Hell Hath No Fury Like An Employee Scorned: 30 Bad Bosses That Faced Well-Deserved Revenge

Yeah I walked out on him without notice. The background on the guy was that he was a snake, always badmouthing other employees, citing rules that don’t exist, pulling rank for petty things, and write ups for things that were not something you were in control of or never actually happened. I reported it to HR, others did as well, and even went directly to his supervisor. Nothing happened.

After getting a write up for walking off the job when there was a mountain of evidence otherwise, I started looking for a new job after it was apparent that nothing was going to happen to him. After getting a new position lined up, I notified my friends in the area so they could expect it, with no worries since they had gone through the same thing with him. After two weeks, on that last Friday after he told me to come in to watch guys pull up tile in case they broke a wire, I reset my work phone to default, left my badge, laptop, phone, and walked off for real this time since he doesn’t know what that looks like.

Monday he spend his time calling everyone else to find me, good thing I can block numbers. He lasted two days after I left, him and his toady were fired, the company began an investigation into what went wrong since a mass exodus started (apparently I was the glue), and they tried to get me back. I turned them down, if their HR would put people like him and his supervisor in charge, and not do anything when they abused their authority, then I wouldn’t waste my time with them.

While working as a temp in a hospital for 2 weeks, I heard that they haven’t been successful in keeping anybody in the administrative assistant (AA) position. I found out the hard way. The lady boss, S., was difficult and had no qualms in telling anyone off. I remained respectful and patient and did my job well. However, I really liked everyone else in that department and I liked the Charge Nurse at the time that I applied for the open posting after my assignment there. The Charge Nurse recommended me for the position even as I was already temping somewhere else at the hospital. I was immediately hired. I was just 1 week into my new job when I asked S—the only question I’ve ever asked her —which doctor could be called for a particular medical question. She barked at me saying, “If you don’t learn the names of these doctors fast (there were 50), I would drop you as fast as how you got hired here!” and left. I was taken aback by her red-hot anger and manner of response for such a simple & valid question. After I collected myself, I dismissed her action as just having a bad day and went about my work after a colleague offered to answer my question. At least 2 hours before closing time, S was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, a couple of security guards went into S’s office, took her purse, and locked the door behind them. We all found out that S got fired that day. Talk about karma.

I went to this place in Texas to have a breakfast. When I first entered, I was treated very coldly and then seated. Obviously, they were upset that they had to seat me on a 4-chair-table while i was alone. After being ignored by my waitress for 20 minutes, I waved at another waitress and placed my order. She was kind enough to attend, my main waitress then brought me orange juice and literally scolded me for asking someone else for my food, as they divide tables between them.

Obviously, me being me I don’t operate on scolding and I value customer service due to what I do. So, after waiting another 20 minutes for my bagel I waved at the first waitress who took my order and asked her for the status of my order - she said she will check. A minute later I saw my waitress literally arguing with the other waitress possibly about why she is attending to my table. Now my main waitress came back later with a cold bagel that she tossed on the table, so later on I asked for the check and my main waitress brought it quickly ‘cause I believe she could not wait to kick me out. The check came for something like 12$, so I put a 100$ bill and asked for change. Now when that happened my main waitress started to become slightly friendly, so when she brought the change back I waved to the attentive waitress and pulled the entire 100$ change and handed it to that girl and said, ”I hope you don’t share tips in this place, because only you deserve this tip, you’re wonderful unlike your friend over here” and I left. My main waitress was standing there in shock.

I got revenge by living well, by being successful in my career and personal life. I got revenge by not caring one bit about what he thought or if he even existed. I had peace of mind.

He, on the other hand, created problems in his personal and professional life.

He felt he was (or should be) the center of the universe, and he raged when he discovered the rest of us did not share his belief.

Our successes infuriated him even though they had nothing to do with him at all.

I did not seek revenge; therefore, I will never feel guilt about what happened to him. But I admit that I occasionally have a twinge of satisfaction.

I worked as a contract (temp) employee for many years as an accountant filling in for all kinds of positions. I had the pleasure to work in many different business environments across many industries, ranging from a family owned lumber yard all the way up to Fortune 500 companies.

On this particular assignment I was sent to a company called ScubaPro, part of the Johnson & Johnson Outdoors Family conglomerate. I was contracted to cover a medical leave for their Credit Manager.

Covering for the position required an intensive training period prior to the medical leave. The position was pivotal to the sales of the company.

One day I engaged the purchasing manager, an old hag, in casual conversation about zippers. The outside zipper on one of my favorite skiing jackets had broken off, so I asked her if I could get the name of their supplier in order to determine whether I could purchase a replacement directly from them.

That casual conversation and that simple question promted that deranged woman to go to the Finance Manager to throw me under the bus for engaging in ‘industrial espionage’. The Finance Manager, a deranged woman herself, called me into her office to give me the talk.

She was not only condescending, she was obnoxious and rude. I offered a sincere explanation, stating I would be more than willing to bring the skiing jacket with the broken zipper into the office as proof of the fact that I was not interested in stealing trade secrets nor engaging in any type of industrial espionage.

Rather than accepting my explanation at face value, she simply ranted on about the impropriety on my part to date inquire about their vendors. I let that one pass, things could have been fine after that.

She then went on to state that as a contract employee I was probably in desperate need for a paycheck. She said I should simply shut up and go back to work.

During all the years working as a temp I was making on average more money working eight or nine months out of the year than my colleagues at regular or permanent jobs were for the entire year. This allowed me to go on weeks long and even months long motorcycle trips around the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

I didn’t really need that particular contract position. I certainly did not need the paycheck. I surely did not need the c**p from that wench. When she thought she had me pinned down with her argument about the desperate need for a paycheck, I challenged her by asking her whether she was completely sure of her assertion.

She replied: “It’s not like you can just leave” . . .

Oh brother! I simply said; “You just watch me”

I headed over to my office to grab my helmet and motorcycle jacket. On my way out I said: “it’s been great working with you all’ to everybody across cubicle land, and walked past her office on my way out the door.

By then the Credit Manager was already hospitalized for the procedure. I can only imagine what the wench had to explain to her boss when all of a sudden the company found itself without a credit manager.

Over 3 decades ago, I was working in a small electronics company that made controllers for “white goods” (washing machines, etc). All was going well until the boss decided to hire an Engineering Manager.

This guy was fresh out of his MBA course. He was also not a nice person.

Previously, I’d had no problem working extra time and Saturdays, particularly considering I was being paid by the hour. In my 2.5 years there, I was involved in 32 projects, many of them getting from the design phase (my job) all the way to production and out into the field.

Anyway, this… person … got to the stage where he would literally be standing over my desk yelling at me for something or another. At one stage, he claimed that my “massive” 2 years’ experience meant I was now a Senior Electronics Engineer.

Wow. My pay certainly didn’t reflect that.

For my last month or so there, I was walking around with a resignation letter in my top pocket, just waiting for an opportunity to sign it, date it and present it. Sure enough, I was called into a meeting with the owner and the Engineering Manager. I don’t recall what it was about specifically (generally, it was performance), but after a short while, I pulled the letter out of my pocket, dated it, signed it and handed it over on the spot.

Fast-forward a decade or so. At the time, I was working for a company that’s part of a larger group of companies. The project on which I was working was operating out of the offices of a consultancy that was also part of the same group. All of a sudden, I received an email saying that this specific person was applying for a position in the consultancy and asking for my opinion.

My reply started with “He may have changed, but…” and ended with “I would hesitate to work in the same company as him.”

Needless to say, he didn’t get the job.

We were drinking together one night ( this was during our friends phase) and he described in detail a tax scheme that he had engaged in that was very illegal. I just nodded and laughed as it didn’t bother me at the time and we were (again) friends at that point.

Fast forward to six months later - The guy revealed himself to be a true as**ole and I decided to leave the company. I work in a relatively small industry and I heard that he was badmouthing me to other people and trying to get me “blackballed.” While my first inclination was to drive over to his favorite bar and beat the c**p out of him in front of his friends, I decided that me getting arrested for battery would probably not be beneficial.

So I waited about six months and tipped a few of the “right” people to my former pal’s scam. This included his ex-wife’s divorce attorney, his probation officer (Full disclosure: He was on probation at the time for another offense; however, he couldn’t be involved in any criminal activity during that time, including conspiracies) and several agencies whose primary job is to investigate tax malfeasance. As it turns out, I really only needed to tip his ex’s attorney and she did all the rest of the legwork for me.

In the end (and yes I did sort of keep track of what happen) he was rearrested, his probation was revoked, his wife got a larger settlement and he spent the remainder of his deferred sentence portion in jail. When he got out, he left the area and I have neither seen nor heard from him since.

NOTE: I answered another question about revenge and this is what I was describing that I did. While it did make me feel pretty good in the beginning, later on I was conflicted about what I had done and I realized that I wasted valuable time on this guy that I could never get back. In the future, I vowed (and still vow) not to do any such thing again as it really was like taking poison and hoping that the other person will die.

My mgr at Starbucks hated me for no apparent reason. when he saw me squinting at one of the registers once he decided i had to wear glasses, which i did not even own, or need. so i bought some fake glasses, no magnifying power at all, and wore those. i saw a note to him from a sub-mgr saying “everything was fine last shift, and he wore his glasses.” so he had people reporting on me. when i quit he wasnt there so i left a note on his desk, saying i quit, and asking “did any of your spies ever figure out that my glasses are fake?” i left the glasses with the note. im sure he was mad but i didn’t care. it was funny.

Before I try to get even, I try to work out the problem. I have found some things that help with anyone who treats me badly, even bosses. I use this techniques in private. Just like you don’t care to be mistreated and embarrassed in public, neither do they. My first question is, “Have I done something to offend you?” If they say yes, ask what it is, apologize and tell them that you will work on that. A true apology, which very few people know how to make, goes a long way. “I’m sorry, but…” isn’t an apology it’s an excuse. More often, I get a negative response. “Then why are you treating me badly?” puts the impetus on the other person to examine their behaviors. I have never not had an apology and an immediate change of behavior from someone who I quietly but firmly confront.

Next, understand that getting even with a boss is a bad idea. You can’t win an argument with a customer and you can’t really get even with a boss. The only way that it works is to change jobs. I hope that your work is so good that your leaving hurts his bottom line and doesn’t give him/her reason to rejoice. Go somewhere else where you are appreciated and succeed there. The best revenge is a successful life.

I had a boss who was incredibly abusive. He was respectful to rich, white, straight men. Women, people of color, LGBT, working stiffs - were treated very badly. I toughed out the job until I had enough money saved to pay bills for a couple of months while I job hunted. After I got a better job, I thought - he has abused people for years, taking no consequences. He got promotions and raises, never punishment. I waited a couple of years, giving him a chance to hurt more people, make more enemies. Then I sent lots of letters to all kinds of objectionable organizations, giving his name, work address, work phone and fax. He got lots of mail, phone calls and faxes from these awful organizations. Weird people showed up at his workplace, demanding to speak to him. I found out that he was going through misery when I called a former co-worker - a terrible gossip. I said “I am looking to buy a good used computer - am putting out feelers - do you maybe have a computer for me?” She said “No but I got some juicy gossip for you - someone is out to get Fred - he gets lots of nasty mail and phone calls and people coming here to talk to him. He is miserable, has lost about 60 pounds and can’t sleep. He is taking a month long vacation to get away from the harassment.” I said “wow, who would do this?” She said “We don’t know, because he as pissed off so many people. But we think it is funny!” I said “That is really something.” I felt really good that I applied some punishment to him. Sometimes you have to give karma a little boost.