Yahoo Lifestyle "Sorry, I Don't Work For You Anymore." — 17 Stories From Employees Who Got Petty Revenge On Their Awful Bosses
If you're someone who's never had the misfortune of working for a truly terrible boss, then I'm very jealous of you. But, if you have, then you're going to find this post VERY gratifying.
Reddit user u/Wholikesfruits asked fellow Redditors, "What was your final 'f— you' to a boss you didn’t like?" And the responses are both petty and cathartic. Here are some of the best:
1."I worked at a dry cleaner for a summer. Front desk, cash under table type of job. I worked 50 hours one week, and he told me he'd pay me time and a half for the overtime. I go to work on payday, and my cash envelope is not in the drawer. I called him and asked about it, and he told me he couldn't pay me for my work yet. I kindly informed him that I was taking the money I was owed, and locking up the shop. I did that and left."
2."On my last day at the bowling alley, I sent an email to the head office detailing all the shit he’d been up to that everyone was too afraid to report (including trying to fire someone when he found out she was pregnant — a big no-no in my country). I heard later that the next day, the regional manager and a couple of executives turned up for a surprise inspection. He was found in the office, having backed a 16-year-old female colleague into 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. This manager was escorted off the premises there and then, and never heard from again."
3."I was thinking about quitting but was holding back. I scheduled a vacation with three extra days. It was a once-in-a-lifetime type of trip. He rejected my vacation request. I thought about it for a couple of hours. I went into his office and told him, 'I'm taking the trip no matter what.' The next morning, the boss met me at HR 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."
4."As far as my life goes this was the shittiest job I ever took. Long hours, a lot of crunch, no company vehicle, and a lot of travel. Every time I'd go to a different site, I would get like 20 different phone numbers for the various people I was communicating with. Anyway, all of the contacts for these people were on my company phone, which was synched up to my personal Gmail (which stored all the phone numbers). At some point, management decided my job was redundant and laid me off without notice or severance. The first thing I did was wipe my company phone clean before handing it over. A few days later, they called me to ask where all the contact information was stored. I said, 'Sorry, I don't work for you anymore.'"
5."I gave him a two-hour notice when I quit. He had a habit of firing people on the spot when they gave advance notice."
6."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'd asked for because she didn't understand what I did there. 'This is too much, we'd have to distribute all this to like four different people,' she said. And I said, 'yeah,' and walked out. Spoiler: she didn't do any of that, and was fired less than a year later as the office was falling apart."
7."I was a mechanic at a commuter airline. The boss wanted me to sign off a plane pre-flight inspection. I refused to sign because the plane was not airworthy. He told me that if I wished to continue working, I'd better sign. My response: 'Then I guess I don’t work here anymore. I picked up my toolbox and left. And I reported it to the head of maintenance as well as the FAA."
8."Working retail, I quit at the register on Black Friday. I had recently gotten another full-time job and was keeping this retail gig because I liked the employee discount and due to my other job, this check was pure fun money. All that is to say, I didn't need the retail job. My store manager comes over at hour seven of my shift, with chaos and a line 100 people long, and has the nerve to tell me my up-sales (fishing for promo signups, i.e. rewards, credit cards, etc) weren't cutting it for how much traffic I was seeing. In front of the customers! I already couldn't stand them, so I said, 'You know what, you do it. I'm done.' Then I apologized to my coworkers on the way out."
9."I was a program director developing and piloting a new program, and after a year of being overloaded and telling our executive director I either needed a second person or a smaller caseload, he pulls me into his office and goes, '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 a.m. tomorrow to decide.' I took an early lunch, walked to my other job, asked 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. 'What if we paid you a consultation fee?' No. 'But you’re the only person certified in the county!' Should have thought of that earlier."
"Bonus: this was in the middle of an audit, where it was discovered that he owed me about $3,000 from unpaid hours. I like to call it my leaving bonus."
10."When I left, he promised to take half what I was making and spread it among the team as raises to cover the extra work. My boss was trying to stop the exodus, as I was the third person to leave in a short time. So when I left, I handed my pay stub (minus social security info) to the team and said, 'Just in case he tried to lie, this is what I make.' He tried to lie. They also realized they were being underpaid by a good chunk. He told me that was a breach of confidential information and they could sue me. I told him to sue me then. Never heard from that company again except for tax docs."
11."My senior year of high school, I worked at IHOP and my direct supervisor was leaving, so the general manager was going to take over my schedule. 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. He still had to fill like four or five weekday shifts, and cover all of our weekend hours because all of us worked both the Saturday and Sunday morning rush."
12."I interviewed for a new job and got an offer. I wrote my two-week notice that same day and handed it over the next morning. The complete waste of oxygen that was the general manager at the time tried to compete with the new job, and I 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, PTO, and health insurance. He made a hateful comment, so I took my notice, changed the final date to the current date, and told him to have fun working seven nights a week."
13."I worked in China in a language training center. I left the country without informing anyone at work. Once I was out of China, I posted all the info I had about the benefits foreign workers were supposed to have, but never got (tax reimbursement, pension savings, etc.) and how HR and finance appropriated them in regional and local WeChat groups, both in English and Chinese. I also posted addresses of local government offices where foreign workers could inquire about the aforementioned benefits, or complain about lack thereof."
14."I was in line for a promotion after my old supervisor was fired for ethics issues. My boss decided to open the requisition, interview and hire a person all in the two days I had off. Since the person hired had no experience in my department/field, I was expected to train my new supervisor and the other new people they also hired. I did none of that, quit (gave my two weeks), and didn't explain a single thing to anyone in those 10 days. It supposedly took almost half a year to get close to where they were before I left."
15."My boss called me in on a Thursday and told me they were going to have to let me go. She offered to have me work Friday and Saturday, and I told her no. She came back with, 'Well, it's really busy, and we need the help.' I told her that was her problem and she should have let me go on Saturday. Her response was, 'I'm not scheduled to be in on Saturdays.' F— you, Cindy. She had to come in on Saturday, and was an anchor to the team. She got fired a few weeks later."
16."I worked at a fake French cafe, and the manager was an idiot who made a point of giving me the shittiest jobs just to show 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 returning and throwing every second piece back at me, telling me to do it over, 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 when I cook."
17.And finally, "I had a boss that was terrible to me. He and his wife owned a restaurant together, and one day, when he was yelling at me while I was getting the bar ready, I saw him put in his password on his phone. It was 'space, period, space.' We all knew something was going on with him and another employee. Months later, he wouldn't give me three days off because my niece died of SIDS. So I walked out, bought a $30 burner phone, and texted his wife his phone password. They got divorced, she kept the steakhouse, and he's had two failed attempts at opening any establishment. I make more than him now, and he lives in the crappy apartments down the road from me."
Did you ever enact petty revenge on a crappy boss? Share your story in the comments.
Responses have been edited for length/clarity.
