Bored Panda works better on our iPhone app
Continue in app Continue in browser

Add post form topAdd Post
Tooltip close

The Bored Panda iOS app is live! Fight boredom with iPhones and iPads here.

Company Majorly Screws Up By Ignoring Employee’s Advice, Receives Revenge After Firing Him
1.8K

Company Majorly Screws Up By Ignoring Employee’s Advice, Receives Revenge After Firing Him

Interview Company Majorly Screws Up By Ignoring Employee’s Advice, Receives Revenge After Firing HimCompany Majorly Screws Up By Ignoring Employee’s Advice, Leads To Expensive MistakeCompany Makes An Expensive Mistake Of Not Listening To Employee Before Terminating His ContractCompany Refuses To Give Their Sole Designer A Raise, He Makes Them Cough Up $75KDesigner Asks For $25k Pay Raise, Gets Denied, So He Takes RevengeEmployee Cleverly Makes Ex-Employer Pay Him $75k After Using Their Own Ignorance Against ThemCompany Regrets Ignoring This Employee After They Have To Pay $75k For Their DomainsMulti-Million Dollar Company Denies Employee A Raise And Fires Him, Ends Up Paying Him $75k
ADVERTISEMENT

While we’re taught as children that greed is something to avoid, plenty of business owners learn that it can actually get them quite far. But when one company refused to listen to the single person who understood their online presence, their greed came back to bite them.

Below, you’ll find a story that this company’s former web designer shared on the Petty Revenge subreddit, detailing a costly business mistake that benefited him, as well as a conversation with the designer and some of the replies amused readers shared.

RELATED:

    When this web designer finally asked for a raise, his company decided it was actually time to end his contract

    Image credits: Studio Republic (not the actual photo)

    So after completing his last task for them, he came up with a brilliant way to get revenge

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Image credits: Budka Damdinsuren (not the actual photo)

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Image credits: Sora Shimazaki (not the actual photo)

    Later, the designer shared another detail about the situation

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Image credits: Mark_ibrr

    He also clarified a few things readers were curious about

    “A single individual can, under the right circumstances, have the last laugh after being mistreated by an employer or client”

    We reached out to the designer in this story, Reddit user Mark_ibrr, to learn more about the situation and what inspired him to share it, and lucky for us, he was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda. “I got pretty upset when I found out the company refused to increase my yearly contract,” he explained. “The company functions as a white label reseller, so it didn’t have any proprietary technology, product, or manufacturing techniques. The value of the products depended 100% on the marketing and branding, which I created pretty much by myself. I’m not going to take credit for all the success, but I did play a pivotal role that I believe justified my demand of a $25,000 increase.”

    ADVERTISEMENT

    “To add insult to injury, they planned to to replace me with a whole team overseas because, and I’m going to quote what I was told by a current employee: ‘Someone in India will do it cheaper,'” the OP revealed. “So I shared my story to show Redditors that a single individual can, under the right circumstances, have the last laugh after being mistreated by an employer or client.”

    We were also curious why he believed the company ignored him so many times, despite his multiple warnings to purchase the domains. “I’ve done a lot of work for start-ups and they all make the same mistake: they like to run with baby shoes,” the designer told Bored Panda. “The start up mentality of ‘move fast, break things’ can accelerate growth, but it can also cause a lot of problems: poorly developed products, bad service, negligence, etc.”

    “While the company was extremely efficient in some aspects, like procurement and forecasting, it was really bad brand developed and diversification,” Mark_ibrr continued. “Upper management was obsessed with increasing revenue through their only sales channel (Amazon) that they completely ignored other possible revenue streams like retail or even selling through their own website. Instead of investing in their successful brands, they kept pumping more brands that sell the same products but under different names.”

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Image credits: Headway (not the actual photo)

    “I originally bought [the domains] because I was good friends with the Marketing Manager, and I would have given them to her if she asked personally”

    “As to why they ignored my request? Same reason why they waited for the FDA and FTC to come knocking before fixing some of their shady business and marketing practices, or why they didn’t address consumer and employee complaints: we know it’s broken, but we won’t fix it until it starts costing us money,” the OP added. “They didn’t even had a Director of Product Quality to set proper standards until recently, she quit 6 months in…”

    We also wanted to know at what point Mark_ibrr decided to sell the company their domains at a high price. “After the whole FDA and FTC fiasco, we had a 2 hour meeting about how to fix the whole product line to avoid further sanctions. That’s when the idea of selling through company owned websites came to be,” he shared. “The reasoning was (and I’m paraphrasing here): ‘We don’t have to worry about that many regulations or Amazon’s policies if we own the selling channels, let’s go with that.’ But they couldn’t decide what domains to use since they couldn’t use their trademark names on the packaging or labels.”

    ADVERTISEMENT

    “That’s when I knew they were not going to decide on what domains to use before my contract ended,” the OP continued. “1 month after that meeting my contract was terminated, and 2 weeks later I decided to check if they had actually done anything with the work I handed over, and apparently, they had not. Out of pure curiosity, I decided to check if the domains were available and how much would they cost, and surprise surprise (or not) they were. And they were cheap, heck, you can even save money if you bundle the .com domain and add other variations such as .net, .store, etc.”

    Mark_ibrr shared that he ended up purchasing 12 domains for about $15-120 each, spending less than $1,000 total. “I originally bought them because I was good friends with the Marketing Manager, and I would have given them to her if she asked personally, but instead I got a very aggressive email from the CEO demanding I handed over the domains (he didn’t even asked if I paid for them or not),” the designer explained.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Image credits: John Schnobrich (not the actual photo)

    “I felt played, so I decided to become a player”

    “I contacted the Marketing Manager, and she told me she had quit soon after I left because she also felt unappreciated (She got a better job at a much better company after a couple of months, and we are still good friends),” the OP added. “But the last straw was when the company photographer was denied a $2 an hour raise… He was a hard working kid that always turn in good work.”

    “Anyway, I knew their numbers and was confident they could pay the $90,000 I demanded. I felt played, so I decided to become a player,” the OP told Bored Panda. “While I didn’t get the full amount, the $75,000 I got was enough to make me happy.”

    Unfortunately, however, Mark_ibrr does not believe his former employers learned their lesson from this experience. “Most of the people I worked with are no longer there,” he shared. “The domains they got so angry about only redirect straight to their Amazon Storefront, their main competitors made it into a national retail chain, and most of the work I did was replaced by low quality content (except for their best sellers, I guess they know better than to [mess] with the money).”

    ADVERTISEMENT

    We would love to hear your thoughts on this story in the comments below, pandas. Have you ever gotten petty revenge on an employer like this web designer? Or do you have a former boss who you wish you had gotten back at in a similar way? Feel free to share, and then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article featuring petty revenge in the workplace, look no further than right here!

    Image credits: fauxels (not the actual photo)

    Many readers applauded the man for seamlessly executing his revenge

    ADVERTISEMENT
    ADVERTISEMENT
    Share on Facebook
    Adelaide Ross

    Adelaide Ross

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

    Read more »

    Howdy, I'm Adelaide! I'm originally from Texas, but after graduating from university with an acting degree, I relocated to sunny Los Angeles for a while. I then got a serious bite from the travel bug and found myself moving to Sweden and England before settling in Lithuania about two years ago. I'm passionate about animal welfare, sustainability and eating delicious food. But as you can see, I cover a wide range of topics including drama, internet trends and hilarious memes. I can easily be won over with a Seinfeld reference, vegan pastry or glass of fresh cold brew. And during my free time, I can usually be seen strolling through a park, playing tennis or baking something tasty.

    Read less »
    Adelaide Ross

    Adelaide Ross

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

    Howdy, I'm Adelaide! I'm originally from Texas, but after graduating from university with an acting degree, I relocated to sunny Los Angeles for a while. I then got a serious bite from the travel bug and found myself moving to Sweden and England before settling in Lithuania about two years ago. I'm passionate about animal welfare, sustainability and eating delicious food. But as you can see, I cover a wide range of topics including drama, internet trends and hilarious memes. I can easily be won over with a Seinfeld reference, vegan pastry or glass of fresh cold brew. And during my free time, I can usually be seen strolling through a park, playing tennis or baking something tasty.

    Gabija Saveiskyte

    Gabija Saveiskyte

    Author, BoredPanda staff

    Read more »

    Hi there! I am a Visual Editor at Bored Panda. My job is to ensure that all the articles are aesthetically pleasing. I get to work with a variety of topics ranging from all the relationship drama to lots and lots of memes and, my personal favorites, funny cute cats. When I am not perfecting the images, you can find me reading with a cup of matcha latte and a cat in my lap, taking photos (of my cat), getting lost in the forest, or simply cuddling with my cat... Did I mention that I love cats?

    Read less »

    Gabija Saveiskyte

    Gabija Saveiskyte

    Author, BoredPanda staff

    Hi there! I am a Visual Editor at Bored Panda. My job is to ensure that all the articles are aesthetically pleasing. I get to work with a variety of topics ranging from all the relationship drama to lots and lots of memes and, my personal favorites, funny cute cats. When I am not perfecting the images, you can find me reading with a cup of matcha latte and a cat in my lap, taking photos (of my cat), getting lost in the forest, or simply cuddling with my cat... Did I mention that I love cats?

    What do you think ?
    Add photo comments
    POST
    Far Cough Khan
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    75K is probably still super cheap for them. should add two more zeroes.

    Holy Shimmering Sheeps541t
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I used to work for a spread betting company in the early 2k's, a rival company bought their domain name (they were adamant the internet wouldn't take off), the domain owners kept moving ownership from person to person and we eventually lodged a grievance with ICANN which they managed to screw up royally and completely lose any claim on the domain. It cost millions to buy it back.

    arthbach
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    In my country, this would be illegal. It's called 'cyber squatting'.

    Ken Beattie
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It is, cyber squatting and Domain squatting are used interchangeably, most people also use it to mean "warehousing" as well. It is frowned upon now and in order for it to be successful you'd need to have proof that you were using the domain or that it applied to something you owned. eg: You could have owned apple.com if you were selling apples and had the website registered and were using it as such. But if you registered Apple.com and had no content on it just hoping to sell the URL to Apple Computers you're gonna get a rude shock. In the early days squatting was a great way to make money but times (and rules) have moved on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting

    Load More Replies...
    Load More Comments
    Far Cough Khan
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    75K is probably still super cheap for them. should add two more zeroes.

    Holy Shimmering Sheeps541t
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I used to work for a spread betting company in the early 2k's, a rival company bought their domain name (they were adamant the internet wouldn't take off), the domain owners kept moving ownership from person to person and we eventually lodged a grievance with ICANN which they managed to screw up royally and completely lose any claim on the domain. It cost millions to buy it back.

    arthbach
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    In my country, this would be illegal. It's called 'cyber squatting'.

    Ken Beattie
    Community Member
    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It is, cyber squatting and Domain squatting are used interchangeably, most people also use it to mean "warehousing" as well. It is frowned upon now and in order for it to be successful you'd need to have proof that you were using the domain or that it applied to something you owned. eg: You could have owned apple.com if you were selling apples and had the website registered and were using it as such. But if you registered Apple.com and had no content on it just hoping to sell the URL to Apple Computers you're gonna get a rude shock. In the early days squatting was a great way to make money but times (and rules) have moved on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting

    Load More Replies...
    Load More Comments
    You May Like
    Related on Bored Panda
    Related on Bored Panda
    Trending on Bored Panda
    Also on Bored Panda