I made sure my boss got his just deserts on my last day at my old job
Please strap yourselves in for a long-winded tale of good old-fashioned revenge!
I recently left a horrible job working for someone who I pretty much couldn't stand. We shall call this individual Bob. That’s quicker to type than Sleezy McSlimebag. Bob was the plant director at the company I worked for as a trainer.
During my time at the corporation, I was responsible for training and onboarding. Over the year and a half, I was there the scope of my job slowly crept. I was working 60 hours a week and had to serve as a defacto supervisor to our floor staff very often. I didn't mind my job but I was regularly started my day between 8-9 and got home between 11-12 at night (I live about 50 minutes away from where I worked). One of the things that kept me content enough there was that I had developed a very close relationship with another co-worker who we will call Charlotte who worked in a completely separate department. We are very close, but the work thing was a big red line for both of us.
Things started to sour though when I had to say no to a request - during a transitional period, I was asked to "temporarily" transition to working over the weekend shift as an MOD over the two shifts. This would have required me to work Friday-Sunday 10-7 for an indeterminant amount of time. I considered it but when I asked what kind of pay increase there would be for it, our HR person told me, "Oh don't be like that!" and they could tell I was unhappy. They came back a few days later and told me they would give me a $5k bonus with 50% up front and 50% when completed. Our HR person told me to lock them into a timeframe that ends on a specific date. I considered it but ultimately told my boss no because I knew I would be miserable and missed out on a lot with no real benefit. My boss immediately got snippy about it and that if he was single and didn't have any kids, he would do it. He then started in on my closeness with Charlotte and that there was a "perception" about the two of us and going to the weekend would help remove that. He then doubled down on it and brought up that she "has a history" - he was hinting about the fact that at a previous employer she had a coworker stalk her and break into her home and had to get an EPO against him- which I was already well aware of. The funny thing is there is no way he would have known that unless HR had told him which they knew about because we are in the same industry and needed to know he was an automatic reject if he applied. Since he wasn't in her chain management, he had no reason or right to know, to a former HR professional I found it EXTREMELY unethical to put it mildly that HR told him. His attitude toward me immediately changed.
About a month later the company went through a major RIF (reduction in force) and laid off about 200 people. The day before the layoffs commenced my boss walked into my office and put both of his hands within a foot of my face and gave me two big ol' middle fingers. At first, I thought it was just extremely rude and unprofessional but after the layoffs started, I became extremely stressed out because I have been laid off before and it is horrible. I wasn't laid off fortunately.
The next month on my one-year anniversary, a coworker "joked" (that's what she claimed but it definitely didn't come off that way) that I was unimportant to the organization in front of all of my peers. The room erupted in shock and "oh crap" and my buddy who was in the room, Tom, loudly said "that was uncalled for". But Bob sat and said nothing. I went later in the day to report the issue to HR because at that point I just wanted it on record. She said something to my boss who told her he heard it and should have said something, but he never acknowledged it to me even though he knew it bothered me. That was the day I really knew my time there was over and really started looking.
A few weeks later, Tom was fired. The week he was let go I was out with pneumonia, but due to the rumor mill and gossipy nature of the organization I went into work on that Wednesday to prove I was sick because I knew they would just say I was mad about Tom. I was sent home two days later and after I returned, I received multiple snide comments from our HR person about how it was my fault her wife had gotten sick. The next week my boss and I had a 1:1 conversation where he made the comment "are you on team them or team Bob" which truly shocked me that he would be bold enough to say it. He then heavily laid on that he was going to push anyone who disagreed with him out. I took this opportunity to bring up that people should not comment on my closeness with Charlotte and the place was gossipier than a high school. He said I just needed to let that go because people are going to talk about whatever and I told him I agreed but it is extremely inappropriate coming from members of leadership taking a clear shot at his own comments on it. He seemed to understand that I was talking about his behavior and tried to deflect again but I left. At that point I was in a “gloves are off” mentality and felt like I knew my days were completely numbered. This is when I really dug into my efforts to find a new job. Charlotte and I had movie nights, and we spent a good amount of that time looking for jobs. A lot of us were looking for jobs to the point another coworker and I spoke in codes about it. I was looking for a new HVAC guy, and she was looking for a new plumber.
About a month later Bob flipped me off again in my office. The next week he told the leadership team about the need for professionalism in the workplace which I found hilariously ironic. At this time, I was also being pushed into a large project that would be almost impossible for me to succeed in completing as I was basically given no resources or support in it. It felt like a set up to fail so they could justify canning me down the line. Unfortunately for them, I was in the final round of interviews and about to get my new HVAC guy if ya know what I mean…
A couple of weeks later Charlotte received a job offer and accepted it so she was on the way out the door and I was eagerly waiting to hear back about my interview. During her last week, I received an offer from the new company and gladly accepted it with better benefits, a higher salary, and negotiated in a nice little singing bonus to sweeten the pot. I officially accepted the position Thursday and put my notice in Friday.
During this time, Bob was hiring a new division supervisor who would become my new boss. Last summer he demoted my original hiring manager and attempted to replace him with someone he had worked with before. The woman he wanted to bring in, lets call her Sara, told him no to the offer because it was not enough money. Fast forward to last month and my original boss was fired completely (after 17 years!) and suddenly there were the funds to meet Saras salary requirements. Coincidence? I think not…..
Monday goes normally for the most part with me mostly dodging Bob and Sara because I was fully expecting to be sent packing before my two weeks was up. Bobs boss had reached out to me after Charlottes exit interview and wanted to learn more about what had been said and done because she told them some of it but we wouldn’t be able to meet that day. Tuesday comes and Sara is trying to get some time with me all day, and I definitely avoided it as if I saw someone I went to high school with at the supermarket while going home to visit. Eventually at the end of the day she caught me and I couldn’t avoid it. She said Bob really wanted me to meet with her that day. So, I sucked it up and we met so she could learn about what I had been doing. When I mentioned that I had been over-extended as I was originally hired to handle one specific part of the operation but scope creep had pushed me into plant wide operations (no raise though!) she commented “that would have been a really good opportunity to step up” and I just smirked and laughed because telling her to F off seemed unprofessional. As I left her office, I saw Bob coming to speak with her and nodded to him. About 20 minutes later while helping someone unload a dumpster at shift change my phone went off and it was Bob. I turned and showed it to the guy who I was with and he saw from the name and contact picture of Bob from Beetlejuice (yep, he looked like him) and said it was nice working with him. When I arrived at his office, I was told that with Sara transitioning in they thought it would be best to send me on my way fully paid out for my final two weeks. This was just after 4 and I was told I could finish the day by gathering my things and to drop off my computer and badge when I leave at 5. I also couldn’t leave my office area but could ask people to come down if I wanted to say bye to them. This also very conveniently put an end to the potential for me getting my day in court with an exit interview and my conversation with Bobs boss.
EXCEPT……when this all started, I decided receipts were going to be something worth having as a bit of an insurance policy. Events, dates, screenshots, witnesses, all of it for everything that had happened because believe it or not I left a lot out of this to make this shorter! In total a highly detailed 4-page single spaced nuclear missile with Bobs name on it. Thanks to my history in HR I know how to make sure the records I keep matter. When I started getting the feeling they were going to push me out early I went ahead and got everything in position. I had just enough time to use my work email to send my break glass file to Bobs boss and the US SR. HR manager. Copied to my personal email and containing my direct contact information if they wanted more. When Bob took my badge he said, “good luck on your future endeavors” and I couldn’t stop myself from saying ‘you too, buddy’ and high fiving someone on my way out. And after that I got to walk out like Lucius Fox at the end of the Dark Knight.
I had responses very quickly thanking me for my thorough and detailed account. Now Sleezy McSlimebag and the local HR member are under investigation in the company with multiple people coming out and talking about the things they have done to others. My new job is AWESOME with great people and a great environment. We are going on a company event to an amusement park soon and Charlotte is going with me. Tom found a new job and so did my first boss who they fired. But no matter how they left, no one is sad they left that awful horrible no good very bad place.