and got a burger, fries, and a MASSIVE cup of soft drink with Fanta, Coca Cola, and Lemonade.
Well, I ate my food and was walking around with about 3/4 of my drink still in my cup when I saw the trio of women again outside.
One of them noticed me when I was about 10 meters away from walking past them and tapped her friends again and they just looked at me with more of the crap-eating grins and started verbally teasing me like ‘So how was the wait, hmm?’ while laughing
I saw red.
I changed my direction and walked right towards them and just before I was upon them, did my best convincing fake stumble and ‘accidentally’ threw the contents of the cup all over the group. It was perfectly executed and they were close together resulting in all of them and their clothes getting at least a little bit soaked by the drink.
(R.I.P Drink 2022-2022 thank you for your sacrifice.)
I just stood back for a second while they all looked shocked and I can’t remember but I said something dopey like ‘Jeepers Creepers I’m sorry about that’ (with just a teensy bit of snarkiness and glorious smugness in my tone so that anyone around us might have believed I did it on accident) and then said, ‘Well, cheerio!’ and just walked off while they looked stunned and started showing the discomfort of being covered in freezing cold soft drink.
It felt so good to throw it on them because I spent around an hour at that point just being annoyed at them and it was antsy-ing up my mood for the day.
About an hour later I saw them again and walked past them slowly, doing a super slow and super cheeky laugh like Ha.
Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. They wouldn’t meet my gaze and looked embarrassed, but I saw them stealing glances at me as I walked away so I know they knew it was me (also I’m 6’5 so pretty recognizable).
Petty? Heck yes. Overboard? Not unlikely.
Worth it? You know it.”
6. Can't Come In Because Of My Shot Records? No Problem
“This was many moons ago, my first legal job at 16, I was a dishwasher at a very famous buffet. Known for their rolls and sweet butter. I was a dishwasher at this location, and my friend Jerry worked there, with another old lady named Rosa.
We were the only three dishwashers in rotation.
I had a very bad manager named Walt. Real names, many moons ago, don’t give a rat’s behind. While overall, he was a good manager, everything he did was illegal. Especially when I was sixteen, I was manning machinery, our can crusher, and our cardboard bailer.
That stuff you have to use when you’re eighteen, but they didn’t care. I could go into more detail about the work, and the mistreatment, but in a way, it’s not quite relevant to the story.
I worked two days a week, Saturday and Sunday, occasionally holidays, but it was always from 12 pm-12 am.
I didn’t work very often, just enough to pay for my phone.
Jerry was my ride there and back to work, he got me the job and trained me accordingly. All that good jazz.
I was about six months in when Walt pulled me aside and asked for my shot records.
I was in a predicament at this time because I didn’t live with my parents, and my school refused to give out any shot records unless it was the parents. I told my manager I wasn’t able to get them. He said after I completed today’s work, I couldn’t return until I had my shot records.
I was sixteen, and I didn’t understand why I had to prove I was updated on my shots, but I obliged.
I missed four days of work, two weeks, and I finally ended up moving back with my mom. My work uniform was still at my old house when I texted Jerry to tell Walt I’ll be able to get my records Monday (tomorrow) when I return to school.
I suppose upon hearing about this, Walt demanded I go into work, be there at 7 pm (it was already 6 pm), that they needed help, and nobody else wanted to wash dishes. Jerry was already at work, and so was my mom. I had zero transportation, and I still had to pick up my work uniform from another city.
It’ll take me at least two hours to finish the commute just to get my uniform. I told Jerry that there was no way I was going to be able to be there.
I guess Jerry relayed the message, and I received a bunch of calls from my job, I let them all go to voicemail, and the one I listened to, Walt was ANGRY.
He demanded I came to work at 7 pm or I was fired. So instead of coming to work, I decided to block my job’s numbers, and called my partner and my brother over, we had a blast.
I told Jerry to tell Walt that 1), he asked me not to return to work unless I had my shot records in hand.
2) he can’t fire me for something he specifically asked me to do. 3) he’s totally aware of my ride situation and knows Jerry is the only person who takes me to work and home. If Jerry is at work, I can’t go. Walt refused to let Jerry come and get me.
Apparently from what Jerry told me at the end of the day, Walt ended up getting so stressed out, that he quit that day. Turns out, the reason why he wanted me to be there was because a party of 200 booked the whole restaurant out, and Rosa was on vacation.
Poor Jerry had to deal with all of that, and nobody helped him.
I felt very guilty for Jerry because he didn’t deserve that, but at the same time, it felt so darn good to know I ended a tyrant’s reign at sixteen.”
5. Bounce My Reimbursement For Going Over By Cents? I'll Spend Twenty Times That
“Worked as a freelancer in a job that almost always required travel. The per diem amount allotted for meals was actually pretty generous, which is needed when traveling: airports, hotel room service, and touristy areas if you happen to be stuck there with no other options are pricey.
But it was not a true ‘per day’ amount in the sense that you could spend however you wanted per day.
You got a certain amount for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but could transfer the amount between them ONLY if you were buying all three meals in a day.
Understandable, since you shouldn’t get to spend a full day’s amount on one meal if you didn’t fly out for the job until late.
One meal was easy – the amount allotted for that meal. Three was easy – can transfer between the three to use the full day’s amount (BUT you did have to literally have three receipts to prove it – if you knew you were going to be on-site and miss lunch, for example, we found you had to go buy a bag of chips or a banana or something for as little money as you could and claim it to be a meal to ‘unlock’ the rest of the meal amount to use later.)
Two meals is where it got hairy. You could only use the amount for that meal and not transfer anything between them since you didn’t use all three meals, hence needing to buy something random above if you were truly there all day.
Was at the airport at 5 AM and went to the only place open (a bar/restaurant).
Got an omelet and a drink or something and not wanting to stiff the server (in the US) tipped appropriately for that region and went about 50 cents over on breakfast. At my next layover and since more places were open, got cheap fast food and went $10 under on lunch.
When I submitted the reimbursements, it was bounced for going 50 cents over policy for breakfast. When I pointed out I went $10 under for lunch, they said that was the policy, and to remove 50 cents from the expense report in order for it to be paid.
In a policy meant to save the company money, I was penalized for saving them $10 because I went over 50 cents.
Fine, I thought, take your 50 cents. From then on I tried to spend every last dollar of the per diem amount, even if I wasn’t hungry.
I’d hoard snacks and things from the airport and take them home to eat later. I’d rather start to spend a few dollars of my own money beyond the per diem to make sure I used every last cent of theirs.”
Another User Comments:
“This is perfect.
I once worked for a local government agency and was sent on a weeklong trip for training. Meals were provided but we got a per diem for the actual traveling days. I was starting a diet plan and asked if I could use my meal per diem to purchase some healthy foods and snacks from the local grocery store in advance that I could prep and bring with me – fruit, HB eggs, nuts, etc. It would save them money.
I was told absolutely not, the meal purchases had to be the day of travel while traveling.
So I bought the same basic crap at a giant markup from the overpriced shops in the airport and maxed out my per diem allowance, costing my employer more money.” pgm928
4. Want Me To Pay Back Student Grants? I'll Find A Way To Play The System
“I live in a very good country where we have something called student grants. Every student that goes to college/university gets a certain amount deposited every month in their checking account by the government. Aside from that, you get a free travel pass for all the public transport.
So, that is pretty nice. (They reverted this practice after 30 years a few years ago and made it a loan and re-reverted it again this year… but that is another story).
The idea is of course that everyone, regardless of their financial background, has a fair chance at higher education.
During the time this story was relevant (2001 – 2005) it was about 100 euros a month upwards to 800 euros a month. But in the latter case, it meant that both your parents should be completely devoid of any income.
However, obviously, there are some caveats. If you make some money by having some side job you can make about 5000 a year or you need to stop these grants.
Which is fair. For your information, living costs in the major student cities at that time were like 400/month for housing, and 120/month for groceries. Tuition was like 120/month euros as well. To give some perspective.
It should be said that a lot of students just use the funds to drink a lot of beer.
Anyway… to the story.
My relative is a very hardworking guy. He started college and finished it in 3 years (which requires normally 4 years) and he did a master’s at university in 1 year, which normally required 2 years (for this master’s). He was active in councils, did non-profit work, etc. During this period he also started his own freelance business to support himself and his future wife and kid a little more.
He was very precise with monitoring his income and was made sure to stop his grants every year when he would go over the limit and start it up again next year.
However, this is where he made a small calculation error. See, he assumed he could stop his grants when he was nearing the limit and continue the rest of the year.
But the government doesn’t calculate it like that at all. They look at the income you had extra that whole year, divide it by 365 (or 366), and look at which moment you crossed it. So, how does this matter?
He had like 500 euros extra income/month.
On average. So somewhere at the end of October, he would call the government and say he would like to stop the grant. Everything solved. But then in the holiday period, he would work a little extra hard and would get 700 euros in December. So the government would look at the end of the year and see he made 6200.
They would divide it by 365 and calculate that he would have crossed the threshold at 294 days. Which would be October 20th or something. And he called at the end of October, e.g. the 28th. A few days difference.
However, the government, fast as they are, didn’t act on this immediately.
So he finished his masters, and after a few months, he gets a letter from the government, basically saying: ‘You have been getting the grant and weren’t allowed. So you are forced to pay everything back, with interest, and with an added fine.’
Please note that the grant also includes the free public transport card.
The total sum was something like 12k.
He was devastated and called them to say he understood he made an error, but he was off by a few days. Besides, it took him way shorter to study than most people, so in that sense, he didn’t use the grant as much as other people.
Some people study for 8 years and get the grant (that has changed now btw). But nope… they were not open to any sort of leniency or reduction.
Unable to pay it directly he asked if there was some way of paying it monthly, and there was.
So he started doing that.
However, here is where he started to get maliciously compliant. Instead of paying the exact amount, he decided to pay a euro higher than the required amount. So the required amount was 150 euros, and he would pay 151.
The extra euro would trigger something in their systems because they couldn’t account for it.
So they would contact him and he would ask for a reimbursement. This would take a lot of hassle for them, and then next month he would do it again. And again. And again. It took him 3 mins a month but it would take them a lot of time every time with figuring out what happened. Nowadays it is a little bit more automated but back then it was fun.
Look, we live in a good country where these grants are possible. So we are fortunate. And he was able to pay everything back and he made an error. He knows that. However, it was a bitter pill to swallow and I understand that he got some satisfaction out of doing this.”
3. Boss Tried To Screw Me Over, So I Started A Dumpster Fire
“About 5 years ago, I was working in an organization that was super toxic. So much so that we were a revolving door – most employees stayed only a few months. To counter this, our management put 3 months’ notice into everyone’s contract including existing employees (it’s not strictly illegal where this happened, but very unusual).
I believe the idea was to make it harder for employees to find a job outside as employers didn’t usually want to wait for 3 months. However, this didn’t work as people simply quit and waited for a month or two before starting their job hunt.
I was there for almost 4 years. I needed the funds, so I put up with whatever harassment was thrown at me. My boss was a guy we’ll call Vince (not actual name). Now Vince was not particularly good, but he sometimes respected the fact that I was the most tenured grunt in the organization.
Enter Rajesh (not actual name).
Rajesh was brought in from outside for ‘Strategically improving’ our division. This was quite strange given our division generated the most profits.
Within months, Rajesh made the environment even more toxic. He pulled Vince’s team under him and got Vince fired, and he actively encouraged us grunts to spy on each other.
Rajesh also had it out for me from day one (until late I don’t know why). He started making my life harder than the others. This culminated in him taking me aside and telling me that I was not pulling my weight.
Now at this point, I was doing quite well in the organization, plus I was doing a LOT of additional work since only I knew certain systems and processes (see: high attrition above).
So I was quite angry. I started looking out (I still wasn’t brave enough to quit and start looking). Fortunately, I was able to find a job that was willing to wait the 3 months.
So it was my turn to take Rajesh aside and tell him I quit.
Boy Rajesh was angry! He went from denial (‘You can’t quit!!’) to negotiation (‘what if I give you a raise at the year end’) to acceptance.
Thus I was serving my notice and working away like an honest bee (my usual work, plus the additional work).
At this point, I was called by HR and told that Rajesh wanted me gone. The insane part was that they wanted me TO PAY THE COMPANY for the 2.5 months shortfall in notice!
I obviously refused, then went back and checked the contract. Turns out a notice of fewer than 3 months could only happen through mutual consent, and the initiating party (company if they wanted me gone sooner, or me if I wanted to leave earlier) had to compensate the other party for the shortfall.
The next day, I stopped doing anything at all. I logged in and logged out my hours and did jack crap. Not my work, definitely not the additional responsibilities. Soon there was a complete meltdown all around. Rajesh would pull me into meetings and scream and try to bully me, and I would say nothing but smirk.
Then they tried to have someone else learn from me so that they could do what I did. Remember I said earlier how I was the only one who knew some of the old systems and processes? Well, now I claimed I didn’t really remember any of them.
So obviously there could be no handover.
Soon my workplace turned into a dumpster fire. HR/Rajesh smartened up and offered to buy out my notice if I cooperated and helped transition my work.
I refused.
Then, to twist the knife further, I started having meetings with fellow grunts (remember, everyone was always a newbie) and encouraging them to leave as well.
HR tried to get me to leave twice more, but I ended up serving the full 3 months (remember the mutual consent part?).”
2. Schedule Me For Evening Shift? Make Sure You Know What You're Doing
“I was a teenager, and had a job at a hotel, as a busboy in a coffee shop.
We had about 95 seats, and on a Saturday and Sunday, we would do about 400 covers. It was busy, but I was good. Afternoon, things would slow down, so I would jump into the dish pit and help them catch up.
One Sunday, the Back of House Manager and the General Manager were having lunch, and they called me over.
They asked me to take the next Saturday’s evening shift in the dish pit. I reminded them that weekends were pretty busy, and they would have a problem if I wasn’t bussing on breakfast. They told me they would get someone to cover bussing, but they really needed me in the dish pit that Saturday night.
I agreed but told them that I would need to leave at 11 pm on the dot, as I relied on public transit to get home, and there was no way I could work late.
They said, ‘No problem,’ and we had a deal.
I showed up at 3 pm to absolute chaos.
Guess who they had cover bussing? That’s right, the dishwasher. The pit was absolutely stacked with dishes…and then I found out why they needed me on that shift.
Banquets and the Coffee Shop used the same glassware, plates, and cutlery, and there was a massive banquet going on upstairs.
When I got there the cook line and the Banquet crew were going nuts, prepping and setting up tons of centerpieces, place settings, that sort of thing. We had bussing carts and the banquet crew was loading them up and running them up the elevators to the banquet hall.
It was pandemonium.
The Back of House manager kept yelling at me. ‘I need more forks right now!!’ and I was fishing through the dozens of buspans from the day shift trying to get him the stuff he needed. It took a while, but I managed to do it for him.
I took it with a grain of salt since he was actually a pretty good guy, just stressed to the max.
Finally, the banquet stuff all went upstairs and I could clear the backlog. It took me until about 8 pm.
Then… nothing. There were about 400 people attending this banquet, and occasionally I would see a member of the banquet team come down, and I would ask them where the dish carts were.
These guys treated me like crap and snapped that they would bring them down when they had a chance.
Sure enough, it was about 10 pm when the parade of Banquet Bozos started wheeling cart after cart of dirty dishes in by the pit. There were tons of them, 30 or 40 at least, and none of the bus tubs were sorted. It was all just tossed in.
They weren’t even scraped into the trash, there was leftover food on lots of the plates.
Just before 11 pm, I see the Back of House Manager talking to his crew, and I went up to him, I was really ticked off. ‘What the heck am I supposed to do here?’ I asked, gesturing to the carts.
‘Wash the darn things,’ he snapped back.
‘There’s no time. I leave in 15 minutes, remember?’
‘Well, you’ll just have to stay late.’
‘I can’t. I have a bus to catch. If I miss it, I miss my connection, and that’s the last bus.
So, no, I am leaving, and I told you that last week.’
He starts getting irate, and I just took off my apron and left without a word.
The next weekend, I arrive for my busboy shift and I get called into the General Manager’s office, the Back of House Manager was there, and the General Manager is asking me why I abandoned the dish pit in such chaos.
As it turns out, nobody on the Banquet crew would work the pit, and in the morning, there was nowhere near enough dishware and cutlery for the coffee shop. The dishwasher they had covering took one look at the nightmare in the back and quit on the spot.
They had to close the coffee shop and lost out on a ton of money.
I just looked at them and reminded them that when I said I would take the dish pit for that shift, I would be leaving on time. It’s not my fault that the Banquet crew didn’t start bringing down the carts until after 10 pm.
The General Manager looked at the Back of House Manager and asked him what time they served the meals. 6 pm. ‘So you’re telling me that your crew took over 3 hours to roll the dishes back downstairs, and you didn’t do anything about it? What the heck were they doing?
Why didn’t you assign one or two to push the carts?’
Then I pointed out that all the carts weren’t sorted, and that the plates weren’t even scraped. The Back of House Manager gave me the stink-eye, and the General Manager excused me and said to head down to the Coffee Shop and pick up the bussing.
The following weekend I came in, there was a big notice targeted at the Banquet guys. All buspans were to contain only one item, one pan for dinner plates, one pan for side plates, one pan for glassware, and another for cutlery. All dishes were to be in the dish pit no later than 15 minutes after being pulled from the table.
All plates were to be scraped of excess food waste before going in the pan.
The Banquet crew was angry that they actually had to do their jobs, and the Back of House Manager was mad that a lowly busboy/dishwasher put him in the hot seat.
They never asked me to take an evening shift again.”
Another User Comments:
“So relatable. Restaurants try to skate by with so little planning and so much ‘do this unreasonable thing because I said so.’
This reminds me of a time they had way too few dishwashers at the convention center I worked at.
Another dishwasher and I were told we had to stay until everything was done, and then everyone else left. Around hour ten, it was after midnight and we were both pretty loopy, and we realized there were no rules on when to take breaks after eight hours.
We figured we were entitled to as many breaks as it took for us to be able to finish the massive number of dishes, especially since everyone else had peaced out. This included a second lunch hour with tv and a bunch of smaller breaks.
Finished around hour sixteen, so we both got a bunch of overtime. Our manager wasn’t thrilled the next day, but he’d told us to stay until everything was done. After that, he made sure to get enough dishwashers for close and I never stayed that late again.” PiquantResolve
1. You Yelled At My Guy While He Did You A Favor? Let's Apply Appropriate Procedures
“This was 1992 and I worked maintenance at the top of a 7-story building which had the US Navy’s Commander of the 6th Fleet. I was a freshly minted E-5 in a workshop where all my peers were E-4s. I never, ever ‘pulled rank’ as it simply didn’t apply.
We were ETs, Electronics Technicians. Our job is to support the communications department adjacent to us on the top floor. However, the entire building knew they could call the ET shop & we’d come fix their crap.
One afternoon, the guy on shift with me comes in red-faced and absolutely flustered. He’d just married a local Italian lady and I knew that was stressing him out & started trying to help.
Nope… A chief (E-7) in the Joint Operations Communications Center had just worked him over, called him names, etc.
OH HECK NAW. Momma mode kicks in, no one messes with my guy! The people adjacent to us (who we are billeted to support) are Radio Men.
Their lead is an E-5 and actually leads people in the department & is close with my guy.
RM2 Burgeron is who tasks our work. I go to him and say what just happened to my guy (ET3 Fulkrod). ‘Burg’ is ok, I got you.
See you in a couple of hours. He begins the execution of rigid compliance to written procedures.
Chief calls up the RMs and their job is to troubleshoot the system. Once a fault is isolated to one piece of equipment, the RMs bring us a Work Order, which we log, etc. Well, on his way back to us, I hear his zippo clicking.
Fulkrod starts packing his smokes. The smoke area is right outside our shop on the top landing of the stairs.
I see the work order in Burg’s hands. ‘Smoke break?’ Yup. We go out and smoke.
Burgeron: ‘Oh hey, we got a work order for your shop.’
Me: ‘Oh?’
Burg: ‘Yeah, it’s ‘the matrix’ in the JOCC.’ (JOCC is the joint operations communication center)
Me: ‘Oh, I look forward to helping them with the fault. Hey Fulkrod, you know more about the matrix than I do, would you please come with?’
Ok, so, technically, he does know more. But it’s a simple patch panel for secure phones that go to the crypto gear and then out over the Navy’s satellite communication network for the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. Pick up red phone, squeeze button in the middle, and talk like a CB radio to every ship, airplane, and submarine monitoring that channel.
So Fulkrod sees the spark in my eye (Burgeron too) and is oh yeah. We leave our secure space, wearing our NCTAMS MED badges and I’m carrying the work order. We go down a few floors to the JOCC. This space is the most secure room in the region.
They have live maps with positions, every secure circuit there is, a room of even higher clearance within it, and also like the signal if The Button gets pressed, the codes come through here, get verified, then sent to the fleet.
I ring the buzzer next to the cipher lock (we don’t have their code) and get buzzed in.
We enter… ‘Oh wait, we need guest badges’. Their lowest pay grade is an E-5. I see the dread on his face. Oh. Yeah, the book is here, I’ll sign you in. And he gives us our two serialized guest badges, #1 and #2, then turns to walk away.
‘Aren’t we supposed to be escorted?’
Now dread is replaced with crestfallen. So he says follow me. We go to his peer who now has to do this guy’s job. Who tells the E-6 he’s got to do that guy’s job who tells the Chief he’s got to do the E-6’s job who tells the LT running the place he’s got to do the Chief’s job.
I hold up the work order and ask my escort where ‘the matrix is’ (I’m literally standing by it). Ah. One of the phones isn’t working. Just looking at the matrix, I see a button is only half pushed in. To make any changes, you need the key to the matrix.
It is a pushbutton patch panel that connects each of the red phones to one of the 4 available secure channels.
The key is attached to a water pistol. I ask for ‘the gun’. It’s in E-6’s desk drawer. I get it. I unlock the matrix.
I press the button next to the desired channel for the ‘broken phone’ and then fully press it in the position it was previously half-pressed. This red phone is literally next to the matrix… I pick up the phone, key it ‘any station this net, any station this net, this is NTCC Agnano, comm check, over.’
Just the fact you can hear my transmission on the other phones confirmed it was fixed. Normally to check if it works, we key the button and release it and can hear it click on the channel. Of course, someone replied loud and clear or ZBZ or whatever.
The chief was looming like the bully he is.
I very quietly said ‘Chief, we bend over backward for you, please don’t ever harass our folks.’
I locked the matrix, gave my escort the gun, and asked him to sign the work order, and check us out.
That was the only time I ever saw a work order. That was the only time I signed for a guest badge (we normally just grab them), absolutely the only time I’d gotten escorted. Usually, we get a phone call, come down, get buzzed in, fix something, then ghost out.
A few months later, I was hanging out in the JOCC at 2 am killing time asking the night watch about what was up. The LT is all ‘Oh hey aren’t you the ET who gave the Chief a tune-up with all the procedures?’
‘Yes sir.’
‘He was really rude to my guy and it ticked me off. I’m sorry about messing with your routine, you guys looked busy.’
He chuckled.”
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