TLDR: Hotshot VP unrelated to our lab, enters radiation lab during government audit, touches radioactive samples and demands to watch and for people to follow protocol. Auditor decides to grant his wishes and activates protocol for unknown radiation exposure. Resulting in the lab being sealed, VP sent to hospital for observation for a minimum of 48h, fines and civil court.

So, this happened a couple of years ago. I work in an complex that houses research labs from different institutions: universities, private companies and government. My lab is a radiation lab, where we have a big, walk-in vault made of lead. Our samples range from "weak" to very very nasty, illegal to own unless you have special permission kind of nasty. I am a radiation protection specialist and researcher.

One day, colleagues from other labs were complaining about some hotshot VP (I will call him Bob) from a company that had a lab in a different building. Apparently Bob liked to wander around in his free time and would enter other labs without permission or even knocking. Bob at best was annoying, asking questions about what they were doing, touching things and being tall and mighty about his position as VP of his company. At worst, on an occasion Bob destroy some cancer cell cultures that research group was growing, setting their work back a couple of weeks.

Anyway, I was not worried. Every time radiation samples were out of the vault our labs double doors were covered with signs: "DANGER", "RADIATION", "DO NOT ENTER", etc. In all kinds of bright colours. No one in their right mind would go through doors without it being an absolute emergency. Well, I was wrong. Our safety regulations and guidelines did not allow us to lock the lab doors (hazard in case of fire) that's why we put up the signs and my boos holds the key to lock those doors in his office.

One time, at the end of the day as I am finishing up and had just locked the vault with all the samples inside, someone, nonchalantly enters the lab. Hotshot VP Bob.

Bob stopped by the door and started looking around, I asked him if I could help and who was he. Bob was not happy. He says that he is a VP for such and such company with a lab in the build next door and that he saw the signs on our door and wanted to see what we were doing and see some "radiation" (whatever that means). Mind you, our lab is not visible from the outside, you have to navigate the building very far within in order to even get to our restricted area.

I tell Bob that he can't be here, almost no one can be here, that's why we have the signs by the door. Bob says that he can read that signs but he is a VP and wants to see. I tell him he really has to leave and the only way he could see samples out would be to enroll on our level zero radiation protection course that anyone associated to any of the institutions can take. Completing it would allow him to see some samples during the course. It's a 1 hour course, btw, were you just sit down, listen and watch. He is not happy, but I don't care, I start taking down the signs from the doors and tell him that the lab is going to be locked down by my boss as soon as I am finished. Bob goes away. But Bob is not finished.

A few weeks later, we had an audit by the government. These are surprise audits, the auditor just comes in the first our of the morning and we have to pause all our work for a day in order to be audited. It was my turn to be the Radiation specialist in charge for this audit, so my colleagues went home and my boss stayed in his office next door. I put up the signs while the auditor settled in the second room of our lab. We begin, he gives a list of samples that I have to take out from the vault. Some are training samples and others are nasty samples. I usually start with the training one because they are closer by the door when you enter the vault. Each sample is stored in its own lead container and are very heavy. I take the first three training samples out and put them on the table. I walk back to the other room to blow my nose and signal the auditor that the samples are out. He is filling up some forms, has clear view to the table and the door to outside. He raises his head and looks puzzled, I ask him what's wrong and he points to the table and asks: who's that? I turned around. It's fucking Bob.

To my horror, Bob got in the lab and saw the containers, opened one and took a sample out and was at it against the light with his bare hands. I run, I scream. Put it back! He nonchalantly as ever, puts it back and says how not a big deal it is and asks what we are doing. I tell him that he has to leave. Auditor approaches us, asks what the problem is and who is he. Big mistake. Bob started is VP nonsense again. Auditor tells him that this is a government audit, there is a protocol to follow. Bob says great, sits on a chair and tells us to go on. Auditor tells him he can't be there. Bob disagrees, he is a VP after all, he demands to stay and watch. Auditor walks back to the other room, I start to beg to Bob to please leave before we fail that audit. Bob demands we just do our jobs, follow protocol and he is going to supervise. I look back at the auditor, he noods. Bob is happy. Not for long tho.

Auditor comes back with a piece of paper for me to sign. Basically me handing him the "radiation specialist in charge" to him. On the reason for it he says we write that later, that he will make sure it does not reflect bad on me. I sign. He ands me booklet with emergency protocol and points, we are doing this one, you know what to do. So, I had to call me boss and explain the situation. He was furious, not with me tho. Now my boss had to lock us in and tape the doors with hazard tape. At the same time the auditor starts to explain to Bob the protocol. The amusement in his face quickly fades when he realises that we were locked in, emergency services and police were on the way. Auditor tells Bob that he should call someone in his family to bring him clothes to the hospital because he was being admitted for observation for at least 48h as per protocol for unknown radiation exposure.

We both new that none of those samples were dangerous, even when handled bare handed, but, since we never got to log them and test them, they were considered "unknown" radiation sample and that warrants mandatory observation period. Bob wanted to see us follow a protocol, so he got to experience one.

Emergency services had Bob strip from his suit and underwear, and took in a sealed radiation hazard bag. Have him new clothes and took him to a hospital. Me and the auditor were in the clear because we always maintained safe distance from the samples and were not exposed. We had to fill a lot of forms and statements, so the audit has to be postponed. Auditor tells me that actually he is the boss of the auditors, he just volunteers every year to do this audit because he likes to visit our town and has friends here. So all this paperwork will end up on his desk for his evaluation and I have nothing to worry about. I knew this gentleman was very knowledgeable because I had done other audits with him but I had no idea and he was the actual head of his department.

Bob's boss came to apologize to my boss and told him what happened. The fallout: Bob spent 48h in observation, which he had to pay for because his company insurance didn't cover radiation exposure (obviously). Around $40k

Bob has to pay a fine of undisclosed amount $??

Bob is being taken to civil court by our institution for losses taken by us since our lab had to be shutdown pending new audit. Which took 2 weeks to happen and we couldn't handle any sample during that time. Institution is seeking $150k in damages but my boss thinks we will be awarded maybe half of that. Process is slow and ongoing.

I used to work customer support for a small software company. We were measured almost entirely on how many tickets we closed each day. Customer satisfaction and actually solving the issue were supposedly important too, but the numbers on the dashboard always seemed to matter more.

One Monday, management announced a new rule.

No ticket was allowed to stay open overnight unless a supervisor approved it. They said seeing old tickets on the board "looked bad" during executive meetings.

I asked what we should do with the complicated issues that required the development team. Sometimes we'd be waiting two or three days for an answer.

The response was, "Close the ticket. If the customer still needs help, they can open a new one."

I confirmed that was the expectation, and my manager said yes.

So that's exactly what I did.

Every issue that depended on another team got a polite message explaining that the current request was being closed and that they should contact us again if they still needed assistance after the developers reviewed the problem.

By the end of the week, my numbers looked fantastic. I had the highest ticket closure rate on the team, and the dashboard had almost no old tickets left.

The following week, support volume suddenly exploded.

Customers were opening second, third, and sometimes fourth tickets for the exact same issue because each previous one had been closed before anyone could actually fix it. Reporting became useless because one problem now appeared as multiple unrelated cases. The developers were confused because they kept getting duplicate reports from different ticket numbers.

Management called a meeting to figure out why ticket volume had nearly doubled.

I reminded them that I had simply followed the new policy exactly as instructed.

After a rather awkward silence, the rule was quietly changed. Tickets waiting on another department could stay open again, provided we added an internal note explaining why.

My ticket closure rate dropped back to normal.

Strangely enough, so did the number of support tickets.

Last summer our office AC stopped working for two weeks in August. The building was genuinely miserable.

I pulled up the official dress code. It said: business casual, collared shirts required, no jeans, no sneakers. I read it three times. No mention of shorts anywhere.

I came in wearing pressed khaki shorts, a button-down shirt, and brown loafers. Fully collared. Zero jeans. Zero sneakers. Policy-compliant.

My manager pulled me aside and said I looked unprofessional. I asked him to point to which part of the written dress code I had violated. He could not. He went to HR.

HR told me verbally that shorts were "implied" to not be allowed. I asked them to send that in writing before I could follow it, since our employee handbook stated that dress code changes required written notice.

Three days later a company-wide email went out adding "no shorts" to the dress code policy. My manager's name was listed as the submitter because it originated from his complaint.

He filed a formal HR complaint about one employee wearing shorts during a broken AC heat wave and got his name on a company-wide policy email.

I wore the shorts for three more days while the new policy was in its required five-business-day notice period.

A few years ago I worked for a retail store. Normally, I worked during the day while the store was open. The dress code was you could wear any shirt you wanted, but it had to have a collar. One day I was working an overnight shift with a manager who was a real tool. Nobody liked him. After I punched in, he came up to me and saw I was just wearing a T-shirt. He said I had to put on a collared shirt or he would send me home. I argued that we were overnight and not around any customers. He said it didn't matter. We went back and forth for a few minutes. I told him I had another shirt of my car, but it didn't have a collar. At this point, he was basically yelling at me and said, "I don't care what shirt you wear, but it has to have a collar."

I went to my car, and grabbed one of my girlfriend's blouses which she had left in my car. it was low cut and a bit see-through, but it did have a collar. I put it on in the car and went back into work. The look on my manager's face was priceless. He didn't know what to do. He wasn't about to send me home because we were shorthanded that night. He told me I could wear my T-shirt. I went back to my car and changed. He barely talked to me the rest of the night. He never asked me to work overnight again.

At a recent work event, we were sent a memo the week before not to have beverages in their own brand’s cups and to transfer them into a non-descript tumbler or one with our own logo.

Well, the week before the memo, we had received a tumbler, with our logo, as a corporate “gift”. It was awkward and clunky and the lid made the whole thing so difficult to carry and it was a PITA to clean, by hand. A colleague found it through sheer curiosity that the medium-sized cup from our favorite beverage shop fit perfectly inside AND we didn’t need the stupid lid.

We all walked around the event with our drinks inside what is now essentially an over-priced koozy with our logo. We didn’t hear anything about it from the higher ups and we underlings had a nice chuckle.

TL:DR: Boss tells me to take my lunch ONLY at X-Y hours when I was dealing with a "mission-critical" outage until the job was done. Later, I clock out during a VERY obvious "all hands on-deck" situation because boss complained the last time I answered the call.

The short version: Small business, this is my first IT job, but I have decades of blue collar experience. I was the first IT person the company ever hired; my associate's in IT specializing in networking only a few gen-ed classes away. My boss kept the platters spinning, but he has no formal training or amateur desire; he wants to offload the tediousness.

Three days prior, I was trying to get a "mission critical" computer up and running again; the only computer with the shipping software (and hundreds of packages waiting to ship). I advised an immediate re-image (delete everything and reset to a "known good save") I had it on deck for just such an occasion. But I was overridden by the owner, who wanted me to keep Windows in situ and delete/reinstall programs piecemeal and deal with phone support for those programs, because he paid extra for tech support. His call, I followed orders. I was on the phone for hours, and did not leave my post until the job was done.

That meant I took my lunch half an hour later. No big deal for me, but when I clocked back in and got back to my desk, my boss was standing there, FUMING, because I took a lunch outside of normal hours. He INSISTED I MUST take my 30 minute lunch from 12-1 as per company policy.

So, today, the whole network goes out at 12:25 and I had not yet taken my lunch. Nothing can ping anything. My own personal hunches tell me this is because it's a factory building, there are a lot of high-voltage woodworking machines for factory production level of output, and ALL of the ethernet cables are unshielded.. Just my hunch.

...But I really can't do a damn thing, because my company rents out office space as a subletter; so we are NOT allowed access to the switches and routers. I have no admin access to the infrastructure. So I set up wireshark to record and a continuous command line ping, and go to lunch.

Boss is standing at my desk when I get back today, and gives me a passive-aggressive "the network is up, by the way!", but refuses to call me out further. I had the "I told you so" on deck, though!

I don't work for the best company- it's corporate and the higher ups have little understanding of what goes on at ground level. When I started, it was under a great manager that protected us from most of the 'crap rolls down hill' politics.

He was promoted out of the store, and after a few misfires, we got a new manager. She is very loud, she will get in conversations with friends and loudly discuss controversial opinions and swear like a sailor. I've had a few customers quietly ask me why I had not reported her to the manager, then roll their eyes and express sympathy when I said she IS my manager.

Anyway, there's a system in place for who to call when no manager is available. We are a tiny team, and most of us work solo. If the manager is coming in the morning, we call her the night before with concerns. If she's not and its the assistant, we call the assistant. Sure, no problem.

I found an issue I thought was important enough to inform her right away instead of waiting until the next day she worked. I took pictures and shot a short text explaining it. (food health code violation from one of our vendors).

I got back, and this is the exact text:

"I need you guys to understand that if the store is not on fire, your not being robbed your need to be contacting (assistant managers name) not me unless its an emergency please"

4 days later, she sends me a text scolding me for not 'doing my job' when it was in fact a managerial level job, not my level. Then the following text a few minutes later saying "oh, you DID do it. sorry" and she sent me some points in our stores 'good job' system.

I didnt respond. I wasn't on the clock.

Then she text me asking what my pay rate was, for my review. I decided to respond to this one even though it's kind of, you know, her job to know.

I started getting stupid texts from her like "do you know where the scissors went?" and stuff that.. according to the precedent she set, was not a store emergency and not my problem until I'm on the clock. I ended up deciding that I will not be answering her if I'm not on the clock. She calls, I let it go to voice mail. She texts, I leave her on read until I'm on the clock.

Now, the company has made a 'no phones while on the clock' policy as well. So, I guess she can't text or call me while I'm on the clock either unless she calls the store phone. (That's a whole other can of worms- they want us to use a mandatory app for store communication.. but not have our phones out. I asked for clarification ON THE WELCOME MESSAGE on the new app, asking if they are lifting the phones at work ban, or expect us to work off the clock? Everyone in the company got to see my question and the answering "we'll get back to you" that has yet to happen- now nobody is using the app because policy says we can't lol)

Woops. Guess she will have to come in, in person, on her days off if she wants to talk to me.

Maybe she should not have chewed my ass out so hard when I just sent her 1 text.

Very mild, but it’s costing my company more money now that they want me to spend my own money at a gym while I’m traveling.

Our company recently got corporate credit cards so they could keep track of things easier and get points instead of us on our own personal credit cards. At first I hated this, but it made expense reports infinitely easier. However, they were more lax with the rules. You could use your per diem for basically anything as long as you didn’t exceed it. I often would have anywhere from $20 to $50 left in per diem every day because I meal prepped as best I could and ate healthy, but cheaply.

Well, after the switch, I got a chargeback for going to the gym. When I asked about this, I was informed that per diem is strictly for meals only. Ok, fine, fuck it, but now I max my per diem every single day to the last few cents. Even if it’s just me getting food and giving it away, or feeding animals with it. Want to cheap out on my $10-$20 gym membership? Sure! But now it’s costing you hundreds more every day. And I average 2 to 3 months a year travel time.

Get fucked, corporation.

Had a board meeting today for a small community nonprofit I joined this year. A board member volunteered to take minutes but it went long so she had to leave a little early. When she did she said we were at 1 hour 45 mins and turned off a timer on her phone.

That seemed odd to me so later I asked if she could share the minutes so I could add what happened after she left. She replied that she left at 1 hour 45 mins.

I asked if she had notes. She said, "I thought someone else was taking notes. I was just taking the minutes."

This happened a year ago, but I just found this sub and realised I had a story to share.
It is not that extreme tho.

I worked at a buffet restaurant, and every shift, each staff was assigned one job. Those being usually: Cashier, runner(person who goes pick up the food when ready), person who changes the food around, table managing, cleaning, washing dishes, etc.

I was usually the Runner, because I was faster than everyone else, and we needed to walk a long way to the kitchen to pick up food and come back, and we had to do it in 3 minutes, or else our leader would call the kitchen/us to ask where we were.

There is a counter between the kitchen and the corridor that you pass through with the cart.
Usually, you go in, ask for the food, they will put it on the counter in a few seconds to a minute, you put it on the cart, and you can go back to the restaurant, but sometimes they will be understaffed, and if we are in need of something simple like sauces, green onions, or jam, we usually just get inside the kitchen and grab it ourselves. This is not a rule, it is just something that happened sometimes if they were really busy.

In that case, we were in need of some sauces, one or two food items, and green onions. I knew where all the sauces and green onions where, so after asking for them and waiting for more than a minute, I shouted "coming in! Grabbing green onions!" and went in the kitchen.
As I was pouring the pre-cut green onions on a bowl, one of the chefs walked on my direction screaming for me to leave the food, and that that was not my job, and that I was doing it wrong (I was not).

I asked him why, because we have been doing that for years at that point, and he said that it is his job to do, and that I'm only supposed to ask and wait.

So next time I needed something, I entered the kitchen, and as the chef was prepping something else, I started screaming "SAUCE ONE, SAUCE TWO, GREEN ONIONS, HONEY, THIS, THAT, THIS ALSO, SOMETHING ELSE", until I finished the full list, which were all mostly things I knew where they were and could have grabbed it during the time I was screaming the names and waiting.
The chef didn't say anything for a few seconds, so I screamed all of it again, and on the third time, while he was grabbing one of the sauces and placing it on the counter, he said "It's just me here, stop screaming and just put the paper there and wait".
I responded that I have to go back to the restaurant in 3 minutes or else they call to check what I'm doing and I would have to say that he was taking too long to bring me the stuff.
So he said "Ok, just go in there and grab it", and I reminded him that he told me the other day that I was not supposed to touch anything because that was not my job.

But I guess he changed his mind, cause he just said "forget it, just do it", but I reminded him again that he made it official that I can't do that, so I would have to contact the leader to make sure that I was allowed to, and the chef had to run around the kitchen for a few minutes to grab everything I needed, and never complained about us being inside the kitchen afterwards.

Few years ago. An abiding customer (me)...

The owner of a grocery store nearby had too many people buying too many things, never using the carts, hence checkout was always a bit chaotic.

It's a pretty big store, 6 counters, 6 belts. Always ONE cashier. Not two or three. Not even on a Saturday.

Biiiig sign outside *You need a shopping cart to enter!*

I was already running late and needed one (ONE) roll of tape. So I walk in, pretty fast for a guy my size, and this grumpy old fart gets in my way, almost ran into him.

"You cant shop here without a..."

*Yeah, I know. I only need - *

"nooooo nono no. No cart, no shop!" in a voice you use to explain to a 2-year-old, why he should NOT paint the wall with his diapers.

I turn around. Get TWO carts. Push one, pull one. Steer through the isles, Owner gives me THAT smile. I call my wife that i'll need a couple minutes... I walk up and down EVERY Isle.

He waits at the checkout.

One empty cart. Another empty cart. I lay my little roll of scotch tape, that I carried in my hand, on the belt. Onto the FAR end. Upright. Plan works, it won't roll down all the way. I push both carts into the trolley lane, as it's completely empty. Owner fumes a bit, but says nothing.

Go back to the cashier who is close to bursting of laughter, but Big Bossman is right next to his ear.

The owner starts yelling, so I try to copy his voice from earlier.

*no cart, no shop. Now two cart, one shop. Otay dada?*

I was banned until the owner sold to some nice family. The sign still is above the entrance, but nobody cares.

I didn't get the tape. He threw me out.

​I’ve been waiting a while to post this until the ink was dry on everything, but I finally can. I just took my former employer to the absolute cleaners, and it feels incredible.

​A bit of background: I was a full-time, permanent employee in Scotland. A while back, I accepted a temporary promotion to a senior role. When things started getting shaky at the company, I knew my head was on the chopping block, but I also knew my management team was incredibly shady.

​

​When they called me into a Microsoft Teams meeting to let me go, I had a gut feeling they were going to try and screw me over. I opened a recording app on my phone, put it next to my computer speakers, and hit record.

​In that meeting, they explicitly told me I was being made redundant. Since I was a permanent employee, this meant I was legally entitled to a decent redundancy payout.

​

​But then they got greedy.

​

​A few days later, they changed their tune. They sent over paperwork claiming my employment was just an "end of contract" situation, meaning I was entitled to absolutely nothing. Their logic? They claimed that by accepting a temporary senior promotion, I had somehow magically agreed to stop being a permanent employee. Which makes zero sense, is completely illegal under UK employment law, and they didn't have a single shred of paperwork showing I’d resigned from my permanent contract.

​

​To top it all off, they had the absolute nerve to ask me to train my replacement before I left. I called my union immediately. My rep basically laughed and said, "Absolutely not. If they’re arguing your contract is over and the role doesn't exist anymore, you aren’t doing a single second of work training someone to take over a job that supposedly vanished." So, following union advice, I told them no.

​

​Next came the internal informal and formal grievance processes, followed by ACAS early conciliation. Throughout all of it, the company doubled down on their absolute lie that I was never a permanent staff member. They completely fabricated timelines and conversations to justify it. I played completely dumb and didn't mention the recording once. I let them put every single lie in writing.

​

​Eventually, a tribunal case was officially raised, but the actual hearing was still a long way off. We were in settlement negotiations, and the company smugly offered me a measly £3,000 and refused to budge a single penny further. They thought they had won.

​That's when I dropped the hammer.

​

​I told them flat out that I had recorded the entire initial Teams meeting. I advised them that I would willingly share a word-for-word written transcript of the call right now, but I would be reserving the actual audio recording for the tribunal judge to listen to if they wanted to take that chance.

​

​The recording completely, undeniably proved that they had lied through the entire grievance and ACAS process, and that they were trying to defraud me out of my redundancy.

​

​They went completely silent. It took them a full week to get back to me, and when they did, the corporate arrogance was completely gone. But they still managed to show an unbelievable amount of audacity.

​They tried to save face by telling me I should accept their new offer because it "kept the door open for me to come back to the company someday." They claimed that secretly recording a meeting was "gross misconduct" that would normally make me ineligible to ever return, so they were doing me a favor. My union rep and I just laughed. You already sacked me! You can't claim gross misconduct on someone who doesn't work for you to justify a lowball offer, you absolute geniuses.

​Realizing they were completely trapped, their new offer was a slightly more than 10-fold increase on their original £3k plus the redundancy I would have gotten anyway.

​

​Because I held all the cards, I got to dictate every single term:

​

​- I walked away with a high five-figure settlement.

​- They had to sign off on a legally binding, glowing, fantastic employment reference for my future job hunts.

​- A letter stating that I was made redundant so I could prove I wasnt just dismissed (important when applying for future jobs as sometimes that looks like you were fired with cause).

- I didnt have any obligations to keep quiets and refused any terms that would make it difficult for me to speak about what happened.

​

​If they had just been honest and paid me my standard redundancy, I would have walked away quietly. Instead, their greed cost them an absolute fortune, all because they thought they could outsmart a worker.

​

Always record your meetings, folks

Backstory

I won't bore you with tech jargon. I'll just keep it simple.

I worked at a gas station as a manager. They sort of trapped me in it. I was the guy you called when a store across state lines was short-staffed, or if they needed help with paperwork and/or training employees. I was a staff lead on track to go to their IT department, until a company bought them out. I was, at the time, basically an assistant manager without handling money, that was until the promotion. The store was in the red, and they saw how I turned one store around when there was no manager, and the district manager (DM) handled the money. So, they moved me to this new store and just preached about the benefits. I took it, and from there is how this all happened. I am by no means some genius, but I have been developing things for Linux in my own time for myself. I had a side job where I repaired computers, and sometimes I built whole computers from parts people ordered. I'm smart, but I would not classify myself as a senior sysadmin, but definitely not a beginner, and I document everything (important later). Now to the story.

Becoming unofficial IT

So, I had gotten into the routine of things, paperwork, safe, bank, schedules, and started some weeks in the black, some in the red, before finally getting all in the black consistently (it took a couple of years). Well, the issue that made this malicious compliance happen was the equipment. Gas pumps, the server, the registers, the office computer, all of it was not extremely old, but showing its age. We had to defrag the office computer a couple of times. The card readers would go down, the server would just say, "Not today," registers would need us to call because an update broke something, pumps with BIOS errors, and so many more issues. At the head of all of that was what they called the commander. It basically controlled every single device in the store.

Well, when things would break, we had to make an IT ticket; they chose based on who had it worse. Two guys, 30 stores. It would be weeks before they would come out at times. I did not like that, so I fixed them myself. Granted, they have insurance and many other things to worry about, but their efficiency was ass. The server is down? I fixed it. The office computer was down? I fixed it. Registers giving errors? I fixed it. Any problems that arose, I fixed them. Soda machine down? I fixed it. The most common one was the card readers. They were always on, so they had to be reset most of the time. You also could not just swap them, something I found out trying because I found the real error that day was the register was not talking to it.

I never took these things apart; these were all band-aid fixes against the real issues. Well, one day, they called me to train a new manager for a different store. My DM would handle my store while I did this. Why did my DM not train them? Because there were a few DMs, and it was not her area, so to preserve the proper chain of command, they saw this was the better option. As these new stores were bought out by us, they needed to learn the new structure. I did not care; it was a change of pace, seeing the same walls for 70+ hours a week gets tiring.

While there, I get a call, and another, and another. They asked me if I knew why something was down. Card readers, registers, and the pumps were not working. I knew the issue. You see, when those three are out at the same time, it is always the commander. If it freezes up, the whole system will not allow transactions with cards. I explained it, they did what I said (which was just to reset it), and it was working again.

The compliance

Fast forward two weeks, and the head of IT and maintenance emailed me. They said that from now on, I had to put in the form to get things fixed. I, of course, emailed them back that if I do that and they do not come out soon enough, the store will lose money. They said, and I kid you not, "You do not understand how complex these systems are, any 'fix' you do could damage them." That last comment irked me a bit. I did not understand them? The guy who has been fixing things and pleading for updated systems for months does not understand them? Ok, fine. I told them I would comply.

After that, every time a card reader is down, send a form to IT. Every time a register is down, send the form to IT. Soda machine was down? Send a form to maintenance. They piled up very quickly, and to the point that they were fixing more than one issue when they came to my store. My DM asked why I stopped. I explained, she was pissed, but she could not tell me to fix it since the one in charge of the two departments was above her.

The review

After about 4 months of this, we had a manager's meeting where we all got a review (basically, corporate telling us what we are doing wrong and if you get a raise). They said my performance was bad, that I let the store get as bad as it was, and that I needed to change a few key points. I stopped them right there. I had come prepared because I always document everything. When I say everything, I am obsessed with documentation. I gave them the correlations of me fixing the equipment and sales going up, I gave them the notes I had jotted down about when machines went down, I explained why my paperwork was late because I had to wait for the system to even work for 5 minutes to even email it off, I showed them the email of being told to send forms, and my sales dropping since then. I told them they can't give me a bad review for complying with what I was asked to do.

This was when my DM chimed in and explained that I was originally supposed to be on the fast track to working IT, but after the company was recently bought out (because they kept buying more gas stations, they went into the red), I was removed from that track since the new company had their own much larger IT staff (they have not been brought in yet as it was a recent buyout, and the full change would take a while).

The aftermath

Well, they had to hold meetings after that; they had to talk about my review, about why I was dropped from the IT track, and about the current situation with the buyout. Well, unfortunately, around this time, my body was failing me (working 70+ hours with a bad back, bad knees, and a few other issues does not agree with working so much standing); I could not stand for long, and I even blacked out at work. I had to quit. I did write down in a notebook (because typing it was risky if they could access it and not have it) instructions on all of the equipment and how I fixed things. Error codes, what certain situations looked like, and what they most likely meant, and so on. IT was a masterpiece of documentation. I put my two weeks in, I left, a few days later I got called about the notebook, I told them where it is, they used it, and all seemed good. I heard from the grapevine that after the new company got to my old store and saw how I had to do things, they found my notebook, and the new owner heard about the whole thing. He was upset because he said talent that is learned through the trenches is valuable. But they ended up replacing the equipment sometime after I left, and I heard it cost them thousands. Not damaging money, but enough for a pocket to feel lighter.

Now I work from home, I still develop Linux tools and have made some public, started writing, and have worked with content creators. I don't make as much as I did there, but it is peaceful, and I don't have to worry about an outdated system fighting me every day. Moral of the story: don't blame the guy trying to keep the ship floating.

TL;DR

IT told me to stop fixing broken equipment because I "don't understand the systems." I complied. Store performance tanked. They tried to blame me in my review. I had receipts. Left them my documentation bible on the way out.

At my job, we have a no phones policy while we're working. But things were really slow one day so I did pull out my phone. My boss, who's a real tool, walked by and saw me smiling while I was looking at my phone. He wanted to know what was on my phone. I told him I'm not telling him because it's personal. He demanded to know and said I would get a write up if I didn't show him.

So I did. It was a naked photo that I was about to send my girlfriend. I guess he never saw another man's dick before because he got very embarrassed. He told me to put the phone away and then he walked away. I didn't get the write up and he never talked about this again.

I used to work in a role where I had a very efficient way of handling my daily tasks. I had built a simple personal tracker that saved me about 2 hours every day, which I used to help other departments.

Then, a new manager came in and told me that my 'unofficial' tracker wasn't standard. They insisted I use the slow, manual company spreadsheet instead. I argued that it would double my workload, but they wouldn't listen. 'Just do it the standard way,' they said.

So, I did. I dropped my tracker and spent all my time on the slow spreadsheet. Within two weeks, I couldn't help other departments, my output dropped, and I stopped finishing my own work early. When they asked why I wasn't as efficient anymore, I simply showed them the 'standard' spreadsheet and reminded them of our conversation.

They told me to switch back to my tracker the very next day.

It really taught me that sometimes, people focus so much on the 'rules' that they forget to focus on the actual results. Now, I’m obsessed with creating systems that actually work for the person using them, not just for the manual.

So maybe I’m being a sore loser,or petty or what not, I’ll let the opinion of the hive Reddit mind decide. Also so as not to be showing up on any search engine results I’m going to be changing the specifics of the items but the principle is the same.

I’ll set up the situation: someone has a pen and watch collection they don’t want to see get dipped into by a drug abusing live in family member. They entrust it to me, a fellow family member. I don’t always get along with the “someone” and sometimes when we bickered and fought in the past they would abruptly ask for these items back. It’s happened twice before. So this last time they entrusted me with the collection again (for the same reason again) I said I’m not just going to give them back again the next time they have an angry whim about it.

Fast forward to more than just typical family bickering with “someone” they say the most hurtful things they’ve ever said, they won’t back down nor take anything back nor take responsibility nor accountability. I go no contact. In gross round about ways they use other family members to reach out to me, these family members never really seeing how they’re just being used to pass along a message. Today I received a letter from an attorneys office saying multiple attempts and requests to get the watch and pen collection back have been ignored and the “someone” is hiring them to get me to return the collection or face legal action. I should mention this collection is SUPPOSED to be for passing down in the family to grandchildren and so forth. THAT kind of collection, the family type. Anyway, since “someone” really has no proof what is and is not in this collection (receipts/certificates/letters) and the only itemized list they have is in their own head I ask this. I do not want to return SOME of it and keep some in the hopes they can’t prove I kept any. I don’t want to return it all and have them claim I’ve kept some. But I also don’t want to return the collection just because they’re calling in big mean lawyer dogs. To be malicious, could I request proof of ownership or proof of what’s in it so that I may best return what’s theirs but not make it easy? Can I get my own attorney and stall ? I have no interest in keeping the entire collection but like I said they only do this when they’re not getting their way and are angry and mostly because I’ve stopped talking to them and I don’t want them to get it all back and then decide OUR part of the family now gets no handed down heirlooms.

I realize this teeters on legal advice and I apologize in advance if there’s not a lot you can say. I’m prepared to get my own attorney and actually will be calling one soon, I’m simply wanted to slap up a post here and see how to make this as unpleasant as casually possible for them.

Or is none of it worth it and I just give it all back and continue not speaking to her “someone”