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“Zero Regrets”: 30 Savage Ways People Got Revenge On Their Bosses Before Leaving The Job
Marcus Buckingham, researcher of high performance at work and co-author of the book Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader's Guide to the Real World, says that great managers know and value the unique abilities and even the eccentricities of their employees, and they learn how best to integrate them into a coordinated plan of attack. Bad ones, on the other hand, are... abundant. And they're bringing down everyone around them. So when Reddit user Ssteepballet asked others on the platform to share the "screw you" that they served their toxic bosses, people submitted plenty of colorful stories.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
At a previous job, I had been the SME during development of a new lead management system (big bank, millions of customers). I got two hour notice that it’d be my last day, and so anything important needed to be wrapped up quick.
I had been letting my boss know for like a year that I was the only person with admin access to the system settings, and that someone else should have that. They weren’t concerned, it seemed to be working fine.
Anyway, off I go to find a new job. About a month later I get a text from my old boss asking me to coffee. I declined. Then I got a call asking me how to change some settings. They were closing branches, and leads kept getting assigned to the closed locations. I told him I’d be happy to train someone, but at my consulting fee rate (I didn’t have a consulting fee). He was pissed.
A week or so later, he calls back and says fine. They’ll do it. So I ask if I’m an approved vendor. Obviously, I’m not. He sends me a packet, and I complete it. Weeks go by, the vendor management team finally approves me.
I’ve been gone like 2 months by this point, so I draw up a bid proposal. I estimated the training at $10,000. He called me back and pitched a fit.
So I made a website on GoDaddy. I pretended to be a white hat hacker specializing in the type of software they use. It was a good looking website, if I do say so myself. I leaned in hard on the terms I knew they’d be looking for.
A few days later, the phone rings. It’s my boss’ boss. I about couldn’t get through the call as he’s describing all of these problems they’re having accessing their data. So I told him it sounded like a problem I could solve. I wrote up a bid at $10,000 PLUS EXPENSES. Half up front, half on completion.
It was accepted right away. I emailed the password and the name of the drive where they could find the training docs. My phone rang right away, I can’t even describe how pissed the voice on the other end was. “No way in hell” would they be paying the other half.
I referenced the contract, said that I’d be more than happy to let a lawyer take a look, and go from there. He hung up.
A few days later, I got my other $5K. It was pretty helpful in bridging the gap until I started my new job.
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#2
So when I was younger, I worked at a grocery store.
While working there, my first daughter was born. Her first birthday happened to fall on Memorial Day, and the store director wanted me to skip her birthday so he could have a barbecue. I told him that I wasn't gonna be there, but he still went ahead and scheduled me. Well, I didn't show up, and the next few months were a real pain.
This guy started acting all petty and demoted me from management, cut my pay, and reduced my hours. It was messed up, but luckily, the union had my back and made him pay me a couple of grand in back pay after I put up with that c**p for a few months. But I eventually landed an amazing career at a water treatment plant, and now I'm making three times the money I used to.
But before leaving as my final f**k you, I gave all of my uniforms to the homeless guys that hung out in the parking lot. So they'd walk around the parking lot in store uniforms, begging for money and food. My old boss got into a few confrontations trying to get the shirts back from them. Wish I could've been there for those. Ultimately, the homeless guys started going through the back of the store during receiving hours and taking beer and food. To this day, years later, I guess it's still a problem. Even after they changed uniforms.
#3
I refused to wear a g-string bikini during a company car wash and i flicked the bikini boss had given me to wear in his face and told him if he tried the same technique on the other women employees he would be facing a big lawsuit but he would be facing one certainly from me because at the time i was seventeen. He ended up losing that lawsuit.
Miranda Veracruz de la Joya Cardenal 5 months ago
That boss was probably from that age when America was "great". Hopefully we'll never go back to those times.
#4
Was a mechanic at a shop and the boss had a favorite mechanic that could get away with anything. One day, it's about an hour before closing, and an older lady comes in for front wheel bearings. Don't know why they told her they could do it in that time but they did. Well, the kiss a*s mechanic proceeds to snap two of her wheel studs. He gets frustrated and literally leaves the car in the air and goes home! The boss comes in and asks where he is, I tell him what happened. The boss then says, "Well, get over there and finish that s**t."
Excuuuuuuse me? I tell him that is not my problem and am finishing another vehicle in my bay. He says, "If you don't get that car finished, you can find another shop to work at." I simply said, "You are right." Later that night after we closed, I used my store key to come in and turn in my uniforms and get my tools. The boss blew up my phone for the next 2 weeks. I never answered. Went on to open my own shop and do better.
#5
Not my boss, but someone with authority who misused it.
In the early days of PCs in the workplace I was using Paradox, an early relational database. There was one other guy who used it, I was in QA, he was in program management. We had to deal with a program manager who was a complete fungus. He would provide no budget for various parts of a program and then demand the work be done or the product would not ship. He got his way far too often.
The day after I handed in my notice fungus shows up in my office, he fired the other database guy; “I can do that, what do I need him for?”
Turns out he could not. So he shows up at my office with my boss trailing behind. My boss hated this douchebag more than anyone.
F: “I need you to correct some data and run a report for me”
Me: “Nope”
F: this is important.
Me: “I guess you shouldn’t have fired Bob”
F: “you’re going to do this”
Me: “Nope”
This went on for some time, my boss standing behind him, giving me a “thumbs up” and enjoying the show.
Eventually he shouted “I’m going to Gary!” The CEO, who always supported his b******t because he was a wimp. Ten minutes later he was back calling me a m**********r “you could have told me you quit”.
From the next office I could hear my boss laughing out loud.
It was a fun day and I was a bit of a hero for the next two weeks.
#6
I had been selected as a temporary 'loaner' or helper for a dept above mine, during which time my boss at the time was clearly playing some personal politics and trying to show me the door. Turned out the team was highly impressed with me. Personal politics once again at play, boss at the time was trying to push her friend into the open role. They didn't want her, they made me an offer unbeknownst to my boss. She kept telling me that she wasn't going to release me for the transfer, and the role was going to be filled by her friend. The writing was on the wall, if I went back to her, she was gonna can me.
Without knowing that it was my best move, I let her know an offer was made. Her face went stone, and all color dropped. She said she would look into it and get back with me. 2 days later she came back confirming the offer was made and the company had to honor it. On my way out of her team she made the comment that she was disappointed in the way that I went about this move, she knew the dept well and I wouldn't last and I would be out the door in less than a year. I responded with her opinion no longer mattered and that I would never have to deal with her or think of her again, and I was grateful for that. She turned beat red and stormed out.
Fast forward 8 years, I moved up again, making six figures, and she's still at the same position making 50k.
My success has been the biggest f**k you to her.
#7
I just made the firing as awkward as possible. I spent like 20 minutes in silence reading my severance package while she and the rep from HR watched.
They tried to tell me they will email a copy I can electronically sign but I just said no thanks. Then I had them go make a copy for me to take home again they tried to say they will email it but I insisted on a paper copy.
#8
I made a binder detailing all the unprofessional things she ever did and the times she lied via email and I requested a meeting with her and HR to review the contents of the binder.
#9
I was in a s****y job - in HR no less - on a contract and told the boss 2 months in advance that I was leaving at the end on the contract.
Since that day.....the removed me from EVERYTHING....email groups, meetings, a 3 day offsite meeting (I found out about the meetings when I came to work and no one was there for 3 days) I sat around playing games and reading
So on my last day...I was wandering around the building saying goodbye to people I actually enjoyed. Suddenly...my boss stops me and says "We are having a staff meeting and you have to be there" and left.
I went to someone I knew in the area of HR and they said "They planned a party for you"
So after 2 months of being totally removed from ANYTHING, no meetings, no talking to me etc....they wanted to feel good by throwing me a party.
So I snuck out the back door (my desk was cleared for says), got in my car and left.
I called the lady I knew and she said they sat there for about 30 mins then left the board room. THEY WERE PISSED.
#10
We never really got along.
He got a promotion to upper management and needed an assistant.
I had already found another job elsewhere before he got that promotion and had planned to quit.
When the posting came out for his assistant i applied for it just to stress him out thinking he once again would have to deal with me.
I went through the process and got the job, but never showed up on the first day, or the next, or next. Somehow this went on for just over a month before HR called me laughing and asked if i wanted to hand in my resignation yet.
He ended up having to do all the work of his all on his own and that thought makes me happy.
#11
Not me, but another co worker hid raw chicken breasts in the store managers drop ceiling. There were so many flies in that office after two days. And the smell!
Also, F**k you Rick. You know you’re a c**t.
#12
Reported him and the company to the IRS for not sending me a w2 and how they changed the company name and various things every few months in an effort to cheat out on taxes.
#13
I work in advertising. The agency where I worked was the next thing to a Viking slave ship. Long hours, unpredictable workflow, and a boss who was just completely unstable. As in, you never knew when he was going to show up. Sometimes, he'd trickle in at 2 in the afternoon, then expect everyone to work until midnight. He was in and out of rehab, and the kind of guy who could be your best friend one minute and a complete psychotic the next.
Me (copywriter) and my creative partner (art director) started doing work for a microbrewery. The work we did was good, way better than the work we were doing for the agency. This was because the good ideas had a way of being killed before the client ever saw them.
So, we entered our work in the local awards show anonymously. Cleaned house in every category we entered. Won way more awards than our agency. Oh, and the agency work that won the awards was done by my partner and me as well.
After a ridiculous weekend where he thought we should all go to a mountaintop in the middle of winter and do trust exercises, my partner and I pulled the trigger and quit to start our own firm. My partner died eighteen months later after a sudden onset of cancer -- diagnosis to death in three weeks. It was awful -- but I continued to grow the business.
And hired several people away from my former employer. And won accounts from him. Because he was so freaking unstable that nobody wanted to work for him or with him.
#14
Reported him for racism, and told the company to watch his auction tapes, where he was making uncomfortable comments at black members of the audience. A colleague told me he was fired shortly afterwards.
#15
I quit without notice a few days before Christmas. I was supposed to be the only one working for two weeks while everyone else was on annual leave. He couldn't convince anyone else to cancel their leave, so he had to.
#16
Started my own company in the same field. See my family way more, make more money, and am my own boss.
#17
Getting ready to roll out our next great version of our core product. It was dependent on a single “master” encryption key. Boss asked me to change the key and not share it with anyone. Ok, no problem.
A week or two later I decide to give my notice. I tell him 2 weeks, he goes off deep end. Screaming, throwing s**t. I was going to give him the key, in fact I had it on a diskette (this was not yesterday) in my hand. He called security and they immediately walked me out door. Later that day I got a messenger give me “a legal order” saying I was to immediately destroy all company (threatening a lawsuit if I didn’t) stuff, so I killed the diskette.
They went live immediately after, the db was corrupted and they couldn’t do anything without the key which no longer existed. Apparently took them weeks to recreate all the customer data that was lost. Bummer.
TennesseeHomesteadUSA 5 months ago
Full image backups every evening are a good thing. AND a full image backup before any changes.
#18
I worked for a particularly sociopathic person. Swore he was gods gift to mankind and would berate anyone over anything. Bipolar as f**k. I got fired over some minor b******t. Well he liked to constantly brag about cheating on his wife, and how he did it “because he loved her and it was saving his marriage” and would constantly talk s**t about his wife to his whole crew. Well I anonymously messaged her about a year after I got fired and told her everything. They are divorced now. And no one knows it was me.
Luke Branwen 5 months ago
I'm very happy for the wife, and very disgusted by the "bro code" that makes men cover for their cheating comrades. OP was the only one with some balls.
#19
Not me but a friend. He worked at an Aladdin's Castle video game parlor in the mid 80's. His boss had been hounding him for weeks to work additional overtime even though he had a new baby and his wife was still in the hospital because of complications. His wife was scheduled to come home on a day the boss insisted he work. He decided he no longer needed the job or the headaches and tossed his master keyring into the roll top safe, spun the cylinder and walked out to pick up his wife from the hospital.
A roll top safe was used to make daily deposits into a secure safe that only the person with the master key can unlock. There is a heavy metal cylinder at the top of the safe with an opening, when deposits are made into the cylinder the deposit falls into the secure chamber when the cylinder is rotated. The only way to gain access to the money, once deposited, is with the master key. With the master key (and the keys that locked the building) trapped deep within the safe the boss was forced to call a locksmith (on a weekend) to retrieve the keys.
His boss deserved every second of seething fury he experienced while watching the locksmith work over the safe.
Just-4-2day 4 months ago
I might have worded it as: He placed the keys in the roll top safe, to secure them, when he left work to pick up his wife from the hospital.
#20
TL;DR; I caused 10 people to quit and 2 managers to get fired.
I had been planning to quit an abusive job for a while.
It was a local chain store that used to be highly regarded by the community, but has treated their employees worse and worse since 2020 and realizing they could run on a skeleton crew.
The managers would pit employees against each other, stick people in positions they weren't comfortable with/capable of, and stalk/punish people who were considering unionization. Personally, they tried and failed to write me up a few times for unionization efforts, kept messing with my schedule by moving my days off around and making me clopen (close then open the next day), fired my boyfriend for speaking up for his crew, and kept me away from other employees and/or kept management within earshot of me at all times.
I woke up one day after calling out the previous 2 shifts, turned to my boyfriend and said I couldn't do it anymore. He had the day off from his new job, so we went down and I spoke with some of my soon to be ex-coworkers about what was going on, requested the quitting paperwork with my 6'6" ex-employee boyfriend bristling over my shoulder. I wrote out the entirety of why I was quitting, took almost 30 minutes, then watched as the managers who made my life hell for the past 3 months read and faxed the paperwork to HR and quiver knowing that they f****d up and their jobs were on the line.
In the span of 5 weeks, 10 people from my crew quit, my ex-manager got fired, and my boyfriend's ex-manager got fired. I heard through the grapevine that several HR people were surprised that I had quit and horrified that the store was being run so poorly, as we had the best numbers of the chains, and that so many quit after I did.
It feels great going in there to see old friends and seeing the rest of the old management team tense up or get embarrassed.
#21
Becoming indispensable and then putting in my notice. No "f**k you" is quite as nice as people begging you to stay and you being able to say "no" with confidence that you're making the right decision.
#22
When I was a security guard I worked third shift at an industrial park 8 miles outside of the city. My supervisor worked second shift at an office complex, in the city, nice and clean.
I had Wed and Thur off but she would call me in at least on one day to cover for her as she was "sick". I went out of town once on my days off and she ripped my a*s because I wasn't available to cover for her. I told her I wasn't paid to be on 24 hour call and this was my two weeks notice.
Next Tuesday rolls around and she tells me I need to work for her Wed & Thurs. I told her perhaps I had misspoke when I turned in my two weeks notice. What I actually meant was this is my last day.
I found a decent job after that and was happy. Three years go by and the contract for the office security job was not renewed. She had a choice of working the dirty scary industrial sight or be security at the refinery which had people there 24 hours a day. Of course she chose the refinery.
My dad was the general manager of the refinery, and he held grudges. He remembered all the s**t I went thru while working for her, so he called the security company and told them that supervisor was not allowed at the refinery. They said that they need a place for her and she didn't want the only other full time location.
Dad told them if he sees the supervisor on refinery property, or gets a phone call from her, the security contract will go to another company. I never heard where she went after that.
#23
Quit just before a busy holiday weekend. Booked a nice beach trip and headed out. On my way out of town, the manager calls to ask "Are you going to cover your shifts this weekend or did you get somebody to work for you??"
Nope.
Luke Branwen 5 months ago
I'm always astonished by bosses who are like "You have to find someone to cover for you!!!". Isn't that something management should do? It's not like they're paid insufficiently for it.
#24
Returned the company phone with the ring tone of "Take This Job and Shove It".
#25
Landscaping company that mainly did construction. The owner would constantly take more work than a company our size could manage and would then have massive temper tantrums when it wasn't getting done fast enough. The breaking point was him taking a massive project...over two hours away from where anyone lived. That morning he had 10 employees. The next morning, he had three. He called each of us, begged us to come back and then asked why we were doing this to him. I laid into him about his inability to balance the workload and that his employees didn't want to drive over two hours to a job site every day. He said I'd regret it and hung up. I had a new construction job the next week. The dumb owner's company went under about a year later.
Charles McChristy 5 months ago
When there's a two hour commute, that's when the time starts and ends at the shop. You'll only be getting 4 hours of work in but you're getting paid for the commute. This is pretty standard, and I would not do the job any other way.
#26
Trucker here. I convinced all the other drivers at our terminal to apply at a competing trucking company down the road. They hired all but one of us, so we dropped our keys on the boss's desk.
Within a month the plant pulled their contract, and the company went bankrupt.
#27
A month after I started my new job, I recruited two key workers from my old company. Left the having to explain to his boss why he had no idea what do to, despite taking credit for everything we had done.
#28
I reported him to HMRC for not declaring his Defender as a company car, he got fined and had to pay for 3 years tax on it.
DarkViolet 5 months ago
Ah, the UK'S version of the IRS. They've got what it takes to take what you've got.
#29
5 months after I quit, I slept with a girl I'd met recently. Nobody else was home that evening. The next morning, I come downstairs and guess who her father was?
#30
I chucked in a 14 days medical certificate after I headed in my resignation without doing any handover 😀.
What do you think ?
Steve Hall 5 months ago
Everyone has had a toxic boss at some point in time, if you haven't, just wait.
Jean Jacket 4 months ago
My current boss works high on the green and drunk on anything he can get his hands on. Daily. He is so incompetent yet remains in power - or as much power as middle management has. Regardless, it blows my mind every day he's still employed. I want to make it a bigger deal to the higher ups, but honestly I don't think anyone actually cares. And I know how this world works; I become a squeaky wheel and end up the one fired while the incompetent drunk continues on without even a slap on the wrist. F**k all of this.
Seadog 4 months ago
One job I had, manager (actually a really nice guy) got hooked on something ( i know squat about d***s, he was either a complete zombie or on the verge of violence) and ended up losing his job, 401K, car, wife & kids. It was sad watching him throw it all away but he wouldn't listen. Company even paid for him to go through rehab (4 weeks) and he could keep his job, he walked out after about 2 weeks. His next job straightened him out though because they have random testing. In the end though, he still lost everything that was important to him. The DM of course knew something was going on but had no way of nailing him down on it. Told me to keep an eye on the manager and keep him posted if I saw anything he should know about. Mostly he didn't want me calling him to tell him the manager dropped dead in the store or got into a fight with a customer or other employee. He nearly did get into one with an employee at a store meeting. That was the last straw in the company's eyes.
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Stephanie 4 months ago
I worked at a grocery store in college and I kept making waves and getting people fired with every department I worked in. When i applied the boss said she just hired and had no more spots, then she called me a couple days later with an opening. During the onboarding I asked what happened, why did she have an opening so quickly? She said one of the new hired failed the d**g test. sure, makes sense. I worked as a cashier for a couple months and called out a coworker who would clock in and then disappear for two hours, leaving me alone on the registers. fired for stealing time. switch to stocking and I caught the grocery manager stealing so he got fired. switch again and the produce department manager got fired for bringing a weapon to work (the bakery manager was also fired because the produce guy and the bakery lady were sleeping together, thus the weapon for "self defense"). then I worked in the deli where a coworker got fired for faking an injury and making false insurance claims.
Steve Hall 5 months ago
Everyone has had a toxic boss at some point in time, if you haven't, just wait.
Jean Jacket 4 months ago
My current boss works high on the green and drunk on anything he can get his hands on. Daily. He is so incompetent yet remains in power - or as much power as middle management has. Regardless, it blows my mind every day he's still employed. I want to make it a bigger deal to the higher ups, but honestly I don't think anyone actually cares. And I know how this world works; I become a squeaky wheel and end up the one fired while the incompetent drunk continues on without even a slap on the wrist. F**k all of this.
Seadog 4 months ago
One job I had, manager (actually a really nice guy) got hooked on something ( i know squat about d***s, he was either a complete zombie or on the verge of violence) and ended up losing his job, 401K, car, wife & kids. It was sad watching him throw it all away but he wouldn't listen. Company even paid for him to go through rehab (4 weeks) and he could keep his job, he walked out after about 2 weeks. His next job straightened him out though because they have random testing. In the end though, he still lost everything that was important to him. The DM of course knew something was going on but had no way of nailing him down on it. Told me to keep an eye on the manager and keep him posted if I saw anything he should know about. Mostly he didn't want me calling him to tell him the manager dropped dead in the store or got into a fight with a customer or other employee. He nearly did get into one with an employee at a store meeting. That was the last straw in the company's eyes.
Load More Replies... Stephanie 4 months ago
I worked at a grocery store in college and I kept making waves and getting people fired with every department I worked in. When i applied the boss said she just hired and had no more spots, then she called me a couple days later with an opening. During the onboarding I asked what happened, why did she have an opening so quickly? She said one of the new hired failed the d**g test. sure, makes sense. I worked as a cashier for a couple months and called out a coworker who would clock in and then disappear for two hours, leaving me alone on the registers. fired for stealing time. switch to stocking and I caught the grocery manager stealing so he got fired. switch again and the produce department manager got fired for bringing a weapon to work (the bakery manager was also fired because the produce guy and the bakery lady were sleeping together, thus the weapon for "self defense"). then I worked in the deli where a coworker got fired for faking an injury and making false insurance claims.
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