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Finance Professional Gets Passed Up For Both A Promotion And Bonus, Performs A Smart Revenge Plan
Worried employee with glasses, contemplating exit after delivering record results but receiving excuses instead of bonus.

Finance Professional Gets Passed Up For Both A Promotion And Bonus, Performs A Smart Revenge Plan

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For some reason, adventure books, movies, and TV shows mostly focus on the survival of heroes in the ocean and h**h mountains, impenetrable jungles, and deserts. Surrounded by bears, scorpions, sharks, and piranhas… Skyscrapers made of glass, steel, and concrete, a ruthless corporate world – this is where true survival stories happen nowadays!

Well, the story we’ll tell you today, from the user u/SwitchSCEtoAux, happened almost three decades ago, but it clearly illustrates how difficult it can be to survive in the corporate world. If Mr. Beast isn’t already planning to launch an office survival show, it’s definitely time to think about it.

More info: Reddit

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    The corporate world is a tough place to live in, and sometimes you have to become a true shark yourself to survive

    Image credits: DC Studio / Freepik (not the actual photo)

    The author of the post was a promising finance professional three decades ago, and he expected to get promoted to Business Development Director soon

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    Image credits: ArthurHidden / Freepik (not the actual photo)

    However, the author’s new boss was a real slacker and had acquaintatces in the board, so any reports and complaints would’ve come in vain

    Image credits: gpointstudio / Freepik (not the actual photo)

    The boss didn’t hire any assistants for the author, so he had to work hard the whole year on his own

    Image credits: Drazen Zigic / Freepik (not the actual photo)

    Anyway, the man did a great job, became the company’s top performer, and expected a hefty bonus and a promotion as a result

    Image credits: The Yuri Arcurs Collection / Freepik (not the actual photo)

    During the meeting, however, the boss claimed that the author’s bonus would be 90% less than he expected, and he passed him up for a promotion as well

    Image credits: SwitchSCEtoAux

    So the next year, the author just took all his accumulated vacations and then quit on the spot, leaving the boss empty-handed and angry

    So, the Original poster (OP) has had his own company in finance for many years, but back then, three decades ago, he was a promising employee of a large international company. Our hero worked extremely hard, often carrying over his vacation weeks to the following year, so by the time of the events described, he had accumulated over three months of vacation.

    The boss, under whose supervision the OP was assigned at the new branch, was a protégé of one of the board members, so he felt at ease. He refused to give our hero an assistant, so the author was forced to work hard alone for a whole year. He became the company’s best performer and rightfully expected a hefty bonus and a well-deserved promotion.

    However, the boss’s speech was a chilling blow to our hero. He stated that without a director’s status, his bonus would be around 90% less than he expected. As for the promotion – well, that would have to wait until next year to ensure that the current numbers weren’t just a fluke. Okay, at this point, the author’s patience snapped, and he moved on to executing his revenge plan…

    The events described took place in April, so our hero consistently took vacations for the following months, thereby forcing his boss to take over most of his work. The branch’s performance, of course, dwindled, and the icing on the cake for the author was his resignation, which he submitted with two weeks left on his vacation. In other words, he effectively quit on the spot.

    Our hero recalls that the strange dismissal of the company’s “rising star” was bound to attract the close attention of the board. Well, the author’s hapless ex-boss wasn’t fired, but he was transferred somewhere to the backwater, which he was clearly unhappy about. As for the OP, he found a new job, and a couple of years later, founded his own company… but that’s a whole other story.

    Image credits: Freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)

    In fact, unfortunately, such cases are far from isolated in the corporate world, and in the three decades since the original poster’s time, the situation has improved only slightly, if at all. For example, this dedicated article at Forbes quite reasonably notes that people don’t leave jobs; they actually leave managers.

    Many bad bosses are quite similar. “They lack both empathy and often self-awareness,” the BBC quotes Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute. “They can actively undermine their team, take credit for others’ work, or rule by fear and have unrealistic expectations.” So, recognizing these signs and leaving isn’t an admission of weakness; it’s just wisdom.

    Another article, published in Forbes, urges employees who find their higher-ups blocking their career growth to just focus on what they can actually control. That is, try to put their best foot forward, and if that doesn’t produce the desired results, well, a decent professional will likely always be in demand.

    People in the comments massively praised the author for this interesting story, as well as for his witty and clever plan for revenge. Incidentally, some responders recalled similar experiences in their work, and they usually had to make bosses learn their lesson the hard way. So, in case you, our readers, have ever experienced something similar, too, please feel free to share your stories in the comments.

    Many commenters really c*****d up at this story and recalled their similar cases from work experiences, too

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    Oleg Tarasenko

    Oleg Tarasenko

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

    Read more »

    After many years of working as sports journalist and trivia game author and host in Ukraine I joined Bored Panda as a content creator. I do love writing stories and I sincerely believe - there's no dull plots at all. Like a great Italian composer Joaquino Rossini once told: "Give me a police protocol - and I'll make an opera out of it!"

    Read less »
    Oleg Tarasenko

    Oleg Tarasenko

    Writer, BoredPanda staff

    After many years of working as sports journalist and trivia game author and host in Ukraine I joined Bored Panda as a content creator. I do love writing stories and I sincerely believe - there's no dull plots at all. Like a great Italian composer Joaquino Rossini once told: "Give me a police protocol - and I'll make an opera out of it!"

    Rūta Zumbrickaitė

    Rūta Zumbrickaitė

    Author, BoredPanda staff

    Read more »

    Hi! Here at Panda's I'm responsible for Photo Editing and all of the things surrounding it. I love finding great, moody or even dramatic photos to fit the story. Besides that, I'm a proud owner of 2 cats with the silliest names and a bazillion plants<3You can find me at a makeup counter with headphones swatching all of the sparkly eyeshadows

    Read less »

    Rūta Zumbrickaitė

    Rūta Zumbrickaitė

    Author, BoredPanda staff

    Hi! Here at Panda's I'm responsible for Photo Editing and all of the things surrounding it. I love finding great, moody or even dramatic photos to fit the story. Besides that, I'm a proud owner of 2 cats with the silliest names and a bazillion plants<3You can find me at a makeup counter with headphones swatching all of the sparkly eyeshadows

    What do you think ?
    bElLa sTairZz
    Community Member
    1 month ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    OPs replies to people feel really strange to me, is just saying things rather than responding to their questions, certainly an interesting character. good story though

    Littlemiss
    Community Member
    Premium
    1 month ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I noticed that, almost like they couldn't be bothered answering.

    Load More Replies...
    Craig Reynolds
    Community Member
    1 month ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I've always left because of bad bosses. The one thing that is a dealbreaker for me is lying. Do not make promises you do not intend to keep or do not have the sole authority to implement. I never accepted excuses, as I was in a field (retired now) where I could have a replacement the same day. I never played nice when lied to, either. I quit on the spot with zero notice. I always found it extra annoying that when I did that (quit on the spot), they suddenly could find a way to keep their promise, but I never accepted.

    Load More Comments
    bElLa sTairZz
    Community Member
    1 month ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    OPs replies to people feel really strange to me, is just saying things rather than responding to their questions, certainly an interesting character. good story though

    Littlemiss
    Community Member
    Premium
    1 month ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I noticed that, almost like they couldn't be bothered answering.

    Load More Replies...
    Craig Reynolds
    Community Member
    1 month ago Created by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I've always left because of bad bosses. The one thing that is a dealbreaker for me is lying. Do not make promises you do not intend to keep or do not have the sole authority to implement. I never accepted excuses, as I was in a field (retired now) where I could have a replacement the same day. I never played nice when lied to, either. I quit on the spot with zero notice. I always found it extra annoying that when I did that (quit on the spot), they suddenly could find a way to keep their promise, but I never accepted.

    Load More Comments
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