While many people bite their tongues and keep their heads down at their place of work, some folks are lucky enough to find a way to get some payback on their tormenters. If you’ve ever wanted to stick it to a petty boss or troublesome co-worker, you’ll love these stories of workplace revenge!
1. Special Delivery
In my early 20s, I was a delivery driver at a nearby pizza place. After a few months, the owner brought in his buddy to manage the place as our previous manager had left. Let’s call the new guy “Donnie”. Donnie was the classic boss-on-a-power-trip. He made our lives miserable.
He'd nitpick over small errors, make you stay late to cover for him, talk trash about you to the owner, and always duck out early. And he thought everyone liked him! We even caught him swiping tips a couple of times, but the owner turned a blind eye.
One evening, I had plans with a girl I just met, so I wanted to wrap up work a bit earlier to shake off the pizza aroma. I asked Donnie, and he flipped out. It was like I'd asked for a huge raise or something. Even though the next shift’s drivers were already there, he yelled, "What, are you dumb? We have three deliveries up! You stay until your shift ends”.
I thought, "Fine". He was annoying, but he had the right to keep me until my shift was over. I geared up for the last deliveries. But when Donnie saw one of the delivery locations, he demanded—didn’t ask—for a chocolate shake from a nearby drive-through.
I told him straight up, "No way. You can’t help me out but want a favor? Forget it". I took the pizzas and stormed out. Donnie jeered from the kitchen, “Look at him going all political. Oh, he's mad now". Sure, his past antics played a part in my reaction, but I was fuming.
Seemed like the universe wanted me to teach this jerk a lesson. After my last delivery, I called the shop, spoke to Donnie, and offered to get him that milkshake, my treat. I got a huge chocolate milkshake from a fast-food place.
Then, I darted to a grocery store and got a big bottle of chocolate Ex-Lax. I poured out half the shake to enjoy later, and mixed in a bunch of Ex-Lax into what was left. Now, a little of this stuff goes a long way.
I handed him the concoction and, despite noting a strange taste, he downed it like a champ. No thank you or anything. A few hours later, my date and I popped into the pizza place. Immediately, a cook sprinted over and shared that Donnie was battling extreme diarrhea. He'd been in the restroom since I left, with a nasty accident already to his name, and was stinking up the place.
I headed to the kitchen and, as I chatted with a coworker, Donnie bolted from the restroom, pants half down, one hand out front, and the other clutching his rear. He’d used up all the toilet paper and was on his way to the bar next door for more. And remember, he lived 40 miles away, which must've been a miserable ride home.
Everyone knew what really happened, but Donnie blamed the fast-food place for his misadventure. And maybe it was a good thing, because he seemed a bit humbled after and actually turned into a decent guy.
2. Hide And Seek
Alright, so my boss was a real piece of work—I won’t dive into the details, but picture a mix of clueless control freak with a sprinkle of petty evil. So, I decided to spice things up a bit with a PCB prank device. If you haven't come across it, it’s this sneaky little gadget that lets out a random "BLEEP!" every now and then, between a minute to ten minutes apart. It sounds just like that annoying "low battery" beep.
I tucked it away in a spot I knew she’d never look and sat back to enjoy the show. Over the next few weeks, it was like watching her slowly lose her marbles. The beeps got under her skin, fraying her sanity and her patience into shreds. She switched out her phone twice, got a new computer, and yet, the mystery of the elusive “BLEEP!” remained unsolved. My masterstroke? I’d nestled the device inside her monitor.
3. Overtime Pay
So, I was worked as an installer in a remote office. I had to travel a ton for work, often over weekends. It was all good when my old boss was around, super flexible with working from home and giving me comp time and all. But fast forward four years, and bam, new boss walks in. Things immediately hit the fan. Just as they swoop in, the company fires almost everyone in my office, a hundred souls, gone!
Now the new boss, she insists I drive 45 minutes every day to sit in a now-ghostly office. And the Sunday to Friday road trips continued, with zilch overtime or comp time. I took my grievances to HR, and guess what? The HR head told me since I was on a salary, I could be grinding 80 hours a week without expecting a dime extra.
I chatted with others, and it seemed like everyone was buying this “salaried equals no overtime” thing. But that didn’t sit right with me. So, I hit up the local state Department of Labor, spilled the beans on my situation and what HR had fed me. They advised me to lawyer up, saying if my company didn’t square things up, they’d be facing some serious penalties.
And so, I found myself a lawyer. Fast forward another four months, we sorted it out of court, I landed a new gig, and pocketed the severance. Oh, and I had a little parting chit-chat with my boss in an exit interview. Told her if she'd been a decent person from the start, she wouldn’t be in a hot mess covering the upcoming eight installs by flying folks from the East Coast and shelling out for their overtime.
4. Know Your Worth
Back in the day, I was a typesetter when it was all about those dedicated typesetting machines, before desktops took over. It was a niche gig that usually came with a decent pay. So, I took up this one job, agreeing to a bit of a pay cut for the first six weeks while I got the hang of their system, something I hadn’t worked with before. Six weeks rolled by, and guess what? No sign of that raise I was promised. But oh, the plot thickens.
Meanwhile, this absolutely unbearable paste-up "artist" fell sick, and guess who was left juggling both the type and layout? Yours truly. Then this big-shot project came in, and I was only one left to do it. Without me, they'd be in a world of hurt. Even if they found a typesetter who could handle paste-up, there was no time to post an ad, hire, and train them up.
I decided it was high time to remind the boss and manager about that sweet raise they dangled when I joined, and how that was ages ago. I packed my personal desk goodies into a box and laid it down for them—they had till the end of the day to figure it out. And would you believe it? By 5 pm, I had my raise, all the way backdated to my hire date.
5. Short-Staffed
I had this boss who was a total nightmare, always throwing around demands that defied the laws of physics. She strutted around like she owned the place since her higher-ups let her run wild. But I had about enough and was ready to bring her back down to earth. So, during one of her melodramas, where she dumped a 12-hour workload on me at 4 pm, expecting it done by the next morning, I just told her, "Alright, I quit".
She lost it, yelling, "YOU CAN'T QUIT! YOU HAVE TO GIVE TWO WEEKS' NOTICE!" I shot back, "What? No, I don't. So long, and good luck tackling all that work due tomorrow". Walking away from that felt sooo good.
6. Throwing Wrenches
I had this female coworker who wrongfully accused me and two other dudes of planning to swipe stuff from our workplace. Now, between the three of us, we had seven solid years at this job compared to her two months. But our boss, who clearly had a bone to pick with guys, believed her right away. She handed down this laughable lecture on "security concerns" and had us hand over our keys.
She didn't kick us out though, since our seven years of knowledge made us the backbone of the place. Without us, the whole operation would have nose-dived, and everyone knew it. Naturally, we were fuming over this mess. Our direct supervisor was a chill guy, so we gave him a heads-up that we were taking the next day off.
Then, the chaos kicked in. In one of the biggest face-palm moments ever, at 9 am, the accusing coworker rang our supervisor, baffled about why we were MIA. Well, the whole place hit a snag for a while. Clients were ticked off over the sudden service blackout, troubleshooting went south, and the three of us could only chuckle over the disaster.
It took a few days for things to kinda fall back into place. But even then, the operation was limping since no one else had the chops to do our jobs, let alone with the kind of finesse we had. We never got an "I'm sorry" from anyone up the ladder, and when we tried to confront our accuser, she played hide-and-seek for a day and a half before we could corner her with the bosses.
The bosses pulled a "well, we can't really say what went down, but if she pointed fingers, you guys must've slipped up somewhere" card. Our anti-man boss spent an hour trying to pry a confession out of us for offence we never committed. We laid out all the dirt we had on our accuser, including some pretty clear-cut theft instances, and walked out of there.
As we left, we said sorry to the folks who got lumped with extra work because of our exit. Their reactions threw us for a loop—none of them held it against us. Like our supervisor said later, "I don't blame you. I'd have bailed too after that circus. Heck, you guys have been here longer than me, I'd be the more likely thief!"
A year down the line, the company saw a 50% dip in clients and right now, they're on the brink of closing shop. The company barely managed with people who knew how to handle crisis, and with everyone else being newbies, driving out the old hands, well, it led to everything going haywire.
7. Call The Caterer
Our company was hosting an appreciation lunch for us employees and had selected a small group to plan and execute the event. However, on the big day, upper management suddenly got uptight, thinking the planning committee was using up too much company time. They told us that anyone helping out at the luncheon would have to do so during their lunch breaks or stay late to make up the time.
Obviously, we weren't thrilled about that. Before the luncheon, we had this big meeting where all the managers and higher-ups were singing praises for everyone's hard work and whatnot. Towards the end, they asked if anyone had any questions or comments. That's when I saw my chance—and I took it. I stood up and, in a super friendly tone, suggested that we needed some managers to volunteer to serve at the luncheon.
The room went silent for like ten seconds, then there was a lot of hushed chatting and scrambling as the upper management nudged the lower management to volunteer. It was a sight to see them spending their lunch hour serving us!
8. Temp Trouble
I had this terrible boss when I was working at a logistics company. Let's say his name was "David". Now this company had a policy of hiring dock workers through a temp-to-hire service. They had this 90-day window during which the dock supervisor, David in this case, could call your temp agency and tell them your stint at the logistics company was over.
Whenever this happened, David would call the temp into the office, and with a smug grin, he'd go: “IT'S JUST NOT WORKING OUT”. This guy loved ridiculing new temps—how they dressed, how they talked, their mannerisms, everything—right in front of everyone during shift meetings. Whenever a new batch of temps came in, he'd choose one unfortunate soul to pick on.
He’d push this person to the edge until they either quit or made a small mistake, which he'd then report to the temp agency as a reason to let them go. Now David was married to someone quite influential in town, who was the main breadwinner. So he was cool with just being a low-level supervisor. On top of that, being the only visible minority with a supervisory role, the logistics company was hesitant to let him go.
David was totally uninterested in moving up the ladder since his only duty was to submit an end-of-shift report, which he’d get one of the receivers to do for him. For two years, I typed up these reports for him, knowing he never saw any of the stuff he was supposed to report on. He'd just chill in his office or roam around the dock on a golf cart, seeking reasons to fire newbies.
I initially joined as a temp, kept a low profile amidst David’s antics, and eventually got promoted to lead a different department. Fast forward three years, and the logistics company felt the receiving department needed better leadership and decided to hire a department head. Here’s the twist: I got that job. Now I was David's boss.
When the news was announced the next morning, David turned ghostly pale. I thought he was going to pass out. He knew I had witnessed all the terrible stuff he had done over the years. For three months, I'd show up during his shifts nightly to "monitor" how he ran things. He kept messing up, one blunder after another.
I had enough to fire him right away, but I decided to document everything. When the time finally came, I called him into my office. With a truckload of evidence to fire him, I chose to keep it simple. I looked at him and said, "David, it's just not working out".
9. It’s All Elementary
I had these really frustrating bosses who seemed to be on a mission to find reasons to fire me all year long. It got to a point where I was churning out three times the number of lesson plans and had way less freedom to do my job compared to other teachers at the school. They kept saying my lesson plans weren’t detailed enough, so I asked to see the best lesson plan from any other teacher. I was in for a rude surprise.
Turns out, mine were more detailed, which even surprised me. They had spent so much time telling me I was a lousy teacher that I’d started to believe it. Eventually, I decided it was time to shake things up a bit. Our school had a free license to Rosetta Stone, so I switched my language to Korean. Almost every week, someone would remark, "Korean! Who learns Korean? What are you going to do with that?”
As the school year ended, they told me not to come back next year, and I happily told them, "Thank you, but I just landed a job in Korea". They had brought the dean in, probably to ensure I didn’t cause a scene, but I think even he was surprised to see me practically laughing as I left the office, shaking hands with everyone, big grin plastered on my face.
Now here I am, at my desk in Korea, the only native English teacher at my school, and everyone here appreciates me. Honestly, I might have stuck around at that old job for another five or ten years. Being asked to not come back turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.
10. The Secret Ingredient
Someone at work kept swiping my lunch, and me being the chill person I am, just casually mentioned it to my wife. I didn’t think much of it, but these were the sandwiches she lovingly made for me every day. So, she decided to whip up a special sandwich for me with bread and a surprise filling: toothpaste. I stashed it in the fridge, and sure enough, come lunchtime, it had vanished.
I have no clue if the sandwich-thief actually ate it, but I shared the story with HR. And the cherry on top? They found it so hilarious, they gifted me a $20 card to Outback Steakhouse.
11. Deal Or No Deal?
The place I worked at for many years let me go out of the blue. My boss was an odd duck, and I had seen him do the same to others without any heads up. Though, he always gave folks an option to stay on for 60 days to hunt for new gigs. But here's the catch, they had to sign a paper saying they were "voluntarily" leaving and giving up all claims to unemployment.
When my turn came, he tossed me the same offer. I didn’t bite, thinking unemployment would be a safer bet in case I didn't land something new within 60 days. Turns out, that was the smartest move I ever made. The company tried to contest my unemployment claim, but after many loyal years, the only blips on my record were clocking in less than 15 minutes late a mere three times.
At the unemployment hearing, I told the judge about their sketchy offer to stay on if I forfeited my unemployment rights. She told me that was a big no-no and sided with me. Each weekly unemployment deposit felt like a small win, at least until I snagged a new job.
12. Safety First
I used to be a developer at a company focused on EDI software. My boss was a paranoid, stingy, control freak. He'd say things like, "I know your contract allows an hour for lunch, but most folks take just 15 minutes and I think you should too". Or, "I don't see why you can’t start making a habit of coming in 30 minutes early and leaving 30 minutes late".
The biggest issue I had with him was when he denied me time off to be with my wife when my mother-in-law was in her final days...but, I'd have my moment for revenge. Our office was in a repurposed factory divided into several units, owned by my boss' brother. The building housed our company, a karate studio, and a childcare center.
I noticed that the fire alarm panel at the main entrance seemed lifeless, like it had no power running through it. So, I rang up the fire department. They showed up for a surprise inspection 30 minutes later, especially concerned since there was a childcare center onsite. The building owner ended up with a €10k fine.
He also had to shell out a hefty sum for a new fire alarm system. A few months down the line, when I was let go under dubious circumstances, I revealed to my boss that I was the one who called the fire department. Watching the color fade from his face was quite satisfying. Following that, I filed a claim against him for unfair dismissal.
My case is set to be heard by the employment appeals tribunal in a few weeks. Getting back at him for the terrible way he treated me has been quite a cathartic experience.
13. Proud Poppa
This tale isn't about me, but my dad. He was grinding away at an early computer company back in the late '60s. He was the go-to guy for supporting and managing the hefty microcomputers some customers had. Now, when my mom was about to have her first child, my eldest brother, my dad's boss gave him a hard time for wanting some personal time off.
The boss was even resistant to letting my dad leave when my mom went into labor. That’s when my dad hit his boiling point. He ranted about the boss’s incompetence and how he was just piggybacking on the talent of others. My dad quit on the spot and dashed to the hospital. I always chuckle when my mom recounts how my dad arrived, cheered her on the birth, and casually mentioned he’d just quit his job.
She can laugh about it now, but imagine her reaction at the time! The twist comes a day later when the company's owner rang up my dad, offering him his old boss’s position. And the best part? The old boss now had to report to my dad. Talk about a rough turnaround!
14. Hacked
I once worked at a company where we conducted phone surveys, with about 250 people on board at any given moment. One day, my annoying boss thought it’d be funny to push me over. Now, having been there for quite a while, I was the guy who ran system backups on weekends. It was nothing complicated, just overseeing the computers while punching in a few Unix commands.
Thanks to this, I had just the right level of system access to halt the entire dialing floor for three hours. So picture this: 250 people sitting idle, still getting paid on a busy day. And I didn’t even get caught. It was a small victory, but it felt incredibly satisfying.
15. Data Overload
I had this unpleasant co-worker at a struggling website I was working at. Within the first week, he decided he wanted to fire me, despite having no clue what my job entailed. At that point, I was the only IT person around and arguably one of the more productive folks in the building. He gave me a week to “turn things around,” without specifying what exactly needed turning.
My guess is he had his own IT guy in mind to replace me. I basically told him off and made it clear I'd walk out right then if he pressed the issue. He seemed surprised by my reaction, and over the next nine months, he toned down his hostility a bit.
Fast forward three months, and the tables had turned – we decided it was time for him to go, based on the info I provided about his poor performance and misuse of company resources. Quite the irony, huh? Despite my advice, the owners informed him ahead of time and allowed him to spend a whole day unsupervised in his office before leaving.
Not trusting him, I kept a close eye on his activities. That's how a made a shocking discovery: He was copying a ton of data from our servers while deleting some, and transferring all his contacts and client-related info onto a USB drive. On his last day, the owners took him out to lunch before his departure.
Since I had backups, I used the chance to restore all the data he had taken. And then, a couple of very revealing emails from his work account accidentally got forwarded to his wife. Just to clarify, I wasn’t snooping; I stumbled upon these emails while recovering the data he had taken.
Turns out, he’d been having an affair for months, discussing plans with his new partner about leaving his wife, taking the house, and leaving her with the kids. I'm not sure how things ended up for him, but hopefully, it was a learning lesson. The guy was quite the piece of work.
16. Screwy Louie
Our boss was this odd fellow known for his inappropriate comments. One time, he even asked me where he could find a "good woman" to suit his whims. One evening, after blaming me and my supervisor for a mess we didn't create, he carelessly left his email open. This was my chance for some payback—and I seized it.
As it happened, this guy was cheating on his wife. We found the incriminating emails, forwarded them to his wife, and watched as he frantically scrambled to mend the situation. Good riddance. He was shown the door a few weeks later.
17. Super Sale
I put up an ad on Craigslist advertising an incredible deal on a 42" Plasma TV. In the contact section, I mischievously listed my co-worker's office number, cell number, and email for inquiries. Then, I sat back and enjoyed the show as the calls and messages poured in.
18. Balancing The Scales
At the age of 15, I landed a job at a cafe in Sydney. Unfortunately, the place was run poorly, always in a mess and quite disorganized. Plus, they were paying me below the minimum wage, a fact I only came to realize after I left. I shot an email to my boss outlining the extra money he owed me, but he brushed it off, insisting he had paid me right.
Taking it up a notch, I involved the workplace ombudsman. Not only did this move force my boss to pay up what he owed me, but it also ended up benefiting my former co-workers as they received their due pay. And here's my favorite part—following the ombudsman's visit, my boss had to sell the business. The ombudsman had taken note of the cafe's unhygienic conditions and called in a health inspector.
19. The Critter Cam
I had been working for around six months as a second-tier support technician at a fairly sizable corporation, assisting both Mac and PC users. My support team had two quite the characters—one was a loud, simple-minded guy we'll call Keith, and the other was a sour, middle-aged grump named Bill. I sat in a cubicle with Bill right across from me, while Keith sat across the aisle, always talking as if he was at a rock concert, his voice piercing through walls.
Bill detested me mainly because I had taken over half of his duties along with the role of "Mac Technician" to assist the creative team, a team he thought we didn't even need. Keith, on the other hand, despised me because I constantly challenged his biased and hateful ramblings. He hated being proven wrong, even when faced with a ton of evidence.
Then things started getting weird. For about three weeks, I noticed my desk items being moved around. Initially, I brushed it off as a prank by the interns, but soon realized it wasn’t them as the shuffling happened even when we were all out for lunch together. This narrowed it down to either Keith, Bill, or a ghost. That’s when a brilliant idea hit me—I could use the photo booth on my MacBook to catch the culprit!
So, I positioned my laptop in a corner facing the entrance to my cubicle, and waited. It took a couple of days, but I finally caught both Keith and Bill snooping around my desk and talking about me behind my back.
I was livid, to say the least! But I had a plan. I gathered the footage, created a single video, burned it onto a DVD, and strutted over to HR. The HR representative was dumbfounded by the evidence I brought forth. He'd never had someone present actual video proof of workplace harassment before.
Fast forwarding a few months: Keith left the company after being denied a managerial position, while Bill was stuck in his old job, only now with a harassment strike on his record. I too left the company shortly after Keith to complete my bachelor’s degree, and now I'm happily employed as an engineer at a small but fantastic software company.
20. Don’t Overstay Your Welcome
I was handling laundry duties at a hotel with another person, who had recently quit. Now, I was left training a new guy who seemed hardly fit for the job and struggled with basic conversations. Around the same time, I got another job offer. I asked the hotel to match the salary from the new offer if they wanted to retain me.
But the manager didn’t just refuse the raise, she also asked me to work on my only day off so she wouldn’t have to come in for training. Frustrated, I handed in my two weeks’ notice, yet reluctantly agreed to cover the extra shift. It turned out to be a terrible decision. There was this guest, dubbed “the food man”, who checked in every month and had a bizarre habit of using the room’s sheets and towels instead of toilet paper.
Every night he stayed, he soiled two sheets, four towels, and a couple of hand towels and washcloths. I never understood why the hotel still accommodated him, but his visits were the dreaded days at work. The day before the extra shift, the manager warned me, “Brace yourself for tomorrow, the food man is staying tonight".
That was the tipping point. I completed the day's work, but didn’t bother setting my alarm for the next day. As a result, the manager had to step in, enduring a near 11-hour shift with the exasperating trainee. While I feel a tad guilty for leaving the trainee in the lurch, sometimes unintended collateral damage is unavoidable.
21. Sharing Is Caring
During my freshman year in college, I got stuck with a roommate who was a total pain. This guy was lazy, whiny, and had no respect for my belongings. He'd wear my clothes and stretch them out, scratch my CDs, lounge on my bed, use my computer, and even eat my food. About a month in, he decided to drop out, so he cared even less about being a decent roommate.
We were in a suite with no other suitemates, so we had a private bathroom and shower. I started noticing that my supplies were running out way quicker than they should have—deodorant, printer ink, shampoo, you name it. It was clear he was using my stuff instead of buying his own. So, I hatched a plan to teach him a lesson. I discreetly bought a new set of toiletries and hid them away.
Then, I got to work on the old toiletries, the ones he had been mooching off. I messed with his shampoo and mine (since he was using it), among other things. I made sure anything he could potentially use was now completely off-limits, at least in a sanitary sense.
Meanwhile, I kept my new stash hidden and started showering at my girlfriend’s place to avoid using the tampered goods. I loathed that guy with a passion, but by the end of this ordeal, I found a little satisfaction in knowing he had been unknowingly subjected to a dose of payback for the last three weeks of his stay.
22. A Taste Of Your Own Medicine
I once worked at a shoddy hostel under a boss who was nothing short of abusive, and to top it off, the place was swarming with bed bugs. On the day before Christmas Eve, he asked me to cover the overnight shift. I agreed, but then decided not to show up for work ever again. His response was insane—he bombarded me with around 50 furious voicemails, ranting about how I had left him in a lurch, forcing him to cover the shift himself and miss Christmas. I still laugh about it.
23. Will You Be My Valentine?
I had this manager at a clothing store who would become a total control freak whenever the big boss was around. She'd boast about her sales figures, claiming that she was the reason the store was doing well, and she'd use her ID to ring up our sales to make it look like she sold more. As Valentine's Day approached, I hatched a little plan. I bought one of those massive heart-shaped boxes of chocolates and placed it in the backroom with a note, supposedly from our married boss, expressing his fondness for her, wishing for more time together, and asking her to call him if she felt the same.
Here's where things took an unexpected turn: She actually called him. It later came to light that they did have an affair, which, when discovered, led to our boss getting dumped by his wife. In a bout of rage or remorse, he fired the manager. I wasn't around to witness the fallout since I had quit soon after Valentine's Day, but when I got wind of the news, I couldn't help but chuckle. The irony was too sweet to ignore.
24. Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner
I was employed at a Chick-fil-A outlet in Georgia from age 15 until 17, after which I landed a better job. So, I handed in my two-week notice, but with one week left, the kitchen's AC broke down. If you've ever been in a Georgian kitchen in August, you'd know it's akin to an oven. I inquired with the owner about when he'd get it fixed, and his response was a nonchalant "in a month". I couldn't bear the heat, so I quit early.
When I received my final paycheck, I discovered my pay rate had been reduced to minimum wage as a penalty for not completing the notice period. That irked me, so I decided to get a bit petty. I visited a local butcher and bought a skinned cow head, with the eyeballs intact—a grotesque sight indeed. Since my parents were away, I kept it on my back porch for a few days, allowing a swarm of maggots and bugs to make it their home.
On a bustling Saturday, I sneaked into the restaurant, carrying the now repugnant cow head with me. I entered the men's room and placed it on a toilet. The plumbing around the toilet resembled a cross, which prompted me to light a few candles around it, creating an eerie ambiance. Lastly, I put up a sign that said "EAT MORE CHICKEN".
25. Game On!
A lady on our team wasn’t really into working. She'd either find ways to get out of tasks or spend her lunch breaks endlessly playing solitaire. It reached a point where we started removing games from her computer using the local admin accounts.
One day, I saw she had yet another game on her PC, even after we'd cleared out the default ones. That was the last straw for me. I decided to teach her a lesson.
On that day, she left the office without logging off her PC—a big oversight. I hopped on her PC and found the game shortcut on the desktop. I tweaked the shortcut properties so that now, when she clicked on the game, it would bring up the Wikipedia page on work ethic instead. She's stopped playing games in the office since then.
26. Expensive Taste
I began a new IT job and ended up on the same team as this guy who immediately seemed to have it out for me. He painted me as a lesser guy even though we were both in our mid-20s. I was further along in the profession, happily married, while he still lived at home, struck out with the ladies, and held a lower-ranking position.
He constantly tried to pull me into arguments, eager to throw around his rehearsed right-wing remarks and brag about how I wasn't a “real man” since I didn't indulge in pricey scotch or collect pieces. I brushed it off, knowing I was already ahead in life's race. Until the day he sent an email to the entire team that got under my skin.
It read, "If you don't drink this, you can kiss your manhood goodbye", attached with a picture of some lavish scotch. Without thinking, I hit “reply all” and shot back, “You know what else kisses my manhood goodbye? Your mom". The team's inbox lit up with “Oh, snap!” responses. Fast forward six months, I was promoted to lead the team, while he got the boot.
27. Motorsport
I had a warehouse manager who wasn't a nice person. I came up with a simple plan to teach him a lesson—I placed ads in the local papers listing his car for sale at half price and had people ringing his house at all hours of the night.
28. Spill The Beans
I landed a new job at a company that happened to be a big customer of my old employer. Even better, I shared that place's questionable business practices with my new boss about, and managed to convince them to stop buying from them.
29. Touchy Subject
Back when I was 17, I had a job as a laborer on a construction site. My main gig was keeping things clean, especially the floors, while the carpenters and builders did their thing. There was this guy there named Tony, and let's just say he wasn't the most pleasant person.
Tony, despite being a carpenter, acted like he was in charge of the whole place. He'd give orders to everyone, even folks who weren't in his trade. Plus, he always had a smoke hanging from his mouth. Now, I'm now a doctor who specializes in ear, nose, and throat issues, so lighting up didn't bother me much.
However, what did bother me was the fact that he smoked on the job, and no one had the guts to tell him to stop. When I first met Tony, I could tell he was a difficult person, so I did my best to avoid him. But every now and then, as I passed by him, he'd grab my shoulders from behind and shout, "Want some?"
This happened almost every day, and initially, I'd politely decline, wriggle free, and steer clear of him. But he kept at it. After about a month, I started telling him to back off and not touch me, but it didn't stop. Instead, he'd mockingly yell, "Don't touch me, don't touch me," finding it amusing. But I had a plan.
Things had gone too far, and the foreman wasn't doing anything about it, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I overheard Tony worrying about his affair with another worker's wife. So, I took his phone from his workbench and sent a few revealing messages to his wife.
He also had some wooden strips with measurements, kind of like templates, that were labeled "DON'T TOUCH". I took five of these strips, added "ME" to the end, and super-glued them to his car. While I was at it, I let some air out of his tires and super-glued the valve caps back on.
I thought, "That should do it". I left before he could discover what I'd done, so I didn't get to witness his reaction. Predictably, I got a call from the foreman that afternoon, telling me to find another job. I might have lost my lousy job, but it was worth it to finally bring that guy down a few notches.
30. Stalling For Time
I had been working at a family-owned computer reseller for a solid five years when I got a job offer from a larger corporation that seemed like a promising opportunity. I did the right thing and gave my two weeks' notice. However, things took an unexpected turn when the owner of my current workplace decided to call the CEO of the new company I was joining. Somehow, they managed to delay my departure by two more weeks.
During this extended period, they rallied everyone in the company to talk to me individually and try to convince me that leaving was a big mistake. Little did they realize that their efforts were pushing me further away. In fact, they were actually making a mistake themselves–the mistake of underestimating me.
For those two additional weeks, they made my work life incredibly difficult. So, when it finally came time for me to leave, I decided to get a bit creative. I changed all the passwords for the entire internal network to the phrase "I don't know". When they inevitably called me to ask for the passwords, I simply told them the truth – "I don't know".
31. The Gardener
When I was younger, I used to work in loss prevention for a supermarket company. In our workplace, there was a group of guys known as "The Blue Ribbons" because they were close to the manager. They had a nasty habit of pretending to be your friend and then badmouthing you behind your back. And they didn't just criticize your personality; they'd make up stories about you being lazy, not doing any work, and trying to make themselves look better at your expense. My partner, Rick, and I didn't particularly like this group. But we knew JUST how to handle them.
One day, we discovered that one of these guys, Sean, was up to no good. He accused Rick and me of falsifying our hours, claiming that we were saying we worked certain hours but not actually showing up or taking extremely long breaks. This was quite an interesting accusation considering Rick and I were actually doing a great job catching thieves in shops and helping out in the store.
Rick and I worked at the same store where Sean's girlfriend, Erin, was a customer service rep. Erin and I got along well and often took breaks together. She was a nice person but had a bit of a flashy side when it came to her appearance. Sean, her boyfriend, was extremely jealous, and they had frequent arguments, breaking up and getting back together about every two weeks.
During one smoke break, I casually mentioned to Erin that I felt a bit envious of Rick's size—all the girls in the office talked about it. It was a sly comment meant to plant a seed of curiosity. Rick worked at our store frequently, so he and Erin continued talking, flirting, and, to cut a long story short, they ended up having an intimate encounter right in our office.
As far as we know, Sean never found out about it. Every time we saw him after that, Rick and I exchanged knowing glances. We were aware that Sean thought he had successfully hassled us and been a pain in the neck, but secretly, we had the satisfaction of knowing that I had planted the seed and Rick had some unexpected adventures with his girlfriend.
32. Riding Switch
Starting in the fourth grade, I endured relentless tormenting, far more than just name-calling – it was full-blown physical and emotional torment. I had soccer balls thrown at my face, beehives stuffed into my backpack, and was tripped, beaten up, and humiliated in front of everyone. I endured this torment for years, but eventually, I couldn't take it anymore.
It all changed when I became a freshman in high school. The tormentor, let's call him Joey, was a year older and already had his own group of friends, while I was just a newcomer to the school's marching band, playing the clarinet. From the outside, I probably looked like an easy target. It was during the summer, before band camp, and I was practicing alone near the lunch area.
Joey appeared and started insulting me, making fun of me for playing the clarinet, and mocking me with his friends. After a while, he and his group left for another activity, but he left his skateboard on the table. I might have been seen as a "weenie," but I wasn't foolish.
In band, we had tools for repairing our instruments, including a wrench. I also knew my way around a skateboard. So, I loosened Joey's skateboard trucks until they were about to fall off and put it back exactly as I found it. About five minutes later, Joey returned to retrieve his skateboard and make more taunts.
I responded with something like, "Get lost," and then I sprinted as fast as I could. As planned, Joey jumped on his skateboard to chase me, completely unaware of what I had done to it. He started fast but quickly lost balance, hit a crack in the pavement, and faceplanted hard.
He was knocked out cold. I returned briefly to taunt him, then rushed to a security guard. Knowing that Joey was involved with substances and pieces, I falsely claimed that I saw him with something rolled up. Fortunately, it turned out to be true, as he had not permitted substance and even a loaded concealed pistol in his pocket. He got expelled and sent to juvenile detention.
Now, I'm still not a tough guy, but I've focused on my education. I attend college with a 4.2 GPA and a nearly full-ride scholarship to a great institution. I'm fully prepared for the day when that the tormentor might seek revenge. I'm ready for it, very much so.
33. Fair Wages
A new boss came in, and everyone from the old crew, except my buddy and myself, were let go. We pretty much ran the place, training all the new hires. Then, one day, I learned that someone I had trained, who had been hired after me, was earning more than I was. That didn't sit well with me, so I decided to talk to my boss about a raise.
I'd been on the job for over a year, and my responsibilities had grown significantly. However, when I asked for a raise, my boss flatly said, "No," and made it clear he thought I could be easily replaced. I responded with, "Alright, have fun finding someone else". I walked out in the middle of my shift and called it a day. He tried calling me multiple times, insisting I return to finish my shift. That's when my petty side kicked in.
I asked him if I'd received my raise yet. He said, "No," so I hung up on him. The following day, he called again, urging me to come in for my shift. I repeated my question about the raise, and once again, the answer was "NO". So, I told him, "Okay, I'm not coming in".
Less than a month later, he got fired, and the store's owner called me to offer me his job.
34. Drinking Buddies
I had a terrible boss who would insist that we spend our time hanging out and drinking with him during and after work. He didn't have a good relationship with his family, and sometimes he would make us stay at work for three or four hours longer than we should, while he drank cheap booze, and we pretended to enjoy it. And then, of course, he'd drive home. This was all on top of his general rudeness.
One day, I had enough of it. So, I decided to take the petty approach. I made an anonymous tip that led to him getting offence for operating a vehicle under the influence. That incident got him fired, and it was the end of his tenure as our boss. The new boss that came in afterward was much better and easier to work with.
35. Slow Roast
My former boss was an extremely stern and sheltered Mormon woman. Mormons typically abstain from drinking coffee. One day, she asked me to go fetch some coffee for the lawyers in the office. Given my role as the office's go-to person for errands, I decided to seize the opportunity. I returned with a frappuccino, explaining to her that it was similar to a smoothie.
She ended up getting hooked on coffee, and it became a real addiction. I remember before I left that job, she tearfully confided over the phone about how she had become addicted to coffee. It was an unexpected turn of events, to say the least.
36. A Lovely Eau De Parfum
I had to deal with two guys at work who picked on me relentlessly, and I'd had enough of their behavior. So, I hatched a plan. I started coming in early and sprayed raccoon urine on the chairs in their shared office. Over the course of two weeks, they seemed to develop a sort of immunity to the awful smell, but it had quite a different effect on everyone else around them.
As a result, to this day, those two individuals have a notorious reputation for having the worst body odor in our Fortune 500 company. It may not have been the most conventional way to address the issue, but it certainly had a lasting impact.
37. Read The Fine Print
I used to work at a sign company where my supervisor had a breakdown. She practically lived at the office, neglecting personal hygiene and work duties. Even though I was a temporary employee, I stepped up and took charge. I attended meetings on her behalf and handled all department tasks solo. When my contract was up, the manager had to decide whether to hire me permanently.
During our meeting, she offered me less than what I was earning through the temp agency. I reminded her of my strong work ethic and how I had boosted productivity by over 200% while essentially doing my supervisor's job. She stuck to her offer, so I politely declined and decided to leave when my contract ended. But before I got out of there, I left them a little parting surprise.
As part of my job, I engraved braille text on signs, ensuring they were accessible. So, whenever I worked on a non-numeric sign, I discreetly included the message "I hate this job and my cheapskate manager" in braille. Since no one else could read braille visually, my secret message went unnoticed.
And just to clarify, I didn't tamper with signs related to fire safety or emergencies.
38. Reference Check
To seek revenge, I simply tell the truth when people in our small industry reach out to me to inquire about my experience working with him. Surprisingly, he has never been hired for any of the jobs where I've been consulted regarding his work and behavior.
One notable incident occurred when a friend of mine contacted me about this guy applying for a job at the company where I was working as a contractor at the time. I straightforwardly told my friend, "If you hire him, I'll quit". It turns out they decided not to hire him, and I've continued working with them on and off for the past three years.
39. An Acquired Taste
I used to work at a large nightclub, and we got a new general manager who turned out to be a real pain. He had this annoying habit of making mean comments about employees and constantly teasing them. On top of that, he had a tendency to repeat the same stories over and over again.
One evening, while my friend and I were closing up the club, I spotted a jar of jellybeans on the general manager's desk, and an idea crossed my mind.
I decided to take matters into my own hands, quite literally. I put my hands down my pants, then ran them through his jar of jellybeans. To add a little extra twist, I dipped my...you know...into the jar, ever so gently. Just as I was doing this, my buddy walked in, and I had to quickly hush him, making sure he didn't spill the beans, so to speak.
The following morning, my friend got called into the general manager's office for a meeting. The general manager offered him some jellybeans, but my friend politely declined. Little did the manager know, he ended up finishing all the jellybeans himself. At one point, a jellybean got stuck to his mouth. My friend had to make a swift exit before bursting into laughter and giving away our little secret. Honestly, I don't feel too bad about it. That manager was truly insufferable.
40. Let The Dough Rise
I used to work at a local bagel shop where I had a baking job and also did some prep work. Over the years, I had become an "unofficial" manager of sorts because of my experience, and I earned more than most of my coworkers. Due to my early shift, I also got to leave early, which didn't sit well with some of the other employees, especially a new girl and her boyfriend.
They had a continuous attitude problem towards me, and I never quite understood why. It seemed they just didn't like me for some reason, which was perfectly fine by me! One day, around 11 am, the boyfriend began his closing duties. I informed him, "Hey, you can certainly do your closing tasks, but you'll still need to stay until closing time". He quickly ran to tell his girlfriend.
From the front of the shop, she started yelling at me, using all sorts of rude names in front of our customers. I asked her to come to the back if she wanted to discuss it further, and reluctantly, she joined me in the back, visibly agitated. I was honestly terrified, thinking she might attack me me. My workday was already done, so I decided to head home and let it all out.
As it turned out, she ended up quitting and left a note for my boss, portraying me as a terrible person. However, my boss crumpled up the note, threw it away, and reassured me that I was a great person. Fast forward to recently, my boss bumped into her while she was working at a grocery store in another town, living with her parents and boyfriend once again.
In the end, I didn't have to take any specific action against her. I turned to supportive friends like my boss, who helped me regain confidence in myself as a good person and showed me that some people are just difficult to deal with. Currently, I'm in a happy relationship, pursuing my education, and have my life pretty well put together. I've learned that, more often than not, karma has a way of dealing with things, and it's the best way to handle difficult situations.
41. Technical Difficulties
I used to work in IT at a large university. A few years ago, they decided to centralize IT services and then distribute them to various departments. While this approach can be effective in many places, it was bound to be a disaster at this particular institution, for reasons I won't get into here. I had a strong hunch it would be a mess.
What bothered me the most was the idea of requiring users to fill out a ticket before I could assist with their problems. I didn't want to work in such an environment, so I made the decision to leave. On my last day, as I was cleaning out my office, a professor came rushing down the hallway in a panic. This professor had been a constant source of annoyance over the years. He was rude, condescending, and thought he knew everything about computers – your typical difficult person.
I also knew that he had advocated strongly for the changes in IT, even suggesting cutting my position on a couple of occasions to save money for the department. So, while I had always maintained a professional demeanor with him, I had no love lost.
He was out of breath and said, "I'm so relieved I caught you before you left. I have a major presentation in 30 minutes for the administration, but my computer won't turn on, and my only copy of the presentation is on it!" My response was pretty straightforward. I calmly told him, "I'm confident that if you submit a ticket to the central IT desk, someone will assist you shortly".
He just froze in his tracks, and I think he suddenly realized that I knew exactly what he had been saying about me behind my back. His face turned bright red, and he walked back to his lab, slamming the door shut. Unfortunately for him, his computer issue wasn't resolved in time for his presentation.
42. Heavy Lifting
Right after high school, I worked in construction, and for the first two weeks, I had to endure daily harassment from an older guy on the crew. He brought an old metal lunchbox to work every day, leaving it on the cement floor in one corner of the building until lunchtime.
Fed up with his behavior, I decided to take action. I used a nailer to secure his lunchbox to the cement floor. But don't worry, I made sure to put his food back inside afterward.
When lunchtime rolled around, he bent over to pick up his lunchbox and ended up hurting his back in the process. Several weeks passed, and eventually, he returned to work one day. However, his back injury had taken a toll, and he had to retire early.
I might have felt guilty under different circumstances, but this guy had been a real jerk, not just to me but to others as well.
43. Ten Out Of Ten Would Recommend
I used to work for a photography company that had a contract with the Army. But things slowed down, and my hours got cut drastically, down to just four hours a week. To make up for the income loss, I found a side gig videotaping jury research, which paid a nice $20 per hour. I decided to be upfront with my boss at the photography company and let him know about this new job.
However, he was really upset about it and told me I couldn't work anywhere else. He even made it clear that if I missed a not-so-great Saturday meeting because I was working my other job, he'd consider it as me quitting. So, I made the choice to "quit" and left that job.
Afterward, I took the opportunity to share my thoughts on my old company through the Army's vendor rating portal. I provided honest and negative reviews highlighting the real issues within the company. The end result was that my former boss got replaced.
44. Hotkeys
I once played a prank on my boss involving a laptop. I call it the laptop sandwich. Want to hear how it went down? Here's what I did: I placed a "number two" (you know what I mean) on the keyboard and then closed the lid.
45. A Sticky Situation
Three words: Stapler. In. Jello.
46. Credit Where Credit’s Due
I had this co-worker who had a habit of taking credit for my work, even when he hadn't contributed, and he was just generally unpleasant to me. I had a feeling he was going to try the same thing with a project I was working on, so I decided to make sure he got the karma he deserved. I intentionally messed up the project in a major way – I'm talking about a significant mistake. Specifically, I indirectly criticized the CEO and top-level executives in a report that was going to a customer, and then I just waited to see what would happen.
Well, it turns out he ended up getting fired without any severance pay. He lost his house and even his wife left him. He had to live on the streets for three months before he was finally provided a small government home. The twist is that I send him a Christmas card every year.
47. The Magic Formula
I used to be responsible for reporting website usage, ROI, and various statistics for multiple websites at my job. To streamline the process, I created a sophisticated spreadsheet. With just a few input numbers, it could calculate almost everything our company needed. However, my boss struggled to grasp its complexity, yet he would proudly present it to clients, taking credit for its creation. That really made me mad.
As time went on, he realized the spreadsheet could handle everything, and he saw it as an opportunity to save money by letting me go. I suggested he might need assistance with the spreadsheet, but he insisted he could handle it on his own. So, before leaving, I decided to prove a point. I made a subtle change to a single formula in the spreadsheet, and I had a good chuckle when I saw the nonsensical reports it generated. He had to eat his words.
48. It’s Company Policy
I used to work in the IT department of a pretty large attorneys office. There was this guy, sort of a friend, who sat a couple of desks away from me, and he had quite a negative attitude. He got into a drawn-out feud with the tech support manager, who, to be honest, wasn't great. Eventually, he got fired, and I think it was a mix of the feud and his general demeanor.
He called me up that evening to share the news since I was working on a project late and wasn't around when it happened. The very next day, our boss called a department meeting and told us that my friend had quit. But here's the twist: he claimed they couldn't give him two weeks' notice because he had IT access to all the passwords. It was a blatant lie, and everyone knew it. We all knew he was fired.
Fast forward about six months, and I found myself unjustly taking the blame for things I had no hand in. It was clear they were trying to build a case to let me go. Little did they know, I had a card up my sleeve. I received a job offer through a referral from a friend at another company. The offer was way better than I had expected, so I kept it hush-hush. At the time, my girlfriend was a flight attendant, so we decided to plan a spontaneous trip to Europe between jobs.
The day before our scheduled departure for Europe, I went to work, tied up loose ends, and handled any pressing matters for my co-workers. Then, I strolled into my boss's office and handed him my resignation letter, effective immediately. He read it, and there was a moment of silence. He asked when I wanted my last day to be.
I stared at him for a moment, savoring the moment. Then, I reminded him that, according to his previous lie, I couldn't give or receive two weeks' notice because of my access to sensitive system passwords. His jaw practically hit the floor as he struggled to respond. The best part? A few weeks later, while we were enjoying Italy, I checked my bank account at a cyber cafe and saw that I had received a paycheck for the two weeks after I left. So, even though I didn't work those weeks, they paid me as if I had. That extra paycheck funded an additional week of our European adventure, and that turned out to be the best part of the trip.
49. Third Time’s The Charm
I worked at a place where the management structure in each store consisted of a manager and three assistant managers. I held one of the assistant positions. The other two assistant managers were a guy and a thin, blonde girl. All of us, including the manager, were in our early twenties. The manager had a close relationship with the guy, and they seemed to be involved in some questionable activities.
The girl received preferential treatment, perhaps because she was attractive and flirtatious. On the other hand, the two guys, including the manager, were determined to get me fired. They constantly wrote me up without providing any feedback or reasons. Then, my manager arranged a surprise meeting with the area manager to confront me. He warned me that if I received one more write-up, I would be terminated.
I was certain that my job performance exceeded that of most of my colleagues, and I didn't deserve the unfair treatment I was enduring. Unfortunately, we weren't part of a union, so there was no formal recourse for me other than quitting. However, I couldn't quit because I was still finishing college and had living expenses to cover.
Shortly after receiving the ultimatum, I applied for a corporate position and, to my surprise, I got the job. I informed my boss that I would be leaving in two weeks and shared the news about my new position. As it turned out, this was the third time the corporate job had been posted. My boss had applied for it twice before and was rejected both times. The company even offered him the chance to interview again, but he declined, likely out of frustration from being passed over.
It was incredibly satisfying to discover that I secured the job on my first attempt while he couldn't get it at all. He left the company shortly after my departure. The other two assistant managers remained in their roles.
50. Chef’s Surprise
I had a new coworker in catering, and one day, a vegetarian customer gave him an unwarranted hard time. In response, I decided to treat the customer to a complimentary bowl of what I called "vegetable soup". Little did the customer know that it was actually beef barley soup. After eating it, he experienced digestive issues for an entire week.
ShutterstockSources: Reddit,
