People Recount Their Ferocious Revenge Stories
21. My Bosses Kept Throwing Work On My Plate, So I Stood Up For Myself
“I was working as the Technical Writer for a software company that had contracts across a number of business types.
(Everything from Government Utilities to Military Simulation.) As such, I ended up being tasked by several teams in the company, each one needing my ‘immediate attention’ in generating users guides, and documentation for their projects.
My bosses (only had two Bob, Bob) also needed me to assist them in writing proposals for various contracts that they were bidding on.
This led to me constantly being pulled in multiple directions at once as everyone needed me to finish their project ‘yesterday’. I was working until late in the night sometimes to finish ‘vital’ projects that they just had to have.
The final straw came when after listening to one of the programming teams nag me out for failing to update the user’s guide for a software update that they had only finished the day before, one of my bosses called me into his office to chew me out for failing to complete his proposal that he kept making changes to at 11 pm the night it was due to be submitted. Oh, and our Office Manager had left for maternity leave, so our penny-pinching bosses figured I could do her tasks like answering phones, buying office supplies, and entering timecards in my copious spare time.
When he told me sternly that I would need to learn to manage my work time better, I finally snapped.
I came in on a Sunday and posted up a huge magnetic whiteboard behind my desk that was visible as you walked into my office.
I made colored magnetic labels with each project I was currently doing, who had assigned the task, and the due date of each. I also put a column of numbers, one through twenty, along the side. I then placed each task in order of due date.
I came in early that morning, and as usual, each team lead came into my office to ask the status of their tasking of me. I pointed behind me at my board and said I am currently working on tasks one, and two. If you think your task takes priority, I’m going to need written permission from the people above you to move your task above theirs.
There were a LOT of unhappy people that morning. Eventually, the bosses sauntered in and came into my office after listening to all the teams complaining to them about me ignoring their projects.
They both came into my office and before they had said anything, I pointed behind me.
All I said was ‘I am currently juggling eighteen projects, and the job of the full-time Office Manager, I can only work on so many things simultaneously, if you think that any of my projects are out of priority order, let me know, otherwise leave me alone.’
The two of them stared at the board for about five minutes before leaving. About an hour later, they came in, and said that they didn’t realize the amount of work each of the teams was throwing on my plate because each team thought I ‘had plenty of spare time.’
I wish I could say that a got a raise or an ‘Atta boy’, but by the end of the day, six items were pulled from my board and given back to the programming teams. Oh, and my bosses hired a temp to take care of the phones, and timecards until our Office Manager returned.”
Another User Comments:
“Great job! Sometimes the bosses truly don’t get it.
My current job has me optimizing the company’s inefficient use of their software products, lots of overlap, and inefficiencies.
For two months, I’ve been pulled into so many ‘quick meetings’ and ‘quick questions’, and assigned so many ‘just real quick’ IT tickets, that I haven’t gotten anything done in my actual job.
When I said this a few weeks ago, I was told that everyone has to pitch in outside their job duties, and even the CEO empties the dishwasher. No, idiots, I’m not just saying I’m above these tasks (I mean, shoot, if you want me at level 1 IT support for four times the rate, that’s fine by me!), but I’m saying I cannot do my real job because of these sidelines.
Yesterday, I drew my line and said I wasn’t logging into the ticketing system anymore. Period. No more ‘real quick’ anything because it’s been two months of real quick crap.
Both of my bosses were floored. Like you, they just ‘thought I had a lot of free time’ and didn’t realize how many off-track tasks I was being given.
Sigh.” AhFFSImTooOldForThis
20. You Won't Move From Your Spot? Enjoy Waiting The Extra 20 Minutes
“I work for a non-profit retail store, and on Wednesday we have a 30% for seniors day. As a result, we have a TON of rude elderly people come into our store. Most of the time our friendly regulars make up for the rude ones.
I work as a manager of the store, and we can’t run on an employee’s register unless it’s to do a return, that way the employee is 100% responsible for the money in their till. We only have three register drawers, although we have 5 registers in total. So on really rough nights, we can still ONLY have three cashiers at a time.
We had just had an exceptionally LONG line that took most of the day to get down, and one of our cashiers decided to take a 10-minute break before the line gets bad again. After she leaves, an elderly woman gets into line, there are two cashiers and a person at each register checking out, which means that the woman was the only other person in line, and was next in line whenever someone was done.
The elderly woman stops me as I am putting away a rack of clothes and says ‘I’m not waiting in line, you need to open up a register.’ I calmly explain ‘I’m very sorry, but the cashier for the remaining register is on break, but someone will help you as soon as they are able to.’
She was NOT accepting that. She stated that I was lazy and rude, and she would like to speak to my manager. I smiled, and once again calmly spoke to her ‘Actually, I am the manager, which is how I know when the cashier went on her break.’
She started to SCREAM, ‘I WILL NOT MOVE FROM THIS SPOT UNTIL YOU PUT YOURSELF ON A REGISTER!!!’
My shift was over in just a few moments, and I was trying to calm this woman down so that my closing manager wouldn’t have to deal with her.
I pointed out that the next register is now available and she can check out. Again… she was not having that. She screamed a second time ‘UNTIL YOU PUT YOURSELF ON A REGISTER, I WILL NOT MOVE!!!’
Other people are starting to get into line, and she refuses to let them check out.
I accepted defeat and told her ‘Very well, Ma’am, I’ll take down this cashier’s register and put one up for myself…I’ll be right back.’
She smiled and seemed very pleased with herself. So I counted down the drawer and put a new drawer up.
She went up to my register, and that allowed the other people to start going to the other registers that were open. She unloaded her entire cart and just as she finished I said ‘I’m sorry, my shift just ended…but the original cashier came back from her break a few moments ago.
I’ll have the closing manager take down my drawer, and put a new one up for the cashier.’
In total, the woman spent an extra 20 minutes going through all of that, instead of just waiting the 3 minutes for an open register.”
19. My Neighbor Went To Enforce A Rule To Protect Their View, But It Backfired Miserably
“This story isn’t mine, but my significant other’s parents.
They were going to build a house in a new development in a lot that was in front of their to be neighbors.
The lot is on a hill, so it is in front of the neighbors, but below them. The neighbors decided they wanted to build a 1 story rancher on the lower part of their lot, instead of building something like a 2 story on the higher side of the lot.
They assumed that whoever was going to build in front of them would only build a 1 story themselves, which would keep their view unobstructed. Having a great view was apparently very important to them, and a big selling point on the lot.
Her parents start to build their 2-story house on their lot, with tall peaked gables.
When the neighbors realize their view will indeed be obstructed, they offer to buy the lot from her parents. Her parents give them the price of the lot (which had increased in value since it was originally purchased) plus the cost of the materials already purchased for the build.
They waited for a response but didn’t get one, so they just continued on with their build. A month or two later the neighbors respond to the offer saying they’ll accept it. By this time, of course, more time and money has been put into the build so her parents told them they can still buy the lot, but the price has increased. The neighbors reject the offer.
In this new development, all houses are required to have a two-foot overhang, but many of the homes haven’t actually been following the rule, and the developers haven’t been enforcing it. Her parents decided to, also, not follow the rule. The neighbors then go to the developer to remind them that her parents need to have 2-foot overhangs, thinking that it would decrease the pitch of the roof, meaning the gables wouldn’t be so high.
The developers tell her parents to make sure they have the two-foot overhangs. Her parents go to the architect to find a way to keep the tall gables they wanted, while also having the two-foot overhangs. The architect tells them to just raise the roof two feet to create the two-foot overhang, so the angles on the roof won’t be impacted at all.
Her parents keep building with these new specs. The developers approach her parents to inquire about the overhangs and if their roof was impacted at all. The look on his face when her parents told him that they just raised the whole roof by two feet was priceless.
The neighbors avoided her family the entire five years they lived there.”
Another User Comments:
“Had something similar happen in a place I used to live. Old lady that lived up the hill had bought and built her place a few years before anyone else found out about the area.
All was fine until the area started getting developed and someone started building below them on the hill. Now, initially, the new neighbors were only planning a one-story house. Unfortunately, the old lady didn’t like a trio of pine trees that had grown on the edge of the new neighbor’s lot since she had built and were starting to impede her view.
She tried to get the new folks to remove them, but they liked them and refused. She then tried to get the county to remove them as a ‘hazard’. The county also rebuffed her. Rather than give up, she sent her son onto the neighbor’s lot and had him cut them down.
The neighbors were, understandably, furious. Instead of suing the old biddy, though, they called their architect. Instead of a one-story, they wanted a two-story. They also planted several more pines. Long story short, the lady went from having a very slightly impaired view to absolutely zero view.” DowncastOlympus
18. My Dress Is Too Short? Now I Look Like My Dad
“Years ago in the 90s, I worked at a trash hole of a call center. It was my first ‘office’ job and I tried really hard to be professional. What I didn’t know was that a call center is basically the same as a restaurant.
Everyone was sleeping with each other, on substances/booze, and the managers were idiots.
There was a guy who worked in a different pod who was always hitting on me. I was not interested. I did my job and went home and didn’t socialize.
I didn’t even eat lunch in the break room because I lived about 5 min away. Well, there was a manager who had been sleeping with the guy and thought I was coming between them. She would make up excuses to harass me – I wasn’t taking enough calls, I didn’t clock in and out of the system exactly on the minute, etc.
One day, she really went off the rails and started publicly shaming my outfit. I had on a dress and cardigan which she insisted was too revealing. It was to my knees and I had on tights. She wrote me up and sent me home to change.
I was really upset and started digging through my closet looking for something she couldn’t pick apart.
Then inspiration struck. My dad is a textbook accountant. Khakis, short-sleeved button-ups, and ties. So I borrowed an outfit from him – I was swimming in it, you couldn’t see a single curve.
I went back to work and headed straight for my desk. Don’t you know, the manager spotted me and made a beeline directly for me. She pulled me into HR complaining that I looked unprofessional. I told HR that this is what my dad wore every day and he is a consummate professional. HR agreed that my outfit was acceptable but the manager wouldn’t let it go.
The dress code was gender-specific and she argued that I wasn’t dressed like a woman. I ended up just going home for the day rather than deal with it anymore.
A few days later, the dress code policy had been updated with vague language about ‘looking professional’ and didn’t even give examples of what was appropriate.
The memo was posted in several places. This meant that EVERYONE in the call center could now basically wear whatever they liked as long as it wasn’t ripped jeans or a tube top. The manager was fuming because HR had taken away one of the things she could lord over people.
I didn’t last much longer there but hopefully, no one ever changed the dress code back.”
Another User Comments:
“I went through something like this in my old job. The only difference was there was no compliance on my part malicious or otherwise.
I worked in an electronics store and our uniform was a company polo shirt, blue jeans, and black or brown shoes or sneakers.
One day we get an email from head office with a change to the dress code. The change was that male employees were now required to tuck their shirts in.
I am someone who prefers my clothing loose and free. I hate clothing that is tight or restrictive in the least. In most cases, I can wear an XL shirt but I will always buy 2XL.
I flat out refused to tuck in my shirt. I told my boss that I wanted to be comfortable while I worked and besides that, requiring only male employees to tuck in their shirts was discriminatory.
My boss started citing safety reasons which were stupid as they would apply to both men and women.
He tried the scenario of falling from a ladder and catching your shirt on the sliding shelves in the back room. To which I replied that the shirt was cheap and there was no way it would hold my 250lbs. The shirt would either rip or pull off over my head.
Either way, I would be on the floor looking up at it hanging off the shelf. He switched tactics then and said that if I worked at McDonald’s I would have to tuck in my shirt. I agreed with him. I said it would be a fire hazard around the deep fryers but as there aren’t any here his argument was invalid.
The boss and I went to his office where he called his boss, the district manager. He told the DM the situation that I was refusing to tuck in my shirt. The DM ask if I looked presentable, if I was neat and tidy. The boss said, yes and DM said, then what’s the problem?
The only hazard the untucked shirt presented was to the eyes of the customers having to endure the sight of fat, hairy butt cracks hanging out of the employee’s jeans. Since my shirts were bigger they more than easily kept my butt crack out of sight.
In the end, I never had to tuck in my shirt.” Channel5exclusive
17. Treat Me Like A Child? I'll Do My Chores Like One
“A little backstory, I just graduated from college this past May of 2017 and my parents let me move back in with them until I got a job and could afford to move out on my own.
Growing up I was always the ‘good’ child out of my siblings and was always regularly compliant with everything they asked. I just wanted to keep my parents happy and didn’t like making a fuss. I continued helping out when I moved back in (like doing chores without being asked, taking my sister to appointments, etc.) just to help out my parents for letting me live there.
Now the thing about my dad is he is a major control freak. After I moved back in he started giving me rules to follow and if I didn’t comply I would be kicked out. These rules kinda sucked, the worst being he gave me a curfew, and I know he was doing it to motivate me to get a job and move out so I wouldn’t live in his basement forever.
I just dealt with them and figured he would cut it out when I got a job.
Fast forward to the beginning of this year, I got a full-time job in my field and informed my parents of my plans to move out this summer when I had some money saved up.
I figured this would be the end of the rules I had to follow. WRONG.
Fast forward again to three weeks ago. I had just gotten home from a long day at work and found a big piece of poster board on our kitchen table with ‘OP’s list of chores’ written on it in big letters with 6 chores written underneath it.
Now, most of these chores were things I already did without being asked like yard work and keeping my room clean. The only one I didn’t do was that every other week my mom was supposed to give me a grocery list and I would buy all of the groceries on it.
I realize I am making money now and have no problem helping out with groceries if they had just asked me to. That’s not the problem here. The problem is that he put it on a huge poster like I’m 5 years old. I stewed in anger for a while but ultimately forgot about the list.
This is where the malicious compliance starts. This past Saturday as my family and I are all watching tv together, my dad brings up the groceries and asked my mom to make a list. She hands it to me and my jaw dropped when I saw how long it was.
It was so long mainly due to my mom not having bought groceries in a while so the fridge was empty. I then noticed how vague my mom had been with the list assuming that I knew what brands of each item my family liked and that I would automatically know to pick out what we liked to eat.
This is where I started forming my plan. I told my parents I would be back in a couple of hours and I left.
Like I said earlier, I very well knew what brands and types of food my parents liked but I also knew which brands they hated. I bought all of those wrong brands.
For example, one item on the list was ‘burgers’. I knew they meant hamburgers but I got turkey burgers instead. Also things like getting skim milk instead of the normal whole milk we drink, fat-free items instead of the regular versions, you get the point.
I did this for every item on the list even going so far as grocery store ‘A’ being out of the wrong brand so going to store ‘B’ across the street to buy it.
When I got back home and started putting everything away, my dad came to make sure I got everything and was speechless when he saw what I had bought.
Noticing the look of disbelief on his face I said, ‘What? I got every single thing on the list.’ He then asked for the list and when I gave it to him, he said I knew what food my mom meant and called me a jerk.
I grinned and walked away. I’ve overheard him complaining to my mom about it multiple times this week and the satisfaction I get each time is fantastic.
The other thing is that the fridge and pantry were empty. I bought way more of each item than they expected me to and filled both the fridge and pantry to the brims. My dad being the anti wasteful guy that he is, will be eating this stuff for weeks.”
16. Each Person Has Their Own Job? Sure, If You Say So
“So a few days ago, two of the people I work with and I were replacing nozzles and hoses on one of the pivots on the farm we work on.
For privacy purposes, we’ll call one person Johnny and the other Mike. Anyway, what ended up happening was that Johnny would get up top on the ladder to put the hose in. Mike would hand him the hose and cut the hose when it was ready and drive the four-wheeler that had all that stuff.
I was crimping the hoses and putting the nozzles in.
Now it was a windy day, which meant from time to time I would have to hold the ladder for Johnny just to try and keep it stable, but that meant that the crimping and nozzles weren’t being put in.
At first, Mike would crimp them and then I would go through and add the nozzles and once I caught up I would start crimping again. But after a while, Mike stopped crimping while I was hopping the ladder, so I was starting to fall behind.
This went on for most of the pivot. But it reached a point where Johnny took a water break with his dog and asked me to hold the ladder up, as it was windy and we didn’t want to put it back up again.
So Johnny is taking his deserved break, I’m holding the ladder and Mike? Well, he was just sitting on the four-wheeler on his phone. Turns out there were three hoses behind us that needed crimped and a nozzle added to them. I would do them while I was waiting, but I was holding the ladder, so I asked Mike if he would please at least crimp those while we were waiting.
His response? ‘Sure, but you’ll drive the four-wheeler and do the hose and get it up there.’ Basically just saying we would switch jobs, which I didn’t want to do, so I was just like whatever and went back to holding the ladder.
I’m glad I just let it go then, because about a tower later, while Mike was getting Johnny some things he needed, one of his boxes on the four-wheeler fell off and spilled all the little parts everywhere. So Mike starts gathering them up, and I’m watching as I’m holding the ladder.
The timing was perfect because Johnny was ready to move on and start the next one. But Mike was occupied and couldn’t drive the four-wheeler up, so naturally, he asks me, ‘OP, would you please drive the four-wheeler up and start that?’
You can probably see where this is going.
‘Oh, but I can’t Mike! That’s part of your job! Besides, I got to hold the ladder in this wind so I’m busy anyway.’
Mike did seem like the message got through to him and it did. He seemed to regret asking me and also regret what he said.
I did end up moving the four-wheeler forward, but just because I was ready to get done. I let Mike do the rest though, and went back to crimping and putting the nozzles on. I say the message got through because towards the end of the pivot he did crimp them instead of leaving them.
But oh it felt so good to throw that back at him because it’s not exactly the first time he’s just lazed around like that and left things to others.
Hopefully, this will help with future situations, but I’m not holding my breath.”
15. Scam The Government? I'll Take A Nice Holiday With Redundancy Pay
“I worked in maintenance for a religious organization that owned a large number of aged care facilities. Even though they were supposedly not for profit they went all out to scam the government for as many funds as they could – for example, I once saw a claim for ‘wandering behavior’ in a bedridden resident so they could claim he had dementia, put him in a locked ward and get extra funds.
I became aware that they were paying less than the minimum wage for many of the non-nursing staff – a high percentage of housekeeping were from overseas and god told them they could get away with it. In my country you can claim back wages for six years and it so happened I was just about to reach that mark and I was thoroughly sick of their hypocrisy.
I scheduled a meeting with the care manager and human resources, in the meeting I requested to be paid the correct wage. After they realized I was not going to back down they agreed to pay me correctly and would back pay me but only if I didn’t tell the other employees.
I declined and it ended up costing them over $700,000 to back pay everyone – I was recording the conversation and took them to Fairwork (an independent workplace ombudsman).
They made everyone with the same job description as mine redundant because they couldn’t think of a way to legally fire me and then outsourced maintenance which ended up costing them much more.
I took a nice holiday with the redundancy pay and informed on them (with documented proof) to the government aged care regulator of the fraud. They were inspected with a fine-tooth comb and two of their flagship homes were put under six months of constant government supervision.
Always remember that wage theft is the largest crime wave in history, it is ongoing, and no one ever goes to jail for it.”
14. UPS Wasn't Cooperating, So I Went To The High Court
“UPS smashed a nearly new MacBook that I sent with them. I asked them nicely to pay me back for it and they went about blaming me, blaming my packaging, saying it was impossible they damaged it, etc. I was able to prove my packaging was flawless and get a statement from the Apple shop that I took it to, to say it was damage caused by being dropped/thrown.
I could also prove it worked when I sent it. They weren’t interested and messed me about for weeks, sending me from pillar to post, even threatening to make me pay interest on customs charges which I wasn’t liable for as the laptop was smashed on arrival and thus worthless at import.
I took it to small claims. They hired a lawyer who sent me letters saying they contested it and would go for full fees etc. if I lost. I went for it anyway, I did law stuff at university so I knew the basics and I thought my case was pretty clear cut.
I won. I won my costs back, plus extra, plus interest.
They ignored the court order and did not pay.
Now, this laptop was originally being sent to my beloved mother-in-law. She asked me to help her with the problem as UPS was also seriously harassing her about the customs fees.
However very unexpectedly, before I could resolve it, she passed away. It was the last thing she ever asked me to do for her. I loved that woman more than pretty much any human on this planet, she was my mother, my best friend, and my mentor.
Taking down UPS was now my personal vendetta.
I researched my options, I could have taken the usual (more conservative) legal routes to reclaim my funds. But no. Screw them. I don’t care about the money anymore. I want revenge, I want drama, I want karmic justice.
I went to the high court. I got a writ of control. I, of course, added on more fees and more interest. I then hired the most aggressive bailiff firm in London. I trusted that the crappy processes and attitude of UPS meant they would ignore the letters and actually get a visit.
They did.
The bailiffs rock up at UPS headquarters and explain the situation. UPS refuses to pay so the bailiffs start listing goods. Security tries to make them leave, the office manager tries to bully them out. Obviously, no craps are given by the bailiffs and they crack on with their jobs.
I wasn’t allowed the bodycam footage but they did send me a detailed report. The final conclusion is copied from it below:
‘Calls were then made to the accounts manager who arrived in a hurry. As no payment was forthcoming from them the agent again explained the removal process and costs involved and called the office for approval to begin removals.
The agent began to seize assets. The Finance director then arrived on the scene. He was not at all happy about the attendance, but ultimately agreed to pay a voluntary payment in full from his personal account in order to stop the removal.’
I know it’s a drop in the ocean to UPS, but I got more than double what I originally asked for to replace the laptop.
They would have had to pay even more on top in fees to the bailiffs. I reckon it cost them at least 3x more than the original claim in the end. But mostly I just enjoy the mental image of the flustered finance director and his impotent rage, having to pay out of his own pocket to stop the heavies taking desktop computers and fancy pot plants and things out of their swanky head office lobby.”
Another User Comments:
“Awesome, way to give them what they deserve.
When I ordered my Nintendo Switch a few years back, I never received it but UPS marked it delivered, and that I had even signed for it.
The signature they had on file was just keyboard spam and I definitely did not have it.
When I called them to ask where my package was because I never received it, they called me a liar and said they have proof it was delivered. When I asked if maybe it was delivered to the wrong address or possibly the delivery guy stole it since he clearly forged my signature they called me a liar because he was a new hire who wouldn’t dream of ruining his new job.
What kind of customer service is it to call me a liar especially when your records prove the signature was forged?
I ended up canceling my order with the vendor who refunded me no questions asked and I bought one from another store I was lucky enough to find it in.
A few days later the UPS delivery guy knocks on my door and tries to deliver the package to me. He DID in fact deliver it to the wrong address.
So, clearly, I wasn’t lying, and clearly, they did NOT have proof it was delivered, and clearly, the person on their branch was a lying witch.
I told him I had already gotten a refund and to take it back.
Still angry to this day they tried to pin it on me and lied to me. Screw UPS, I still try to avoid them whenever possible (though most sellers don’t let you choose who ships).” PowerOfPinsol
13. Demand For Training Time? There Will Be No Work Getting Done
“So this happened to me a bunch of years ago.
I was working at a company that was always big on ‘development’. Training for this, that, and other things, ‘thinking of new ideas’, etc. At one point they came out with a new policy.
They wanted all people to do at least 8 hours of this development a week, and in turn, our work product hours would be shortened to 32 hours a week. They felt this would benefit the company long term, in reality, our CEO had read about Google doing this and thought it was cool.
The problem was that all the project managers had due dates for their projects, which didn’t include me sitting at my desk thinking for 8 hours. They expected me to get my stuff done, and I was already working more than 8 hours a day on average, and I wasn’t going to work more.
So I ignored the new policy and kept doing my work.
A quarter later my manager comes to me with a report. He said he was sorry to do this (he thought the new policy was nonsense too) but the report showed that I had logged no time to development in the last quarter, so I was being advised by him that I needed at least 8 hours every week in development or I would get in serious trouble next quarter.
So every week after that, for 4 hours over my two busiest days for meetings (so it pretty much filled the days) I sat at my desk and read technical guides, watched computer-based training, or just ‘thought’ about things. Often I would go into the data center and hide in a corner and ‘think’ about things for 4 hours, and then go back to my desk.
Then I would mark the time as ‘development’ and go home usually because it was the end of the day. I was covered for this because the policy said it was OK to do your development away from your desk so that people didn’t bug you, they even suggested the lunchroom (bad place) or outside when the weather was good.
It was really goofy.
While I was thinking my phone would go off like crazy with people looking for me. I’d get texts that there was some emergency that I needed to deal with, but I’d just ignore them. After all, it was made clear to me that development time was mandatory, and I’m thinking.
After 2 weeks of this, not very long indeed, my manager has a meeting with me and a project manager. ‘When will these tasks be done?’ I tell them end of next week.
‘But you said end of this week.’
‘Yes, but I’ve been required to take 16 hours of development time over the last two weeks, plus the 8 I take next week, which is 24 hours, plus all the meetings I have to do, so it extended the schedule by 40 hours approx.’
The PM was not happy. But he couldn’t say anything.
So, lo and behold, some of my coworkers saw what I was doing. They had been putting in the 8 hours to the tracking system, but either not doing it or doing it on their own time, but they started following my malicious compliance.
You can see where this heads. Pretty soon all projects are behind.
The quarterly internal report comes out and HOORAYYY! 100% participation in the development directive! Oh, and zero percent of our projects were delivered to our customers on time. So now we have customers really ticked off, PMs ticked off, managers ticked off, VPs ticked off, etc. All because quite a bit of us worker bees decided to do the development directive and think for 8 hours a week as was asked.
It was not long after that an email came out. They were happy with the results of the last 2 quarters of the development initiative, and they had decided to now analyze the data and determine if it was a good fit for the company. Thank you for participating everyone, but please get back to the way we used to do business.
That’s how myself and a bunch of my coworkers got rid of our development initiative.”
Another User Comments:
“Heh, this story should be required reading for anyone stepping into a corporate environment for the first time. The lesson title should be The First Rule of Management Doublespeak.
I’ve spent a decently long career in almost exclusively corporate, project-based environments. Management has all sorts of nice language and directives of this nature for the worker-bees, but the reality is that management employs project managers not just to actually manage projects, but to keep themselves appraised of the progress of those projects.
So, when push comes to shove and project managers show senior management lag on project timelines (management will not believe that it could happen until/unless a PM shows them in rudimentary primary color graphs and pie charts), senior management now talks out of the OTHER side of their mouths and cracks the whip.
I’m sure Google has a policy like this in place, but I’m also sure that you can bet your bottom dollar that when push comes to shove on a project, such directives go right out the window, just like they do everywhere else.
Beware the ‘development opportunity’ that is offered to you at work that comes at the expense of your own personal time.
Regardless of the promises of management such as: ‘We think you’d be a good candidate eventually for management and want to offer you this training and mentorship. It will take about 40 hours a month for you, but it will REALLY help you grow and we’re looking forward to seeing you realize your potential!!’
What this really means is: ‘We need to work on retention of people, but also need to get projects out the door, so we’re throwing you this bone to make you feel good, but we’re not lightening your actual workload to accommodate it. In the end, we’ll promote you (or not) based on how much unpaid overtime you give us.'” CawlinAlcarz
12. My Manager Was Unreasonable, So He Got Taken Down By The CEO
“I got hired as support and IT business development with ERP-related issues for all three shifts, but I can’t be at the facility 24/7.
I decided to augment my workday schedule by 2-3 hours on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Wednesdays and Fridays, I had evening appointments that I couldn’t miss.
I spoke with my manager, who agreed and actually said, ‘you’re an adult, you don’t need my permission.’
Awesome. So, I started. Augmented days started between 9:30 and 11:30, depending on the production schedule for that day and on morning meetings, and ended later than the rest of the office personnel according to the time started. All was going well for a solid 5 months, including preventing a catastrophic ERP failure that would have caused the second shift to be unable to report finished goods produced and raw materials consumed, which has, historically, created thousands of dollars of false scrap and hundreds of manhours fixing it.
Suddenly one night, around 21:00, I get an email from my manager to his entire staff, saying how he’s been very disappointed that some people get to work so late, how all office employees must start work no later than 8:30 (no exceptions), and so on. Knowing that he and I have talked about this and he gave me permission, I don’t act on it.
A couple of weeks later, the CIO calls me on my way to work (around 9:15) and tells me that my manager asked corporate to ‘fix my compliance’.
I explain to him everything that has happened, including how the manager approved it. He sighs and tells me to just comply with the order.
I tell him that the second shift, who really begins heavy system usage at 1800, won’t have support, and lines could go down. He said, ‘That’s fine. Make sure you email Manager, CC me, CEO, Head of Board, and CFO, explain everything and ask Manager if he still wants you to comply, considering lines would likely go down.’ So, I did.
The manager replies all and says that he does, indeed, want me to comply.
Starting the next day, I arrive at work between 8:00 and 8:25 and leave EXACTLY at 17:00. I don’t take lunch, so automatically, I work nearly an hour over every day. About a week and a half rolls around and the lines stop.
Second shift supervisor calls me around 18:30 and I answer (as the only support, I’m on call until 22:00). We speak and I understand that this problem can only be fixed with me being physically there. I live about 40 minutes from work and I am not required to come off hours.
I have made that trip before, but this was before this ‘situation’. I tell the supervisor that there’s nothing that I can do remotely and that I will fix the issue first thing the following morning. I email everyone interested in the situation. The second shift shuts down early and the third shift is canceled.
The next day, I get there as usual, around 8:15, and fix the issue and the first shift can start production. The CIO calls me and asks me why my manager just filed a ‘formal complaint’ against me and I explain.
Now, keep in mind, that my manager can’t file a complaint against me, since he’s my manager.
He has to have a sit down with me and HR, but he didn’t. Anyway, the CIO and I end the call with him telling me I did the right thing. I thought he was going to fire me. About 30ish minutes later, the CEO calls me and tells me that he spoke with the CIO and he would like me to start augmenting my schedule again.
I reminded him that my manager prohibited it and he told me, ‘I don’t care what he said. I’m giving you permission and if he has a problem with it, he can call me.’ I thanked him and started augmenting again. Lines haven’t been down overnight again because of this.
The manager was fired last year. I heard the other day, that one of the major factors was the situation described above. I hate seeing people get fired, but I am very glad he’s not my manager anymore. My current manager is amazing!”
Another User Comments:
“I work in a part-time job where I used to augment my working days and hours around when my clients were available for meetings. Some days I was working on my days off, sometimes client appointments were in the evenings. I was flexible because these appointments only really happened one week a month and I could rely on my mom for the additional childcare support outside of my usual routine.
Then I got a new manager who had never worked in this environment before. She said she was ‘a new broom to clean house’ and I had to work the days and hours contracted. I said ‘Sure.’
What happened was that all my appointment workload got dumped on her lap because the clients were rarely available on my days.
Also, our monthly team meetings were always on a Monday so I never attended as I don’t work Mondays.
Manager threatened to suspend me because ‘I couldn’t make my clients agree to appointments during my working hours and she didn’t have time.’
2 months later, my manager’s line manager called me in to discuss my productivity and lack of attendance.
Apparently, our team targets had dropped by 30% (goes to show who was carrying the team) and my manager had squarely put the blame on me.
I explained the above and how the new manager had restricted my flexibility with clients. He rolled his eyes a bit because he was unaware of the change and said he’d get back to me.
That afternoon I got an email stating that I was back on flexi-time and he was looking forward to seeing me at the team meeting on Monday.
The manager did get better at her job and started listening to her veteran employees. I think the line manager gave her an earful over this situation though.” a***********2
11. Union Fights Dirty, So The Union Fought Back
“This happened in Texas, a notorious anti-union area, in the early 2000s.
I worked in a chemical plant and an acquaintance of mine, we’ll call him Bob, from an unspecified federal agency that was inspecting my plant told me this story.
Bob was giving his business card to a few of us and I noticed his card had a union symbol on it.
I asked if his cards were made in a union shop and Bob replied, ‘No, our office unionized last (ish) year.’ I had a what-the-fox look on my face while Bob was chuckling. I convinced him to share his tale of how a white-collar, master’s degree federal employee joined a union.
In Bob’s office, there was the supervisor (ineligible for the union) and six other… workers. ALL white-collar and degree-holding. Three of the workers wanted to unionize and four (Bob included) did not. For some reason, a 3 to 4 vote meant the office unionized and Bob now worked as a non-union worker in a union ‘shop.’
Bob and his three like-minded co-workers could care less about the union shenanigans because they thought nothing would ever come of the unionization. The three union members paid their dues, held meetings, and not much else happened until something actually did. The unspecified federal agency decided to adopt a flex-time policy that let each office decide how to set their hours, e.g., standard 40-hour week Monday thru Friday, 4-10s or 4 days for 10-hours, 9-80s or Monday through Thursday for 9 hours a day, and 8 hours on Friday one week and Monday through Thursday for 9-hours a day and off on Friday the next week.
The catch was the employees had to vote and all followed the majority (except when the majority doesn’t get a vote). The supervisor polled the workers four wanted 9-80s and three wanted 4-10s. You can probably guess how the votes worked between the non-union and union employees.
The supervisor changed the work hours for the entire office to 4-10s because the union negotiates for ALL employees even if they are not members of the union. Bob even asked the supervisor why the majority was steamrolled by the minority and was told, ‘Nothing I can do because this is a union shop.
Join the union if you don’t like it.’ And a light bulb came on.
That’s what he and his three coworkers did. They paid the dues, filled out the paperwork, and attended the next meeting. Bob and his compatriots had already worked out their plan for a (legal) coup.
They waited until the union president called for new business and launched their attack. Bob motioned for a vote of no confidence against the current slate of officers (just happened to be three people in the office positions). The vote was 4 to 3 and the current officers were out.
Compatriot No. 1 nominated Bob and two compatriots to the officer positions and the vote was 4 to 3 in favor of the new officers. Bob was the new president.
Bob asked for any more new business and found out that Compatriot No. 3 wanted to change the work hours to 9-80s.
The motion was seconded and the vote was… drum roll please… 4 to 3 in favor of the new work schedule. The supervisor changed the work schedule for the entire office to 9-80s the following Monday.
It is now important to point out that the union by-laws required a quorum of 50%+1 of the membership to attend a meeting for a quorum.
The previous number required was 2 of 3 members (and before I get blasted for Internet math 2 of 3 is based on 50% rounded down to a whole number and then adding 1) but the new required number for a quorum was 4.
Bob adjourned the meeting and for several years did not call a new meeting and he and his compatriots boycotted all union activities except paying their dues.
By following the supervisor’s direction, Bob and his compatriots applied the union by-laws against themselves and their three insensitive coworkers.”
10. You Want To Fire Me? Then I Don't Have To Listen To You
“At the height of the subprime mortgage market (around 2007) when all it took to qualify for a home loan was that you were breathing, I reluctantly took a job with a mid-sized lender that had the HQ in one state and a large office in another (where I was).
We had very recently combined two local offices and moved into a shiny new building we had all to ourselves.
In order to keep the servers up during a power outage, we had a massive battery backup array. They wanted these servers to remain powered for a minimum of 12 hours in case the power went out.
We had 32 batteries daisy-chained together with one unit serving as the control unit. When we moved this massively heavy battery array from the old building to the new, getting it all reconnected was one of my duties. I got them all stacked and connected and turned on.
Before we had connected the servers, I made sure they were all aligned properly and at one point, gave one a little bump to move it just a bit and the whole thing shut off. After double-checking everything, I concluded we had a bad controller that could continue to present intermittent problems. The VP of IT (we’ll just call him VP) had flown out to oversee the move.
This guy was just a kid of 23 and if I recall correctly, he was the son of a friend of the founders. He was a smart guy, just inexperienced, and had an ego that far exceeded his skills and experience.
So I told him, ‘Hey VP, there’s a fault in the battery array, if you bump it a little, it goes off.’
VP replies, ‘Don’t worry about it Jake, just get it up and running so we can get the servers connected,’ so I did.
3 months down the road, everything in the new office is humming along and it’s time to catch up on lingering tasks.
On the phone with VP and he says, ‘Jake, go reconfigure the controller card for the battery array with the IP address I just emailed you.’
You guessed it, cue malicious compliance. I knew what was very likely to happen and I purposely did not remind VP of the instability of the controller card.
So, after the call, I grabbed a serial cable and my laptop and went down to the server room. The moment I plugged that cable into the controller card of the battery array, the entire thing went down like an intoxicated person on an icy sidewalk.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a huge issue, but this was a mortgage company and it was early afternoon on the last day of the month. Interest rates had been locked and loans had to be closed. I powered the battery array back on, fired up the servers, collected my laptop, and walked out.
As I came up the back stairs into the main office area, it was pandemonium. No one quite understood what had happened yet. The VP called me and asked what the heck happened.
I replied, ‘I only did what you told me to do, I went to reconfigure the controller card for the battery array and then reminded him that I had previously reported it as faulty.’
I of course got the blame for the whole debacle. Hundreds of loans didn’t get closed that day, the predatory lender lost out on a LOT of funds and I was about to get fired. When I got back to the tech room, I started copying all my files, etc. to a CD because I knew what was going to happen.
I also had a talk with the VP of lending and explained what really happened. At the end of the workday, I was brought into the conference room by HR. The VP was on speakerphone.
‘Jake, this is all your fault and I’m afraid I’m going to have to let you go.’
I was stoic in my reply, ‘No, this is your fault, I warned you before that the controller was bad.’
He said, ‘You knew it was the last day of the month, you should have known to wait the next day,’ and proceeded to start yelling and screaming at me because he had to deflect because HR was right there.
I stopped him in the middle of seething and said, ‘Umm VP, you fired me right?’
He shot back, ‘You’re right I did!’ so I stood up, took a calm, deep breath, and said, ‘Then I don’t need to sit here and listen to you,’ and I walked out, leaving my laptop behind.
I could hear the speakerphone jumping off the conference room table as he screamed at me to come back. I stopped, laughed, and kept on walking.
Best day of work I ever had.”
9. Write Me Up For Following The Rules? Okay, I'll Follow The Rules Then
“In November 2021, I worked for a small logistics company that delivers for Amazon.
I applied for this position because I love driving and am pretty much at home on the road. I thought I should give mass delivery a try and see if I like it or not. Well, this company ruined it for me and went the extra mile to tick me off.
I found out on day 1 that I didn’t get any formal training. Instead, I got inducted into a ‘nursery program’ that included two ride-alongs. This means that in my first week, I deliver 50% of a normal route. On my first day, someone will come with me to show me what I’m doing.
Then I’m on my own for the rest of the week. On the first day of my second week, I was moved to nursery 2 (80% of a normal route) and got my second ride-along.
For the entire second week, I was getting hints from pretty much everyone that I was one of, if not the slowest, drivers they’d ever had.
Note that I had a whole 2 days of training. I don’t count the rest, as I was not with anyone to train me.
The rest of this story will all be about the second week.
The first thing that really ticked me off was when the delivery app took me to an address that didn’t exist. Like legit just a big dirt lot with some bulldozers and excavators.
No mailbox, no buildings, nothing. It’s Sunday night, so there’s nobody around to ask. So I called driver support. The conversation went as follows:
Me: ‘I have a package that’s undeliverable, the address is incorrect.’
Driver Support: ‘Just mark it as missing.’
Me: ‘Why would I do that?
I have it right here in my hands.’
Driver Support: ‘The undeliverable button isn’t working, just mark it as missing.’ Hangs up.
I proceeded to mark it as missing and finish the rest of my route early and without incident. I returned the ‘missing’ package to the warehouse, told the marshals what happened, and returned the van to dispatch.
When I got back to dispatch, there was a write-up waiting for me because I returned a package marked as missing instead of retrying delivery. I told them what happened and was told to sign the write-up. I refused and went home for the night.
On the next to last day of my second week, basically the same thing happened with another package. I was sent through the same ringer and called dispatch to explain the situation before continuing. I was told to just keep moving with my route and they’ll get in contact with the warehouse.
I saw no evidence of this happening, as when I returned, there was a write-up waiting for me. Returning a package marked as missing. I said to myself that I’m done with this crap, it was time to do something. I re-read the employee contract and found a clause that ‘every time the van comes to a full and complete stop, it must be turned off.’
Oh boy did I know what I was gonna do the next day. I came into work, claimed a van, picked up my packages, and proceeded to turn the van off every time it stopped. I was laughing so hard at all the people honking at me while restarting those big vans.
After about 2 hours and at least 150 restarts, it wouldn’t turn over anymore. I called dispatch and requested a rescue van. I then killed the rescue van and the rescue van for the rescue van. I killed 3 vans in one day.
When I returned to dispatch over an hour late, they ask me what happened. The nice way of asking ‘what do you think you’re doing.’ I said I was following the contract, and proved myself correct in front of my dispatcher.
He wrote me up for ‘unsatisfactory performance’ and I pointed out that that makes 3 write-ups in a month. If he wants me to sign that, he’ll have to call the boss in, then explain why I’m being written up again.
I said ‘yeah, call your boss.
I’m sure she’d love to hear why she’s being called in at 9:45 at night.’ He dropped the write-up.
I followed up by asking if one of the faster drivers could meet me at the warehouse 10 minutes early to discuss van organization. He agreed to this.
I didn’t show up the next day.
The following is the aftermath.
When I didn’t show up the next day, I was added on social media by a dude that we’ll call Aaron. He just wanted to make sure I was okay. I said I was doing okay and explained what happened. He then told me that this was the final straw for him, as he thought he was getting crap from dispatch bc he wasn’t a very good delivery driver.
I had been told by multiple dispatchers that I was one of (if not) the slowest drivers they’ve ever had. Aaron said he was told this several times, and believed it. This is because other new hires like me were finishing much earlier than he was.
He decided he had had enough, and we made a group chat online that had all the new hires in it. I explained why I quit and advised the others to get out before anything goes down at dispatch. I purposely took the time to explain that what I did was not the best way to quit and that I’m not necessarily recommending that they do the same thing I did.
All but one of them got back to the group the next day and said they just didn’t show up. Several of them got calls asking if they wanted to continue their employment, as they’d have to meet with the boss lady. This was news to all of us, as the employment contract specifically stated that no-call and no-shows will not be tolerated. Basically, if you don’t show up and don’t call them to say you’re not coming, then they consider that grounds to terminate your employment.
Naturally, nobody called the boss lady back.
I heard back from the last guy a day later. He said he showed up the day that everyone else just didn’t show up, said hi and chatted with people, signed in, claimed a van and route number, and left with the convoy to go pick up their packages to deliver.
This is the normal beginning of a day working for these companies. However, when he got to the warehouse, he started an argument with the marshals, formally refused to pick up any packages, drove the van back to dispatch, gave them their keys and whatnot back, and left.
Essentially, he waited until they fully expected him to do his job, and then didn’t do his job. There’s burning bridges like I did, then there’s drying up the river just to fill it with gasoline. What he did is definitely funny from my perspective, since dispatch went the extra mile to tick me off, but that doesn’t mean I condone his actions.
Hilarious? Definitely! Good idea? Definitely not.
I realized through all this that mass delivery isn’t my thing. It’s gonna take me a while to be comfortable applying to other companies in the industry. That being said, I think I’d like to drive for a job at some point.”
8. I Need A Manager's Signature Every Time? On It!
“When I was a teen, I worked at a department store that we will call J-Mart. One of the things that J-Mart is/was known for is their ‘red light’ specials. For those of you who aren’t aware, back then, there used to be a literal ‘red light’ on a wheelable stand with a ‘red light’ on a pole that you could turn on to announce to shoppers that there was a temporary sale on one item or other.
The hope was that the flashing ‘red light’ would attract shoppers to buy whatever item was on sale for an even greater discount than normal.
I worked in one of the specialty departments at that store and since the department manager or any of the full-time employees hated working evenings or weekends, they would leave those shifts solely for the part-time high school kids, like me.
On my shifts, I was frequently given a list of items that my manager wanted ‘red-lighted’ and the discounts to give. I hated doing them as I had to get on the store overhead microphone and announce it. I would usually do one per shift and just report to my manager that I was too busy with customers or my other job responsibilities.
This was rarely a lie. I was always working my butt off. After several months, she figured out I was doing only a small fraction of the ‘red light’ specials I was asked to do. She got ticked off one Friday shift and said that weekend (I was scheduled to work both Saturday and Sunday) I had to do a ‘red light’ special every 20 minutes all day, both days.
Not only that, I had to get the store manager to sign a log that she specially made that I did so. Okay. Fine. You want a signature from the extraordinarily busy store managers? I can do that.
So, from 8 am to 6 pm, both days I got on the store overhead mic and announced my 10-minute sales for 10% off winter gloves or air filters or whatever.
So, every 20 minutes, I called overhead for the manager to come to the Sports/Auto counter, so he could sign my form. The first 4 or 5 times, the assistant manager came. After that, he would just ignore me and sign them off en masse. On the second day, the store manager was working, and he only lasted 3 or 4 signatures before he asked why I was doing this.
I told him that my dept mgr required me to do this and to get a store manager’s signature. He told me that she had not asked them first and that they were way too busy to keep doing it. He told me to stop calling him and to just do my ‘red lights’ as I was able.
My next shift was several days later and the rumor was that my dept mgr was called into the store manager’s office on Monday morning and torn a new one. That rule for a manager’s signature was never repeated. We had to continue doing ‘red lights’ but they were secondary to our other myriad of job duties, just as it was before.
Unfortunately, for the rest of the time I worked there, my work friends all referred to me as ‘Mr. Red Light’. But knowing my boss got reamed out over it, made it okay.”
7. Thought It Was Funny To Hit Me In The Head? Enjoy The Poison Ivy
“So, I’m one of the few people who aren’t allergic to either Poison Ivy or Poison Oak. A super-power I once used for evil.
Small evil… not the bad kind.
When I was in the Boy Scouts, it was still a quasi-paramilitary organization and we went on a camping trip for a jamboree one summer (I was about, 13 or 14 at the time). This particular jamboree had us camping all week long with our local National Guard.
They instructed us that week on shooting the M-14 and M-16 as well as the M-2 and M-249 machine guns. They also instructed us on pathfinding and had us running a 10-mile course through the Arkansas countryside.
I suppose I should mention that I absolutely HATED most of the scouts in my troop (half of them were psychopaths and the rest were a bunch of little entitled jerks… so I really didn’t have a single friend in scouts… ever… it’s one of the reasons I eventually quit).
Towards the end of the jamboree, shortly after I woke up on Saturday morning, our head scout (an Eagle Scout no less) whacked me in the forehead with the butt-end of a knife that he was using to eat peanut butter, directly from the jar.
Why? I don’t know… just because I was there, and he felt like it… I guess.
Now… the day before, while we were doing some basic reconnoitering of our course, I happened upon a patch of Poison Ivy and noted its location on my pathfinding map.
After the… ‘silverware’ incident, I honestly hadn’t really thought of getting back at him or any of his other psychopathic sycophants, who thought me getting ‘thumped’ in the head was ‘funny’. However, when it came time for me to take over on our pathfinding march, we were only a couple hundred yards from that patch of Poison Ivy I found the day before.
I didn’t know if anyone else knew it was there, but I had an opportunity, and if the Boy Scouts taught me anything, it was,
‘Whenever an opportunity presented itself… you be a man… and go for it!’
‘Alrighty, if you insist…’
The best part was… because it was July, we were all wearing shorts.
I marched us straight through that patch, and not one. single. scout. (Tenderfoot, Life or Eagle) identified it. They were completely, beautifully… oblivious.
I had the best night I had ever had on ANY camping trip in scouts just a few, short hours later, as I listened to the cries of every single scout in my troop as they went absolutely mad from the horrible pain and itching that Poison Ivy causes.
And, the cherry on top? Not one of us… nor any of the other troops, nor even the National Guard guys… had even a single drop of Calamine Lotion.
It was the most cathartic revenge I’ve ever experienced. After all of the things and bullying I had put up with from those little ‘Lord Of The Flies’ idiots, the sweet sounds of their suffering lulled me gently to sleep that night.
We had to break camp immediately the next morning…
‘Aww, dang it! I was just starting to have fun!’
I don’t know what the National Guard guys had planned for that day, but I didn’t care. I never wanted to go on that jamboree in the first place.
I got home early on Sunday, and it was one of the best days ever, as I happily returned to a wonderful shower, a clean bed, and our lovely, lovely air conditioning.
‘I love you, Air Conditioning… you’ll be my best friend, won’t you?
Yeah… you never let me down, Air Conditioning. I can always count on you.’”
Another User Comments:
“I’m right there with you, bro. Back when I was in the Boy Scouts, my troop was filled with bullies and psychopaths and I was left with no real allies.
One summer we were all at camp, and one of the little weasels had pulled a bull crap stunt. I won’t go into details, but an animal ended up dying horribly. I was so fed up, that I resolved to teach him a lesson. See, I’m not allergic to poison oak, and I decided to weaponize it.
We were hiking and as we were coming up on a patch of poison oak, I said something that I knew would provoke him into bullying me, which he did. So, I ‘snapped’ like I’d had enough (which I had), grabbed him by the shirt, threw the two of us into the patch, and rolled around with him in it.
He got good and covered. That night he was miserable and in excruciating pain. Me? Not so much. I just did a bunch of hand laundry to make sure that my clothing was free of the taint before I got home. I didn’t get in any trouble, probably because the adults knew he deserved to be taken down a peg.
Yeah, the same adults that let the kids terrorize me and a few others.
That was my last excursion with the Scouts. I was done and refused to return. To this day, I wonder if all of them made it out alive. Oh well, don’t care.
Point is, you’re not alone, OP. You’re part of a very exclusive club of pubescent vigilantes.” ProjectDv2
6. They Kicked Out My Sister In Law When She Came Out, So I Forced Them To Sell The Same House
“My sister-in-law came out as a trans woman when she was 18. My wonderful in-laws kicked her out of the house then and there. They told her to leave the house and threw her out at 8 PM with no money or even any documents and her father took the car keys from her too.
She had to walk 8 miles to get to our place. She was crying and we took her in.
This is horrible behavior but my husband and I would have just cut them off if it was all they did but they doubled down. They refused to hand over any of the documents and my Brother in Law had to go over and barge into their house to get them.
They also cleaned up all the money in a joint account. She had saved up 8K working part-time all through high school. They took the money and also sold her car which was in their name. They were trying to ruin her life as much as they could.
My father-in-law is a small-time businessman and his biggest account was supplying my employer. I had helped him get the contract and it was very lucrative for him. My employer was a family business and they treated long-term employees more like family than as employees.
I was talking to my boss about what happened. He told me that if I could find someone within a 5% range of the price my father-in-law offered, they would make the switch. My father-in-law offered us really great rates. He was very good at his job but he had messed up the contract because even though we always bought from him, we weren’t obligated to buy from him.
We could switch suppliers anytime but he got complacent and assumed we wouldn’t switch suppliers.
It took me six months of painful searching to find a supplier who could replace him and get us great rates. This was not a major part of my duties and I had to put in way more hours than normal to find the supplier but when I did find them, I waited for a month before informing my boss.
See, my in-laws had been planning to do the major renovation for a long time and it involved tearing down a major portion of their house. I waited until the renovation work had truly started before informing my boss.
We started to get supplies from the new supplier the next month itself.
It crushed his business. It messed up his unit economics and he had to scramble to find new customers. They ended up having to sell their house to save the business and they didn’t get a good rate for it because the house was well half torn down when they sold it.
My in-laws did try to get financial help from my brother-in-law but he told them to screw off.
My father-in-law is a decent businessman and he did crawl his way out of the hole they dug for themselves but even 8 years later they still haven’t bought a new house.
I have heard they are still sour about what happened. I mean, I was just doing my job and if they had just kicked her out, they would still have the house.”
5. Won't Pay Me? I'll Make You Lose 25k On Your Salary
“I used to work at a Wendy’s as a manager. It was already a crappy job, but my general manager was nice, and most employees were easy to deal with.
All this started when I was already working around 65 hours a week. I was offered a $100 bonus to work one of my only days off.
I decided to do it, and later that week. Before I had even been paid I was asked to come in again. I said this time I would like $150 as at this point I had worked almost 23 days without any days off. They said they’d do it, so in I went.
Cut forward 3 weeks, I’ve been asking about my bonus for a while now. I am told by my general manager that I could speak to my district manager as he would be in later that night. The conversation goes like this:
Me: ‘Hey, do you know what’s going on with the bonus?
I’m owed $250 with both the days.’
District manager: ‘Well, that’s why I came here. The store has been having trouble making money.’
So, basically, he’s telling me that my performance isn’t good enough. At this point, I’m working dinner rush and the whole night with three others, my significant other, best friend, and another friend that has grown close.
District manager: ‘Your shift isn’t making as much as others, and your drive time is higher.’
Me: ‘Well, we are doing all we can. It takes extra time when we only have half the number of people with the same amount of customers.’
District manager: ‘That’s really no excuse.’
Me: ‘When am I going to receive my bonus?’
My DM was a very sheepish man so he is very obviously scared when he tells me this.
District manager: ‘We can not give you a bonus until the revenue rises and drive time goes down.’ I am speechless at this point, the rest of the conversation was a blur.
I grew up on the south side, you didn’t mess with people’s pay.
A day passes and I’ve had time to collect myself and speak to my entire crew. Everyone agrees to walk out with me. So I call my district manager. The phone starts to ring but then it cuts off.
He declined my call. So I called him again, and again and again. Finally, I just leave him a voicemail.
Me: ‘Look, Jacob, you need to talk to me, you have until 8:45 to call me back or all of night crew is done.’
At this point, it is 7:30.
I go into my office and start watching my boss’s email. She leaves it open and logged in, I figured he would probably email her before calling me. Around 20 minutes of watching this email, and boom. An email pops up with the title, ‘Emergency: OP.’
This idiot put my name on the email. So of course I read it. Long story short, in the email, it was him trying to make sure my general manager was going to be ready to go to work. Aka: he wasn’t going to call me or give me my bonus, so I get all my people together and we walk out leaving everything out, all the meat all the toppings, the fryer.
Everything.
The next day I turn in my keys. About a week later I’m called by my brother.
Me: ‘What’s up?’
Brother: ‘Jacob lost all of his stores. He has to go back to Indiana.’
My brother worked at the store as well.
If you don’t know, district manager’s pay is based on the number of stores they have and how much they make. When he moved to Indiana his wages got reduced from 65,000 to around 40,000. All this for $250.”
Another User Comments:
“Looks like Jacob doesn’t know how to listen.
You said in your voicemail ALL of Night Crew would be walking out and it sounded like he thought he’d only have to send in your GM to cover the shift. If he wasn’t satisfied with the numbers that a shift manned by FOUR people did, what the heck did he expect to do with a shift manned entirely by ONE person?
What Jacob should have done, was pay you what was promised out of his own pocket. Now he gets to not only enjoy going back to the middle of what sounds like the middle of nowhere, but he gets to do with a pay cut.
The fact you got an entire shift who liked your management style enough to put up with not having as many people staffing the joint to join you in a total walkout (which I imagine if they hadn’t been willing, you wouldn’t have screwed them that night by the sound of it), Jacob killed a Golden Goose and basically screwed himself.
I do so love happy endings where the bad guy gets hosed by his own folly. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.” Pan-Pan90
4. Keep Kicking Myself And Other Students Off? Enjoy The Consequences
“At the time, going to campus was a no-go so everything was online. As such, a lot of programs used for course work, which were only on PC, needed a remote link for those of us on Macs or other devices. This link connects students to assigned desktops physically on campus through an application like Citrix.
It would only allow students onto the desktops when another class was not remotely ‘using’ that lab at the time, and at night when registered classes were done. The on-campus computers would show that their drives were in use, so the students who lived on campus would know that someone was remotely accessing it.
Well, I was taking a course in Remote Sensing, which required access to programs such as ArcMap, ArcGIS, R, and ERDAS (you can look them up). They were only available on PC so I, as a MacBook user, needed to use the remote link.
The issue started at the start of October when I was working on an assignment in ArcMap.
I was really startled when I was suddenly kicked out, and then furious because I hadn’t had the chance to save my latest input. I then went back to the webpage, re-input my student credentials, and logged into a different desktop.
Not two minutes later was I logged out AGAIN.
Rightly peeved, I emailed the professor and TAs about it and moved on to other homework. I figured it was a bug that would soon be fixed.
No. It continued throughout the entire month. I ended up having to work on my remote labs between 9 pm and 2 am, as I literally was not able to work during the day without being kicked off.
It was really annoying, especially since I couldn’t even work during my assigned lab time!
Other students started reporting this, and we’d get a lot of emails from IT. Updates, patches, and things like that we had to install to try and patch this ‘bug’.
And nothing worked. It was painful.
I decided that enough was enough, and took a train to campus after my online morning classes. If it was going to keep booting me off the remote, then I would just go in person!
I completed the online health check, got to campus no problem, and made my way to the building that housed all the PCs.
Yes, we have a building that houses all the PCs for computer classes. Anyways, I went up and towards the lab where my credentials were registered to.
I’m going to be honest. I wasn’t expecting what I saw. But I sure was annoyed.
Through the windows into the lab, I saw two guys going from PC to PC… logging students off!
At first, I couldn’t believe it, and then I got furious. They were laughing about screwing with hard-working students! (I will call them Dumb and Dumber.)
That’s when I decided to get some payback.
I pulled out my phone and placed it beside the window, and it was partially hidden by the trash bin inside the classroom, recording them and what they were doing. They didn’t notice me, thank God, and I got onto my laptop, remote linking to my phone.
I then got onto the university social media page and started to Livestream the video from my phone. I put a title along the lines of ‘Found the bugs kicking students off Remote Desktop’ (the video has been deleted, and I will explain soon).
It didn’t take long for fellow students to take notice of it, and it went viral within 30 minutes.
Names were soon put out as Dumb and Dumber were recognized, and there was a lot of hate in the comments. Even campus police replied, asking for the location.
I was all too happy to give it.
It was then I saw on the stream that Dumb pulled out his phone, and he started freaking out.
He had noticed the stream and that it was live. I quickly rushed to grab my phone and retreat, and that’s when Dumber rushed out the door and tackled me!
We started brawling (it was self-defense, as he kept attacking me to grab my phone), and then I saw Dumb going for my laptop, which was hosting the stream (which was STILL being recorded from my phone!).
So… I kicked Dumber between the legs while elbowing him in the neck, before jumping Dumb.
To be honest, I don’t really know what happened next, but I do remember campus police having to pull me off Dumb. Apparently, I had full-bodied tackled him away from my laptop, and he punched me in the face…
With me apparently grabbing his carry-on bag, bashing him over the head with it… accidentally cracking his laptop. Oops!
So, anyways the fight was broken up and we were all taken down to the campus police office.
To make a very long story short, I got a relative slap on the wrist for my part of it.
Had to do some on-campus community service, but my record was kept clean. Thankfully. I was not charged for the fight or the laptop, as I was able to prove the self-defense, and that they hit me first/tried to destroy my property intentionally (which made it worse for them).
I was let off on the laptop for a technicality, as I was punched in the face, and had no idea that he even had a laptop in his carry-on. Phew.
As for Dumb and Dumber, I was called in to testify at each of their hearings in December.
Turns out kicking students off remote links was considered a very grave academic offense, as it was intentional tampering with others’ work.
The video stream I took was a big part of the evidence against them, and CCTV proved that they had been doing it for weeks.
In almost all the computer labs. They had intentionally messed with over a hundred students. Adding to attacking me and my devices… they got into pretty hot water.
Now, the reason this wasn’t discovered sooner was due to the fact that this Remote Link was new to us, and IT was still working through the bugs.
I don’t know exactly what happened next, as they just needed me to come in (masked) and tell what I did and remembered. However, I did get the notification in my email in March this past year that two students were expelled for intentional tampering with other students’ work.
Can you guess who? Yup, Dumb and Dumber got the boot for their dumb actions.
It gets even better though. Turns out they were here on student visas! This meant that not only were they expelled from the university with a black mark on their records, they were also given the boot from the country!
And most definitely back to their very disappointed parents.
They were actually put on a cargo flight home, as their country wasn’t allowing passenger flights. They had to go because, without their visas, they were in the country illegally which would land them in even deeper hot water.
The university actually took mercy on them and paid for the flight, and I agree. They may have acted stupid, but that’s no reason to have to deal with Border Security or whatnot. I only know this because I ran into, and was able to talk with, one of the campus officers who told me what happened when went I went in person for a lab this recent September.
So, yeah. Those guys had to take a cargo flight home. I think the uncomfortable experience they would’ve had was enough punishment compared to being in lock-up until their country’s borders opened or until other arrangements could be made.
Maybe it’s karma, but they got publicly exposed on a live stream for their actions for all the school to see (which was taken down due to it needing to be evidence against them and all).
But, Yep. They were expelled twice for their dumb actions, and with their names in campus infamy for their stunt. Hope they’ve learned their lesson!”
3. Mess With My Wife? I'll Take Your Rank
“Back in 2013, I was transferred from Sunny San Diego to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. I had been in the Marines for over 4 years and had been sent to a unit that would finally give me the chance to deploy to Afghanistan.
In case you don’t know before your unit deploys overseas, you have a mountain of classes and training to get done which starts around 6 months or so prior to the date. I had become close friends with Joe, who was my senior-most Corporal (I was the only Sergeant in my platoon), and we hung out all the time outside of work, we would BBQ, go to the gym, have parties with the families, etc. Well, that fateful time comes and we get sent to the land of never-ending sand.
About 4 months in, I start to get a funny feeling that something was not right due to the lack of being able to talk to my wife on the phone or on messenger. I do have a special skill that I honed from sneaking past my Vietnam veteran father who was very set in that bedtime meant bedtime, and not raid the fridge for snacks time; I am very quiet and you won’t hear me coming unless I want you to.
One day, I came into our PEB (just a big container that housed around 8 people in it), and saw my wife’s face on the video chat with my best friend Joe, who didn’t hear me until I shut the door. I played it off like nothing and the rest of the deployment had moments just like this, where I would see or hear them talking and just take notes for my revenge.
Before things really got to me mentally, our time in the sandbox was coming to an end and we flew home. The homecoming was uneventful other than my 2-year-old not realizing who I was for a few minutes, then it was happiness all around. Just like before deploying, we have a mountain of classes after we get back to scan for TBI (Traumatic Brain Injuries), mental health awareness, certifications, etc., and nobody was exempt from completing the various death by PowerPoint classes that were scheduled for that week.
Out of nowhere, Joe had random appointments almost every day, or something would come up where he would have to leave while everyone else was stuck all day long at a class or medical getting screened for everything under the sun. Do you ever have the feeling that your gut is telling you, 100%, that something is going on, but your brain is like, no, stop being paranoid?
Well, that’s what I was dealing with on a daily basis. I began to follow Joe a few days a week when he would leave work early or have to make a call, and sure enough, his car would be right outside my house every single time.
When I finally confronted Joe, he denied it up and down like I was going crazy, and genuinely made me feel like I was offending him by the accusations. I quietly compiled the evidence and brought it all to the Battalion Sergeant Major, who if you don’t know, is at the top of the food chain under the Battalion Commander.
After a week or so I get called into the Battalion Commanders’ office to discuss his findings and to ask me what I want to happen; my answer is simple, I WANT HIS RANK! Justice came swift and painful, Joe was awarded loss of rank, forfeiture of 1/2 months pay for two months, restriction, and extra duties.
Shortly after we came back to the states, Joe was promoted to Sergeant, and in less than a month, his rank was gone. I heard from mutual friends that he left his wife to be with his new girl who is also pregnant with his third son.
Oh and in case you’re wondering, I was trying to stay with my wife for my son, but I found that that was a huge mistake.
A few months after the dust settled, I was transferred back to San Diego to go on a cruise, and my wife and I were giving this our last shot.
I went underway for two weeks and guess where she flies to; his house, to have their last bit of time together! After I found all of this out, I just lost any interest in being nice and making it work, I deployed on the ship and actually met my new wife there, we’ve been together ever since, and I have been much happier than when I was being mentally tortured by my ex.
The moral of the story is, don’t screw your best friend’s wife!”
2. Fighting With My Sister Left Me On The Receiving Side Of Revenge
“This is a story of malicious compliance at my expense, enacted by a spontaneous collaboration between my dad and my sister when I was a kid. It happened like this:
We had a dog. She was nominally the kids’ dog (because we had been the ones who pleaded and pleaded with our parents to get her), but as in many families, a lot of the work of caring for her devolved to the parents.
Kids will try to get out of as much work as possible, but where my parents absolutely drew the line was feeding. Feeding the dog was the duty of me and my sister, full stop. It was the one ironclad certainty of pet care in our lives.
So, being unable to push off the work of feeding the dog onto our parents, my sister and I fell back, naturally, to try to push the work off onto each other. Every day was a running debate: whose turn was it to feed the dog that day?
Who had fed her that morning? Who had fed her twice the day before? These questions were energetically litigated and relitigated every night at feeding time. Scenarios of the past were proffered and denied. Often my version of events would be countered by my sister with, ‘That’s funny…’ followed by her version of events.
Much more time and energy was spent trying to get out of the work that would have been required simply to do it. And all of this happened in shared family spaces, to my parents’ growing frustration.
Finally, one night as we debated, my dad had had enough.
‘Enough!’ he said, and then glanced at his watch to get the date. ‘Who feeds the dog on even-numbered days?’
‘She does!’ I immediately barked out. ‘That’s funny…’ she started to counter, but my dad cut her off. ‘Very well. Today is an odd-numbered day.
OP, you feed the dog.’ I could only stare, slack-jawed while my sister smirked in victory. And off I went to feed the dog.
Now here’s where the malicious compliance comes in. The more able students among you will notice that choosing the odd-numbered days is objectively worse.
A lot of months end with the 31st, immediately followed by the 1st of the next month, so having the odd-numbered days means that multiple times a year, you wind up feeding the dog two days in a row. The first time this objectively uneven (pun intended) situation arose, I tried to protest that it must be my sister’s turn to feed the dog because I had fed her the day before.
No dice. ‘But you insisted that your sister has the even-numbered days. It’s not our fault you claimed the odd-numbered days for yourself.’
And so I fed her two days in a row that time. And the next time. And the next. We got that dog as a puppy and she was still going strong when I moved away for college.
I think I stuck myself with over 100 extra feeding days over the years.”
1. I Should Get My Priorities Straight? You Should Get Woken Up At 4 AM
“A little background. I (29F) own a home with my fiancé (30M) and we split expenses and housework 50/50. I like to think we contribute equally to the household, but one area we differ in is our work schedules and I am a night owl/have insomnia.
He works the typical 9-5 and I bartend during the evenings four nights a week with one morning brunch shift.
My sleep schedule is very wonky and lately, I have been sleeping from about 9/10-2 and have had a sleepless night or two per week (before you judge, we have no kids and this works for me.) I do my best to stay quiet and want to get things done while I’m awake at night, but don’t want to wake him up.
Now to the malicious compliance. One day this week we spent the evening tidying up the house together and I thought we both contributed equally and all was well and good, but there were so many dishes that there were some piled up in the sink after we loaded the dishwasher and then they continued to pile up again (this is also a constant issue for us, as he also tends to leave dishes in the sink even when the dishwasher has plenty of space.) Last night I had a sleepless night and I spent it quietly in the living room working on a paint by numbers.
Tonight I came home and was told, ‘your painting looks good, but you really need to get your priorities straight,’ and mentioned the dishes in the sink. Now, this really ticked me off, because most of the dishes were his, I am his partner, not his maid, and I had shoveled our enormous driveway the night prior.
I decided he was right. So at 4 in the morning, I went to the kitchen and did all the dishes. Loudly.
He came to the kitchen and asked me what the heck I was doing. I told him that I was getting my priorities straight and doing the dishes like he asked.
Little update: He just got up for work, we both apologized, and he said ‘good job on the kitchen, it looks very nice.’”
