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Having a genuinely good boss who has your best interests at heart is rarer than finding an oasis in the desert. And while there’s no such thing as a ‘perfect’ job, you still kind of expect your managers to get the basics right. But everyone has their limits. Even saints! Some workers snap when faced with non-stop incompetence, bullying, and problematic behavior, and concoct cunning plans for getting back at their superiors.
We’re featuring the best stories of subtle workplace revenge that creative and courageous employees shared in a handful of engrossing threads. Keep scrolling to see what they did. If you have an incredibly toxic manager making your life h**l, you may want to take notes. And don’t forget to share these stories with your colleagues!
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#1
If I like my boss I'll try to follow his instructions and still get the job done. If I don't like my boss, I'll just follow his instructions.
RELATED:
#2
My boss loves chocolate. He hates coconut. I buy Mounds and Almond Joys for the office, just so he can't benefit.
#3
I found a better job, and in my exit survey/interview I wrote full page letter about about how he has no social skills and leads purely through fear/manipulation, and why no good talent will ever stay at the company under him. It goes directly to the VP of H.R. One can hope.
Beak Hookage 4 months ago
Shades of the time I had a truly AWFUL university tutor who was rude and arrogant and treated us really badly. When we were asked to fill out an anonymous feedback form on that unit I went all out, saying how the guy was a complete jerk who destroyed all interest and enthusiasm I'd ever had for the subject such that I never wanted to go near it again, obviously hated his students and needed to be fired. If nothing else it was nice to vent. Seriously, though, scr- I mean nuts to that guy.
There’s no employee on Earth who hasn’t felt frustrated by their managers’ behavior at some point in time. But just because you have some slight disagreements with your superiors doesn’t mean that they’re horrible or outright evil. Actual toxicity looks different than the occasional disagreement, mistake, or tough corporate decision.
According to the Harvard Business Review, truly toxic bosses:
- Lack self-awareness
- Lack empathy
- Are motivated purely by self-interest
- Behave unpredictably and inconsistently
- Weaponize their authority
- Micromanage their staff because they don’t trust them
- Set unreasonable expectations and deadlines, and confusing goals
- Belittle and demoralize their employees
- Blame other people for their mistakes
- Act overconfidently even when they lack knowledge and skills
The result of working under a bad boss is that you feel anxious, scared, dread coming into the office, lack trust, feel demoralized, and lack confidence. Toxic bosses push their best workers away, leading to h**h turnover rates.
#4
Kept a record with all kinds of proof about her abusing the systems/employees for her own gain, after 3 months of this I dumped the file on the CEO's desk and an 'accidental' leak of that file happened at the same time to the rest of the company. She was fired.
#5
Caught him having s*x with a woman in her car in the parking lot. The woman was not his wife.
Strangely, he became the best boss in the world after that.
#6
Go to a magazine stand. Leaf through as many magazines as you feel safe doing, and subtly remove those little cards you mail in to get a subscription. Put a bunch into another magazine, and pay for it and leave. go home and fill out the dozens or so magazine subscription cards with your boss's name and address (an old typewriter is best for this, to be safe), and check the box "Bill Me Later". Mail them. Wait for the fun to ensue. In fact, there are HUNDREDS of items you can have delivered anywhere, with payment expected on delivery or by billing. In any case, he'll burn up a lot of his spare time sorting it all out, on the phone and what not. check out "The Berners Street Hoax" from 1810. It's a classic.
Grape Walls of Ire 4 months ago (edited)
A friend did this to me once, right after I moved in with my g/f. I ended up with subscriptions to magazines featuring biker babes, hòrny grannies, etc. We all had a good laugh.
Meanwhile, research shows that toxic bosses directly mess with your physical and mental health, leading to depression, anxiety, PTSD, h**h blood pressure, and premature aging. On top of that, you’re more likely to burn out when working under bad management.
HBR suggests that employees start prioritizing their well-being. You should also try to have constructive dialogues with your boss, where you stay calm and avoid blaming them for their behavior, while also setting healthy boundaries.
#7
I don't necessarily do that but I try to k**l them with kindness. I smile at them, talk to them about the weekend. Make them speak to me longer than just them giving me orders.
Also, when they get mad and write bad emails I respond in the best professional way because I sometimes think it makes them feel foolish after for writing heated emails.
Luke Branwen 4 months ago
People who can say "F@ck you" in the most polite, proffessional way are to be feared.
#8
My first job in h**h school my boss would like to give me a bunch of things to do before I could leave after a 10+ hour shift. I'd just stare at his ear lobe and nod the entire time. I think he thought I was mentally challenged but his reaction was always funny.
liam newton-harding 4 months ago
Highschool, for f**k’s sake BP, check your censoring filters, it’s getting lazy, and farsical.
#9
I walked out during a meeting with her, telling her I'd get better sense out a brick wall.
I then wrote a rather large email, detailing my grievances, failings etc and sent it to pretty much everybody in the company which also outlined my resignation.
Apparently she hadn't seen it because she told my colleagues I was sacked the next day 😂 thankfully hey all read my email and realised what a liar she was.
I had lined myself up to start retraining anyway, but all this went down in April, I hadn't planned to leave until September.
I decided to pursue a constructive dismissal case against her, which resulted in full pay for a number of months and company benefits then the company asking me to come back. She had been "reshuffled".
Retrained and now in a happy place with a really happy job. Don't know why I stuck it out so long in a place that gave me depression and anxiety at the thought of going in.
In the meantime, keep a physical and digital paper trail of your interactions with your boss. Actually, I have evidence to back up your claims that they’re behaving inappropriately, if things escalate. With that in mind, reach out to Human Resources if talking to your boss directly isn’t an option. They might be able to mediate the situation.
At the end of the day, you’re the only person who knows what your limits for toxic behavior are. You’re the only one who knows when enough really is enough. If your health is suffering and you’re scared of coming into work, look for better employment opportunities. There are lots of companies out there where you don’t have to work surrounded by fear and anxiety.
#10
Made friends with his boss then worked my f*****g a*s off. Now my old boss works for me. Suck it.
#11
Worked there a total of 12 years. Went 6 years without any sort of a raise, zilch, zero, nada. That whole time I was being given more responsibilities and working 10 hour days, even weekends sometimes. Always answered my phone & emails after hours.
Finally got sick of it and started looking for something better. Found a the job where I currently work and earn $25k a year more. Only been here 8 months and have already gotten a raise.
They had to hire 2 people to replace me and keep up the workload. I just heard they've fired both of them and several other people have quit since I left.
They called me last week and asked if I would train a new employee. I declined.
Kim Kermes 4 months ago
For an enormous fee, itemized to make up for lost pay raises and mental health care.
#12
I do not enjoy my job because of my boss and I look forward to the day I can finally leave. My boss has stood between me and my goals any and every chance he gets, and I hate him for it.
The way I f**k with him is by striving to do as well as possible with my life, I use this experience to fuel me and to remind myself to never allow myself to be in a position like this again. I want to be able to look at him in the eyes in 10 years time and he'll see how well I've done despite all he's done to make my life awkward. That's the way I plan on f*****g with him.
According to Forbes, you can’t change other people, but you can change yourself. So, when faced with a toxic environment, try to look for clarity in communication.
Be as emotionally intelligent as you possibly can, and try to make the workplace better through your own actions.
In short, be sure to stick to your personal values, no matter what. Have h**h standards for work ethics and stick to them.
#13
Sneeze on his phone whenever I had a cold.
#14
I was underpaid and under appreciated. I had been looking for a new job for a while.
The boss had also been having lots of meetings with a pretty large client, which had me feeling there was more than just service contract stuff going on.
I found a new job, quit for 15k/year more and good management. Found out 2 months later the said large client bought out the company I worked for to acquire in house software and the employees who knew about it.
Hope he eats a bag of d***s.
#15
I had one that liked to steal the snacks from my lunch. I left "myself" a special brownie in the fridge and his fat a*s ate it. At that point a fresh email account, and anonymous suggestion of a targeted d**g test will cause a few phone calls, and a "resignation" by the end of the week.
Beak Hookage 4 months ago
I don't know why "and his fat a*s ate it" amused me as mightily as it did, but there you go.
Who is the very worst, most cartoonishly evil boss you’ve ever worked under, dear Pandas? How did you deal with them? Have you ever gotten subtle revenge against toxic managers? What did you do and what was the result? We’d love to hear from you. Share your stories with everyone else in the comments at the bottom of this list.
And if you’re currently got a toxic boss breathing down your neck… stay strong. You’ve got this!
#16
I handed in my notice and moved on amicably. Then I got them to put in a reference for a job that paid far more. Sure showed them.
#19
I don't always point out their mistakes. We do a lot of off site work. Forgot to factor in the 3 hour drive time between appointments? Not my problem. Double booked? Watch your schedule better.
#20
I've told certain people that I'm reasonably sure that he's cheating on his wife. All while being told more information from an very reliable source.
#21
I was the head of the lighting department at a staging company, and I was pushing pretty hard to get stuff fixed and upgraded to bring everything up to a decent standard, only to have the production manager shut me down on every single request.
We had a couple of old 1800watt colour changers (the kind you see lighting up buildings) and they needed parts, so I rang around, found the parts, filled out a purchase order with all the relevant information on it and handed it to the production manager to sign off and order them.
6 weeks later, the owner rings me at 7pm, ranting at me about how we need them for a show and why haven't I fixed them yet. I shut him down very quickly, informing him about the purchase order that I had filled out 6 weeks previously and handed to the prod manager, and was STILL waiting for the parts to arrive. Totally hung this d******d out to dry. The owner apologises for going off at me, and tells me he'll see me the next day.
The next morning the prod manager comes into my section of the warehouse and sheepishly apologises to me for not ordering the parts when I first asked for them. He actioned every parts order I made within 24 hours after that.
#22
Somewhere I used to work, a guy I know, would take the operations manager's coffee cup to the back room every weekend and run his ballsack around the rim a couple of times then put it back where he got it. *or so I've heard*.
#23
My job does an internal survey every other year to check the pulse of the workers. Myself and a few more coworkers had an issue with our boss at the time, he is the biggest a*****e I've ever worked for. We severely blew him up on the survey one year, they mysteriously moved him to another city not long after that.
#24
I resigned due to bad leadership and i was the only person who knew how several systems worked. they had major issues afterwards, i heard from a few people who briefly worked there after i left but eventually left themselves.
#25
Copied compromising data (the company was stealing intellectual rights of another company) to a USB stick, waited 2 years after I left the company.
Then I sent the evidence anonymously to said other company. They got f****d a bit and had to pay up.
#27
Worked for Cutco in h**h school. My boss said that there would never be a grad party that was actually fun/missing work for.
We hired Voltaire" to perform live at my house for mine.
Side note: He's a severely underrated musician and *extremely* down to earth guy
Nikki Sevven 4 months ago
"He [Voltaire] says that bands and artists who influenced his music are Rasputina, Morrissey, Tom Waits, Cab Calloway and Danny Elfman." Ok, I'm convinced I should check out his music.
#28
By taking my pay in exchange for minimal effort. And then leaving them to suffer under the weight of their own incompetence by going elsewhere.
#29
I quit. He begged me not to and I did. F**k him.
#30
I resigned after getting a different job. They couldn't function efficiently without me. When they asked me to write down how to do my job for the next guy I didn't write down the very important and very complicated s**t. And there was a lot of very complicated s**t. I just wrote down 14 things that looked kindof complicated but wasn't that important.
They closed down 6 months later. I ran into a coworker after the close and she told me things started falling apart after I left and it kept getting worse and worse until they were constantly hobbled because things kept failing that I used to maintain and fix . I feel sorry for the 200 or so employees that lost their job but I was just a little pissed at the time.
Annik Perrot 4 months ago
Seems very bad and lazy leadership to let things become so dependent on one person. If that person is run over by à bus, decides to leave for Timbuctu, or, like in that case, just resigns, everything can collapse. You should always have a plan B.
#32
I put in my two-week notice and walked away with dignity because, as a professional and an adult, I deal with my issues in a mature manner and don't dabble in immature nonsense that could lead to burning important connections later down in your career ladder. You have no idea who knows who in this industry, better to act better than you feel.
#33
I banged his daughter for about a year and a half.
#34
Warn anyone who works near me what she is like, most of the time its not needed they know already but I wouldn't want someone to be blindsided.
#35
I was the employee from h**l.
F*****g stole everything I could get my hands on and that I needed that I also knew wasn't kept a terribly accurate stock take of.
Ensured all the edibles in the shop with consumable dates were checked and found to be faulty the day before inspection, requiring empty shop space to be created.
Actively encouraged shoppers to shop elsewhere. Actively disobeyed orders to make myself wander towards overtime just to scare them that I might somehow end up at over 40 hours for two weeks in a row, therefore making me full time de facto (terrifying though to them- they'd have to pay my medical. Gasp.)
Found creative and innovative ways to f**k up transactions where things would ring up or void halfway through. Nothing like taking a half hour minimum of them calling support after trying and failing to make it jive with their end of the day metrics. What did I care, I wasn't earning commission and was paid pennies by the hour.
Took as long of a s**t as I possibly could.
Left 1-star review for the shop through various sock puppet social media accounts mentioning employee morale.
The sad thing was I actually set their sales record for 3 months straight at peak season, when I gave a s**t. Then I realized how bad our products were, how s****y our policies were, and how badly we as employees were getting f****d over, and I bailed.
What do you think ?
Grape Walls of Ire 4 months ago (edited)
I had a verbally abùsive boss for over 4 years. The last straw was when he yelled at me because I allowed someone on my team to file an HR complaint against a fellow employee. I filed a corollary HR complaint about my boss, detailing all the ways in which he had been abùsive over the years. You know what happened? I was demoted. It worked out for the best since I don't have to work with him anymore, but I can't help but feel like they blamed the victim.
Littlemiss 4 months ago
I had a manager I couldn't stand. I knew she would eat anything that someone else would bring in and gloat about not providing anything herself. I set about sneaking a chocolate bar into my workmates tote trays. Just one, now and again as a nice surprise. I never put one in hers. She complained bitterly how she missed out, even asked me if it was me doing it. I denied it and claimed to have received a mystery chocolate bar or 2 myself. It annoyed her no end to be left out, its did it for 6 months.
Grape Walls of Ire 4 months ago (edited)
I had a verbally abùsive boss for over 4 years. The last straw was when he yelled at me because I allowed someone on my team to file an HR complaint against a fellow employee. I filed a corollary HR complaint about my boss, detailing all the ways in which he had been abùsive over the years. You know what happened? I was demoted. It worked out for the best since I don't have to work with him anymore, but I can't help but feel like they blamed the victim.
Littlemiss 4 months ago
I had a manager I couldn't stand. I knew she would eat anything that someone else would bring in and gloat about not providing anything herself. I set about sneaking a chocolate bar into my workmates tote trays. Just one, now and again as a nice surprise. I never put one in hers. She complained bitterly how she missed out, even asked me if it was me doing it. I denied it and claimed to have received a mystery chocolate bar or 2 myself. It annoyed her no end to be left out, its did it for 6 months.
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