No matter how long you’ve beenworkingat a company, it’s important to be on your best behavior around yourboss. You might feel comfortable cracking jokes after a while or sprinkling in small details about your personal life. But it’s always wise to be careful what you reveal, just in case.However, if your boss doesn’t seem to prioritize actingprofessionallyaround their employees, it might be time to call them out. Redditors have recently beenopening upabout times they managed to put toxic supervisors in their place without gettingfired, so we’ve gathered the juiciest stories below. Keep reading to find conversations with the Reddit user who started this thread andDr. Liane Davey, author ofThe Good Fight, and be sure to upvote the things you wish you could say to your boss!This post may includeaffiliate links.
No matter how long you’ve beenworkingat a company, it’s important to be on your best behavior around yourboss. You might feel comfortable cracking jokes after a while or sprinkling in small details about your personal life. But it’s always wise to be careful what you reveal, just in case.
However, if your boss doesn’t seem to prioritize actingprofessionallyaround their employees, it might be time to call them out. Redditors have recently beenopening upabout times they managed to put toxic supervisors in their place without gettingfired, so we’ve gathered the juiciest stories below. Keep reading to find conversations with the Reddit user who started this thread andDr. Liane Davey, author ofThe Good Fight, and be sure to upvote the things you wish you could say to your boss!
This post may includeaffiliate links.
Had a boss who repeatedly stripped my name off reports and emails I’d written, then submitted them as her own to our VP. I started bcc’ing the VP, with whom I had a good relationship. He called her into his office to ask her questions about the work and to compliment ‘her’ efforts. She claimed all the credit and lied to his face. He called her on it. She was fired the next day.
To find out how this conversation started in the first place, we reached out to Reddit userRelevant_Grape_4106, who invited readers to share stories of how they stood up to their bosses without getting fired. First, we wanted to know what inspired them to start this thread.
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The author also noted that they didn’t think this was such a common issue until they made this post. “Looking at the number of responses I got, I appear to be wrong, sadly. I just think those who are in superior management need to realize that when their employees are working well under their management and care, there’s less of a chance of employees leaving the workplace and more of a chance of the workplace flourishing because everyone contributes to that, especially those that are working at the very foundation of the job, as well as what I mentioned prior about the mental and emotional health aspect of it all,” they shared.
I had a manager who thought it was part of his job to manage people’s personal lives too. I (female) was stuck with him and another manager (also female) in a car en route to an offsite meeting. He took this opportunity to ask me about my recent slew of “so-called” doctor appointments I had had. They had been legitimate appointments and I could have even provided doctors' notes if he had asked, but he didn’t go that route. I simply asked him if he wanted to continue the conversation when we got back to the office and HR could be present or if I should arrange for a consultation with my attorney. He shut up really quickly.
And as far as what the OP thought of the replies to their post, they thought they were very insightful. “I particularly appreciated the replies where people were able to stand their ground and not lose their integrity for something that a superior had a personal issue with, for example,” they shared. “As well as the few that were smart enough to play the UNO-reverse card onto their superiors to realize the consequences of their actions!”
To gain more insight on this topic, we reached out toDr. Liane Davey, author ofThe Good Fight. She was kind enough to have a chat withBored Pandaand discuss the issue of toxic bosses.
“Many employees report having a toxic boss, but the situations fall into three categories,” Dr. Davey shared. “The first category includes the horrible managers out there who are doing considerable damage. Some of them are unskilled or incapable of doing their job effectively. Their disorganization, lack of planning, or inability to provide coaching make it incredibly difficult for you to be successful.”
I had been groomed for a management position for 6 months. At that point my boss announced his retirement and that I’d be stepping into his role. One of my colleagues took exception to this and accused my boss of playing favorites because we were friends. We had become friends over the course of him training me for his job.Anyway, she went to my bosses boss, and her boss, and got herself an interview. After that she threatened to make a discrimination complaint if they didn’t give her the job. So they gave her the job and begged me not to quit. I said I wouldn’t quit but I’m looking to advance my career and if I can’t do it here I’d find somewhere I could.I worked for 3 months under her. She made my life hell and tanked the department. Meanwhile, the bosses created a whole new position for me, with more money, more autonomy, my own office, and I’d report directly to a VP.And a few months after that she(the one that took my job) was fired.
“A second category includes managers who are unfairly labeled toxic. Sure, they might be annoying, micro-managing, demanding, or dismissive, but they aren’t hazardous to your health,” Dr. Davey explained.“A third category I would refer to as toxic managerial relationships. Often, I hear employees complaining about their managers and how the manager doesn’t like them or how they are disrespectful, but when I watch them interact, it’s clear to me that the employee has created an unhealthy and inaccurate narrative about the boss’ behavior or attitudes,” the expert says. “You should be careful about the labels you use because not all toxic bosses are created equal.”
“A second category includes managers who are unfairly labeled toxic. Sure, they might be annoying, micro-managing, demanding, or dismissive, but they aren’t hazardous to your health,” Dr. Davey explained.
“A third category I would refer to as toxic managerial relationships. Often, I hear employees complaining about their managers and how the manager doesn’t like them or how they are disrespectful, but when I watch them interact, it’s clear to me that the employee has created an unhealthy and inaccurate narrative about the boss’ behavior or attitudes,” the expert says. “You should be careful about the labels you use because not all toxic bosses are created equal.”
One time, I confronted my toxic superior calmly and professionally about their behavior in a one-on-one meeting. I made sure to cite specific examples and how their actions were affecting the team. I also emphasized that I wanted to have a positive working relationship moving forward. Surprisingly, they were receptive to my feedback and actually apologized for their behavior. Since then, our dynamic has improved significantly. It just goes to show that sometimes addressing the issue head-on can lead to a positive outcome without putting your job at risk.
Oh! I got one!The setup isn’t all the special. He wasn’t good at his job. He blamed me for mistakes. I just kind of stood my ground and didn’t give in to any of his increasingly insane demands. Finally, he yells at me his last words on the subject, turns to stomp away his victory march and walks straight into a wall, having lost his sense of place in the room. Like, wasn’t even close to making an exit. Full body, flat into the wall.I like to think he also still relives that moment regularly.
One supervisor yelled at me for eating candy in front of her. I’m a T1D and needed the sugar or else I’d faint. She got strike 2 of 3 and was removed as my supervisor. A new one was assigned to my sector.I should’ve just fainted and got worker comp. and her a*s fired.
We also asked Dr. Davey if she had ever worked in an unhealthy environment. “Early in my career, I had a boss whom I experienced as toxic. I tried to stand up to her, but I didn’t do a good job of it,” she shared. “I told her my team was burning out and we needed to do things differently, but nothing I tried seemed to work.““Our relationship got so unhealthy for me that I ended up quitting. Looking back now, I realize how I owned some of what went wrong, and if I’d done a better job of expressing my concerns, it might have played out differently,” the expert told Bored Panda. “Fortunately, I haven’t had a toxic boss since then, partly because I was careful which jobs I took, and partly because I got more skilled at managing up.”
We also asked Dr. Davey if she had ever worked in an unhealthy environment. “Early in my career, I had a boss whom I experienced as toxic. I tried to stand up to her, but I didn’t do a good job of it,” she shared. “I told her my team was burning out and we needed to do things differently, but nothing I tried seemed to work.”
“Our relationship got so unhealthy for me that I ended up quitting. Looking back now, I realize how I owned some of what went wrong, and if I’d done a better job of expressing my concerns, it might have played out differently,” the expert told Bored Panda. “Fortunately, I haven’t had a toxic boss since then, partly because I was careful which jobs I took, and partly because I got more skilled at managing up.”
Not an interaction with a superior, but with a colleague.I work in IT, I do tech support over the phone for a financial institution. User calls and asks about an issue he’s having, so I remote into his computer and start asking questions to understand the nature of the problem. I eventually ask him if he can inquire with his colleagues, to see if they’re experiencing the same problem.So he opens up our chat messaging app, asks someone to check, and follows it up with “I’m with tech support right now, not the brightest guy”, which I can very clearly see because I’m still connected. So I immediately remind him that I can still see his screen and that I find what he just said very disrespectful. He gets defensive, tells me I’m asking too many questions and “shouldn’t you know how to fix my problem”, to which I tell him that’s exactly what I’m in the process of doing. Didn’t take long for him to realize he’s being a douche for no reason.In almost 10 years of doing this job at different levels, this was the first time someone apologized to me for acting out of line, and didn’t just ask to speak to a manager or hang up on me. I accepted his apology, and then proceeded to not only solve the issue, but end the call on a good note.This happened 2 weeks ago.
My first job was at McDonald’s. One of the managers had worked for my mom a few years before and hated my mom. She was a dogshit employee and my mom fired her because of it. When she realized who I was she started treating me like st and making me do all the s****y stuff, cutting my hours when possible and giving me bad shifts like overnights on the weekend then lunch shifts during the week just to fk with me.One day she yelled at me because my hair was too long. I literally shave my head to 1/4” every other week so it was at most 1/2” long maybe. My response was “my head is shaved you fg ae” and took my hat off to show her. The main store manager was there. Luckily I had been reporting all of the mistreatment and the store manager agreed that my hair has never been too long. I got talked to about cussing at her. She got fired.I am 100% sure she hates my entire family at this point.
We also asked Dr. Davey for advice on how employees can stand up to toxic bosses without losing their jobs. “You need to be very careful and willing and ready at any moment to back down if that’s what’s required to save your job,” she noted. “But when you’re ready, ask for a private meeting when you have time to share your concerns.”
Had an RN supervisor who had it out for me due to her insecurities (was about to graduate nursing school and I would often point out things she was doing egregiously wrong) and her ignorance regarding union rules (she used to think I was leaving 15 minutes early every day when in reality I wasn’t taking my last break until the end of my shift so I could ensure my assignment was completed in full). She never spoke to me about these issues formally, but would make constant passive-aggressive remarks and try to find other ways to get me in trouble.One evening she entered a 4-bedded patient room in the middle of me getting all of the men into bed for the night with a write-up. She says one of the patients I put in bed before I left the night before ended up falling out of bed and that the bed wasn’t left in the lowest position. The problems here were as follows:1. I couldn’t be held responsible for an event that transpired when I was off the clock and out of the building. Another aide had assumed responsibility for my patients when my shift was over.2. She was trying to write me up without a union delegate present. Not allowed.3. She was trying to write me up inside a room filled with alert patients who overheard everything and were able to attest to the fact that she tried to write me up without a delegate present. Extremely inappropriate.4. The bed was an older model that didn’t go all the way to the floor, and she couldn’t prove that the bed was raised or that I was responsible for the bed being raised.So I refused to sign the write-up, to which she threatened further recourse for refusing. I told her I’d talk to the director about it in the morning and if she felt the write-up was warranted I’d sign it with a union delegate present.The next morning I went to the director of nursing and told her what transpired. By the end of the discussion she was seeing red. I wasn’t there for it, but apparently she ripped that supervisor a new a*****e and shredded the write-up in front of her. The supervisor never messed with me ever again and quit as soon as I graduated from nursing school. I am now assistant director of nursing at this job.
“Rather than giving your superior feedback, which might cause defensiveness, try sharing candidly with them what you’re experiencing, show how you’ve taken accountability, and ask for what you think would make things better,” Dr. Davey recommends. “For example, you might say, ‘I am finding that I can’t accomplish my workload within the week. I have implemented some new time management strategies, and I am still finding that I have to work for an additional 2-4 hours in the evenings or on weekends. Could you prioritize my tasks so I know what can wait until the following week?'”
We were in different cities, and he wasn’t answering his phone. So I began emailing things I needed, and copying in his supervisor. He responded back that he expected me to keep calling, as he didn’t always check emails during his shift, and his supervisor took great exception to that.
Not me but a co-worker.She had worked for the company for years and made it to a middle management position in a division of the company that was known for its turnover.Almost immediately, the VP over the division starts giving her hell. She put up with this abusive behavior for several years because her husband had medical issues, and their younger children were still in school. Recently, she finally had enough, and took a job with a former co-worker that moved to another company.She scheduled what ended up being an epic exit interview. Apparently the VP had been doing some creative maneuvering within the company to hide her poor decision making in regard to product cost. It all came out. Firing people who were close to discovering what she had been doing, kickbacks to vendors via gifts, gifts to the VP including Super Bowl tickets (our company is VERY strict about gifts, and the Super Bowl is even used as an example of an impermissible gift), and just general fuckery and abuse of power.Less than a week after that exit interview, the VP and a couple of her cronies were out the door, which triggered a chain reaction of other people leaving their positions as they had apparently been abusing their lower-level power and didn’t have cover anymore.The entire division was re-formed over several months, and my old co-worker is doing fine.
I worked in IT consulting. I asked for a pay increase and my manager (one of three partner/owners) said I wasn’t worth it. I said okay and thought challenge accepted. It took me 3 days to find a new job and put in my notice. One of the other partners called me up and asked what happened. I told him. Apparently the asshat partner was doing other crappy stuff and they bought him out a year later.
“If asking your boss to change doesn’t work, you can ask for help from others in positions of power in your organization,” the expert continued. “Be sure not to complain about your manager, but it’s okay to share objectively what you’re experiencing and to ask for advice or coaching about what you might do to improve your relationship. It’s essential to keep a toxic boss situation in perspective. So, while you’re working to improve the situation, seek support from colleagues and friends who can remind you of your talents and worth as a person.”
I told him in no uncertain terms that he could not speak to me the way he was and that if he did it again I’d leave. I made it clear that I could walk into any restaurant on our block and get a job on the spot (true), but he had no other options - there was no one who could take my 40 hrs/week and all my responsibilities (I was essentially running half the restaurant at that point) and it would take weeks to find and train somebody to do half of what I do. Betting my job on an ultimatum was terrifying, but it worked. He never spoke to me that way again.
Collective feedback from training on an IT job. When asked didn’t we learn this in training, we all said the instructor spend most of his time calling us stupid and how much better he was then the rest is. He demoted back to the same job we all had, tech support.There really wasn’t any spite or revenge in it. We were just giving honest feedback about what happened.
Wow, so many times…The district manager was cheating on his wife with our manager. I don’t really care, but when they left the busy store to have sex, it became our issue.We documented everything at the store level from empty condom wrappers in the bathroom to the days and times they left the office with a line out the door. We submitted to HR and they were left with a warning…. Well, it continued to happen and we eventually got a photo of their two company vehicles at her house. We submitted to HR again, and they were both fired. There were tears as they could not believe me and my co-workers could “do this to them”.I was called a number of names from the area manager and after he was fired, he dumped a bunch of dog poop in our mail slot. We diddnt even mind. The real s**t had taken itself out.
Finally, Dr. Davey noted, “You may have a toxic boss, and you deserve support to deal with that situation. But before you jump to clever ways to retaliate against your toxic manager, it’s worth asking yourself whether the label fits.”
They kept having loud parties that would way into the night. I didn’t care about the drinking, which wasn’t allowed on base in Iraq, but I also worked 16 hour days and they would go into like 2am some days.So after several times of me asking them and getting ignored I called the MPs. They were on a flight out the next day.
Lol. In a meeting he demanded we do something completely illegal. I emailed him “as per our conversation” and he actually said yes. Immediately forwarded to his supervisor. Gone in three days. His replacement wasn’t much better.
I quit with no notice, I emailed my resignation letter to him and copied his boss and the bosses boss basically telling him all the reasons I thought he was a terrible boss and why I quit. I was second person to quit after he was hired. He was let go like 3 months later. .
I had a horrible team lead who tried to sabotage me when she found out I was being considered for a promotion that would have jumped over her.We both had our own offices so I called her into mine, moved my chair up so I sat higher and pretended like I was her boss and asked her things like “did you think that behavior was appropriate?” and “what would you have done differently if given the chance to try again?”. I was nervous doing this because I’d literally never spoken to any adult like that ever before in my life.I found a new job shortly after that was a 30% pay bump and had a solid career trajectory but let management know why I was leaving and it was 80% because of that lead. Found out she was let go soon after I left because other people gave the same reason for leaving. I didn’t exactly want her fired but I improved my situation and she got what was kinda coming to her I guess.
I sat calmly in a meeting with the top dawg and his little buddy, smiling and staying calm while they were yelling at me.I stayed calm as they continued to yell. I asked them to please calm down and stop yelling. The response was I’m NOT YELLING! At that point, I laughed.That was the end of their intimidation.
I brought him homemade cookies every day until his clothes didnt fit right and he looked ridiculous.
Worked in a supermarket bakery for years and worked my way up to manager. Decided to leave my full time job and go to college. Was lucky enough to get a transfer of my job to the town/city I was going to college amd work a couple days a week in the same supermarket chain as a baker but no longer managing, which I was happy with. Within a few days the staff obviously realised I knew my job well given my experience but I was happy just doing my bit a couple days a week as one of the team. The assistant manager however seemed to take exception to staff asking me for any advice and would undermine any and every thing I said regardless if ot was correct. I advised the manager of this and he was silently watching as this continued. I then had enough and called him out big time and also advised the manager was aware and that I was sick of his childish behaviour. He never challenged me again and actually left the job shortly after. The rest of my time there was one of the most fun jobs I’ve had.
Not exactly my boss but she acted like she was so I’ll say it counts. She was a peer but would try to give me action items, etc.Anyway, nothing too crazy. She looked down on what I did (site building) so I took another job and then she had to do my job after I left. She learned very quickly how much work it actually was and had it all dumped on her while I moved onto better things (and got a significant raise shortly after).
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I was on leave after a work place injury and my pay dropped to 70% for LTD when it was supposed to remain at 100%. I contacted HR and the woman I spoke to said it would be fixed on my next pay with retro. Next pay comes, another dropped pay and no retro. I call her again but this time she doesn’t answer, I leave her a voicemail, no call back. The next day I send an email but she doesn’t respond. I thought she might be on PTO but I wasn’t getting an “out of office” e-mail that HR typically uses. I was being ignored.I waited a couple more days then I reached out to a senior level manager that I worked with for years and knew was reliable. The chain of events that followed was extraordinary. This senior manager sent an e-mail to the HR person and CC’d other senior managers, a director and a few other high level positions to have my concern resolved immediately. I was Bcc’d into the email thread and the negligent HR person was professionally shred to pieces after trying to blame someone else.I thought she was rude and dismissive from the start so reading her e-mail full of excuses just to have it thrown back at her as being “totally unacceptable” was quite satisfying.
I just told them no. Back when I was an insurance fraud investigator I had one particular claim that was referred that literally had no fraud indicators. Pursuing a fraud investigation on a claim with zero indicators is a recipe for a bad faith claim.The particular reason this claim was referred over was because the adjuster did not like how the claimant had spoken with them and she happened to be buddy buddy with my boss. I always referred to these as mean man referrals and sent them back because being a jerk does not equal fraud.With this claim I got a call from my boss telling me I needed to accept the claim for investigation after I had sent it back. I went over the claim with her, explained that there were no fraud indicators, and explained I wouldn’t do it. They continued to persist and I advised I wasn’t doing anything against our policy and if she really wanted it to be investigated she could do it herself. My persistent nos eventually made them give up and I never saw that claim again.Long story short is my boss and her friend had a personal vendetta against the claimant and tried to use me to make their life a living hell and I was having none of it.
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I had a boss who was very abusive to his staff. Blatantly sexist to the women on the team. Wouldn’t pay people overtime. After three years, I negotiated a raise and then he only gave me half of it, claiming the other half had to come later at some unspecified point in time. I was furious. So I wrote a letter of resignation to submit to our Board of Directors, came in the next day, and told him that if he didn’t honor his agreement, I would send it to every single Board member.As soon as he read it, he knew he’d probably lose his job if the Board found out about the wage theft, the retaliation, and the sexism. I managed to negotiate proper raises for myself and three of my female colleagues. That gave me some big d**k energy for awhile.But honestly, looking back on it, I wish I had just sent the letter to the BoD. Yeah, some things got better, but other things got worse and there was very little reason to protect his job other than the fear of the unknown of what would happen if he was replaced.
I had a manager that would start screaming at me in public. I was fresh out of college and it was my first job. After a few months of this I got sick of it and started yelling back at her in public. She said to take into her office but I refused. We had it out in the open and II made her look like a fool. After that I was reassigned lol.
Gave my 2 week notice without having another job lined up. This caught the attention of a senior executive who then asked to meet with me. We talked for 3 hours. 2 weeks later, my boss was fired and I got a raise and a promotion.And to make clear, that story sounds like I’m a manipulative power player, but I assure you it was all inadvertent and unplanned. I just got lucky.
I sat for my pitty 5/10 minute lunch break with hungry and troubling stomach, and she started complaining how we all are sitting all time, and how she is only person in whole market who does stuff properly.Overwhelmed and anoyed from everything that day, and her day over day, unjustified complaining about everyone the most, i answered that i can easily pack up and go home if she prefers, since i like everybody else am useless here and she can work alone in peace (worked at recieving, validating quantity and quality, sorting and storing products at shelfs too, also drove forklift when big trucks come).Did not get fired, but i did shut her mouth for a while, made her angry, and later that day at end of shift quit job myself.Best decision and most satisfaying answer of my life.
Dude was a little arrogant. Hired out of house so the other guy was pissed he didn’t get the offer. I just started. Dudes just on our a*s all day. 0 downtime, can’t be autonomous, always had to pause and listen to how to do xyz less efficiently, etc. It got personal. We just turned out a vehicle, bro grabbed keys for another and we were talking about something for 10s tops. Dude sees it, snaps his fingers twice and yells “c’mon, let’s go”. Earlier in the week he started forcing us to take our lunch when he wanted and starting st if not. It just hit 12:00 on the dot and we were walking outside. As soon as he started talking I went” oop it’s 12:00, I gotta take break or imma get written up” and dipped. I complained about the break thing and it got canned, back to normal. He was fuming. For the next week I did tiny things to make him blow up as I learned what got to him. We had a few spats in the shop and it got noticed. One day I made him say some crazy st while our manager was standing right behind him. Demoted the following week lmaooo.
I got swine flu (or some horrible sickness) back in 2009. I missed three days of work in a row. I was only 19 at the time, and due to the rotten coincidence that me getting sick around spring break, my boss assumed I was lying about being sick and was just partying all week. On the third day of calling in sick, he told me that I could take that day off, but if I called in sick again the next day, I can just look for a new job.I came back to work the next day looking pale, sweaty and noticeably lighter (lost a few pounds after battling it for almost a week). Boss doesn’t say anything or apologize, even after a bunch of my coworkers mention how sick I look.A couple days later, I’m called in on my day off. My boss got really sick and they were short staffed and needed help. It’s worth noting my boss worked there for 24 years, and this was the first time he called in sick for work.
I quit.She dropped to part-time and had to find other jobs.I now have a dream job making 150% of her salary.
Worked in a lab calibrating devices used in litigation. So everything around their repair and service is documented because it can be used in court and will be. Anyways the technical manager I’m supposed to go to if I can’t solve something (who I trained, should have been my first sign to quit) was super lazy and didn’t want to do her job. Literally refusing to write SOP guidelines for chemical uses and other stuff. Anyways in my exit interview I provided documentation (that I had already sent my manager several times) of standards violations with OSHA and other compliance agencies, and her and my managers unwillingness to do anything about it, including an email response from her(where she’s CCd my manager who was a pushover and never did anything, he sucked at standing up for anything) saying “I don’t give a f**k, get it done and stop complaining”, and then documented cases where she would attempt to mock my PPE requests. I wasn’t the only person escorted off site that day.Sorry about the block of texts, I guess I needed to vent.
HR required him to apologize. I didn’t turn him in. Someone else did, on my behalf. So I worked with HR, proved my innocence. When he called me in and faked an apology he reached his hand across his desk to shake my hand. It may as well have been a rattlesnake. I couldn’t take it, didn’t take it and I saw him wince. I am so glad I never touched that rattler.
Quite a while back (a bit over twenty years now), I had a boss who was pretty vocally one of Those Guys. He was a holy roller, used to listen to right-wing radio at work without headphones (Rush Limbaugh and Jim Quinn, mostly), and would complain vociferously at his desk about Those People. I don’t think he ever realized that the only sysadmin the company had (moi) was One of Those People. I kept my mouth shut because it was the best money I’d ever made at the time.The moment I had a chance to jump ship I took it, but before I left for good I decided to take advantage of another of my boss’ personality quirks: He was the kind of guy who’d get his mail in the morning, drive in to work, and go through it during lunch. So I got him a gift subscription to Not Like Most, which was a glossy periodical dedicated to promulgating Satanic thought and philosophy.A couple of weeks after I moved and got settled in a few states away, one of my ex-cow-orkers IM’d me. “Did you do something? Bill was going through his mail this morning and he freaked out over some magazine that came in his name.” I was told that this caused him no end of heartache and panic, at home or at work, and he was beside himself every time he saw another issue arrive.Gotcha, Bill. And I hope your eldest son came to his senses and got away from you.
Left and got a job elsewhere at the same level as them for a better organisation, where I’m a better manager than them.Sometimes the best revenge is simply to do your own thing and be successful.
I’m an event planner and one of our new VPs was a complete bh. Though I had been doing my job well for well over a decade and she was new, nothing was ever up to her expectations. One time I did all the event planning, logistics, catering, AV etc for her sales conference in Miami but she didn’t want me on site for the event. Ok. You got it lady. What she didn’t expect is that since I negotiated the contracted with the host hotel and did all the pre-planning, they sent me the invoice. Not someone from her team. And let’s just say I’m like a MF forensic accountant when it comes to reconciliation of complex invoices. I did a deep dive and sure enough the bh charged a massage, hair styling, dry cleaning and washing of over 20 PAIRS OF PANTIES to our master account WHICH IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN BY OUR COMPANY. We have a compliance department which I reported her to. I secretly met with them, and showed them some of the other charges that weren’t really allowed but they didn’t seem that concerned I deliberately kept the panties on the very last page a presented to them 😎 Didn’t happen right away, but yeah, she got fired and I still work for my company. And PS the conference was only 3 days so wtf are you doing with 20 pairs of panties??
Got into with a manager, who wasn’t my manager, but I did work closely with him. This was at a dealership, he was the used car manager, I was a detailer. Had an older guy in our department who was semi-retired. Used car manager decided this guy was his new personal assistant the 3 days a week he worked. Well one day we got absolutely hammered with sold cars and customers work, so we had to have this guy come back and help us out, which was technically his job anyways. Used car manager came back throwing an absolute toddler style tantrum over this guy working with us and not pulling cars off the lot just to run through the car wash and park again (aka busy work). I was about 6hrs deep already of non stop work, no lunch break and it was about 85 degrees that day. I wasn’t in the mood as you can probably guess. I flipped out on him. We were basically nose to nose yelling back and forth for a bit. I eventually got him to the point where he knew I was right and he was left speechless and stormed out. I never even got written up let alone fired. But the manager didn’t talk to me for awhile and he gave me the shittiest cars to detail for a while after, but he never came back with that type of attitude again.
I outworked them and showed my worth to the company, then refused a promotion and informed them that I was looking and interviewing for a position elsewhere, and would continue to do so, as long as he was still there.
Email the higher ups, and just did my job in front of them. Their job is to be the skipper on a speedboat, mine is to be crew - they would just hop in the engine bay with the boat running if there was a problem and tell me to steer. With passengers on board it’s so dangerous and illegal to do that. Speeding down the Thames at 40knts in a 30 zone. Shouting at me when I do something I didn’t know I was doing wrong, and then expecting me to just accept their apology. It gave me such anxiety I couldn’t sleep, and while I wish I’d been more self assured that I was in the right to want the higher ups to know, I still felt like i was being bothersome at the time. Foolish.I emailed and asked not to be put with him, which sparked a meeting that let me explain everything. I did it explaining what he did and how it made me feel, and that was that. He would apologise to me at some point and I told him straight that we didn’t gel, but I wish I’d gone further and told him he needed to get his act together because of how irresponsible he was.So I did the right thing, but now I know I’d want to be more up front with things not being okay, instead of being so eager to brush things under the carpet.
We had an employee football game, I knocked him out. Gotta keep your head on a swivel. I for sure thought i was gonna get fired or something, but I found out that managers aren’t supposed to hang out with employees so nothing happened.Probably doesn’t count but that’s as close as I got.
Sent him an email to read on the day he got back from a two week vacation telling him I was resigning my position. My last day would be two weeks from the day of his return. I got walked out but they paid me. I technically got fired, but I feel like this is in the spirit of the question.
My district manager was never around enough to know what my real voice sounded like, so every time I talked to her, I would switch to doing my impersonation of her to her face. She never said anything.
Caught them in several lies and had video evidence to back it up .
I told him he reminded me of a famous tv show host that was in the news for being a terribly mean boss. He said to keep my voice down cause if management heard my joke he’d get in trouble. I shrugged and said I wasn’t joking and got back to work.
I can’t remember what started it, but we got physical to the point of shoving each other a few times, before slipping on something and both falling to the ground. This guy was the owner of the restaurant. We just separated and went back to work for a little while, and then eventually i went in the office and was like “that was weird, my bad” and he pretty much said the same. Nothing else came out of it.
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Gabija Saveiskyte
Indrė Lukošiūtė
Work & Money
