A bad boss can make anyone's life miserable. They shout, humiliate, and don't care about anyone but themselves. But when these Redditors finally had enough of their bosses stepping over them, they decided to get revenge.
1. You Asked, I Delivered
After working my entire career for a company as an engineer, I was suddenly laid off for no reason.
The remaining boss requested that I send them all my files so that they could continue my work. I told him that the day I leave, I would give them all my files. But I decided to get an incredibly petty revenge.
On my last day of work, I accessed the mainframe and downloaded not just the relevant files, but 20 years worth of files—tons and tons of folders and files all in random folders. I sent him the link. He signed off and I left.
A few days later, he contacted me and said that’s not what he meant by all the files. I said, "I don’t work there anymore. I have no computer but I gave you exactly what you asked for”.
2. Good Riddance
I worked as a manager for a certain Mormon cookie company—a crazy new fad. Unfortunately, the owners were two folks who had never worked in the food industry before. They would belittle me and the other manager, and never take any advice from us, yet expected us to “manage” in their specific ways.
A few weeks in and the general manager quit on the spot, leaving me, the assistant manager, to manage over 70+ workers, the schedules, order trucks, etc. It was basically the worst job I have ever had the displeasure of doing.
After multiple months of 60+ hours—and about 20 of those off the clock just to keep the bakery running—I decided I had enough. But I made sure I screwed them as much as possible. I left on a Friday night—our busiest night. I told everyone to go home, locked the doors, and kept all the signs on. Good riddance!!
3. Would You Know It
Just over two years ago, my company decided to dock my bonus by 50% because of the “pandemic”. I was the only one in a sales team of 40 that achieved their sales target.
Without saying a word to anyone, I filled out an exit form on the company software. I held nothing back. I mentioned the reason for quitting as “Company misappropriated my money while the CEO bought a brand new car”.
Soon after, my manager called me and I told him very calmly, “Shri you’re just their guard dog. I don’t talk to dogs”.
Then the CEO called me—it's a small firm of about 50 people, and started telling me that his personal life had nothing to do with my docked bonus. So I told him that he could ride that car into a canyon for all I cared. But it didn't end there.
An hour later, he called me again but this time from another number since I wasn’t picking up his calls. When I did, it was a co-worker telling me how great the CEO was; how he gave him an advance on his payment when he needed it.
This was then followed by two minutes of me and my girlfriend laughing loudly on the call and saying how pathetic he was. It was as if I was the girl who had just broken up with him and he called me with his friend to tell me what a great guy he was.
It finally ended when the CEO confessed that he was also on the call and he heard me saying the last words, “Oh that’s great. I was worried you wouldn’t realize what a schmuck you were being”.
I never dealt with that company again. I started my own business and will be making my monthly salary in about a week.
4. Sweet Justice
I worked as a program director, developing and piloting a new program. After a year of being overloaded, I told the executive director that I either needed an assistant or a smaller caseload. His response made me want to scream.
He pulled me into his office and said “We don’t really think you’re a good fit for this position, but you’re a bright young lady and we’d hate to lose you. I’m giving you the option to stay and be my secretary. You have until 7 am tomorrow to decide”.
I took an early lunch, walked to my other job, asked them if I could take on more hours, walked back, and told him I had found other employment and would have my stuff cleared out by noon.
He asked if I could stay two more weeks to train a new person, and I told him no. They even offered to pay me a consultation fee. Still no.
“But you’re the only person in the county certified”!
Should have thought of that earlier.
The best part was that they were in the middle of an audit, where it was discovered that he owed me about $3,000 in unpaid hours. I like to call it my leaving bonus.
5. Going, Going...Gone
We currently don’t have an executive director because ours quit in November. I’m the only director on staff. Since we’re a collaborative, our “board” is made up of CEOs and executive directors of select collaborative members.
Being the only staff member on our team who works remotely across the country, I’ve been holding down the fort, applying for RFPs and grants which is not part of my job. Basically, I'm doing three full-time jobs because we have lost staff and the executive committee won’t rehire anyone.
The other day, they had the audacity to question if I could really manage staff remotely—which I’ve been doing this entire time! They even told me that I need to get their approval before allowing staff to take any personal time off. That was the final straw.
I was as polite as I could be when I delicately implied they have plenty of other things they should be more concerned about.
I will go on maternity leave in May and I don’t plan to return. They're going to be completely screwed without me—and it serves them right.
6. Too Much To Handle
My boss and I had butted heads a few times after she took over the office. After finding a much better job, I handed her a list of my job responsibilities, which she asked for because she didn't understand what I did there. Her reply was priceless.
"This is too much, we'd have to distribute all this to like four different people" and I said, "Yeah" and walked out.
In the end, she didn't do any of the things I noted and was fired less than a year later as the office was falling apart.
7. Hard Lesson To Learn
I was doing the work of more than three people. I constantly asked for more help—even hiring junior staff to take some of the easier load off. Nothing. Then I found I was being paid less than new hires with no experience after multiple years of working in this environment.
One day, I got an offer for almost double my salary. Basically going from $65k to $130k.
“We can’t match that”, they said. So I left—and chaos unfolded.
They didn’t realize I was playing the lynchpin because about six months later, I found out the team had basically collapsed. My colleagues said, “Forget this”, and left due to the extra work before the company could find help.
They off-shored the department which made it worse, so they let them go. Then they brought the department back on-shore with people entirely untrained and with no knowledge of our job. Eventually, there were targeted layoffs because the company started becoming a cost center instead of a previous profit center.
And my previous manager? He was removed from the role and relegated to being basically a ticket jockey with absolutely no responsibilities.
Senior leadership asked me to come back—with 20% on top of the new salary—to run things.
That was a hard, “No”!
They needed to truly learn from this and me coming back wasn’t going to teach that lesson.
8. Drowning In Work
My co-worker was running a whole department by himself. He was drowning in work. It was originally a three-person team but one left and they never filled the position. Two years later, another employee left. That’s when he said, “Nah, this is too much, we can’t function like this”.
This went on for another year while he carried the whole department by himself.
Then, after 20 years of working for the company, they did the unthinkable—they accused him of stealing.
He denied it, until he was in a room being grilled by a loss prevention officer. Finally, he just lost it and started screaming: “Screw this! Screw you all! I've been a loyal employee carrying the whole body shop building for years, and you ignore my needs. Now I’m being accused of stealing?! I'm out"!
He threw a certain finger in the air and peeled out of the parking lot.
A ton of drama afterward, but four years later, there are now 4-5 people over there because that’s how many it took to replace the original workers.
9. You’re So Busted
I worked for a consultant business that wasn't paying me for travel, but changed my place of residence to an apartment they owned in another city where the work was. This let them write off $5,000/month for housing for me, while I was deducted $1,200 for taxes on my pay cheque.
My tax return had the apartment I rented and my pay stubs had the apartment the company rented.
I told them to change it or I was calling the CRA. They refused. Big mistake. I called the CRA.
Apparently, they had been doing the same thing to most of their seasonal workers for the past 20 years.
The owners had to sell the business to pay off the tax evasion penalties.
10. You Have The Nerve
I recently got another full-time job but kept my current retail gig, working the register, because I liked the employee discount and the money was good pocket money. Essentially. I didn't need the retail job.
At hour seven of my shift, on Black Friday, with a line of 100 people long and total chaos everywhere, my store manager had the nerve to come over and tell me that my up-sales (fishing for promo signups, e.g. rewards, credit cards, etc) weren't cutting it for how much traffic there was in the store. She said all that in front of the customers! I already couldn't stand this boss so I said, "You know what? You do it—I'm done"! and apologized to my co-workers on the way out.
11. Patience Is a Virtue
When my salary was delayed by two weeks, I was told to be lenient because the company was growing and needed our help and cooperation.
I waited for another week but I was ignored. I left the job without notice and when they called me to tell me that they were suing me, I simply replied, “You have money to sue people but no money to pay your employees”?
I switched jobs and I am now at a much better place.
12. A Good Laugh
They begged me to stay on the job after I sent in my notice to quit. I agreed to stay until they found a replacement for me to train. I figured it would take a month or two since the local talent pool was not a deep one. I was horribly wrong.
Months pass and no interviewees. I asked my co-workers if they had seen anyone being interviewed for my position. It turned out no one had interviewed for it.
I don't know what possessed management to disregard the gift I had offered, but long story short, I quit that Friday with no further warning. I sent the email at the end of the day, and I guarantee that it ruined several people's weekend—probably right up to the CIO since he was the one who convinced me to stay on "while they hired a replacement".
Scroll forward a year, and they had hired three people to try to keep up with the workload I was managing. Regardless, they were still falling behind with lower-quality work, various departments were angry at management, and the co-workers I knew from the place had been told by management to ask me if I'd come back if they ran into me in town. A few folks did run into me, which is how I found all this out. We had a good laugh.
13. How Dare You
On my last day working at the bowling alley, I decided to salt the earth. I sent an email to the head office detailing all the shenanigans my manager had been up to but everyone was too afraid to report—like trying to fire someone when he found out the employee was pregnant.
I later heard that the day after I had quit, the regional manager and a couple of executives turned up for a surprise inspection. My old manager was found in the office, having backed a 16-year-old female colleague in the corner, screaming at the top of his lungs, with his big red vein-throbbing face touching hers. She was distraught and obviously crying her eyes out.
The manager was escorted off the premises right then and there and was never heard from again.
Freepik,master1305
14. What A Complex
I forgot my name tag on my second or third day at work at a supermarket. The manager, Damien, asked me where the name tag was and I told him honestly that I forgot it. He said, “How about I forget to pay you"?
I wanted to tell him off but needed the job, especially since they started giving me more and more hours when they saw how efficient I was.
I had a few run-ins with Damien over a couple of months. He seemed to have a complex. He drove a powerful car and enjoyed belittling people whenever he could. He was truly detestable. So when the chance came for revenge, I took it.
Eventually, I found full-time work elsewhere. So one day, I walked into the supermarket and resigned on the spot, then walked out. This happened right before Christmas on a weekend, so Damien wasn’t there.
That night, I got a call from the store asking if I could come in to cover a shift the next morning. I told the person on the phone that I had already quit. But they were desperate and didn’t have anyone else and to come back for one last shift.
I said no and hung up. About five minutes later, I got a call from Damien asking me to do the coverage.
I repeated to him that I had quit, and he repeated that he needed the coverage and he'd see me in the morning. I said "Heck, no" and hung up. He called me back and said that I can't say that and HR would be having a word with me. So I said, "Just try it, shorty" and blocked his number.
Thankfully the new job worked out and I never needed that idiot Damien for a reference.
15. Celebration Time
My co-worker bought cake and ice cream for the office. Someone asked what we were celebrating and he said, “My last day”!
16. Here’s The Truth
My manager just realized he was getting terminated for some pretty egregious safety-related ignorance that I and several others had reported.
He was going through that “sad story” period while HR was investigating the complaints. He came in for his shift one day after HR had accidentally terminated him early. He found out after his work portal and logins didn’t work for anything.
So while he’s sobbing to me about his case—he didn’t know who had reported him—I asked, “So this is your last day”?
“Yeah man, I’m terminated in the system”.
“Wow. That sucks for you. I just want to take this opportunity to tell you, screw you for endangering our safety here. You were, by far, the worst manager I have ever seen”!
And then I just walked away.
17. Pointing Fingers
As a commercial construction Superintendent, I couldn't get the support needed from our project managers. I was thrown under the bus for several deficiencies that I had pointed out earlier in the project—all of which were ignored.
My 30 years of experience meant nothing against their 3-5 years in the industry.
I was tasked with developing a safety program that was never enforced or followed, as well. Three sites were nailed by OSHA. I got the blame for that as well.
One evening, on a whim, I decided I'd had enough. I was done—and I was going to make them pay.
I restored my work laptop, tablet, and phone to factory settings.
The next morning, I removed all of my belongings from the site trailer. I then locked it up, sent them a "goodbye and thank you very much" message, and tossed the keys into a retention pond.
I got a call four hours later from the company I now work for, and eight days later, I had moved to a new state for twice the salary and a lot less stress.
Flickr, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
18. That's Life
My mom was in the final stages of cancer. During that time, I wanted to be around my parents as much as possible. I tried to ask for leave using the FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) but the sheriff and chief basically said, “That’s life”, and declined the leave plan.
I quit and found another job and was able to have a good final six months with her before she passed.
19. Short Notice
Before my shift started, I walked into my boss's office and told him, "I quit".
He asked, "You're giving your two weeks' notice"?
I said, looking at my watch, "I'm giving my ten minutes' notice".
20. Successful Move
After being interviewed and offered a new job, I handed in my two-week notice the following morning (I worked 11 pm-7 am).
The general manager tried to compete with the new job and I simply laughed in his face. I told him that in order for me to even consider staying, he would have to give me a $9/hr raise, paid time off, and health insurance. He made a hateful comment, so I took my notice and changed the final date to the current date and told him to have fun working seven nights a week.
The new job was a lateral move, meaning it was the same exact job, same hours, but just with a better company. I'm still with this company, have had 12 raises, and just celebrated 10 years, with management having food delivered to me every night for a week.
21. A Polished Farewell
I worked at a stupid fake French cafe where the manager was an idiot. He made a point of giving me the lousiest jobs just to show that he was in charge.
One day, he pulled me off the floor—where I earned tips as a server—and made me polish silver for hours. He kept throwing every second piece back at me, and telling me to do it over. He kept saying, “Missed a spot”.
So I walked out—and kept the apron. I kept the beautiful black apron with the embroidered logo and still wear it to this day, whenever I cook.
I also invoiced the owner for my outstanding pay and informed him that his manager was not up for the job. The owner begged me to reconsider but I told him nope.
Freepik, Drazen Zigic
22. A Good Ride
I took the taxi home after being wrongfully dismissed. I then tipped the taxi driver $250 on company expense.
23. Karma Is Funny That Way
I once had a boss who treated me terribly. He and his wife owned a restaurant together.
One day, when he was yelling at me while I was getting the bar ready, I saw him put his password into his phone. It was "space, period, space".
We all knew there was something going on between him and another employee. Several months later, after he wouldn't give me three days off when my niece succumbed to SIDS, I walked out. Then I decided to ruin his life. I bought a $30 burner phone and texted his wife his password.
They got divorced, she kept the steakhouse, and he's had two failed attempts at opening any establishment since then. I make more money than him now and he lives in the crappy apartments down the road from me.
24. Truth Revealed
My old boss, who was one of the best managers I had ever worked with, quit. He was driven out by his boss, who hated me.
This guy demoted me, and when the company laid off EVERYONE else who knew my product, I insisted that he restore me to my previous status or I'd quit. He did, but he wasn't happy about it.
Eventually, he demoted me again and that's when I found another job. During my exit interview with HR, I spoke at length about how he royally messed up the department and fired many excellent people who were now working for the competition.
A few months later, he was escorted to the door and told never to return. Apparently, the company took a good, long look at him and discovered that he had been holding his meetings with his subordinate managers in a local bar and would sometimes never return to the office.
I don't know whether my discussions with HR had anything to do with their review of his performance, but I'd like to think so.
25. Don't Look Back
The manager told me that the company I worked for owned me and that I had better do what they said or face consequences.
This took place in a meeting with other employees present. I walked out of the store right then and there with the manager screaming at me to get back to work.
26. All Gone Down Hill
I was in line for a promotion after my old supervisor was fired for ethics issues. However, the boss decided to open the requisition, interview, and hire a person all within the two days I was off.
But it gets worse.
Since the person they hired had no experience in my department or field, I was expected to train my new supervisor, and the other new people they also hired.
I did none of that. Instead, I quit and gave my two weeks' notice. I didn't explain a single thing to anyone in those 10 days before I had left.
Supposedly, it took almost half a year to get close to where they were before this all went down.
27. The Final Straw
In high school, I made $8 an hour working in a horrible fast-food joint. The new manager that the corporate owner brought in thought that he was God himself. Nothing was ever good enough. Nobody could ever meet his standards yet he could do no wrong.
If you were on his “good side”, you would be spared and he’d overlook your “laziness”. The dude was a low-key perv who let the young female high school teens come in late, leave early, and get breaks in exchange for hugs.
My final straw was when he literally stormed at me and called me into his office one day. “Why were you just standing around instead of working”?
I told him that I was waiting for the fries to finish and it had maybe 30 seconds left on the timer.
“You use that time to restock!!!!”
30 seconds?? Like, yeah, lemme just pull a Superman and restock the whole kitchen in 30 seconds.
I told him I was going to college in the fall and couldn’t work between the hours of 10 am to 2 pm. I must’ve told him maybe three to four times. When the following week’s schedule came out, he had me scheduled for Monday through Friday 9-5.
When I told him that I had specially told him that I'd be unavailable during those hours, he gorilla ripped the schedule off the wall and reposted the new one. I went from having a full schedule to 6-10 am on a Sunday.
When the day finally came, I never showed up. I got a call from him at 4 pm, acting all mighty. Heck with that guy. I told him I quit and he retorted, “You cannot use me as a reference”! Wasn't planning on it!
28. Shoddiest By Far
This was by far the shoddiest job I had ever had—long hours, a lot of crunch, and a lot of travel with no company vehicle.
For each job site I had to visit, I'd get about 20 different phone numbers for each person I was communicating with. I had these contacts stored on my company phone, where all the phone numbers were synched up to my personal email account. At some point, management decided that my job was redundant and laid me off without notice and without severance. He didn't realize how much he needed me—but I was ready to show him.
The first thing I did was wipe my company phone clean before handing it back. A few days later, they called me asking where all the contact information was stored.
"Sorry, I don't work for you anymore".
29. That's A Wrap
I worked the overnight shift at a gas station/convenience store. It was pretty busy for a small town right off a major highway.
The manager who hired me was great and I enjoyed working for her. When she left, she was replaced by an absolutely horrible, bitter manager. We instantly did not get along. But she was so much worse than I even realized.
One night I was six minutes late, which was a very rare occurrence for me. Her little sidekick tattled on me on his break. She then called the store and went off on me.
Since I worked alone overnight until 7 am, I waited for about an hour after the berating phone call and for a moment when the store was empty. Then I hit the emergency stop for the pumps, locked the front doors, counted my drawer very slowly and carefully for the cameras (so they couldn't accuse me of stealing), left a note saying "I quit" in the drawer, and closed the register back up.
Then I got on the store phone and called the district manager and left a voicemail explaining exactly why I quit and what the nasty manager was up to. I then went to the breakers, shut off the outside lights and most of the inside ones to make the place look like it was closed, and left out the side door which would lock behind me. I got in my car and left.
My quitting in this manner cost the store about $1,500-$2,000 in sales that night.
30. Drastic Cuts
In my senior year of high school, I worked at IHOP. When my direct supervisor left, the general manager took over the scheduling responsibilities. Well, he didn't like me or my two friends who also worked there. So when he posted the new schedule and drastically cut our hours all three of us walked out and quit at the same time.
He had to fill four or five weekday shifts and cover all of our weekend hours because we all worked the weekend morning rush.
31. No Defense
After I quit, the company withheld $8,000 in pay and hired a lawyer to defend their actions. I hired a law student and we beat them into submission. Take that!
32. Too Late
I scheduled a vacation with three extra days to go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip. My boss rejected my vacation request. I thought about it for a couple of hours and even contemplated quitting but held back. I had a better idea. Then I went into his office and told him, “I'm taking the trip no matter what”.
The next morning, my boss met me at Human Resources and gave me a formal written warning. I responded by giving him my two-week notice. They apologized and tried to convince me not to leave but it was too late.
33. Devious Boss
A while back, I quit my job because the boss wouldn't give me time off for a vacation that I had planned nine months in advance. He ended up blacklisting me and gave me horrible references, which kept me from getting any jobs for about a year afterward.
When I found out that he was doing this, I called him out on it. That guy was a nasty human being.
34. I Don't Work Here Anymore
I worked as a mechanic for a commuter airline. The boss wanted me to sign off on a plane preflight inspection. I refused to sign off because the plane was not airworthy. He told me that if I wished to continue working there, then I’d better sign. I was the wrong guy to try that on.
My response to him was, “Then I guess I don’t work here anymore”. I then picked up my toolbox and left.
Flickr, Official U.S. Navy Page
35. This Isn't Allowed
I reported the boss to the Inspection department. He was employing more trainees than the legislation allows for a company this size. He was making them work like full-time paid workers, with basically no formation at all.
He got controlled and fined a big amount of money, and had to pay the previous trainee that had worked for him. His company closed for bankruptcy after that.
Sweet justice.
36. Didn't Even Notice
I was an outside salesman who worked hours away from the house. After realizing that my boss wasn't paying me the full commission I was owed, I moved myself and my wife to Europe.
It took four months for him to realize that I was gone.
37. Best Christmas Present
When I worked as a waiter, my manager was always giving us an unwarranted amount of malarkey. She was always rude to us in front of customers, very quick to put us down, and never said thank you for anything.
It was nearing Christmas, and I had just been offered employment by a different company in a role that I actually wanted to pursue with my degree. Then on Christmas Eve, one of the busiest nights of the year, my boss called me incompetent in front of several customers and claimed that she was the only one capable of doing anything in the place.
I turned around and said to her, "If you think you're so good and don't need me, you can shove your job". I then walked out mid-shift. It was one of the most liberating things I've ever done.
What made it better was that I had received a tax reimbursement a few days before so I didn't really need the money I had lost either.
That was a good day.
38. Priceless Reaction
I did home delivery for a furniture company and being one of the more reliable employees, I was always scheduled to work Saturdays. We always had at least one driver call out, so I always ended up with an overloaded truck and a 16-18 hour work day.
My boss would often tell us in meetings that if we thought we could do better, we were wrong and that we would be fired if we were caught applying to competitors. I wished I had recorded him, as that was unlawful.
I ended up getting a better-paying job with a moving company, so rather than give two weeks' notice, I simply showed up on Saturday morning with my uniforms stuffed into two trash bags. I dropped them in front of his desk and told him, "I don't work here anymore", and walked out to cheers from several other drivers. I felt bad that they'd have extra work to do, but it was worth it to see the look on my boss' face.
39. Ladder Of Un-Success
When I was 19, I worked in the deli of a grocery store. I hated my boss. She was a spineless nag who loved to embarrass her least favorite employees in front of customers and managers.
The store held a contest for their employees. Whoever got the most deli tray orders would win a $100 gift card—yeah, woohoo—ladder of success.
One day after she was done condemning me for something, she told me to go answer the phone. I picked it up and it was a lady who wanted 200 fruit/meat/cheese trays ready in a couple of weeks. I couldn't help but laugh.
Well, my boss hated giving me that gift card. When I went to pick it up on my day off, she said "I need you to come in tonight and close". I said that I would but then never showed up. In two days, I had 40 missed calls asking if I was going to show up for work! On top of that, I wasn't the one who had to make those trays. Apparently, a few other people also quit and someone told me she got stuck making most of the trays herself.
40. Burning Bridges
I worked at nights part-time for a gaming cafe. During the day, I worked a regular job elsewhere.
At the launch Call of Duty: Black Ops, I told my boss way in advance that if he was planning on a midnight launch (not selling the game, just having a play party or tournament) that I wasn't going to be available after midnight. He said that it was no problem and that he wasn't going to do anything anyway. Cool beans.
At 11:55 pm, the phone rang and the jerk of a boss was telling me to get down to GameStop ASAP and start handing out flyers for the store, and after that to go back and re-open so we could have a tournament until 3 or 4 am. I reminded him that I had told him that I was only available until midnight. He screamed, "GET THE HECK DOWN HERE"! “No problem”, I told him. “I'll be right there”.
When I got to the store, I locked up and went home. When I woke up, there were a dozen voicemails that I promptly deleted. The next day, I walked in and handed my key over to the associate who was working.
The awkward part is that my day job is right next door to the cafe. I see the owner almost every day and he would glare at me but wouldn't dare say anything. I also get to call over there a lot to complain about the noise.
41. Do It Yourself
I administered a regional data center, which meant that I single-handedly kept over $100k in revenue flowing every month with no Help Desk, and engineers who were too busy billing out their own blocks to help me. After a little more than a year of going way beyond what I was being paid for, I put in my resignation. I basically stated that I was overworked and needed help if they wanted me to stay. I got a 20% raise, which most people would be thankful for. I didn't want the money, I wanted a staff who I could delegate the tier 1 and 2 stuff to.
I called in sick on a Monday—not really sick, just feeling stressed and crushed under the anxiety of trying to juggle all my projects.
My manager emailed me and said that he really needed me in the office, someone he could rely on in the data center. That did it. The next morning, I cleaned my desk and deleted any personal stuff I had saved. I walked out without saying a word. I went back to my apartment, emailed the bosses and said that I was done, and that they were free to find somebody more reliable.
Within a month my manager quit because he started digging into everything that I had on my plate, and realized that he couldn't or wouldn't do it either.
Over the next six months, they tried to get me to come back three times. I politely declined and started a consulting company with an engineer who had also quit.
Sometimes burning that bridge is necessary.
42. Brutal Announcement
When I was a manager, I was running the floor while another manager was letting an employee go. He was supposed to be watching him to make sure he didn't do anything crazy, but stepped away for a second to call down to say he was bringing him downstairs.
Just then, the employee snuck down the back staircase and into a small office downstairs that had access to a phone. He used the phone to get on the PA system to tell the manager to "suck his balls".
Needless to say, I had to give a lot of discounts to upset customers that day.
Freepik, wayhomestudio
43. A Dismal Approval
I booked a day off work almost a month in advance, which got approved. Then shortly after, I handed in my two weeks' notice. My boss decided to schedule me in for the day I had asked off.
I tried to get others to cover me for that day, which many were happy to do, but the boss said that it had to be my shift.
After finding multiple solutions he wasn’t happy with, I said, "Look, it’s the last day of my last week, I’m not gonna be there that day”. He said, “Okay”, then updated the schedule and removed all of my remaining shifts.
Freepik,freepik
44. Let's Go
I worked hard over the course of a year to get all my former co-workers I cared about new jobs.
45. Red-Eyed And Outta There
I spent five years working 12-hour rotating night shifts as a security guard in a booth at a factory. It was miserable. I had another job lined up in an office on the following Monday morning.
I knew that my boss—a wannabe cop douchebag—would be coming in at 5:30 am in a mobile patrol car to check in and use the washroom. So I spent the entire night Jamaican hot boxing the bathroom, and smoked my entire supply.
When the boss showed up, I was red-eyed as heck. I simply blew smoke into his face and told him that he could finish the shift himself. I laughed like a maniac then rode my bike home.
46. Enough Is Enough
I worked in the warehouse of Office Depot and planned on quitting for two months.
I finally had enough and put in my two weeks—two weeks before the Back To School sale was starting.
I talked to several of my co-workers who ended up working 88 hours the first week I quit and 70 the next.
47. What A Move
When I worked in retail, on her last day, my former boss typed out a three-page email of grievances, and proceeded to email it to the entire company—that's to every other store, every corporate employee, all the way up to the CEO. After she sent it, she clocked out, and left.
It was truly a fantastic time for me. I was only halfway through my shift at the time but spent the remainder of the day fielding all manner of congratulatory/concerned calls from other stores.
Corporate then proceeded to lock down both the registers as they went through Outlook and tried to remove the email from our system.
48. Joke's On You
I quit Blockbuster because my manager was unbelievably immature and extremely patronizing, and malicious.
Two weeks after I had quit, more than half of the Blockbuster stores shut down (here in the UK), including the one I worked at.
I now have a better job in every aspect. The irony is that my manager came in and applied for the open manager job here. She didn't get it.
49. Epic Departure
On his last night at the restaurant he worked at, my friend waited for the deep fryers to cool down before putting popcorn in them. The next morning, after someone turned them on, they would start popping and making a huge mess everywhere. It was pretty epic.
Flickr, Marco Verch Professional Photographer
50. It Pays To Know
When I was 21, I worked in reception at a tattoo studio. The owner was an absolute imbecile but we all put up with it because there were not many opportunities in our area of work.
He would often try to short-change people, paying in cash and just randomly coming up with “tax” deductions from it. Being in the UK, PAYE applies.
But he didn't know one key detail about me: I had worked in payroll for three years before working in PAYE, so I knew he was lying.
I had access to petty cash, so I ordered some wage packets and a stamp with the company name and logo. Every week, I would write down the figures that he paid us and his “tax” amounts, stamp it with the company stamp, and take it home.
One day, after planning it all out, I stood up to him when he was shouting at everyone, knowing that I'd probably be fired on the spot. Before he had the chance to do so, I told him that he could “stick his freaking job”—man, that felt great.
On my way out, I told him that I would be back in one week for my P45. His partner tried to lie to me, saying I didn’t need a P45 because I didn’t pay “enough tax”.
Well, it was then that I sweetly pointed out that I had in fact worked in payroll before and that she needed to provide a P45 or I would report them to the Tax Office. The look on her face was priceless.
In the end, I took all of my “payslips” along with a letter I had prepared on company letterhead which confirmed my employment dates. I took them to the Tax Office and innocently queried about the tax amounts because I thought they might have been incorrect.
With an investigation and my help, they took him for a lot of money. He lost his business and his house and he ended up living in a trailer.
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