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Quitting a toxic workplace and shutting the doors with bad management behind them can feel overwhelming. Especially if you really tried to put up with all the nonsense and stay positive even when the facts showed the opposite.
No wonder the last day and even the last minute in that job can feel not just special, but as memorable as if it happened yesterday. So when someone posed a question “What was your final 'eff you' to a boss you didn’t like?” on Ask Reddit, the thread went viral, amassing 21.1k upvotes.
Below we wrapped up some of the most interesting stories people shared.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
They withheld $8,000 in pay and hired a lawyer to defend their actions. I hired a law student and we beat them into submission.
RELATED:
#2
Sent them to the feds for Medicare fraud and they got fined 41.7 mil.
#3
I was a program director developing and piloting a new program, and after a year of being overloaded and telling our exec 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 7am 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 2 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 in the county certified! Should have thought of that earlier.
Bonus: This was in the middle of an audit, where it was discovered that he owed me about $3000 from unpaid hours. I like to call it my leaving bonus.
#4
As far as my life goes it was the sh**tiest 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 so all of the contacts for these people was on my company phone that was synched up to my personal GMail (which stored all the phone numbers). At some point management decided my job was redundant and decided to lay me off without notice and without severance.
First thing I did was wipe my company phone clean before handing it over. A few days later they called me asking where all the contact information was stored. "Sorry I don't work for you anymore."
#5
On my last day at the bowling alley, I sent an email to head office detailing all the s**t he’d been up to but everyone was too afraid to report (inc. 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 regional manager and a couple of executives turned up for a surprise inspection. He’s 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.
Manager was escorted off premises there and then and never heard from again.
#6
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 7 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 this B so I said, "You know what you do it, I'm done" and then I apologized to my coworkers on the way out.
#7
Mechanic at a commuter airline. Boss wanted me to sign off a plane pre-flight inspection. I refused to sign because the plane was not airworthy. He told me if I wished to continue working, then id better sign. My response: then I guess I don’t work here anymore. I picked up my tool box and left.
#8
I was thinking about quitting but has holding back. I scheduled a vacation with 3 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. Went to 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 2 week notice. They apologized and tried to convince me not to leave but it was too late.
K Wellington 1 year ago
I had a once in a lifetime opportunity to travel and had only a few days available (we get 4 weeks annual leave plus public holidays, but I'd already used most of mine up). When I mentioned the trip, my boss was more excited for me than I was. There was never any question about not going.
#9
My exit interview when I was asked the reason for leaving, I simply said their name and nothing more
#10
After working my entire career for a company as an engineer… I was laid off with others for no reason. Remaining boss requested all my files so they could continue my work. I said the day I leave you will get all my files. Last day of work I accessed the main frame and down load not just the relevant files… 20 years of files… tons and tons of folders and files all in random folders… I sent him the link. He signed off . I left. He contacted me a few days later and said that’s not what I meant by all the files. I said I don’t work there anymore I have no computer… I gave you exactly what you asked for.
Nadine Khazaka 1 year ago
After 20 years I consider this a mild response, they should count themselves lucky.
#11
I worked hard over the course of a year to get all my former coworkers I cared about new jobs.
#12
My boss had been completely ignoring me because he perceived my actions of talking about an upcoming project with the COO (his boss) as me “going over his head”. It had been almost a month and he hadn’t agreed to meet or talk with me, he would only send me tasks via email.
I was tired of the childishness so I found another job. With my resignation letter in hand I walked to his office to resign and he predictably refused to meet with me claiming to be too busy, so I continued to walk to the COO’s office to let him know I was resigning. The COO asked if my boss knew which was the perfect time to let him know about the silent treatment I had been receiving. My old boss no longer works there :)
#13
Had a boss that was terrible to me. Him 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 know something was going on with him with another employee. Months later he wouldn't give me 3 days off because my niece died of SIDS. So I walked out, bought a $30 burner phone and texted his wife his password. They got divorced, she kept the steakhouse, and he's had 2 failed attempts at opening any establishment. I make more than him now and he lives in the c**ppy apartments down the road from me.
Ryan Gentilcore 1 year ago
I love how simple the revenge is. Just told one person one little thing, and the dominos scaled up massively
#14
Was inline for a promotion after my old supervisor was fired for ethics issues. Boss decided to open the requisition, interview and hire a person all in the 2 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 2 weeks), and didn't explain a single thing to anyone in those 10 days. Supposedly it took almost half a year to get close to where they were before this all went down.
#15
Took the taxi home after being wrongfully dismissed. Tipped the taxi drive $250 on company expense.
#16
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. He was trying to stop the exodus as I was the 3rd 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.
For those unfamiliar, in the US you are legally allowed to disclose your own pay. And its illegal for your employer to tell you that you cant.
Im assuming if he did try that HR or the lawyers quickly corrected him before they had to hand me a settlement.
#17
The milk I've been injecting into his chair with a hypodermic needle should be getting real rancid right about now
#18
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.
"This is too much, we'd have to distribute all this to like 4 different people" and I said "yea" 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.
#19
My co-worker bought cake and ice cream for the office. Someone asked what we were celebrating.. and he said his last day.
#20
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.
#21
I taped a piece of fish to the back of his desk which was up against a wall. I heard later on that it wasn't found for almost a month... f**k you Darren
April Caron 1 year ago (edited)
I worked as a receptionist in a sales office. Our warehouse guys were always playing tricks on me. I was always getting even. Once they installed a spring in my desk drawer, so when I went to open it… it snapped back and I ended up breaking two fingers because they got caught when it closed. They felt awful. I got even by leaving an open can of tuna behind a bottom file cabinet drawer in the warehouse. They could NOT find the source of the smell for MONTHS. Our manager knew. He thought it was hilarious. One day, I came in and immediately smelled that rotten tuna. Sure enough… it was placed in my trash can. I snuck it back behind another drawer in the warehouse. The guys called me and said, “Heads up. Ya might want to get rid of that fish before a customer walks in.” I replied, “I already did. You can’t smell it back there?” And by the end of the day, they were begging me to tell them where I’d hidden it. Broken fingers aside… it was all fun and games. I miss those guys!
#22
I bought the .com version of the domain name for their business and made him buy it off me for a grand. I think it made him like me more, ironically.
#23
Salary was delayed by 2 weeks and was about told to be lenient because the company is growing and needs our help and cooperation. I waited for another week but I was ignored. I left the job without notice and upon them calling me to sue me, I replied “You have money to sue people but no money to pay employees.”
I switched job and I am at a better place right now.
Sonja 1 year ago
If the company wants something from you: oh please be more of a team player! The company needs you! You are too important to go to vacation right now! How can you leave us in a lurch this way? If you need the company or want a raise: can you prove to me that you added any value to the company that deserves our consideration? If you don't like the job I can find someone else any time! And the American workforce has a huge chunk of people who believe that c**p in full and doesn't see the contradiction at all.
#24
She was a psychopathic narcissist. I knew she was plotting to leave her husband. Because I found it on a numbered to-do list on top of her desk. I was floored that she would leave it where her husband could see- it was a home office in one large room. I took a photo.
She proceeded to harass and gaslight her husband, who took off one night and slept in a parking lot. When he returned the next day she said “you left me, so it’s over.”
After she royally screwed me over for the umpteenth time I quit. A few weeks later I sent the photo to her husband, copied her, and wrote, “For your records” in the subject line.
Then I reported her to the IRS.
Emma London 1 year ago
Too bad psychopathic narcissists tend to be great manipulators and get far in their careers before, if ever, the s**t hits the fan.
#25
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 OT. I go into 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, and left.
Emma London 1 year ago
That's tricky. Is it stealing if you'll take from the register the amount the company owes you for an under-the-counter job?
#26
I reported him to the work inspection.
He was employing more trainee than the legislation allows for a company this size and was making them work them like full paid workers, with basically no formation at all.
He got controlled and fined a big amount of money, had to give money to previous trainee that had worked for him, etc… His company closed for bankruptcy after that.
Sweet justice.
Donna Peluda 1 year ago
I wonder what country that is, I tried that in Spain once and it mas imposible to get the work inspection in without disclosing who had called and also had to be a person employed there.
#27
Applied for a full time job at a daycare. Interview was on Friday and the director said she would text me over the weekend to tell me my hours for next week. Yay! I got the job!
Monday rolls around and no text or email from her so I am sitting in my pjs at home thinking I’m out of work. At 10am a random number calls me and she asks me to come in for 11. I let it slide thinking she lost track of time or whatever.
By the end of the day I asked for my schedule and she said she’ll contact me tomorrow morning at 9am. The next day is the same thing, except this time she calls at 11am asking to come in for 11:15!!!!! I waited TWO hours for her call. Now I have no car and live 15 minutes away. On top of this the shifts were only 4ish hours long, so the job isn’t even full time. I tell her I need a schedule by the end of the day. Didn’t get one.
The next day she calls at a random time but too late, I’m busy at an interview with a different job! I tell her I’ll stop in to get my cheque by the end of the week because she can’t respect my time and lied on the ad about being full time. Also I am not getting paid to be on call.
and_a_touch_of_the_’tism 1 year ago
Isn’t it illegal to say that the job is full time if it’s not?
#28
My boss's boss hated me. He drove out my previous boss that was one of the best managers I ever worked for. He demoted me, and then when the company laid-off EVERYONE else who knew my product, I insisted he restore me to my previous status or I'd quit. He did, and he wasn't happy about it.
Eventually he demoted me again and I found another job. During my exit interview with HR, I spoke at length about how he'd f****d 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 found he'd 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.
Sonja 1 year ago
This reminds me of an AskAManager story where a boss got audited after loosing too many employees and then they tasked an employee to help him clean house and get more efficient because his department didn't generate revenue. He took her tasks away from her and gave it to his favourite employees and did everything to sabotage her and then whined to AAM that his department got dissolved after she gave up and quit. This could easily be the story from the competent employees point of view.
#29
Worked in China in a language training center. 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 had (tax reimbursement, pension savings, etc.) and how HR & Finance appropriated them in regional and local WeChat groups both in English and Chinese.
Also posted addresses of local government offices where foreign workers could inquire about the aforementioned benefits or complain about lack thereof.
Emma London 1 year ago
Too bad they had to be out of the country to feel secure enough to take a stand.
#30
Worked at a stupid fake French cafe & the manager was an idiot who made a point of giving me the sh**tiest 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 & throwing every second piece back at me, telling me to do it over. 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 when I cook today.
Also invoiced the owner for my outstanding pay & informed him his manager was not up for the job. Owner begged me to reconsider but I told him nope.
What do you think ?
The Other Guest 1 year ago
Long story short, worked for a couple picking up donations for the charity they ran (can't recall the name of it now, but they provided comfort toys for emergency workers to give children in accidents etc). Never paid me my $125/week on time, claimed I was taking food off their table when I insisted on getting what I was owed. After I quit & tax time rolled around, I never got a 1099 from them. Requests for same were ignored. So being the naive person I was at the time, I included a note with my tax return saying this is who I worked for, this is how much they paid me, and I didn't receive any paperwork from them. A year or so later I saw them one last time, or rather a photo of them in our local paper, as they were being taken away in handcuffs. Turns out that while the charity was legit, they weren't actually associated with it and had been pocketing the donations. I don't know if my note to the IRS had anything to do with them getting caught, but I like to think it did.
David Paterson 1 year ago (edited)
Pleasantly surprised that this wasn't just an "I hate my boss" thread. Most if not all of the bosses here really are evil.
Martine Vallée 1 year ago
This happened at my place of work. I recently changed job within the company, from HR and accounting to Procurement. The person in charge of production was retiring and the boss asked me if I was still in touch with the person who replaced him when he was on sick leave. Said yes and he asked me to reach out and let him know that our company was looking for someone, which I did. This guy knew and could do the job, no problem. In the meantime time someone from procurement applied for the job and got it. The boss keep stringing the guy along saying HR had problems with the posting and so on. One day, maybe a month after the position was filled the guy called me directly to know what was happening…I was the one who informed him that the position had been filled. The same thing happened again a fee month later for the HR job, string along my collègue to finally award the job to an outsider. Real assh***
The Other Guest 1 year ago
Long story short, worked for a couple picking up donations for the charity they ran (can't recall the name of it now, but they provided comfort toys for emergency workers to give children in accidents etc). Never paid me my $125/week on time, claimed I was taking food off their table when I insisted on getting what I was owed. After I quit & tax time rolled around, I never got a 1099 from them. Requests for same were ignored. So being the naive person I was at the time, I included a note with my tax return saying this is who I worked for, this is how much they paid me, and I didn't receive any paperwork from them. A year or so later I saw them one last time, or rather a photo of them in our local paper, as they were being taken away in handcuffs. Turns out that while the charity was legit, they weren't actually associated with it and had been pocketing the donations. I don't know if my note to the IRS had anything to do with them getting caught, but I like to think it did.
David Paterson 1 year ago (edited)
Pleasantly surprised that this wasn't just an "I hate my boss" thread. Most if not all of the bosses here really are evil.
Martine Vallée 1 year ago
This happened at my place of work. I recently changed job within the company, from HR and accounting to Procurement. The person in charge of production was retiring and the boss asked me if I was still in touch with the person who replaced him when he was on sick leave. Said yes and he asked me to reach out and let him know that our company was looking for someone, which I did. This guy knew and could do the job, no problem. In the meantime time someone from procurement applied for the job and got it. The boss keep stringing the guy along saying HR had problems with the posting and so on. One day, maybe a month after the position was filled the guy called me directly to know what was happening…I was the one who informed him that the position had been filled. The same thing happened again a fee month later for the HR job, string along my collègue to finally award the job to an outsider. Real assh***
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