Workplace Revenge
We can all agree that getting fired sucks. But there are some shrewd people among us who managed to turn getting let go into a golden opportunity to get even.
From leaving behind a trail of destruction to putting their boss behind bars, these people took to Reddit and Quora to share stories of satisfying revenge.
1. A Slick Send-Off
I was a painter working on commercial properties. I got fired and was told that I had to drive to the owner's house to pick up my check. I got there, pulled into his driveway, and went to the door. When he answered, he had a smirk on his face. He handed me my check, then told me he had to deduct for tools he lent me. I got in my car and backed out. Then I heard a scream from him. I stopped, and the look on his face was complete horror. He just had his driveway resurfaced with concrete; it was dry but turns out I had the oil leak from hell. I dumped at least a quart of the blackest, dirtiest oil right in the middle of his brand new driveway.
2. The Devil’s In The Details
I worked for an architect who never attended to detail and had a load of failures as a result. On the day I refused to give the go-ahead on a design that I knew would fail—because of "unimportant" details—I was fired. The last thing I had to do was supervise the printing of company letterheads, business cards, and A0 drawing sheets. They were supposed to say, "McDonald, Sweet and Partners, Chartered Architects". At the last minute, I chose vengeance. I altered the proofs to say, "McDonald, Sweet and Partners, Chartered Artichokes". Of course, not being a "detail" person he approved the proofs, and thousands got printed.
Freepik,nakaridore
3. Checkmate
I was working for a small game company. They were having trouble and we knew it, but they were upfront about what was going on, so we weren't worried. They had missed payroll a couple of times, but always made it up by the next paycheck. We liked the job, so we hung in hoping it would get better. Until one day we showed up and the doors were locked. I don't know what all happened, but they were in much worse shape than they had let on. I never got my last two paychecks, so they owed me something like $8k. I called one of the owners and he said, “Sorry! The money is gone, they've liquidated everything to pay off debts, and there's nothing left”. A month goes by, and I get a phone call. It was one of the owners asking if I knew what happened to a particular computer. I had taken it home over the weekend to compile and run some renders, and when I showed up Monday I didn't have a job anymore, so I just put it under my desk and forgot it. But that's not what I told him. I simply said, “No, I really don't know where it could've gotten off to, but I also don't know where my last two paychecks are either. Maybe it got liquidated with them? I'll tell you what, though, if my last two paychecks were to show up and clear the bank, I might be motivated to try to find out what happened to that machine with the entire code base, all the model files, and textures, and all the storyboards on it". Three days later, I got an envelope from FedEx with a personal check for everything they owed me, a note saying, “The hard drive is sufficient," and an address. I mailed them the drive after the check cleared.
4. A Dish Best Served…Greasy?
While going to college, my sister worked in a NYC greasy spoon that was mobbed every day. One day, one of the cooks in the kitchen threw a dish at her simply for asking if the right cheese had been put on a customer’s burger. My sister left the kitchen and told the manager what had happened, but he didn’t want to hear it and sided with the cook. That was the last straw. My sister then told the other waitresses there who happened to be her friends what had happened. They all then proceeded to take all the orders from a now packed restaurant, (this was before point of sales computer systems), with no table numbers on the checks, then put all the orders in at once. Then they got their bags and walked out the door as one. The manager came running out to the street screaming at them to get back in there and finish serving the customers and my sister told him, “You and the cook can do it”. That restaurant had to shut down for a week while they scrambled to find new servers. It must have cost them tens of thousands.
