There is a unique kind of satisfaction that comes from quietly turning the tables on an entitled power-tripper. Think of an employee handing in their resignation the exact moment a boss tries to cancel their vacation. Or a business refusing a deposit from a toxic client who demanded the impossible. Taking back control simply feels incredible.
Recently, netizens shared their favorite “you have no power here” moments — and we collected some of the best ones where you can clearly see people take karma into their own hands.
#1
I once worked for a shady company that sold and repaired expensive American vacuum cleaners. I was the service manager. I had planned a 6 week scuba diving trip with a mate for 2 years. They were well aware of this and said it was fine. When the time came close, I put in my application for 6 weeks leave. I was called into the husband / wife owners office and told that I could only take 3 weeks (I had saved the time up with their permission). I pointed this out but the were adamant that 3 weeks was the most they were prepared to authorise. I even tried to negotiate them to 5 weeks but that was firmly rejected. So I walked from the office, wrote my resignation letter and left. Had a great holiday diving the Great Barrier Reef. They rang me weekly for a solid 3 months offering all sorts of incentives to come back but by then I had won a great government job. F**k you Tony and Anne.
93points
#2
I coached gymnastics at a very highly competitive gym. One of my duties was to select and train the youngest talent for compulsory team training.
Parents caught on to what I was doing when I pulled kids from rec classes and got all nail biting excited, but never confronted me if I didn't pursue a kid for higher training.
Until one high powered exec mom did: yelling in the lobby that I was blind, couldn't see Suzy's talent, her somersault (!) is better than all the other 5yr olds in class, we should be training her for free because did we know her soccer coach thinks she's a STAR. A STAR. I told her competitive gymnastics is a family commitment, and while Suzy is great, her family is what didn't make the cut.
Parents caught on to what I was doing when I pulled kids from rec classes and got all nail biting excited, but never confronted me if I didn't pursue a kid for higher training.
Until one high powered exec mom did: yelling in the lobby that I was blind, couldn't see Suzy's talent, her somersault (!) is better than all the other 5yr olds in class, we should be training her for free because did we know her soccer coach thinks she's a STAR. A STAR. I told her competitive gymnastics is a family commitment, and while Suzy is great, her family is what didn't make the cut.
84points
#3
When I realized I could just hang up on my sister when she wanted to yell at me on the phone. As a twelve year old that was a powerful moment.
80points
There’s a ton of research that proves that power-tripping usually stems from intense personal insecurity, not actual strength.
A study found that when people are handed structural power — like a management title — but internally feel powerless or incompetent, they behave aggressively to overcompensate.
“There’s this idea that power corrupts, so power leads to bad behavior almost by definition. What we find actually is that it’s really having power while feeling powerless that leads people to behave badly,” says Deborah Gruenfeld, Stanford Graduate School of Business professor of organizational behavior.
“It leads people to want to do things that are designed to make themselves feel more powerful as opposed to doing things in ways that are best for the organization, best for the team, or best for the people who report to them.”
#4
In my senior year of high school, I was really into foreign languages, and decided to take Spanish I with all the freshmen in addition to my AP German class. I spent a couple weeks in the new Spanish class when our counseling office decided they made a mistake and needed to put half of us in a Spanish class during a different period. This messed with the lunch hour I shared with my boyfriend.
I went to the counselor and asked if I could stay in the original Spanish class because I wanted to keep my lunch hour the same as my boyfriend. Understandably, she thought that was a pretty silly reason, and said no. Since the Spanish class was a whim for me anyway, I said "fine, I'll drop Spanish and take a different elective then." She got all huffy and threatened to call my mom to tell her I was dropping an academic course just to hang out with my boyfriend. I told her to go ahead, and she did. My mom was like "My daughter gets straight A's and was taking a second language for *fun*. She can do whatever she wants with her class schedule." The counselor hung up and magically found a way to keep me in my original Spanish class.
If it makes the story any better, I'm married to the same boyfriend.
I went to the counselor and asked if I could stay in the original Spanish class because I wanted to keep my lunch hour the same as my boyfriend. Understandably, she thought that was a pretty silly reason, and said no. Since the Spanish class was a whim for me anyway, I said "fine, I'll drop Spanish and take a different elective then." She got all huffy and threatened to call my mom to tell her I was dropping an academic course just to hang out with my boyfriend. I told her to go ahead, and she did. My mom was like "My daughter gets straight A's and was taking a second language for *fun*. She can do whatever she wants with her class schedule." The counselor hung up and magically found a way to keep me in my original Spanish class.
If it makes the story any better, I'm married to the same boyfriend.
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76points
#5
TL;DR: Credit union tried to bill my father's estate for a card they wouldn't provide documentation for. I told them in detail why that wasn't going to happen.
After my father passed away, there was a small amount of estate-related issues to take care of. I was the legal executor of his estate. While I was sorting through things, I started getting letters from a local credit union regarding a credit card account of his that they wanted paid off. Problem was, I could find no evidence on my end, in all of Dad's paperwork, of his having *had* that credit card. And though I knew he had a savings account with them, I didn't recall any prior bills from them regarding said credit card -- and I'd been handling his bills for close to a year before he passed away. I went in to ask for evidence, and got told that only the CEO could handle the matter. She was on vacation that week, so I left my name and number to have her get back to me. When she finally called me back, she didn't offer evidence but instead offered a number of demands that I immediately pay the money and that if there wasn't enough money in Dad's estate I should sell the house he had owned (for an alleged debt of about $600). Pointing out that he had not, in fact, owned said house for quite some time by the time he died fell on deaf ears.
The letters continued, some personally written and rather harassing in tone. I was feeling rather concerned, as I didn't know exactly what they could do, or what my options were. I know, the smart thing would have been to retain an estate lawyer to handle it, but what do you do when you're not an attorney and don't have the money to retain one? I had been handling things myself as the most financially-minded of my siblings, and trying to handle things as a matter of common sense and common decency. There weren't a lot of assets or debts with the estate, it seemed like it should be pretty straightforward (and other than this one case, all of it went smoothly.)
Fortunately, Oregon's estate laws are actually *really* easy to read for a layperson. I spent several nights studying the various sections, and determined exactly how things should go, and wrote a letter (sent Certified Delivery with a return receipt) back to the credit union CEO. In the letter I stated the following. First, that as there was no evidence presented for the claim, I was formally denying it in my capacity as executor, which the law allowed, with a window of opportunity of 30 days to appeal the ~~design~~ decision in court. Second, that if she wished to make an appeal to me personally and save on the court fees, she needed to provide documentation of the account, including a record of all transactions and charges to justify the amount claimed.
Naturally I got a letter back four weeks later. It contained some paperwork, including the paperwork establishing Dad's savings account... but nothing establishing a credit card. Further, the letter stated that it would be too onerous to provide full records of all the transactions. (Any bankers out there, take note: never tell a programmer it's too difficult for you to access your own data. We know it's either b******t or that you're admitting incompetence. This would have been a 5-minute database query for me, and that's if I had to look up the tables first.) It reiterated the demand for immediate payment, again stating the house (again, not actually Dad's, but she kept insisting it was) needed to be sold to pay for it.
I wrote another letter. In this letter I clarified several points for her. First, that as she had not provided the required documentation, she had not actually made an appeal that would be subject to evaluation, let alone acceptance; therefore, the original denial of the claim stood unchanged. Second, that it was not her place to determine my father's assets, as she was not executor of the estate. Third, that even if her claim had been granted, Oregon law requires six months from the decedent's passing to receive all claims before any of those claims may be paid out, and by demanding immediate payment she was attempting to get me to break the law. Fourth, that Oregon law declares the priority of claims by the nature of them, and credit card debts were rank N (i.e., "everything not covered above", where the above included taxes, medical debts, and various other things); even if her claim had been granted, she could not be paid unless there was money left after paying all higher-priority debts, and even if the house had been included that wouldn't have been the case. And fifth, as the one month deadline for appealing in court would expire by the time they received this letter, they had exhausted all of their legal options, and further attempts to pursue the claim would constitute unlawful harassment, and charges would be pressed in such an instance.
I didn't hear back from them again.
After my father passed away, there was a small amount of estate-related issues to take care of. I was the legal executor of his estate. While I was sorting through things, I started getting letters from a local credit union regarding a credit card account of his that they wanted paid off. Problem was, I could find no evidence on my end, in all of Dad's paperwork, of his having *had* that credit card. And though I knew he had a savings account with them, I didn't recall any prior bills from them regarding said credit card -- and I'd been handling his bills for close to a year before he passed away. I went in to ask for evidence, and got told that only the CEO could handle the matter. She was on vacation that week, so I left my name and number to have her get back to me. When she finally called me back, she didn't offer evidence but instead offered a number of demands that I immediately pay the money and that if there wasn't enough money in Dad's estate I should sell the house he had owned (for an alleged debt of about $600). Pointing out that he had not, in fact, owned said house for quite some time by the time he died fell on deaf ears.
The letters continued, some personally written and rather harassing in tone. I was feeling rather concerned, as I didn't know exactly what they could do, or what my options were. I know, the smart thing would have been to retain an estate lawyer to handle it, but what do you do when you're not an attorney and don't have the money to retain one? I had been handling things myself as the most financially-minded of my siblings, and trying to handle things as a matter of common sense and common decency. There weren't a lot of assets or debts with the estate, it seemed like it should be pretty straightforward (and other than this one case, all of it went smoothly.)
Fortunately, Oregon's estate laws are actually *really* easy to read for a layperson. I spent several nights studying the various sections, and determined exactly how things should go, and wrote a letter (sent Certified Delivery with a return receipt) back to the credit union CEO. In the letter I stated the following. First, that as there was no evidence presented for the claim, I was formally denying it in my capacity as executor, which the law allowed, with a window of opportunity of 30 days to appeal the ~~design~~ decision in court. Second, that if she wished to make an appeal to me personally and save on the court fees, she needed to provide documentation of the account, including a record of all transactions and charges to justify the amount claimed.
Naturally I got a letter back four weeks later. It contained some paperwork, including the paperwork establishing Dad's savings account... but nothing establishing a credit card. Further, the letter stated that it would be too onerous to provide full records of all the transactions. (Any bankers out there, take note: never tell a programmer it's too difficult for you to access your own data. We know it's either b******t or that you're admitting incompetence. This would have been a 5-minute database query for me, and that's if I had to look up the tables first.) It reiterated the demand for immediate payment, again stating the house (again, not actually Dad's, but she kept insisting it was) needed to be sold to pay for it.
I wrote another letter. In this letter I clarified several points for her. First, that as she had not provided the required documentation, she had not actually made an appeal that would be subject to evaluation, let alone acceptance; therefore, the original denial of the claim stood unchanged. Second, that it was not her place to determine my father's assets, as she was not executor of the estate. Third, that even if her claim had been granted, Oregon law requires six months from the decedent's passing to receive all claims before any of those claims may be paid out, and by demanding immediate payment she was attempting to get me to break the law. Fourth, that Oregon law declares the priority of claims by the nature of them, and credit card debts were rank N (i.e., "everything not covered above", where the above included taxes, medical debts, and various other things); even if her claim had been granted, she could not be paid unless there was money left after paying all higher-priority debts, and even if the house had been included that wouldn't have been the case. And fifth, as the one month deadline for appealing in court would expire by the time they received this letter, they had exhausted all of their legal options, and further attempts to pursue the claim would constitute unlawful harassment, and charges would be pressed in such an instance.
I didn't hear back from them again.
70points
#6
Had a client freak out on us and harass us with phone calls every few minutes because we couldn't accommodate her needs (she wanted to make her Countertops larger than the actual slab of granite. You can't grow rock...) so we just refused her deposit and told her to not call us any more. She was speechless, she was trying to get a discount and now she's gotta start the whole a*s process elsewhere.
We don't abide by "the customer is always right."
Edit: for all those asking, we can absolutely seam two slabs together but she rejected this solution because she's dumb 🤷♀️.
We don't abide by "the customer is always right."
Edit: for all those asking, we can absolutely seam two slabs together but she rejected this solution because she's dumb 🤷♀️.
68points
Real power comes down to one thing: controlling what other people need. This usually means holding the cards when it comes to money, property, or social status.
When you control these resources, you get to make the rules and punish anyone who breaks them — whether that means cutting someone’s pay, issuing a fine, or taking legal action.
Research shows that as a person’s perceived power grows, their baseline trust in others starts to go down. This loss of trust causes them to rely heavily on “deterrence-style punishments,” such as empty threats, to force compliance.
However, data shows it is the least effective way to manage people.
#7
I was in a wedding party and there was a brief lull in between scheduled parts and we were all just milling around waiting. The bridesmaid known for being obnoxiously bossy starts barking out orders to every single person. As soon as shes finished the wedding planner who was standing behind her chimes in with '"nobody do any of that" and then told us to sit tight. It was great.
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66points
#8
I worked for a school board and they contracted me to do some additional work on the side creating a website. When it was complete i went to the guy for presentation and payment and he told me he wouldn't be paying me and there was nothing i could do. I leaned over and deleted the site. He seemed curiously surprised somehow. I giggled. He later wanted the website restored and he would pay me with stolen school merchandise. I told him i wasn't going to steal from children and teachers just so he could have leverage over me. Another time i had made a website allowing people to send messages to the members of the school board. He later wanted me to send him the messages so he could "vet" them. I added him to the CC of every message. I was then asked in a board meeting why he was also getting these messages and i told them why he felt entitled to their private communications. They talked to him. When i put in my notice there he came to my cubicle on a busy floor and told me I'd have to pay them back for training they sent me to. He said it so quietly too. So i asked him if he was threatening me but i said it loudly so everyone came to see what was up. He literally fled. What a f*****g tool.
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61points
#9
I had found another job and was just waiting it out to get my bonus. For about three months I was free to express myself in ways I wouldn’t have otherwise. I had noticed that my Vacation time had not been approved and normally would have asked about it but decided to see how it might play out. My manager called me in about 2 weeks before my vacation to inform me that it was denied. I wasnt the least upset but I informed her I was going anyway. She threatened me every way under the sun which only made me laugh at her. Everyone was surprised when I left her office smiling as they had heard her. I went to my desk, printed off my resignation and gave it to her.
Got my bonus, got my vacation, and also got an extra 2 weeks paid because I was going to a competitor and they didn’t want me sharing information.
Got my bonus, got my vacation, and also got an extra 2 weeks paid because I was going to a competitor and they didn’t want me sharing information.
56points
When leaders rely on threats, it quickly destroys morale and trust. Studies show that people experience high stress and disengagement when they feel constantly threatened, making them far less productive. Instead of wanting to do a good job, employees simply focus on doing the bare minimum to avoid getting punished.
According to a workplace survey, fear-based leadership cuts employee discretionary effort — the willingness to do more than the bare minimum — by roughly 50%.
In another survey, 70% of employees said they would be more productive in a fear-free environment.
#10
My mother-in-law passed away last year and my wife and I got rid of the the leftover stuff. Most was easy, except the AT&T router for her Internet access.
We got a total runaround.
I brought it into an AT&T store, the same one my MIL had signed up from, and they said it had to be returned in some special box from the local post office. We went to the post office and were told the special box came from AT&T. We went back to AT&T, in a different city, and were told yet another BS story.
It caused my wife an amazing amount of grief. Her mother had just died. She's trying to do the "adult" thing and responsibly close out her mother's accounts. And AT&T was just being a bunch of a*s-clowns. The router became her albatross.
The router sat in the trunk of the car for weeks. One day I'm grabbing lunch and notice another AT&T. I walk inside and up to a desk where a rep is talking Internet plans with another customer. I don't interrupt, but the rep pauses to give me a story about how I can't return the router here and will need to set up a return "with a central office".
I calmly put the router on her desk and said "No, I won't be doing that. The owner of this account just died. I'm just trying to give you your property back. You've given me the runaround for weeks now and I'm done."
As I turn to walk away she yells "but we're just going to throw it away if you leave it here! You'll get charged for it!"
"Okay by me!" I toss over my shoulder as I walk out the door. "Good luck collecting from a d**d woman!"
I occasionally wonder if the other customer stuck around or not. But then I remember who runs the FCC and it's not like there's a real choice in ISPs in most areas of the country.
We got a total runaround.
I brought it into an AT&T store, the same one my MIL had signed up from, and they said it had to be returned in some special box from the local post office. We went to the post office and were told the special box came from AT&T. We went back to AT&T, in a different city, and were told yet another BS story.
It caused my wife an amazing amount of grief. Her mother had just died. She's trying to do the "adult" thing and responsibly close out her mother's accounts. And AT&T was just being a bunch of a*s-clowns. The router became her albatross.
The router sat in the trunk of the car for weeks. One day I'm grabbing lunch and notice another AT&T. I walk inside and up to a desk where a rep is talking Internet plans with another customer. I don't interrupt, but the rep pauses to give me a story about how I can't return the router here and will need to set up a return "with a central office".
I calmly put the router on her desk and said "No, I won't be doing that. The owner of this account just died. I'm just trying to give you your property back. You've given me the runaround for weeks now and I'm done."
As I turn to walk away she yells "but we're just going to throw it away if you leave it here! You'll get charged for it!"
"Okay by me!" I toss over my shoulder as I walk out the door. "Good luck collecting from a d**d woman!"
I occasionally wonder if the other customer stuck around or not. But then I remember who runs the FCC and it's not like there's a real choice in ISPs in most areas of the country.
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52points
#11
I worked at a dominos and there was this old lady who ordered from us a lot and was always unpleasant. One day she calls and makes an order that she must make a lot because she knew exactly how much it was supposed to cost down to the penny.
I put her order in and tell her how much it is and she starts getting upset because the order was two cents more than what it usually is and starts accusing me of trying to steal money from her. She asks “how much money do you make stealing two cents from every customer” well if I was trying to steal money and I did it to 100 customers I would have made a whole two dollars.
I didn’t know what to do because she wouldn’t accept the order unless it was exactly how much she thought it should be and there’s nothing I can do to remove 2 cents from an order so I ask the manager and she just tells me to hang up I was new at that time and I’m guessing this wasn’t the first time that store got messed up with by her. It felt amazing that was the only time I ever got to do that to a customer.
I put her order in and tell her how much it is and she starts getting upset because the order was two cents more than what it usually is and starts accusing me of trying to steal money from her. She asks “how much money do you make stealing two cents from every customer” well if I was trying to steal money and I did it to 100 customers I would have made a whole two dollars.
I didn’t know what to do because she wouldn’t accept the order unless it was exactly how much she thought it should be and there’s nothing I can do to remove 2 cents from an order so I ask the manager and she just tells me to hang up I was new at that time and I’m guessing this wasn’t the first time that store got messed up with by her. It felt amazing that was the only time I ever got to do that to a customer.
47points
Holding a position of power can sometimes physically alter how the brain processes information. Research shows that power diminishes the brain’s mirror neuron system, which is responsible for empathy and reading others.
For example, power-tripping managers genuinely believe their subordinates are too dependent on them to ever walk away. So they are left completely blindsided when someone exercises their right to quit.
“When you feel powerful, you kind of lose touch with other people. You stop attending carefully to what other people think,” explains Dr. Dacher Keltner, director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.
#12
My last job.
Was hired to be on doing PC repair, only to be told an hour before my first shift that there wasn't any hours avail for that and they could put me elsewhere. Begrudgingly I accepted as I turned down another position and needed the work.
Fast forward a few months and the manager decides that I'm going to be filling in for the only person handling shipping and receiving for this giant Dept store single handedly with 3 days training.
Of course things aren't going so well as this is a two person position at a min for 8 hours and I'm expected to do it in 6.
The last day on the job I'm swamped, vendors are fighting with each other over dock space and another manager comes up freaking out at me because I couldn't get the extra work I had told her repeatedly couldn't be done was done.
Exasperated I pleaded my case, to which she callously said I don't give a darn. Now I'm getting mad, she replied to me at this point and says " do you know who you're talking to? "
I replied " ya the jerk is who is now running this mess show cause I'm out"
11.35 an hour with my promised hours gutted was not worth it.
Was hired to be on doing PC repair, only to be told an hour before my first shift that there wasn't any hours avail for that and they could put me elsewhere. Begrudgingly I accepted as I turned down another position and needed the work.
Fast forward a few months and the manager decides that I'm going to be filling in for the only person handling shipping and receiving for this giant Dept store single handedly with 3 days training.
Of course things aren't going so well as this is a two person position at a min for 8 hours and I'm expected to do it in 6.
The last day on the job I'm swamped, vendors are fighting with each other over dock space and another manager comes up freaking out at me because I couldn't get the extra work I had told her repeatedly couldn't be done was done.
Exasperated I pleaded my case, to which she callously said I don't give a darn. Now I'm getting mad, she replied to me at this point and says " do you know who you're talking to? "
I replied " ya the jerk is who is now running this mess show cause I'm out"
11.35 an hour with my promised hours gutted was not worth it.
45points
#13
When I was at school I was having trouble with this one guy - not a bully, exactly, but we didn't get on (we were later put in separate houses). Anyway, during one shouting match, he made a big thing about how he was whatever rank in the army cadets.
I stopped for a second, and just said "But, I'm *not* in the cadets."
"But I outrank you!"
"I don't have a rank. I'm not in the army, so you're not above me."
And then he said "But if martial law were declared..."
And I couldn't really carry on after that.
I stopped for a second, and just said "But, I'm *not* in the cadets."
"But I outrank you!"
"I don't have a rank. I'm not in the army, so you're not above me."
And then he said "But if martial law were declared..."
And I couldn't really carry on after that.
44points
#14
When I left a job I was invited to meet with the CEO because he was unhappy I was leaving and wanted to understand why.
I explained that I was not being paid enough and the recently announced pay rise was not good enough. He got irritated and in a patronising tone started trying to lecture me on how I should have handled that situation better. I interrupted him, he didn’t like that, so I added “I’m leaving, I have nothing to lose” and then informed him that I had already been let down over pay multiple times, had witnessed others trying to get more pay and being refused, so I had no interest in begging to be paid what I already deserved to be paid.
I explained that I was not being paid enough and the recently announced pay rise was not good enough. He got irritated and in a patronising tone started trying to lecture me on how I should have handled that situation better. I interrupted him, he didn’t like that, so I added “I’m leaving, I have nothing to lose” and then informed him that I had already been let down over pay multiple times, had witnessed others trying to get more pay and being refused, so I had no interest in begging to be paid what I already deserved to be paid.
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43points
When you stand up to an entitled or a rude person, your brain experiences a powerful sense of relief. Experts refer to this emotional rush as self-affirmation.
Often, toxic bosses or entitled bullies try to make you feel small so you will obey them. The moment you say no, you instantly protect your own dignity and prove that your worth cannot be taken away by someone else.
Research shows that this act of standing your ground actually triggers the reward and valuation systems in your brain, releasing dopamine. It turns a highly stressful situation into a deeply satisfying victory.
#15
Oh f**k I'm late to this and this is one of the best situations.
I had a boss in a job I worked at for 11 years. He was a total s******d, ran the place like it was a prison camp, and wrote people up for nothing. He was a senior manager and pretty high up our corporate ladder, and I was a labourer doing labour work. I was actually on a temp contract and was given F/T by another manager, and this guy told me "If it were my decision, I would have just let the contract run out".
Anyways, years went by and I gradually moved up the ladder. Around year 8 he was let go in order to change it up a bit and that was the last I saw of him. I eventually moved on and in to a management role at a new company reporting to just a single senior manager and then the president. My manager was promoted to a director role in another area and the job became vacant.
Guess who f*****g applied. He searched the place out on LinkedIn and found I was there and he name-dropped me in his interview. He sent me a message saying he'd appreciate it if I put in a good word for him. Yea, well I wasn't going to work for Hitler twice so I told him politely "I'm sorry, but I don't feel your leadership style is suited for this work environment". I then told HR the same thing and some of the stories of the past.
He didn't get hired. F**k that guy.
I had a boss in a job I worked at for 11 years. He was a total s******d, ran the place like it was a prison camp, and wrote people up for nothing. He was a senior manager and pretty high up our corporate ladder, and I was a labourer doing labour work. I was actually on a temp contract and was given F/T by another manager, and this guy told me "If it were my decision, I would have just let the contract run out".
Anyways, years went by and I gradually moved up the ladder. Around year 8 he was let go in order to change it up a bit and that was the last I saw of him. I eventually moved on and in to a management role at a new company reporting to just a single senior manager and then the president. My manager was promoted to a director role in another area and the job became vacant.
Guess who f*****g applied. He searched the place out on LinkedIn and found I was there and he name-dropped me in his interview. He sent me a message saying he'd appreciate it if I put in a good word for him. Yea, well I wasn't going to work for Hitler twice so I told him politely "I'm sorry, but I don't feel your leadership style is suited for this work environment". I then told HR the same thing and some of the stories of the past.
He didn't get hired. F**k that guy.
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42points
#16
I work for a pipeline company, one of our lines brings fuel into a refinery. We needed something changed out on our line, and needed it done ASAP.
Timing was critical, because after a few days of not being about to deliver into the refinery, it would back up our system and shut down the WHOLE PIPELINE. Big problem.
The refinery guys were total douchebags, and were obviously used to being in charge, and definitely didn't take orders from a young female.
For two days, I got to remind them that I FUEL YOUR G*****N REFINERY. Oh, you don't think you can get to this today? I hope you don't mind explaining this when our pipeline is down and your refinery shuts down...
Felt so good, man.
Timing was critical, because after a few days of not being about to deliver into the refinery, it would back up our system and shut down the WHOLE PIPELINE. Big problem.
The refinery guys were total douchebags, and were obviously used to being in charge, and definitely didn't take orders from a young female.
For two days, I got to remind them that I FUEL YOUR G*****N REFINERY. Oh, you don't think you can get to this today? I hope you don't mind explaining this when our pipeline is down and your refinery shuts down...
Felt so good, man.
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37points
#17
Got out of the army and joined the air force national guard in my home state. 20 minutes after leaving my new base for the first time i receive a phone call from a guy introducing himself as a sergeant first class from the army reserve informing me that his system shows my name had been pulled from the reserve pool to deploy to iraq within 3 months and congratulated me. Kindly informed him that 1. I had just returned from deployment before getting out and was still guaranteed more than 3 months stateside and 2. I had enlisted with the air guard and therefore exempt. He got irritated raises his tone of voice and said well you better get that paperwork to me asap because my system says you're going. Told him i signed a contract which binds me to that, not your system. So i told him its not my job to update to ensure your system for you. I gave him the name of the organization i was now affiliated with, city and state it was in, my recruiters name, rank and personal phone number. Now you have several different ways to contact who u need to in order to get your system updated and hung up on him.
36points
Even just one person refusing to conform can break the spell for everyone else in the room. A study found that if a worker sees even one other person openly disobey an unjust order, compliance rates drop from 65% down to just 10%.
When people are intimidated by a toxic boss, a bad manager, or an aggressive authority figure, they often experience deep internal conflict but stay quiet to avoid looking rude or radical. Seeing someone else say no validates those hidden feelings and confirms that the authority figure is the one out of line.
Once that first domino falls, it makes way for a collective resistance.
This feeling of satisfaction is highly contagious. When we read stories about people reclaiming their power, our brains experience a form of vicarious empathy. Basically, we get a mini-dose of that same satisfying dopamine rush just by watching a bully get shut down.
#18
When mom got ridiculously nasty & rude with me in my own home I just moved into - I told her if doesn't like my food, furniture, clothes, location of where my apartment is & the A/C; there's the door I'm gladly lock the top & bottoms locks. She STFU when she realize I was d**d serious when I open the door.
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36points
#19
I told my mom if she kept acting like a d**k I'd happily pull the car over and make her walk the rest of the way home. She kept acting like a duck and was very shocked when I legitimately pulled over and told her to get out.
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36points
#20
I used to be a teacher. Leaving the graduation ceremony of my last year, a senior said f**k and then "oh no, I'm so sorry Mr. Jetpacks."
I said "You're a f*****g adult and I'm not a f*****g teacher. I don't give a f**k what you say".
I said "You're a f*****g adult and I'm not a f*****g teacher. I don't give a f**k what you say".
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34points
We have also seen this shift with entitled customers who think a receipt gives them the right to mistreat workers. For decades, businesses pushed the phrase “the customer is always right,” which accidentally created a monster — the toxic consumer who throws tantrums to get special treatment.
But more and more business owners are changing the rules now.
Gordon Bethune, the former CEO of Continental Airlines, famously upended the old rule by stating: “When we run into customers that we can’t reel back in, our loyalty is with our employees. Just because you buy a ticket does not give you the right to (mistreat) our employees.”