People Uncover Their Loathsome Revenge Stories
13. Ex-Mother-In-Law Fired Me Unrightfully So I Destroyed Her Company
“At that time I was 20 years old and dated my first true love, we been together for 1.5 years already and everything was just great. Her mother really liked me and she had her own company which traded fashion clothes for kids, she made a ton of money.
They needed someone to drive one of their 3.5 t truck and she came up with an idea to hire me cause I was unhappy with a job I had.
So as a win-win situation, I accepted her offer and we started working together. The job was ok, even tho I had to work a huge amount of overtime cause she thoroughly introduced me to how the whole company worked.
She had a huge storage facility, a store, and 2 trucks. One that I drove and a big one. I worked for her for like 1 year and at that time I knew every single thing about the company cause she trusted me with also the dirty secrets (this later came in handy).
This is where things took a huge turn. I found out that my significant other had a thing with her ex while we were together, and as a result, I broke up with her instantly. It was an ugly situation, and after it went down I called her mother and told her what was going on and that I don’t want to mix things with business, so I will still be there for work, even tho I don’t want to see her daughter again.
She said everything is all right but of course she sided with her daughter and I felt that she was mad at me cause of the breakup. I went to work and acted as a professional should and put all the drama aside, however soon after she singled me out at started looking for mistakes so she can discipline me.
This has been going on for months and I realized she was just waiting for an excuse to fire me but I wasn’t gonna give that reason to her that easily.
She was annoyed that she couldn’t find big mistakes and the small ones she often just made up were not enough to terminate me. So she came up with a plan.
On the track, we had a power generator that provided light and power for laptops, printers, and so on. It worked in 2 ways: with fuel when we were on the road and with cable, in case we were at the storage.
But it was not made by a company they just hired an electrician for that and he made an error, so we had to flip a switch all the time if we used it with a cable connection otherwise it would burn down. As I loaded the truck she convinced a co-worker to flip the switch back and after a few minutes the lights were gone and I noticed some things were wrong.
It burned out of course but I knew I didn’t forget the switch cause I have loaded the truck for an hour and it only took 5 minutes tops to burn out so it couldn’t be me. She didn’t even hear me out started yelling fired me on the spot and stated that she gonna pay the repairs out of my last salary so don’t expect any from her.
I didn’t take that lightly and told her that ‘I don’t think you wanna go this way with me’ but she refused to listen. It took a few days for me to cool down but I wanted to give her a last chance.
I called her and told her even tho I know what was going on and she did set me up, but If I get what’s mine, I will call it an end, and we don’t have to see each other again.
She told me to go away, so I came up with a plan. First, because I knew that the store she had didn’t have a bathroom which was illegal in my country (the shop assistants had an agreement with a restaurant on the opposite side to go there if they needed) I reported this to the authorities and the next day they closed the shop because of this violation and told her she can’t open up until they have a bathroom.
She called me right away and asked me if I have anything to do with this. I laughed and told her:
‘Didn’t I tell you that you don’t wanna go this way with me?’ and hung up.
I knew that we worked so much overtime that I and the other truck driver had so much overdrive on the tacho cards (It records how many hours you drive and how fast, and when you stopped) so I called the authorities again and told them everything.
They went and checked all the records and gave the company a brutal fine. She sent me obscene text messages all day long after that. I replied, ‘Ain’t done yet’.
Then silence, a few hours went by and my phone rang, she called and asked me if we can talk it over? She even said she send me my last paycheck, but I shut her down immediately, and told her: ‘Too late for that.’
And I called the fire department and told them that the wires they had in the walls of the store were outdated which caused short circuits daily and that they only have 2 fire extinguishers for the whole place when they should have like 12 to 15. On that very day, they had to close the storage as well so she lost the last place where she could make for months until they get everything up to date and renew all the wires, which cause a huge amount.
Because of the fines she got from the different authorities, she couldn’t afford these renovations of course. A few months later she filed for bankruptcy, I know because my ex called me with ‘I hope you are happy, jerk, you made my family bankrupt.’
I never got my paycheck but at that point, I didn’t even care anymore, I was happy with the outcome.”
12. Good Thing The Principal Trusts Me
“Years ago, in middle school, we could sign up for an overnight field trip to Catalina Island during Spring Break. It was my last year in middle school, and I want to do something fun. Even though the trip was pretty expensive for my family, we still made enough to go there.
Once we were there, a few friends and I chose a dorm together, so we could be together.
The dorm had bunk beds, and there were way more than enough to accommodate us all. We all decided to use the top bunk as our beds and the bottom bunk as storage and changing area. We could use it as a changing area because if you tuck your towel along the edges of the top bed, then it can create a curtain.
The first few days were a blast. We went snorkeling all around our site on the island.
We even bought souvenirs. One of my friend’s dads in another cabin even brought a drone and flew it around the island, taking pictures. Then, a misfortunate event occurred. On the second day, my friend’s dad (the one that flew a drone around the island taking pictures) got sick from the freezing waters and had a fever. For him to sleep better, our assistant principal (who went on the trip with us) had the people in the dorm that my friend’s dad was overseeing move over to ours.
All the people that came over to our dorm were nice, except one.
Meet Andrew. He leads a group of kids that smokes when they go to the park, the kids that bully the 6th graders for lunch budget. Andrew was a grade before me. Since my dorm had a lot of empty spaces, Andrew came to my dorm.
From then on, my supposed vacation became chaotic.
The smokies (what I named their group in my mind) came and hung out with Andrew every day, trashing our dorm. At night we cleaned up their potato chip bags and vacuumed the crumbs off the floor. Heck, one of them brought like a pallet of soda and left the empty cans on the floor. It looked like the aftermath of an epic party.
On the fifth day, the incident happened. After a snorkeling session, we went back to the dorms to change.
The session was voluntary, where you do not have to go. I got back to my dorm and kindly asked the smokies to leave, for that they were not in their dorm. I kindly suggested to Andrew to go to the smokies’ orm, which was only occupied by the smokies’ luggage. He kindly told me to shut up. By this point I was frustrated. The restroom floor was dirty, so I did not want to change there.
I decided to change the bottom bunk. I told Andrew specifically to not pull down the As I was pulling my pants off and was beginning to change into my regular shorts, Andrew snuck up to me and pulled down my towel. So, there I was, the bottom half exposed, staring in shock at Andrew. He then threw the towel at me and ran to the far side of the room.
I finished changing into my shorts. Then, I heard him talking loudly that my ehem…junk…was small. To be honest, it wasn’t. Due to that, he was the only person to see, their group of smokies all believed him. At the time, my friends just got back and asked me what happened.
I explained it to them.
The bullying started the next day.
Even though Andrew was a year younger than me, his friends aren’t. When I was in the dorm, they started to push me around. My friends tried to help me, but they are a grade younger than me. Therefore, they just got pushed around too. Finally, I cannot hold these emotions in anymore. I was beyond livid. My mind blanked, and I just remembered screaming.
Later, my friends told me what happened. I kicked two of the smokies in the groin, and two of them punched me on the ears. Both my ears. I woke with my ears ringing, and the assistant principal was writing me up. The smokies told the assistant principal that I went crazy and kicked them and that they reported that I had a knife. I was beyond confused. I had a pocket knife at home, for Boy Scouts.
I take blades seriously, and I would never bring them to relaxing places like a school outing. The assistant principal systematically searched through all my belongings and did not find a knife. By that time, I already had lost all trust in the Assistant Principal. I was completely broken.
Late that night, while the smokies gang and my group of friends hiked up a mountain to see the stars and eat s’mores, the assistant principal and I called my mother to explain the situation.
While the AP told my mother the story that the smokie gang cooked up, I told my mother the truth, and she was glad for me to stand up for myself and my friends. For the rest of the week, I was banned from all group activities and was forced to sit with the adults at lunch.
I went on this vacation to relax, not to be bullied.
After the Catalina misadventure, my assistant principal decided to ban me from all lunches, which means that I had to sit right in front of her to eat. It was chaos. I. Wanted. Revenge. For all those missed lunches, I kept thinking about what to do to get them in real trouble. Then I remembered. They kicked my ears. My ears have been ringing, and I cannot hear well after the fiasco. My mother and I went to the doctor to schedule an MRI scan.
MRI, or Magnetic Resonance Imaging, is a scan that uses magnets and radio waves to look at organs and structures inside the body. We waited a month for the appointment, then scanned. Lo and behold, I had severe damage to my eardrums. We hired a lawyer and sued Andrew for emotional trauma, and the two kids that punched me in the ears for physical damage.
The jerks that tried to counter sue me for kicking them in the balls, but they sustained no injury because I was weak (very lucky there). Andrew tried to make a defense that HE sustained emotional trauma, not me, but my friends made evident that he even bragged about it, and did not seem like that the incident caused trauma to them.
I did not feel that was enough revenge.
That was just moolah and can be remade in just a short while. I felt determined to break their friendship. I made a case to the principal of my school. That principal was the person that would most likely take my side, because I had known her ever since kindergarten, and we talked frequently due to the fact that I was a troublemaker in elementary years.
(To be clear, I was not a bully in my elementary years, but I came from another country back then and had different cultures.) We stated to the principal what happened, and how the assistant principal did not judge the case evenly because she did not even listen to my friends about what happened. The principal trusted me because we never lied to each other, and my mother was sitting right next to me.
The next day, the principal ordered the assistant principal and the smokie gang into her office. Facing a possible demotion if she did not agree, (and that she did not follow the standard code,) the assistant principal deeply apologies that she deemed me wrong, and that my punishment shall be lifted. She stated that I should not have kicked those two in the balls, to which I replied, staring deep into her eyes, ‘Strong people stand up for themselves, but the strongest people stand up for others.’ This might seem like an anti-bullying quote you can find anywhere, but that year the assistant principal held an anti-bullying rally where the main motto was ‘Strong people stand up for themselves, but the strongest people stand up for others.’ Her face immediately went red, and she apologized profusely.
My principal then brought out the statements that my friends wrote, which I did not know anything about, with the truth. Since there was no way that I could have warned them in time to write those statements, they were proven as the truth.
The gang of smokies got a week’s suspension, and Andrew got expelled. He had to enroll in a middle school that transferred him into a high school that is filled with people like him.
He was separated from his friends. Without a leader, his group of smokies fell apart. Another reason why their group fell apart was that they were also forcefully separated during lunch and in class. Now, every time I see Andrew, I would throw an innocent smile at him, while he knew that inside, I ripped him from his friends that he had since elementary.”
11. Property Manager's Lies Blow Up In Her Face
“So my then-significant other now wife and I wanted to buy a house a few years back when interest rates were low as we knew we would get married and wanted to lock in a low rate.
However, as we were both newly out of college and had a fair amount of debt and entry-level jobs, we gambled on instead renting for a year to improve our credit and save some fund.
We find a great apartment in a complex. On our initial walkthrough, in the shared lobby of the 4 apartments, there was a ‘Do Not Occupy’ order from the town. I asked the landlord/property manager about it and she said they were being asked to increase the service of electricity to each building but that it was safe and already underway and of the 30 or so buildings on the property, only a handful was awaiting this small upgrade.
Being the trusting person that I am, we signed a 1-year lease.
Things went smoothly for the duration of our lease term and towards the end, we started looking for houses and signed with a Real Estate agent. Inventory was low at the time and we couldn’t find a house we wanted to make an offer on. Around a month before the end of our lease, we received a letter from the Property Manager asking if we wanted to renew or if we were going to be moving out.
I called the PM and, as her office was in one of the buildings, she asked that I come by instead of chatting over the phone. So I went to her office and explained that we wouldn’t want to sign another 1-year lease as we were actively looking for a home. I asked about a month-to-month lease or a shorter-term lease. The PM started talking about how she liked us as a couple and that we had been good tenants.
She explained that, normally, the month to month option is $200/month more expensive than a lease and since she liked us so much, we should sign a year lease and if we found a house before then, we would end up saving every month and she would, ‘work with us.’ (With a literal wink, which I found odd but, as I said, I’m very trusting (read stupid)).
I took a copy of the lease, my now-wife and I sign it and we are good to go.
About a month into the new lease, we noticed a strong fish-like smell. We looked forever for the source and ended up googling it. Turns out, sometimes when an outlet goes bad, it can smell like rotting fish. We searched around and noticed a clicking sound behind our couch.
We pulled out the couch and found a sparking and smoking outlet. PM was called and the outlet was replaced.
A few months later, we finally found our home. We put in our offer and it was accepted the same day. That next day, I called PM and left her a voicemail letting her know we found our home and that we would finish out the current month and then move out 2 months later.
At work the next day, I got a call from PM while at work and she left a VM practically screaming that we signed a 1-year lease and if we moved out early, we would be responsible for the remainder of the term (about 5 or 6 months after the move out day we provided). She also said that we could not use our 2 monthly security deposits as rent.
I called her up to chat and reminded her of our conversation but she said, ‘That never happened…’ and threatened to sue us and notify the credit bureaus that we defaulted on a lease. Mind you, this is all WELL before our move-out day.
I looked up my options after realizing she was sticking to her story and couldn’t be swayed. The only thing I could find online was showing the apartment myself and having someone take over the lease.
I told the PM that this was my intention and she said she didn’t know if she could allow that. Preparing for a lawsuit, I figured it would make more sense for me to try to rent it myself so I could show that I provided a way for the property to limit their losses. Unfortunately, nobody ended up renting the apartment.
Being upset that I was scammed and lied to, we moved out without paying the last month we lived there, essentially using 1 month of our security deposit to cover that and expecting not to get the rest back even though we left the apartment in great shape.
I got a few angry VMs from the PM but ignored them the best I could. Finally, at my new home, I received a letter from the PM with very legal language putting in writing the threats she made about the lawsuit and credit bureau reporting.
Ever the optimist, I called her one last time and again reminded her of our discussion. I tried to work out a compromise where, on top of our security deposit, I would pay for half of the amount due to end the lease.
She wouldn’t budge and continued making threats in a very demeaning and angry tone.
So finally, the revenge.
I just happened to speak to my dad about this and he let me know that he went to High School with the head lawyer (I forget the title) of the state housing authority. He gave me her number and said I should call her and ask if I had any options.
After having a long chat about my general predicament, the housing lawyer (HL) asked me to walk her step by step through the whole ordeal from the initial showing until our last conversation.
I started to tell her the story above and got to the ‘Do Not Occupy’ sign and how the PM explained it away and said it was safe. She stopped me in my tracks and said, ‘Don’t talk to the PM or ANYONE from the complex until you hear from me.’
A few days later, I got a call from HL who said something along the lines of, ‘Don’t worry about it and if they contact you, call me.’
After thanking her and ending the call, I didn’t give it a second thought.
A few weeks later, there was an accident on my way home so I got off the highway to take back roads home.
This particular route took me right by my old apartment. Suddenly finding myself curious, I decided to be nosey and pull in. I drove up to my old building and noticed there were no curtains or blinds in any of the windows of any of the 4 apartments. There was also now a much bigger, ‘Do Not Occupy’ sign on the front entrance to the building.
It seemed as though my call to my dad’s friend caused the ‘Do Not Occupy’ order to be enforced and all 4 apartments were now empty. Feeling a slight bit of satisfaction, I drove to the exit of the complex and noticed that my building wasn’t the only one with no window treatments and a big sign on the door. On my way out I could see 7 or so buildings in the same condition, each with 4 apartments.
So, instead of sticking to her word and allowing us to move out peacefully, the PM lost out on monthly rent from about 30 apartments on top of any fines they may have incurred.”
10. Yell At Me For Driving Normally? Here's Something To Complain About
“I used to drive an older truck and was forced to sell it a while back due to it not being reliable enough to be my daily driver for college (I wish I still had it – it was my first truck) and ended up borrowing my dad’s sports car.
Now, before this petty revenge, he had some work done on it by Cobb (car tuning). The work included a light tune (about 300 hp at the wheels, which should be about 350 HP at the crank-based on estimated powertrain loss due to a manual transmission and AWD) and an exhaust that will set off the car alarms in parking garages if the RPM is just right.
I was driving home from college for a break, pretty much doing the speed limit. The area I’m driving through is very pretty, with lots of rolling hills and some patches of woods. I come upon a crossover that’s going slower than the speed limit and pass it like I normally would do. As I’m just minding my own business, the crossover passes me and cuts me off suddenly.
For a minute, I was like ‘What?’ but I figured that I must have moved back over to the right a bit too soon, so I shrugged it off and gave her more room when I passed her again.
Oh boy, she didn’t like that.
She pulls up next to me and starts going berserks in her eco-friendly SUV. However, she cuts me off AGAIN – and if that wasn’t enough- she also brake checks me!
I move to pass a third time, and she matches my speed to keep me from passing her. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see that she still is having a hissy fit. I sit there, blatantly ignoring her while she’s having her tantrum. After a minute or two, I get tired of her entitled attitude and an idea pops into my head.
Lady, allow me to play the Boxer Rumble Song for you.
I drop down into 4th gear, dump the clutch, and added plenty of skinny pedals to make sure she was able to appreciate the music. I have no idea if she appreciated it or not, but I know she was eating dust for sure because I didn’t want to stick around a driver with anger issues.”
9. Steal My Work And Pass It Off As Your Own? Wrong Move
“I used to go to this cheap school, their budget was so low that they couldn’t afford substitute teachers, although sometimes they had the for events and/or trips. Before I start the story I have to tell you about the quality of the teachers.
It was held kind of low, but it had some high highs and some very low lows. Some of my teachers began giving preferential treatment to the girls, as the girls would be treated as if they could do nothing wrong and the boys would be treated as potential criminals, this lead to some of the girls in my class antagonizing the boys and stealing their work.
This all took place at an event called ‘lego league’, the event aims to find a problem and theorize and market a product that can solve it, and then build a robot. This time it was themed after space. During this, you are put into groups of 12 and then the groups are sectioned into 3 parts. The 3 parts are: 3 people in the marketing section (they market the product and create a marketing strategy), 4 people in the project section (they show off the product), and 5 people are sent to the robotics section (they’d build a b****s robot).
I landed in the marketing section with one of the worst of the previously mentioned girls (henceforth Jess) and one dude who slacked off and did not contribute anything, but he didn’t get in the way.
I was appointed as the ‘boss of the marketing branch’, and Jess didn’t take nicely to that, got mad and told the teacher, she was then appointed as the ‘boss’.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that I would have all the work dumped onto me. And the project was going to be a trainwreck. After a week, I was right. I had to find the combined cost of the project in real life, this was hard as I had to find the right fuel, the right engines, the cost of workers, the layout of the insides, the combined weight of the structure, the places we get our materials from and who our demographic is.
Jess also decided to dump the 5-page essay onto me, which we were supposed to do together. After long and painful weeks of doing all of the above and more, she told the teacher that:
‘She was doing it all and would appreciate if I would pitch in a little’.
I was shocked when I heard it, I tried proving my case, but my teacher wasn’t having it and sent me to detention.
I had had enough and was burnt out after all the work I had to do, so I ended up getting sick and was out of school for 3 weeks, but I did also do another vital part of the project which included a 2 page part on a report of the entire project and I knew that I still had a chance to screw everything up for her, because I knew that she would pass that off as hers and that she was too lazy to check it, so I rewrote the 5 essay page all of the above to make it seem too ambitious and made it sound unreasonable, I also started crediting everything I wrote to her so she would end up in trouble as the sole reason the project failed. I wrote a small script that we were supposed to present to the event judges, but I made what they were supposed to say heavily dependent on the essay.
The day comes and I hand my group mates the script, but during the day all computers and personal electronics were banned unless it’s an emergency. I start by saying what I was supposed to and then it came to the slacker, he mumbled something I couldn’t hear and I had to step in to ‘save’ his performance. Now it’s Jess’ turn and she utters this marvelous sentence:
‘The thing works by extending another thing and grabbing trash. (loud sigh of anger) Don’t ask me, he wrote it’. (She points at me)
‘Huh? That’s weird, I thought you wrote the essay’. I said it in a confused tone like I didn’t plan it for weeks.
‘B-b-but but but but’. She sputtered like a broken record.
I still finished the presentation and Jess left the building in tears.
I was questioned by the teacher who organized the event and told him about what happened
Needless to say, I got a written apology by the teacher and by Jess, but for Jess..?
Her integrity: Ruined
Her grade: Down
Her friends: Gone
I switched schools a year later and as a small goodbye note, I threw a wet soapy sponge in her face on my last day.”
8. Old Rude Lady Calls Me Names
“I’ve had this problem with an old lady who yells at me almost every day because there is this particular spot where I let my dog pee. Now, you’re allowed to let them go there and stuff but this lady has just something against me. Now, if she had nicely asked me to take my dog somewhere else, I would have done it, without saying anything, but the first thing that bugged me- she doesn’t even speak in the language my country uses, instead, she speaks Russian.
Then, on day 2, she starts calling me names like a stupid, idiot, etc. I don’t take this personally, thinking, maybe she’s just having a bad day.
The next day, it’s not only calling me names, but she starts telling me she will call the cops, screams at me to leave, etc. Now, I’m getting kind of mad, but I don’t say anything, because I don’t want to be in trouble after all.
Today, before taking my dog outside, I looked out the window, to see if she is sitting in her usual spot, and surprise surprise, there she is. I decided to go outside, walk past her, and then walk inside to get my mom. Now, as soon as she notices me, she gets up and starts walking towards me, leaving all of her belongings on the chair she was sitting on.
I quickly turn around and run inside with my dog. In about 30 seconds, I’m walking back out, with my mom in tow, now, she gets back up from her chair and starts walking towards me, but then she notices my mom and quickly smiles and turns back around to go sit down. I share a look with my mom. We let our dog pee in the usual spot, and doing a little lap, go back home.
No big deal, until my mom, stops right in front of the old lady and lets my dog take the number 2. She slowly picks the poop up, and kind of swings it to make sure the old lady can smell it. We go back home and laugh it off.”
7. You Hurt The Kid? I Hurt You
“The story happened about 2 years ago when I was at an anime convention; I was waiting for my friends so I decided to go around checking the video game stands. Luckily for me, they had Naruto ultimate ninja storm 4, which I didn’t see anywhere in other conventions, so I decided to play.
I saw that a kid was playing and I could see he was very new to the game.
He ‘defeated’ someone before me (I don’t know if the guy let himself lose or something). So when I played, I taught the kid the basics of the game and some combos he could try, and finally, I lost but left him almost without life.
I received a call from my friend so I left and the father of the kid said thank you while I was leaving.
After my friend told me they were going to arrive in a while I was watching a guy go full combos on the kid. I watched as he laughed and brag to his friends. There was a fourteen-year-old in the line waiting but I asked him if I could go first. Maybe he saw me play before or something but he agreed and let me play against this jerk that defeated a kid that barely knew how to play.
So I sit down and chose my best team, I let him choose the stage, and here goes my revenge.
This guy played average, so he tries to do me combos that I block and counter-attack, when he is out of substitutions (for those who don’t play the game is a defense that changes your character for a log and moves it behind your opponent) I start an infinite combo.
After I defeated him in the first round of three, he gets serious and tries to attack me with everything he knows, and finally lands one hit on me. I use substitute and I begin another infinite combo but decide to end him with a team ultimate jutsu (for those who don’t play the game it is a cut scene of your team doing an ultimate attack, you can find footage on YouTube if you want) just for being a jerk and because it was cool.
In comes the final scene, I get up, give my controller to the teen that let me play first, and leave while giving a smile to the kid that I just avenged. I would have stayed but my friends were calling me so I had to find them, but at least I had fun dealing with that guy.”
6. Be An Unfair Employer? I'll Make You Pay Exam Fees
“So a few months after I (then 21f, now 31f) finished university, I was having difficulty getting a role in the accounting field. In May 2010, I finally got a job at the office of my dad’s accountant (let’s call the firm P Ltd).
It was a small firm, about 10 people in total, including the two partners, Kay, and Jay.
I worked very hard in that role to prove myself. I started off performing administrative tasks but about 18 months into the role, they hired a replacement for me and I was finally able to move up to the role of junior accountant and learn how to prepare financial statements and tax returns.
Over time, I grew very close to my colleagues and clients. The firm had mainly Indian clients, and I was one of two employees (not including the Partners) who could speak the language. The clients would therefore contact me if they had any questions, as they felt comfortable speaking with me in our native tongue.
My work was very neat and proper, and I worked hard.
So hard that they often overloaded me with work and I would stay back long after most people had left trying to finish my work. My charge-out rate was low, so why not? At this time I was also working a second job on the weekends as P Ltd didn’t pay so well.
I wasn’t too fussed about the pay in the beginning.
I was learning heaps and enjoying the work, and that was all that mattered.
I sat the first part of the Chartered Accountancy exam and easily passed back in 2011, about one year after I started working there. The second part was much more difficult (and completed over six months). So I decided to wait one more year until I sat the second part.
When I asked Kay at the end of 2012 if I could register to complete the second exam in 2013, his first words were, ‘Nick (not his real name) failed the exam, I don’t think you’re ready.’ I was gobsmacked. Nick was one of the senior accountants who had attempted the exam and failed (and subsequently left the firm).
Just because he hadn’t passed the exam, didn’t mean that I would fail too!
It wasn’t fair. But I respected the boss’ wishes and he promised me that I could sit the exam the year after (2014).
During this time, they hired a young Caucasian woman in her early 20s. Let’s call her Chloe. Note that she was only one of two Caucasian employees in the firm.
Her work was atrocious. She had very limited knowledge. She would complete sets of financial accounts very quickly but they would be riddled with errors. She spent a lot of time in the office of the senior accountant being trained how to do simple tasks. She also worked no more than 8 hours a day. She would arrive at 8.30 am and leave at 4:55 pm on the dot.
They paid for her to attend some workshop in another city where she ran into her ex and punched him in the face, which resulted in broken fingers.
They paid her university fees for that year – she was still studying part-time at university to get her commerce degree.
And yet, she was still paid more than I was.
This infuriated me so much. I worked so hard, I went above and beyond what I was asked to do.
I had a degree, I had completed the first part of my Chartered Accountancy qualification, and yet, a woman younger than me, without a degree, was being paid more than I was. At this point, I was on $40,000. She was on $45,000. I knew it was because she was Caucasian and because I wasn’t.
But I carried on.
Chloe didn’t last, she ended up leaving after just over one year (while I was completing the second part of my CA exam).
It was after she left that the Partners realized how many errors she had made, some of which cost our clients quite a bit. These errors were never picked up by the senior accountant because he didn’t review her work properly. Some regular compliance work was never reviewed at all.
But anyway, before Chloe left, at the end of 2013, I asked Kay if I could please register to sit the CA exam in 2014.
He agreed. I asked if the firm would pay for it since they had paid for my first exam, and normally accounting firms do cover the cost of the exam for their employees (about $5,000, I think it was, at the time).
He initially declined. After I pleaded, he said he would pay for half now, and the remaining half if I passed the exam.
I was so upset.
I felt like he had no faith in me. It also wasn’t fair that they had covered Chloe’s university fees (they’d paid her a lump sum to do whatever she wanted to do with that amount, and note that the NZ government provides interest-free student loans to NZ residents), plus they’d paid for her training.
That’s when I realized, it was time for me to get out.
They didn’t pay me properly, worked me so hard, and didn’t even believe in me. There were never any praises but were very generous with negative feedback for all staff.
After speaking to the other partner, Jay, the firm finally agreed to pay the full fee for the exam upfront.
But by this time, I had made up my mind that I was going to leave.
Though I accepted their offer to pay the exam fee anyway. They didn’t make me sign anything to say that I would need to pay the back if I decided to leave the firm within a certain time after I’d completed the exam. I guess they trusted me that much or they thought I’d never leave.
I stayed and worked for the firm while I completed the exam.
The final exam was in October 2014. As soon as I finished the exam, I started to look for another role.
It didn’t take me long to find another job. They offered me much, much more than what I was getting at P Ltd.
About a week after I got my exam results (easily passed), I handed in my resignation.
My boss, Kay, was speechless.
He never expected me to leave so quickly. Both he and Jay avoided me and didn’t speak to me for days. When I confronted Jay and told him I wanted to keep things professional and leave on a good note, I was told I had betrayed them.
I did feel bad, but the way I saw it, I simply got paid what I deserved that year by having my exam fee paid for, that was my part of my revenge.
Oh, remember how I said this was my dad’s accountant? Yeah, well, I took my dad with me when I left the firm. So they also lost a client worth $6,000 in fees per year.
After I left, so many people left the firm. There was a very high turnover of staff even when I was there. In the 4.5 years, I was at the firm, we had nine people leave.
At a firm of ten people. You do the math.”
5. Horrible Roommate And His Mother Made Our Life Miserable
“So twelve years ago I went to my first university to study for my bachelor’s degree following a year out (Gap Year here in England). I was quite excited about this as I have not been and my older cousins and family friends have told me some of the stories of their time in university.
Hearing this, I was quite excited so once I moved in and got settled into my room in our shared flat I went into university for the induction. My flatmates (some of them) had arrived (I believe Zack, Carly, and Steven had moved in already in a couple of days before I moving in) and Rosy was moving in the night that I was moving in.
So the time proceeds to night time when all 5 of us flatmates were there which is when the warden to our block of flats came over to introduce themselves and to do an icebreaker session so that us flatmates introduced ourselves to each other. After that brief session, once the warden left, we went on to continue chatting and I thought I had gotten some great flatmates.
Boy was I wrong!
Fast forward a month and now classes are in session. Being the somewhat responsible student I was busy studying, I hear shouting from the joint kitchen that we have. I move over to the kitchen under the guise that I was getting myself some water and asked Zack why Carly and Rosy were shouting at Steven. Steven had not only stolen their food, which was a big no-no but not only that Steven and his mother who were still staying with him in his room had made a mess and not cleaned up causing the food to solidify on the stove and make a somewhat bad smell.
Once the girls ran out of breath and took a moment to calm down they told him that the stove better is clean by Monday morning (that day was a Sunday) and left. A point I need to make here is that Rosy was considerably more angry at Steven as the food that Steven had taken to eat was Rosy’s Halal food that she had bought with her own funds.
So I then went to Steven and explained that although back when we did say that he is welcome to try some of our food as we each had cooked a dish and shared that only applied to that food we made then (3 weeks prior) and to please not do that again. Steven agreed and proceeds to not clean up the mess made by him and his mother who at the time was not present as she had gone out to explore the city or do some shopping (I can’t fully remember).
Monday morning, I wake up early and proceed to the kitchen to make myself some breakfast (Cereal for those concerned) and see that my fresh bottle of milk that I had just bought on Saturday and not used much of is almost empty. As I was in a bit of a rush to get ready I didn’t think too much and proceed to making my breakfast and devouring it as fast as I could, get showered and ready and go to university for a 9 am workshop that I had.
After all my classes finish at roughly 3 pm, I went back home to grab a bite to eat and chill before going for basketball practice at 6 pm. Once I was done with practice, I felt really hungry and decided to order a pizza for myself with some sides from Dominoes with Zack and Carly who I got along with quite well.
As Zack was ordering the food, I paid him back and proceeded to take a shower as I was quite sweaty from the practice.
Once I freshened up, I walked outside to go to the kitchen to grab some water and as soon as I was nearing the kitchen, a horrible smell hit my nose causing me to cough for a moment. I look up to see Gina cooking using my pot to make some food (don’t know what it was, but it had some beef), this caused me to become angry for 3 reasons:
I am a person who only eats chicken as his non-vegetarian food
Gina had decided to use my utensils without my permission
The smell which I assume was coming from the food that was burning slightly
Upon entering the kitchen, this is the conversation that ensued:
Me – Ma’am why are you using my utensils without asking for permission to use it?
Gina – I thought that as the pot was in the kitchen anyone could use it plus I saw Carly use it just yesterday
Me – No, that’s not how things work in this flat. Firstly all Carly asked me to be able to use my pot to make her noodles and secondly just because my pot is in the drying rack doesn’t mean that you can use it as you please. Thirdly what on earth is that smell, is the food not burning or something?
Gina – Oh no, I was making (some beef dish from their country) and had to smoke it using your pot
Me – You are using my pot to make a beef dish when I explicitly told everyone not to make any food that isn’t chicken or vegetarian using my stuff even if I allow you to use my utensils. Now I again need to explain something. Back during the first week of term I had told everyone in the flat that I am very uncomfortable if you use my items to cook anything that is non-veg excluding chicken and to please not do so.
Back to the story. Also, I am pretty sure you don’t use a pot to smoke beef (despite my lack of knowledge regarding the cooking of beef products).
Gina – Oh it’s fine, I’ll make sure to clean it up and give it back to you.
Me – Last time you said that it was returned to me in a messy state so frankly, I find that hard to believe.
Gina – Oh I said that I will clean it, so lay off you stupid brat. Anyways you gave us permission to use it back in the first week
Me – Like I did, I said you could only use my stuff till you get your own so use that!
At this stage, Zack came over to let me know that the food is here and sees me in a shouting match with Entitled Mother.
Zack – OP the food is here in my (Sees me shouting) what’s going on?
I explained the situation to Zack. Zack backs me up as he was there when I told Steven and Gina that they can only use my stuff till they get their own.
Zack – Anyways why are you using OPs pot to cook beef when he told us all not to do that since he is uncomfortable with it, that’s so wrong.
I sure as hope that you will clean it and give it back otherwise there will be an issue (saying sternly).
Me – I doubt she will, but no harm in letting her finish cooking. I’m not gonna just dump her food in the bin because she just chose to use my things. Anyways I am hungry, let’s go eat Zack.
Zack – Yeah let’s go
That’s where that situation ended. The next morning I go to the kitchen in the morning for some breakfast and see both Steven and Gina eating my cereal in my bowls. They notice me and this is the conversation that proceeds.
Gina – Oh hey OP, the milk is out so can you go get some
Me checking the fridge to see my milk gone.
Me – What are you eating my milk and cereal in my bowls for?
Gina – My son was hungry so I decided to give him some food.
Me – So because Steven is hungry you chose to give him my food and take some for yourself as well. Even if that was the case, why are you still here, everyone’s parents left the day we all moved in?
Gina – I haven’t been abroad in a while so I thought I would stick around for a bit.
Me – Anyways, what am I supposed to eat now? Air?
Gina – I am sure you can figure it out, you are a university student after all.
I’m furious. Once I get ready I head over to the accommodation management building. Once there I say to them that not only are both mother and son are taking my food without permission but they are doing so with my flatmates as well.
I also told them how they are using what they want and taking what they want and essentially what a menace they are being. I also asked whether Gina is even allowed to stay in the same room as Steven despite it having been a month. To this the staff member says to me the following things:
Staff Member – First to address the issue of the mother staying until now, that is prohibited under the rules of the terms of the accommodation as you can only have someone stay for one night not multiple.
For this, they will be sending our warden over to check out the flat. We shall mention the issues that you are having with the mother and son to the warden and he shall help sort out the situation.
Me (Calmer now) – Thank you. Just in case what should I do if we have any other issues?
Staff Member – Either contact your warden through email or come down here and explain the situation.
Me – Ok I think I shall do that. Thank You for the help!
I then go for the classes I have that day that last until 4 pm. When I go in for my lecture I send a message of what happened and what the staff member said to me into the WhatsApp group chat that me, Zack, Carly, and Rosy have made. That evening the warden knocks when I am warming my food up in the microwave and I greet him in.
He then proceeds to see the mess left by the mother and son combo in the kitchen/living room area. He asks me why is the place so messy? I explain to him that the mess is not caused by us as we as a flat made a cleaning schedule that we followed except for Gina and Steven. He then proceeds to ask me where they both are as Steven is in breach of the rules for the accommodation.
I say I don’t know, maybe in their room I assume unless they have gone out somewhere. The warden then proceeds to knock on their door to no answer. He then tapes up an excerpt of the rule that Steven is breaching by allowing his mother to stay in the room for more than one night. He then proceeds to write that the mother has until the weekend to move out (so 3 more days) otherwise a fine will be sent to Steven to pay (Can’t remember the amount of the fine).
Another item he writes is that they both have to go and see him in his office in the residential management office (the place I went to earlier in the day) to have a discussion with him regarding the issues that we have been presenting.
Following this, he then says some bad news to me. The cleaning inspectors will be coming to check out the place and that if the place isn’t clean then we could be charged the amount it would cost for a cleaning company to come out and clean the communal area of the flat (The hallways and the kitchen/living room area).
I said slightly surprised that even if we are following a rota and that Steven and his mother are not doing their part we can be charged. The warden says unfortunately yes that is the case. Now that all his work was done, he wishes me and the other flatmates well and proceeds to leave. I post a message that we need to clean up as the cleaning inspectors are coming soon (2 days).
After eating, Zack, Carly proceed to clean the place to cleaner levels than they were before we moved in. Rosy did not join in as she had a very important test coming the following day otherwise she would have helped which we understood.
The next day when Steven and Gina come back after having gone to visit a family friend in the nearby city they see the notice and begin to scream at Rosy who just happened to be leaving for her test that morning.
Carly and I saw this and proceeded to back up Rosy and tell them that this is clearly not our fault and that the warden saw the mother still here despite the period having elapsed a month ago. We then told Rosy to leave for her test and that we will handle this, which she proceeds to do. To finish the argument there and then we say that they better see the warden otherwise some other penalties may be applied to them (bluffing this part by the way).
They shut up and proceed to go to his office.
As a result of the potential fine hovering over their heads, Gina proceeds to leave by the Friday morning back to their home country. As the main offender had left we breathed a sigh of relief and thought that, that was the end of that. Again we were proven wrong. In the next couple of months, Steven becomes even worse than his mother somehow.
Eating messily, not cleaning after himself, using our food and kitchen items as if it was his. Rosy broke down in tears at one point, as Steven used her utensils multiple times and as she is Muslin she has halal food and as Steven made his non-veg food from non-halal products it had contaminated her utensils meaning she could not use them as it would be against her religion.
She had to throw away those utensils in order to cook her food and buy new ones just so that she could eat her food.
Seeing this and the numerous times we had to clean up, buy new food, and deal with Steven, I decided something had to be done. So after discussing the issues with Zack, Carly and Rosy I told them my plan.
After going over the residential rules and memorizing them I began my warpath.
I began meticulously noting down and taking photos of everything wrong that Steven was doing. If he had a friend stay for more than one night, I took note and snapped a photo. Don’t want to throw out the garbage or clean his assigned area? Photos taken and noted. He started smoking 2 weeks after the departure of his mother in the flat in the kitchen and his room next to the window so I took photos of the smoking paraphernalia and the packs of special herbs he left about and noted everything.
In the case I wasn’t able to take photos or videos and note them down, I asked Zack, Carly, and Rosy to do so to which they gladly agreed to do so. Any breach in violation of any law that was broken was noted. This proceeded for 4 months till March of the following year from the December of the previous year (2 months since university started in October).
I also managed to sneak into his room and find his stash of illegal substances (which was a hefty amount) and find the number of the dealers that sold the stuff to him. I also took photos of the dealers that were selling to him with the videos of them doing the exchange in his room or the corridor.
I saved all the evidence onto a cloud and then after four months, I decided to compile it and share the information with the residential management, university, and the police.
The university proceeded to kick him out of the university, essentially leading to the cancellation of his student visa through which he was staying in the country. The accommodation management was in an uproar about the illegal substances. They canceled his slot and fined him massively for the breach of terms and service. The police were very interested to hear about illegal substances and proceeded to raid his room when he was not there and find the stash that I pointed out.
The police commended me for this and proceed to go and arrest him. Upon finding this out is when the university proceeded to kick him from the university. He was shortly after deported back to his home country never to be seen again. And that is the end of good old Steve.
One thing that I do know is that Gina called us once Steven returned to his country.
She started screaming about how we wasted his tuition (being that Steven was an international student) and essentially ruined his life. Let’s just say that she had a colorful selection of words to use on us. I don’t know of anything else other than that. Most details of the police investigation were things that we as students and his flatmates were not privy to so I don’t know much in that area.
We were all so happy once he was gone since he made living at that place garbage. When the apartment complex management told us we were going to be fined another time, I believe 2 months later from that point of the first fine, my parents were visiting me at the time and as none of my flatmates were there me and my parents (bless them) helped me clean.
This was as it was right after exam season, so I had a month’s break before any of my lectures began so I was going home. We had cleaned it so well and then when I came back a month later the kitchen was in such a mess. Bear in mind during the period I was away so were my flatmates excluding Steven. In that month he managed to make the place so dirty to the point when the others were back after going to management to let them know what had happened, I drafted a letter that all of us signed stating that we are doing our bit to keep the place clean and if anything like this occurs again then we should not be fined as a result.
Following this was the incident with Rosy which is what lead to the revenge.”
4. Ruin My Relationship? I'll Ruin Yours
“So, My ex Chris (18) and I (18) are gay. We met in September of 2018 in our science class. He was closeted and we began as friends. He and I slowly became closer, and we began seeing each other secretly. He is quite well-known around our school, and he felt he wasn’t ready to come out.
His dad (divorced parents) is severely homophobic. His mom is the sweetest woman alive. My best friend at the time was Jessie. Ashley (18) and her significant other, Jessie (19) have been together since 2016. Jessie and I have been close friends since we were children. Our dads went to high school together as well and we have lived down the street from one another our whole lives.
We have always been close, but Ashley has always been insecure and thinks I have a thing for Jessie. Admittedly, Jessie is conventionally attractive, has nice teeth, is tall and lean, and is athletic-build. Typical teenage heartthrob, but he’s not even remotely my type… He’s Caucasian and I’m more into guys like Chris. Chris is tall and lanky, light-eyed, and has dark beautiful curls, and he’s Latino. The boys look nothing alike.
Ashley is your basic white girl. She’s pretty IG.
Now that you’ve gotten to know the people, let’s get into the juicy revenge. A few months ago, Ashley and I had a usual confrontation. She didn’t feel comfortable that Jessie and I spend so much time together. We have been friends all our lives and I reassured her that our relationship is platonic and there is nothing to worry about.
She insisted that it wasn’t normal that we spend so much time together (cause I’m gay), so I decided to let her in on my relationship with Chris. I thought this would allow us to forge trust and maybe she and I could be friends. This did not go as planned. See Chris and I had only trusted a few people with the knowledge of our relationship which includes my mom, his mom, my sister, Jessie, and my close friend Kendall.
I thought Ashley would be, you know, a decent person and keep this to herself, but she didn’t. Soon enough everyone was blowing up Chris and asking if it was true, and we quickly put out that fire. Rumors were already circulating but we brushed them off and told everyone we were just childhood friends and not in a relationship. Crisis averted. I didn’t have proof it was her who began talking about it, but the situation was a bit coincidental.
Well, over the next few weeks I remain civil with her at lunch (we sat in big groups together since middle school) given I didn’t have any solid proof it was her and Jessie assured me it wasn’t her. I believe him, cause on a side note, I don’t think he has ever liked her. (She has constantly shown signs of being excessively obsessed with him, and to be honest, I don’t know why he was with her in the first place.) When Jessie’s birthday came around we decided on having a massive house party in a huge mansion down in the gables.
(I go to an affluent charter school, a lot of snobby rich kids) The four of us (Me, Jessie, Ashley, and Chris) planned it. I stupidly gave her the passcode to my phone when I was dealing with the DJ booth placement and dealing with the decorations and the cake, and I needed Ashley to text the plug for our drinks from my phone. The party turns out great and there are upwards of 200-300 people from our school and neighboring schools.
Well late into a night of heavy partying, my phone goes missing. One minute it’s sitting inside my bag, which was in the LOCKED master suite, which only me, Chris, Ashley, and Jessie, and (you guessed it) our dear friend Ashley had ever gone into since the start of the night.
There were 2 sets of keys to the whole house, and both of us (Me and Ashley) as the party planners had them.
Well, my phone is gone and I’m frantically looking for it. I was sure I put my phone in my bag and locked the door. Everything was in my bag. My designer wallet, over $300, my debit card, my cart and battery, everything in my bag except my phone. I start freaking out but I instantly knew it was her. I go to search for her and Chris is trying to calm me down saying it will be fine and phones are replaceable.
He thought I just didn’t like Ashley. He never believed she was the one that told everyone about us and started the rumors and gossip. Well, I (wrongfully) blew up on him and I went off. He decided to go somewhere else and ask around for my phone. We never found it and that was that. I had ended up using his phone to put my phone in lost mode and decided to just enjoy the party I put together.
(When I had looked on finding my iPhone it was already offline for 20 mins but I had a full battery the last time I checked.)
The next day, Chris, my mom, and I went to T-mobile to get me a new phone and get the lost one reported to the insurance as lost/stolen. I get my new phone and immediately link it to my iCloud.
It starts syncing all of my content to my new phone. When I go to text Jessie and open my messages, I noticed that the last message I had sent from my phone was to Ashley, but I could have sworn the last person I texted was Kendall when I sent her an uber to bring her to the gables. The message preview for my message with Ashley was ‘Attachments: 8 Images, 4 Videos’.
My heart dropped. When I opened our texts, she had sent herself intimate videos of me and Chris, as well as pictures of him and me kissing and various other things. I broke down, and Chris went pale in the face, but when he saw me cry, he assured me everything was going to be fine. He immediately called Jessie, who seemed to have gotten in an argument with Ashley that night at the party, and he hadn’t heard from her.
We explained what happened and he was audibly disturbed. He said he was going to try to get in contact with her and apologized for not believing me in the first place.
When I went to text her my messages wouldn’t come up as delivered, and her phone would go immediately to voicemail. She blocked me on all social media accounts as well as Chris.
Our school has this typical HS stuff where someone makes an account just to bash students and expose them. Well somehow some of those videos ended up on there, and my relationship with Chris was confirmed. We got in an argument that day and he put the blame on me for giving her my passcode and for leaving my phone unattended when I didn’t trust her.
Even though he would always tell me I was being dramatic when I would tell him I thought she didn’t like me and has been spreading rumors about him and me.
About a week before this, he was contemplating moving upstate with his sister but had decided not to since he wanted to stay and graduate with me. He admitted to me shortly after that Instagram posted our business that he was considering moving with her and having a fresh start since now alot of people at our school would know.
After about a week, we said our goodbyes and he left 4 hours away. I was heartbroken, but we decided to do long-distance and I would go visit him every week. I only visited him 2 times before the health crisis outbreak. It was fun, but the visits were spread apart by 2 weeks cause the drive is long and risky. Not to mention it’s not cheap and funded by my parents.
Ultimately we broke up. He couldn’t handle the distance and our relationship was too physical to be long-distance. We ended on good terms as its what we both thought was best. I still love him, and I blame her for our breakup. He wouldn’t have moved if it was for him being outed. I had distanced myself from Jessie before Chris moved because I was trying to spend my time with Chris before he was gone.
Jessie and Ashley broke up a few days after the incident and she was destroyed. She began stalking him and harassing him over social media and text. Well, where is the revenge do you ask? Last night, I went over to Jessie’s house to hang out. We wanted to catch up since we kinda gave one another space after the both of us went through our breakups.
His parents are 3 hours away at Jessie’s Grandmother’s house. We started by having a few drinks while discussing Ashley the Crazy Jerk and then moved on to homemade Palomas. He and I have always been close and we would regularly cuddle, or I would run my hands across his arms and back when we would watch movies. We stopped when I began Chris because I didn’t want Chris to get the wrong idea.
Well, we’e watching Tiger King and he asked me to cuddle like old times. The tipsy me thought ‘screw it’ cause we have best friends all our lives and since I was single now so, it wasn’t wrong of me to do so. Then he grabbed my hand and made me run my hands along his arms. One thing led to another and we ended up hooking up.
During the hookup, he brings up the idea to send ASHLEY a VIDEO on Snapchat of the both of us hooking up. I groggily agreed, and the still sober part of me was truly fine with it. She went nuts. Not 10 minutes later, Jessie’s house phone rings, cause she was at the gate trying to get into the community. We both kinda laughed ourselves off and told them to turn her away.
She ended up calling Chris and tried to tell him I betrayed him, and he brushed her off and called her a crazy jerk. This morning Chris called and asked me if it was true, and I told him it was. He sounded kind of upset, but after some talking, he said it was well-deserved and told me that was one of the funniest things I have ever done.
I have to admit I still really love Chris, but it’s not our time right now. In other news, Jessie and I have plans for a nice dinner tonight, so maybe there’s something there? We’ll see.”
3. Promote Relatives Instead Of Competent Employees? I'll Shut The Facility Down
“I was working for a Privately run Correction Facility (PCF for short and anonymity) and had been doing so for nearly 10 years.
Names will be omitted for anonymity reasons, even though the facility is now long since closed down. The pay is nothing like what State or Federal employees get paid, and it was a constant show of being short-handed. I worked my way up through the ranks from being a front-line officer in the units to visitation Sgt, Shift commander, and finally Security Specialist. Bear with me, as this does take a bit to explain why the upward steps came.
When I was a floor officer, I worked with others assigned to the same unit to get a general code of conduct going (IE what we would expect out of the offenders and what we would let slide within reason), because of this the unit we worked on ran so well that most thought of the unit as the ‘easiest unit in the facility to work, but it was because all of us ran it nearly identical and were consistent and fair.
Eventually, this caused my shift commander to move me to other areas as a test and eventually into visitation. Visitation ended up being one of the most demanding positions I worked at the facility simply because prior officers had done so little and we’re so behind. Along with my partner (which regularly changed because of the stress of the position), we got the visitation department up to code and went from taking 5 visitors a weekend to over 80 visitors a weekend on the regular.
After doing this for roughly 3 years I moved up to Sgt of visitation which was less stressful as it was more supervisory and handling complaints as well as necessary policy revisions.
After nearly 2 years I moved into shift commander. Here I identified several issues with our overtime policy to include significant favoritism issues as well as corrected several reporting flaws that we were constantly being dinged on by PPMU (Private Prison Monitoring Unit of the department of corrections in my state).
Because of this PPMU personnel and I became very close as I worked with them on further clarifying and correcting some of the things we weren’t doing quite right. This lead to creating several spreadsheets in Excel that more or less made tracking overtime, vacation, assignments, and various other little managerial things far easier to track with barely anyone having to do much other than add their employees and fill out assignments for each shift. This allowed us to get away from favoritism and more easily spread the copious amount of overtime fairly so everyone was doing their fair share instead of just a handful constantly being taken advantage of while also making it easier to explain monthly shortages.
Higher-ups loved it, PPMU loved it, and many of the worked front line staff were delighted by it cause it allowed them to finally get some rest after 16-hour shifts while others hated it cause they couldn’t skate by under the radar without doing their share of mandatory overtime (part of the new hire agreement was signing you understood there was mandatory overtime and refusal could lead to disciplinary up to termination).
During this time we had some changes in administration and the creation of a couple of positions that were required as part of our contract with the state which was re-negotiated yearly (this is important to know later on). This included at least 1 Captain per shift (originally we had 2 Lieutenants), a Captain of Housing (had none prior), a Security Specialist also a Lt position, and changing several positions from Officer to Sgt level.
This is where the problems started and a number of the staff started filing complaints because while the State mandated these positions, the private company didn’t like it cutting into their profit margin and begrudgingly agreed. However, our administration saw this as a way to get their friends in cushy positions. Company policy says to promote from within, but our administration found ways to make it seem like most internal candidates didn’t meet qualifications while hiring old buddies into newly created Captain and administrative positions.
I was eventually moved to Security Specialist and backup Shift Commander. My new role was creating facility-specific amendments to administrative regulations to ensure we were following the purpose of administrative regulations. This entailed how our equipment was managed, key set permissions, Restrictive Housing Unit, Visitation, Perimeter security, and making sure all guest/visitors/vendors/volunteers entry policies were followed to include mandatory background checks. I also ended up taking over several other excel spreadsheets that were required to show each department in the facility was accordingly staffed the required hours per our state contract agreement.
It was quite the handful, to say the least, and by closely following the administrative regulations I was quickly making more enemies as a lot of the issues started showing how incompetent the administration was, namely the Major, Housing Captain, and one of the other Captains that were buddies the Major got hired on.
As Security Specialist I reported directly to the Major, Deputy Warden, and Warden as well as by extension PPMU.
We had regular meetings to discuss issues and how to remedy them, then it was my job to author the adjustments so the Major could review and sign them along with the Warden before they went into effect. By this time I was the sole manager of no less than 5 Major Excel Spreadsheets in the facility used in various departments. All of which I trained each in those departments, to include Major and Captains, as it was to eventually become their responsibility to manage them.
This included giving them encrypted passwords if those spreadsheets ever broke/corrupted as Excel is known to do on occasions. However, this didn’t happen and I was constantly the go-to in order to get them fixed.
After a couple of years of this, it comes the Private corp to renegotiate the contract and suddenly my position responsibilities get reorganized into their respective Captain or Major responsibilities.
At this time a new Captain position comes open and I put in for it along with several others with similar experience to me, and one that has absolutely bare minimum experience, but is close friends with the Major and another administration sitting on the hiring board. Needless to say, they get the position and I get bumped to their old position as Housing Lt.
I ask my Major why I can’t be moved back to shift commander where I can at least still work on all the policies and sheets I’ve made up to this point to which my Major says to me ‘You aren’t a Captain, and we needed a Captain there. Not you. Just be happy you didn’t get demoted and stop trying to be a Captain.’
I smile and reply ‘Ok, but you do know if you move me to house I no longer have responsibility for all the work I currently do as that is all Security related responsibilities and housing has different responsibilities, right?’ It is important to note that at this PCF Housing and Security acted like two different entities from one another, and Security had the final say over housing, but it was housings responsibility to address housing issues before coming to security.
This meant moving me to Housing Lt instead of back to Shift Commander would mean I no longer had any right to correct them when they weren’t following the policies I had written prior, and certainly meant I had no responsibility for any of the spreadsheets they managed.
‘Well that is how it works here’ the Major replied ‘You just didn’t get the Captain position.
I’m sure we chose the best person and there will be no issues. Just do what your new position is because you aren’t a Captain, you’re a Housing Lt. and you will do only what is part of that position’s assignments.’ At this point, he gives me the biggest soul-eating grin as he has waited 3 years to put me in my place for making his job harder by actually having to do his job.
‘Ok,’ I say and leave the room without saying any further.
Now I had also submitted complaints of harassment and policy violations with updates as further incidents took place causing the complaint to stay perpetually open and this was added to the complaint with documentation. This was only another notch to a long-going issue, one that various others I worked with have also joined in on as they had equally been railroaded, harassed, discriminated against (to include lost wages), and saw the Nepotism taking place.
It is important to know that the policy on Nepotism for this company included language stating that ‘Family and close friends could not have unfair advantages in promotion or job placement overqualified or current employees.’
Now it isn’t immediate, this change, but after a couple of months, I’m now working as a Housing Lt and taking care of my new responsibilities. I’ve shed all responsibility for prior spreadsheets, Policy adjustments, and anything that doesn’t have to do with my immediate department.
It is about this time when things start to go noticeably wrong.
Even though I took the time to train, assign management rights, and give password control of all workbooks to the responsible department heads (most of which were the Major) it doesn’t take long for it all to go to the trash. The new Captain doesn’t know a thing about Excel, let alone any of the reporting software a shift commander has to use sometimes multiple times a day.
Is very lacking in knowledge of AR and quickly gets various offender and staff complaints. The Major isn’t keeping track of the spreadsheets he is now supposed to manage (Contract Compliance tracking and facility entry tracking) because he is just as clueless when it comes to anything computer related, and visitation is slowly going down the drain cause none of the other Captains kept open communication with the Sgt/officers to help deal with issues and staffing concerns.
By this point, PPMU is very unhappy and demanding that these areas be brought up to compliance within 30 days or they will start to pursue fines against the company cutting further into their monthly profit margin by nearly $1,000 per day out of compliance for each issue on top of other fines for failure to fill contractually obligated positions. Needless to say, these are fines that add up very fast for those who don’t know.
At this point, my Housing Captain calls me into his office with another of the admin to give me the assignment of fixing these troubled areas. After reviewing the assignment I smile back and tell him ‘Sorry, the Major told me I wasn’t a Captain and that I was to stop doing Captain work now that I was a Housing Lt. This is beyond my assigned post to fix as it requires me to tell Security what to do in order to fix it.’
‘We should work as a team. You don’t want the team to suffer for this do you?’ He says to me. Then the other admin pipes in ‘Lt., let me get this right. You are refusing to do this because you didn’t get the Captain position?’
I then give the same soul-eating grin the Major gave me when he told me months earlier ‘Well that is how it works here, isn’t it?
Security manages security and housing takes care of housing unless it jeopardizes the security of the facility, then it is a securities problem, right?’ I then roll my shoulders into a shrug ‘I just simply lack the authority to do that job and the Major assured me that you and the other Captains all had it under control. I even showed it all to you before I was reassigned, remember?’
By this point, I can see that the Captain is getting visibly upset as they are now entirely responsible for all the work I used to do. The other admin at this point looks at me again and asks ‘So are you refusing to do this assignment?’
‘It isn’t that I’m refusing to do the assignment, it is just that with all my new responsibilities as housing Lt.
I simply don’t have the time to do them and the work of a Captain, which the Major made very clear I’m not supposed to do the work of any longer as I am not a Captain.’ I then stand with a smile ‘So no, I am not refusing the assignment, I am following the orders of a higher superior that told me to no longer do anything outside of my assigned duties as a housing Lt.
Last I checked, the post orders I signed stated I was only to do assignments that are of Housing unit responsibility which also is signed by the Major and the Warden. Now if you don’t mind, I really have other responsibilities I need to get back to.’ I then smile at both of them and walk out of the office as I was currently in the middle of getting vacation requests and working on offender housing assignments to ensure we were in compliance with STG (security threat group) and racial balance requirements for the nearly 1,000 offenders in the facility.
About 20 days later I receive a phone call while on vacation at 8 AM from the stand-in warden (our Warden had been put on administrative leave pending investigation) along with said Housing Captain.
‘Is this Lt.?’ Asks the stand-in warden to which I groggily answer ‘Yes it is, who is this?’
‘This is Stand-in warden and I’m sitting in the room with Housing Captain who has brought something rather startling to my attention.
He is saying that you refused to do an assigned duty that resulted in the inability to track various things in the facility, is that correct?’
At this point, I sit up in bed and answer ‘Yes, that is correct, but that is beca-‘ I don’t even get to finish as this stand-in is clearly upset at my admission and interrupts me.
‘You do realize that this is insubordinate behavior that is gross in nature, don’t you?’ Anger was clearly in his voice, but a wave of controlled anger.
I can only imagine that the Housing Captain is sitting in the room with a soul-eating grin.
‘Am I going to get to answer, or are you going to interrupt me again? It seems you have already made your mind up on the matter given the tone of your voice, sir.’ I respond.
‘You’re correct, I’ve decided that your negligence in performing duties as assigned is gross in nature and believe this meets the required parameters for immediate termination effective now.’ He pipes back, obviously not happy with what I said.
‘You do realize I will be adding this to my complaint of workplace harassment and retaliation if you do so without getting the full story, don’t you? This means that I will be adding your name to the complaint for failure to do your due diligence in getting the full story on top of the Warden you are currently replacing, the Housing Captain sitting with you, the Major, and several others for violation of your disciplinary policy.’ I’m shaking at this point, angry that this is happening, and that I have to resort to this extent to get the point across.
‘And yes, I do have access to all of the documents, including all current policies of the company, the current contract between the company and the state, and will pursue this if you continue with this?’
‘You do what you feel is necessary, and I am doing what I feel necessary. As of this date you are hereby terminated. You will receive in the mail the disciplinary form and decision to include a formal answer to your complaint by the week’s end.’
‘You see if you’re part of that complaint you no longer can issue the formal answer according to policy. It will now have to come from corporate HR who will have to agree with your decision and already has copies of the complaint as well.’ My voice is now shaking from my anger.
‘Well, then you’ll be hearing from them I suppose.’ the phone then hangs up, but not before I could hear the change in his tone of voice as well.
I wasted little time in fixing my complaint and notifying the corporate HR person I had been in contact with for about 6 months now.
A week later a notice was sent to all employees that the facility would be closing their doors permanently in 90 days, and I continued to receive my full 40 hours a week pay until the day those doors closed without ever having to return to work.
I was then later allowed to file for unemployment as well as the technical reason for loss of employment was through no fault of my own. I later found out from the HR department that the facility was closed due to four major reasons:
1.) The company was no longer making any profit due to poor management decisions that lead to PPMU issuing upwards of $75,000 in fines per month on top of out-of-control overtime due to Shift commanders not properly tracking their shift officers overtime, vacation, or days off.
2.) Many of the administration and Captains had received numerous complaints of company violations to include harassment and nepotism.
3.) PPMU investigated the qualifications of some of the recently hired/promoted administration and Captains as they too were suspicious that they didn’t meet proper qualifications for the position. This means they were entitled to back-fine all the days those positions were filled simply because they were unqualified candidates.
4.) The investigation found all complaints to be valid and would require termination of nearly all of the current administration, 2 Captains, and 1 HR for failure to correct the issues meaning it was easier to just cut their losses rather than try to fix it.
Well, the state had to quickly move and relocate nearly 1,000 offenders, 250 people lost their jobs, of which 15 of them ended up fired due to policy violations resulting from the investigation of nepotism and workplace harassment.
A few had workplace discrimination and resulted in one person, who was not receiving a fair wage of others of similar position, receiving back pay of upwards of $38,000. My start of complaints led to others filing complaints for a similar reason in the nearly two years leading up to this adding to the documentation of the issue that resulted in the closure of the facility.
Even knowing the impact this had, if I were to live through it again I would still have done the same thing.”
2. Replace Me For Taking Care Of My Family? I'll Make Your Trainee Fail
“A couple of years back I was completing my masters and with only the dissertation left to do, I decided to get a full-time job. Was working part-time but would be moving to an actual flat instead of student housing so needed a full-time job to afford the flat. Needing it fast, I signed up to a temp agency, within a couple of weeks was being interviewed at a GP for a medical administration role.
I had experience working in a hospital and pretty much ticked every box they wanted. This is where I met the practice manager who would become the bane of my existence for the following year. We shall call her Sally. Smashing the interview, I was offered the job an hour after leaving the interview and started the very next day.
For context, this was not your normal practice.
This was due to them taking many substance abuse/homeless patients. Ordinarily, an address is required and there are limitations on how many patients a practice can have registered. For a clinical staff of about 12 and an admin staff of 7, it meant we had to deal with around 18,000 to 20,000 patients and this number would rapidly fluctuate. Even for a larger practice, this was an extremely high number to deal with which meant the practice was always busy and there were always delays in appointments, most GPS could offer future slots in 2-3 weeks, we were looking at 6 at best.
Generally, the work was ok, often there were threats from patients, and I received many threats on a weekly basis, but I was thick-skinned and just ignored most. A few times you would have a patient tweaking out and would lunge for you, clambering over the desk. The fact that this place had no security measures other than an alarm system was quite worrying.
The issues began about halfway through my time there.
For 6 months I’d been pretty much a model employee, was never late, covered shifts, took overtime to help out. Learned as much as I could. Now, this for some unknown reason rubbed a few people up the wrong way. Typically in this line of work you have people who have worked there for 20+ years, never done much else. The fact that I had come in and picked up the job quickly and effectively in my work agitated a few of the older admin staff.
I got on extremely well with most of the clinicians and the younger admin staff around my age/slightly older yet a few staff there really had it out for me, these people would let you make mistakes, deliberately be late for shift cover shortening your breaks, and would lose their kids if you were late back from yours if I was working a 10-hour shift, I was going to have my 30-minute break.
It was full-on work and you needed that break to recharge. But due to the outburst, I was having to take 10/15 min breaks just enough time to eat my food and head back.
I let this stuff slide for a bit before I was called into my manager’s office. It was all meant to be anonymous, the manager stating she had received complaints about my conduct.
At this point, it was my word against theirs and as the temp, I was deemed in the wrong. According to some staff I was lazy, never learning to do my work, and passing on tasks to other members of staff.
I got chewed out by the manager and any rebuttal I made was swiftly shut down. After this meeting, I returned to shift, and well, word quickly spread.
Thankfully this went in my favor as both clinicians and the decent members of staff my name was cleared after one of the doctors and senior admin staff went and defended me. Everyone already knew who had made the complaints, and they were called out for their behavior. The manager called a meeting with all parties, I received an apology and was told I would be supported more by certain colleagues.
To me, that should have been the end of it but this was where the job turned sour.
It turned out that one of the staff who filed a complaint, we shall call her as that’s what she truly was, was excellent friends with the manager. To my knowledge, I had never done anything to offend, annoy or antagonize them in any way but both began to make my job misery.
The witch was in charge of rotas and staff allocation, everyone needed to do a part on reception to keep things fair, allowing other staff to recharge and get their tasks completed. Suddenly I was on 1st reception all day every day, no time off, to time away. My tasks started to lag as I was constantly mobbed by patients. After a couple of weeks, I raised this issue with my manager who smiled and told me ‘we are just putting you at the role you are best at’ which was pretty much just a screw you.
The front desk was brutal, mentally and physically draining, constant harassment from patients, many patients who didn’t speak English, and normal patients who were being delayed by everyone else meant that you were shouted and berated non-stop. Again I’m fine with shifts on it, but not all day every day.
Every time I spoke to my manager she would always state the same it’s just what your best at.
I tried speaking to the senior doctors which turned out to be a bigger mistake. Again, I was pulled in for meetings, told that I was trying to go above Sally’s head, and was attempting to use staff against management. My protests meant nothing and again got chewed out but now it was due to Sally and the witch’s actions.
What had been for half a year a tough, but bearable job became demoralizing and depressing.
Day in day out I was getting berated by patients and had no support to get away from it. My decent colleagues were attempting to swap with me, cover patterns, and were always told nope they need to be where they are. Despite their best efforts every attempt to aid me started to get blocked.
To add a cherry to this trash cake, my grandad took ill.
We are a close family and my mum was devastated, and in fairness, to Sally, she was understanding and gave me the day off when I needed to go back and help. Though it turned out this was a one-time offer, a single day to help my family, over the next five months until he sadly passed I was given 4 days total to go back and help.
I had to fake some sick days just to help my mum, doing hospital trips, do house cleaning, deal with careers all that fun stuff. I understand the clinic was busy but always made sure it was well staffed on days I would have to take as emergency days off.
My manager hated me for it, and multiple times threatened to end my contract if I couldn’t commit to the job.
I couldn’t quit with anything to fall back on as was still covering my rent and bills. I did what I could, often finishing shifts and getting home to a family which took about an hour and a half for me. My brothers live further away and it would take them 4/5 hours and so they weren’t able to help as much.
The witch would make my life miserable on shift giving me the harder tasks, and troublesome patients, Sally would just help enforce it.
I was job hunting like crazy but was only getting interviews for pyramid schemes or jobs I know would be equally as bad. But I was nearing a year at the practice and if I reached a year then my role would become permanent. At least that was what my temp agency told me.
I decided to tough it out, cause at least I would still have something secure to keep me going whilst I searched. It was a terrible decision.
Not only was my life at work the family situation deteriorated. My parents struggled to look after grandad who had lost his mind as well as being ill. Didn’t know who we were most of the time. The fateful day I get the call from mum, he’s lucid, but you need to come back now, the doctors have said he won’t make it through the night.
Heart sinks, we knew this day was coming but still weren’t prepared. I head to my manager’s office with the news who promptly tells me we don’t have the staff for me to leave early and need to work the full shift.
At this point, I’m begging, with support from other staff saying they’ll cover me and that’s it’s fine, the answer remains no. I finish the shift. I rush home and still haunts me now that I didn’t get to say goodbye.
He passed an hour after I got there.
The silver lining, I was at least allowed to book a couple of days off for the funeral 3 weeks later.
After all this stuff I’m at the finish line though perm contact available, it’ll be I won’t have to live week by week. The manager brings me to the office and she took great pride in telling me the offer.
Reduced hours to part-time, longer days resulting in both uglier work schedules and pay, putting me below an unliveable wage.
I ask if I can think about it, and when does she need an answer by. She says no time limit just as soon as you can. That seemed oddly reasonable for her. After a week and a half I have my answer, I’ll take the role cause even I’m already suffering enough there, I’ll just have to live even tighter.
I send an email accepting the new hours. No response. Must be busy, I drop by her office later she says she can’t talk, this goes ok for days until it reaches a day before she leaves for holiday and my temp contract is due to end in the next couple weeks.
I manage to corner her in her office, though it seemed she was attempting to make it the last minute to tell me.
She had offered my job to someone else, I would finish after the next 2 weeks. After a year of dealing with her and the witch’s stuff, I was being axed.
Not gonna lie I was a broken man that night. After everything I was forced to sacrifice for them, they were dumping me, but on the following day, they offered me my revenge.
The new guy came in.
The witch was thinking it would be another kick to the gut ensured I would do most of his training. Whilst I am sorry to my other colleagues who had no part in this, I made sure I would get some payback. Turns out this guy was super lazy and thought the job would be a breeze, I made sure to keep those values. I taught this guy everything wrong.
Whilst I still ensured patients would be treated right I made sure he would mess up every admin task to the job. The filing notes were wrong, mishandling information, taking breaks (wasn’t allowed at all), told him to override blocked slots, never told him to log his phone in so the calls were piling up. Told him to take longer breaks that people would cover him.
Anything I could think of to cause hassle to and the manager I did. During that week practice complaints, skyrocketed.
The witch who often sat in the back office on her phone was forced to handle the huge demands now coming in. I, on the other hand, would sit on the desk and do anything all other than look for jobs, unless I was feeling nice to the patients I enjoyed helping.
I even gave out the emails to both Sally’s and witch’s work addresses so complaints were filling their inboxes, causing them to lag and suffer. For patients I dealt with, I would break the system cutting corners allowing them treatment which are strict rules delayed for weeks. Got one of the doctors to sign their scripts instead of making them wait 3 day’, and generally advising them of better practices to register under.
All minor victories for me but I relished each one. Still, I had my glaring impending future of unemployment. After my time, with a big screw you, I left, and by miracle next week, I received a call for a new role, working within the referral service
Worked here ever since. Thought I was done with my old GP job but no I get to continue my fun.
Turns out they are one of the practices we handle. Now, most referrals come through with mistakes, in proper formatting, missing paperwork, etc, but if it’s still clear what the referral is for and have most of the required paperwork we put them through,
But every time I see that practice come under my lists I scrutinize them, a single mistake gets rejected wasting their time, forcing them to do it again.
Now handles referrals and I know for a fact she isn’t doing her job properly, so the rejected piles build upon her lists. I direct any delayed patients her way.
It’s jerkish but after what they did to me it’s the small victories. Last I heard the replacement had quit leaving them down a staff member, whilst the practice still functions as normal, they’ve yet to recover from their reputation as constant google searches confirm, currently stuck at poor when they used to be outstanding.
I am sure at some point they’ll return, as they do have some excellent staff who I do feel sorry screwing over. Though still chat to a couple and there are no had feelings, many have said they would have done the same.”
1. Ask Me To Take Care Of Your Funds? I'll Fool You
“When I was in eighth grade I had a posse of hockey kids who were bullying me.
I was a quiet kid in a class of thirty or so, and the pickings were slim. They kept on calling me names and gossiping behind my back (no biggie for me), but the real issue was getting slammed into lockers. This one little idiot, we’ll call him Cole, would do this before and after every class. So as the end of school was approaching I made my plan.
I waited for the opportunity to present itself to exact revenge. The perfect plan.
Now at the end of the year, we had a ‘fun day’ where the whole school would participate in outdoor activities like a water balloon fight or blanket ball. The teachers assigned groups with kids of all ages to move through the activities together, as it so happened, I was in a group with Cole.
Anyway towards the end of this sunny day, I noticed Cole had a few bills on him, like a 20 spot and a few small bills, from station to station with him. Now I overheard the was for a movie after school, and I’m no thief, but I thought I might ‘requisition’ his and just not spend it. My thoughts were interrupted by the man himself.
‘Hey C,’ said Cole, ‘I noticed you have pockets and I was wondering if you could hold on to my for me?’ Well yippee, kay yay my plan worked perfectly.
I bided my time and gained his trust, faithfully running around in the sweltering heat with his wad of bills in my shorts pocket. We moved on to the final station, some sort of dodgeball-type game.
I waited until I was next to him and made the ever so noticeable gesture of taking his out of my pocket and putting it in a plastic bin. We wouldn’t want it to fall out of my pocket now, would we? As the game began I was on the front lines, hucking foam balls to and fro, but ooooh no I was hit and had to leave the game.
Now for phase two. As my fellow students were focused on their game I made my way to his riches. With the teacher looking the other way I only had one chance. I knelt to tie my shoe and with a deft movement pocketed the once more. Without a care in the world, I strolled to a nearby wooded area and dug a little indent with my shoe.
I carefully leaned up against the tree and flipped my pocket inside out. I quickly covered and scooped up the evidence and went back to the game.
After a couple of minutes the activity, and school, was over. I started walking towards the parking lot, to victory, and freedom. But, both Cole and the teacher called me over to them. And boy was I surprised by what they had to say.
‘Ya-you–ya-your is gone??’ cue surprise ‘But I put it right there!’ ‘Maybe it got knocked over or blown away?’ We searched for the moolah. And they might have found it too, but they had a traitor in their midst, who led them the wrong way at every turn. ‘The wind was blowing this way.’ Or, ‘Somebody must have taken it!’ They didn’t find it, and, as an added bonus, I never really talked to Cole ever again.
Lol.”
Metaspoon Slow or Crashing?
If Metaspoon is causing your browser to crash or run slowly, please try viewing the article in Lite Mode and it should run more smoothly!