I was terminated without notice only to be offered my job back for significant less than I was making. I declined and filed an unpaid wage claim costing them over $12,000 in damages due to me.

Worked for a Co. that terminated me at end of day on a Monday without notice or reasoning other than, "It just wasn't working out;" but was promised to be paid the rest of the week as a courtesy severance for the inconvenience. Wanted to stay professional, so I complied and thanked them for opportunity. I was allowed some time to pack up my things and head out.

I handled all payroll and AR/AP but wasn't presented final check upon termination and even offered to do it before I left but was told it would be mailed to me. Fast forward 6 days and I receive a text message from former employer urging me to return their call as soon as possible.

I called the next day and was offered my job back for $10,000 less per year than I originally was hired for and was told a few duties would be taken off my work load. It was insulting and I asked to think about it but asked about my final check prior to ending call and they asked me to go pick it up from office. I was out of town for a few days so made arrangements to pick up the following week (now 14 days after term).

I arrive and was presented with a check. I open it and say that it's incorrect. They apologize and agree to have an amended one in mail next day. I offered to wait but they had an "interview coming shortly."

I waited 7 more days before filing a wage claim for the final check. I end up receiving a final check for the one day of that week a few days after but didn't include my vacation time / PTO, the severance, or penalty for late payment.

After 8 months, we were granted a hearing where they were ordered to pay me for 30 full days salary as penalty, all vacation and PTO, adjusted benefits, and severance as promised.

Employer called me an extortionist, and Labor Board representative interrupted their tirade to say "No, that's the law. You should be happy he didn't sue you for retaliation, well, he still can. So maybe you should lay off the insults and direct that energy to educating yourself and finding counsel."

It was vindicating.

Not me, but an over the road truck driver that I know.

He was fired for dropping off freight at an agency in New Jersey because his tractor trailer combination was too long for the streets in New York City.

But HQ didn’t tell him when he dropped off the load. They apparently decided to fire him when the agency submitted bills for redelivery.

The agency filled out his semi-trailer and he left heading west to make multiple deliveries.

HQ called him a day or two later and fired him over the phone. But they didn’t mention his load. The agency didn’t know HQ was going to fire him.

So he left the company semi trailer (he owned the tractor) in a truck stop parking lot.

Somewhere…

Somewhere between Ohio (where he made a delivery) and… well… presumably Oklahoma where he lived.

And the company didn’t notice for two days… And he ditched their calls for the next day… And he had a sudden bout of amnesia when he did speak to them. Gee, those truck stops all look the same.

Sure, they found the semi trailer. It had the company’s name painted in huge letters on the side. But it took hundreds of phone calls to truck stops and other drivers. And everything was late.

I was fired from a head chef position due to the another chef after my job so she was in the bosses ear talking shit and telling him she could save him more money then me.. so I got the flick and the second chef quite. and the woman who became head chef didn't last a month .she had no idea the hell i had to deal with the owner / manager a who had no clue how to run a restaurant a.she couldn't deal with him nd left him in the learch with no kitchen staff. Then they hired a young guy.. and raved about him..thought he was the bees knees.. until he ripped them off and walked out in the middle of service with a restaurant full of hungry customers. And he owner had to sell business. . karma took care of that one perfectly 👌

A relative of mine came to Canada and as a new comer, he started working in a restaurant which paid him in cash. He was making 8$/hour when minimum payment was 14$/hour. Since he couldn't find any better job anywhere other than factory which are very labour intensive, he worked there for 2 years before they fired him over no reason. When they dismissed him from the work, they still owed him nearly 2 months of pay. The restaurant owner started toying with him for months and wouldn't pay his money. Then I hear about it from him then realized, some of these scam bag taking advantage of new comers like him who aren't very much aware of labour laws in Canada. Then I filed a case in Labour board and got him payment for 2 years as a regular minimum payment which was around 10k. After that in few months restaurant closed down. I heard the restaurant partners had a bad fight over that money since no one wanted to take responsibility for the loss. Also 2 other workers filed labour dispute agaist the restaurant as well, so they all got their money. It was a very satisfying moment for me. They very much deserved that fate.

Kind of petty but when I was in high school, I worked for a fast food restaurant. The manager didn’t much like me. I don’t know why. I just wasn’t in with some of the other kids he seemed to favor. One day we all left earlier than we should’ve. The manager got mad and fired all of us. He reconsidered and hired everybody back except for me. It was a part-time job and we all used to have to fight for extra hours because our paychecks were always so small anyway. So, I was kind of, “meh” about it but also a little bummed to be left out.

Summer was just starting, and a few weeks later I was able to find a job with the government where I could work full-time until school started back up again. The day I got paid with my first full-time paycheck, I made it a point to go to that restaurant and order something. When it was time to pay, I took out this big wad of cash to count the money from. My old coworkers’ eyes lit up, and they started asking me where I got the money. I told them how I had a much better job where I didn’t have to fight for hours and got paid more than three times what I got paid working at the restaurant. I made sure the manager who didn’t rehire me was within earshot when I announced this. Of course, I didn’t tell anyone the job was only for the summer. There was no need to share that little detail. LOL.

I was an automotive tech for a few years. The last position I held with that title was at a crappy little locally owned oil and lube shop. Now after a few years in the industry I had accumulated quite the knowledge of OSHA AND EPA standards that the automotive industry has in place.

The owner of this business is not a good man. We’re talking big game hunting trips to Africa, only gave charity for tax-breaks, and somehow ZERO empathy for people as a whole. His holiday bonuses were 25$ gift cards…. to his own store.

Now the manager of this particular location happened to be the nephew of the owner. This guys favorite line was “(if you don’t do xyz) you can take it to the house (fired)”.

I guess he could tell that every employee was turning against him, as we were all one day pulled one by one into the office to have a “talk about morale”. Two of us mechanics were already talking about starting our own small shop, taking our loyal customers with us (they would tell us that whenever we left they would stay with us)

I guess nephew found out and was none-too-happy about it. The talks were really him just trying to weasel out of anyone if we (myself and mechanic #2) were stealing business from the company (not yet!). The next day we both received a call informing us that we were suspended for two weeks due to the smell of “whiskey” on our breath (which there wasn’t). This was their way of not having to pay unemployment.

Immediately I got on the horn with the EPA, informing them that this s.o.b instructed us to dump oil and oil filters, antifreeze, differential fluid, and transmission fluid into the dumpster. Then a call to OSHA to let them know about all the standing oil in the bays, exposed electrical components, and shoddy additions to the building.

I got a text from my friend that still worked there two days ago to let me know OSHA showed up and they had to degrease the entire garage, fix the awnings, and electricians were wrapping up the wires.

A day later found out that the EPA had hit this bastard with a huuuuge fine.

Two months later all locations were sold off.

edit: I’m not sure what proper Quora etiquette is, but thanks for all the up votes! I didn’t think it would get that high!

Actually I wasn’t fired, but my direct supervisor made working there impossible unless one were in her circle of friends. The day after I left I started getting calls from that office, asking about various things. I told them that I would get back to them, and sent an e-mail to corporate and to the management in our area. I let them know that from that time forward that I would be happy to help but my fee was $150.00 per hour with a minimum four hours charge and that the clock started ticking the minute that I answered a call or opened an e-mail.

So the next day I got a call and helped the caller with their issues. I then sent an electronic invoice to corporate. They called and said it was only a ten-minute call and they were willing to pay me twenty dollars. I reminded them of the e-mail and told them if I didn’t receive payment in full ($600.00) within thirty days I would notify the credit reporting agencies and start legal proceedings. Three days later a check arrived, FedEx next-day delivery, signature required, and strangely enough I have yet to receive another call or e-mail from any of their employees. I can’t imagine why…lol.

I don't remember the year, early 2000’s, I was working for a small game company. They were having trouble and we knew it, but they were up front about what was going on with sales and stuff, so we weren't worried. They had missed payroll a couple times, but always made it up by the next paycheck. We liked the job, believed in the games, and liked our coworkers, so we hung in hoping it would get better.

Until the monday we showed up and the doors were locked. I don't know what all happened, but they were in much worse shape than they had let on. I never got my last 2 paychecks, so they owed me something like $8k, which was a lot for me at the time. I called one of the owners and he said “Sorry! The money is gone, they've liquidated everything to pay off debts, and there's nothing left.”

A month goes by, and one day I get a phone call. It was one of the owners asking if I knew what happened to a particular computer. What had happened to it was I had taken it home over the weekend to compile and run some renders (which I did from time to time, they knew about it), and when I showed up Monday I didn't have a job anymore, so I just put it under my desk and forgot it. But what I told him was “No, I really don't know where it could've gotten off to, but I also don't know where my last two paychecks are either. Maybe it got liquidated with them? I'll tell you what, though, if my last two paychecks were to show up and clear the bank, I might be motivated to try to find out what happened to that machine with the entire code base, all the model files and textures, and all the storyboards on it.”

Three days later I got an envelope from FedEx with a personal check for everything they owed me, and a note saying “The hard drive is sufficient" and an address. I mailed them the drive after the check cleared.

I worked security at a gold mine. In the normal performance of my duties, I got stuck in a wash on the outskirts and had to have a tow truck pull me out. The patrol vehicle suffered minor damage. My boss didn’t investigate until after three days had passed, and a rainstorm had obliterated most of my evidence. He accused me of lying and fired me.

The day after my firing, I was called to the Imperial County Sheriff’s Department to talk to the FBI about a theft that had occurred at the mine a few months earlier. I was not a person of interest in the theft, as I had been cleared a month before.

Because I had worked security at the mine longer than anyone (including my supervisor), they (who I had shown how the theft could have occurred) had some loose ends to tie up to wrap up the investigation.

Through questioning, it became abundantly clear that the person they had arrested had to have help stationed nearby. I suggested that the alleged thief was a good friend of my supervisor, and to look my supervisor’s general direction.

Not sure on all the details, but they cast that gaze…and were able to piece together that the supervisor had been involved as well.

One arrest later, and he accepted a plea deal in return for full cooperation.

I lost my job. He lost his freedom for 5 years.

I’d say I came out the winner in this case.

I wouldn’t say revenge, but the new manager hoisted her own petard and was caught up in it.

She eliminated my position as a cost saving measure, and as I was clearing out my stuff, I mentioned to her that she’d need to contract snow removal, as I was the guy that did the shovelling, scraping and salting. “Oh.”, she said, “I never thought of that.”

I was laid off right before winter snow arrives, and this is the sort of contract that one needs to arrange several months in advance, and the cost to have sidewalks cleared promptly and preferably before business hours was likely greater than my monthly salary.

Everyone else in the office were petite women who had to be absolutely immaculately groomed, and sweat and scent free, and shovelling snow was well below their pay grade and skill set anyway.

I was hit with long covid, I made the mistake of mentioning it at work. Of course they said “take the time you need, dont worry about it. I had to take time off here and there but I kept up with my work load which was heavy. Then they fired me, right in the zoom call I asked “why?” my director hung up and I was never told.

But i did hear from others that he blamed my performance and some specific things I said I was going to do but didnt. I was forwarded a group email where the director stated this. It was a direct slam against my reputation in this small industry that is career destroying.

They also offered me below my entitled severance, I weighed my options, the gains I would have made hiring a lawyer would have been negated by the lawyers fees, so I decided to give it a kick at the can on my own. They dragged their feet, did offer a token increase.

Just as I was about to cave, I happened to read about a court decision that shot down a clause in an employment contract that was so egregious that it invalidated the whole employment contract. I had the exact same clause in my contract (I think it was too broad of a non-compete clause) but that didnt matter. What mattered is that it invalidated my contract. One of the clauses it invalidated was the NDA and that you cant publicly disparage the company.

So I responded with the case law and that I would be taking to twitter and instagram to layout the pathetic email and how they used that as cover to fire someone with long covid. This company lived and died on social media. They didnt drag their feet in responding. The offered me 8 weeks severance instead of the orginal 2 and this director had to publicly apologize to everyone on that email disparaging me.

M

I have only been fired once in my entire adult life. I was working as a Case Manager for a national company with remote digital presence, but no brick and mortar offices in our state. Another local nurse wanted my position and started planting weevils in ears up the chain of command. Long story short she was committing a bunch of tomfoolery and blaming it on me without my knowledge at the time.

She got my position, but was fired within 3 months because she was caught committing aforementioned tomfoolery. Her misdeeds were of such a nature as to make finding another job within the field very difficult. She was caught partially because her accusations caused a state level investigation and audit. Which cleared me and cost her, her job. Brilliant planning on her part.

Fast forward 2 years and she applies for a job at another local facility. One that I happen to be the associate clinical director at. She has been on a suspended license with remediation and stipulations after reactivation, and basically unable to work for 2 years. She walked in to the interview, saw me sitting behind the desk, whispered “Oh, Shit!” and just ran out of the building. I didn't have to say a word.

Had a boss at a company who was extremely dishonest and extremely condescending. He ass-kissed up and shat down. The CEO who had sold the company was ultimately pushed out; he took me out for a beer and apologized for hiring this manager.

Finally I couldn’t deal with it anymore and quit. Moved on to another company.

9 months later this same manager was out on the market and he came to interview at my new place. His interviews had gone well, and since I was already there, they called me in as an “internal reference”.

I said “you can do what you want, but if you hire him I turn in my notice. Same minute.”

They asked why, and I told him all about my experience with him.

Then the HR guy said “Can’t you think of *anything* nice to say about him? Not even that he was smart?”

I said “That’s one of the worst parts - he *is* smart enough to know better than to behave as he does. That just makes it worse.”

Working ATM Service for 5 years. Top tech week after week. Worked 7 days a week. Wrote procedures, training manuals, trained new techs, anything the boss wanted I got. They changed managers and try as much as I can, this guy does not want to get along. Ex-military thinks he's still in. He was trying to get rid of everyone that had been there. Took him a year to manufacture a reason to fire me. When I filed for unemployment, he decided to challenge it. Everything was conference call on the phone. The workforce person ramrodding it asked questions. Him then me. All I did was agree with all his answers. The WF rep in a voice a bit over normal volume-AND YOU FIRED HIM FOR THAT??? You WILL pay this man unemployment. All I could do to keep from laughing.

In the crash of 2008 I was laid off, a lot of us were, but boy was my boss stupid about it. At that point I was working because I liked the job, I didn’t need the money. I was the VP of sales and Marketing and had a lot of customers who just had no money to spend. The best sales team in the world can’t put money in their customer’s budget.

The short of it is that I had two months leave built up. The HR handbook said I could put as much money as I wanted in my retirement account and the company would match it. The CEO, famously not a bright man, called me to complain about how much I would cost the company. Well, boohoo. I told him that my three months' severance was going it there too. I don’t know what he said at that point, I hung up and went on vacation.

I wasn’t fired from this job, but my petty revenge still continues to this day.

Long story short, my old company have continuously been hiring for my old role as well as some new roles within their team for the past 12 months. In fact, I’ve seen my old role reposted no less than four times since I left. Now, the people in my certain area of the industry tend to know each other, or at least know mutual people that we’ve worked with previously.

I’ve had several people that I used to work with apply for my old role or a role in my old team and I find great joy in telling them everything that happened to me while I was there. I spare no detail and even have a list of points saved in my phone for when the next person comes along to ask me about the company and my previous team.

However, I only gatekeep the good employees from that shit-hole; I wouldn’t dare send them to a place where they would experience the same things I did.

I will, however, send the bad employees there.

One example: this guy had a temper, took long breaks, was never on time, and didn’t know the software. My partner actually used to work with him some years ago, and when I saw my team leader looking at his resume the day before I left the job, I commented that he was a good guy, and that my partner had worked with him previously.

It brought me such joy to see that not even two months later, that they were rehiring again.

Recently, my partner’s old manager applied for a position in my old team and reached out to me for some feedback on my time there. I told him everything and - in no uncertain terms - that his talents would be wasted there. He took my advice and stayed at his current job.

And I will continue to do the lord’s work until they go under.

By telling the truth. I was jored ny a local company to work the mail room. Stuffing envelopes, labelling them and sending them off. I was 27/28 at the time. It was from 2 to 10 (I think) this was 25+ years ago.

Anyway, my little group of 5 or 6 people in the room were all 19–20. No one of legal drinking age. They spent most of their time pulling stupid pranks. Shooting rubber bands, paperclips, putting signs on people’s backs (including me). I chalked it up to immaturity. I didn’t want to get them in trouble for fear the pranking would get worse. They even asked me to illegally buy them alcohol. I didn’t.

3 months go by, I went in one day and was told by management “I wasn’t needed anymore”. It was a temp hire. That Friday, I went to the temp agency to get my check. They said they were told “I wasn’t fast enough”. When I was the only one focusing solely on my job. They lied to me. That’s when I decided my loyalty to a company ends when my job ends. So I straight up told them everything. Even the illegal part. Idk if anything was done about it, bit I didn’t care.

Didn’t affect my ability to get hired somehwere else. I worked for Sam’s Club from 2005–2019. Oh the stories I have about *that* place.

After the dotcom crash I got hired by a small software company. They didn’t really have a good product and it was obvious they were on the way down. One day the owner called in with instructions to fire all the sales people as they weren’t making any sales anyway. OK so at the end of the month he calls to ask how sales were going. I said about as good as can be expected with no sales people.

A week later the hammer comes down and we’re all let go and given our severance checks. I immediately go to the bank branch that check was drawn on to cash it and it bounced!

So since I still had the keys to the office, I went back and grabbed a bunch of high-end laptops and took them home. Another week goes by and he calls to ask about these laptops that have gone missing. I said they’re not missing, I’m holding on to them until you make good on the bounced check. I was told that was theft and they would be pressing charges. I said great, I’ll be contacting the Labour Relations Board about your shitty practices and also the Police about knowing passing a bad check for thousands of dollars.

Needless to say I was asked to stop by his office to exchange the laptops for another check. It was like the scene out of Scarface where Tony Montana goes to buy the coke.

Owner: Do you have the laptops?

Me: They’re close by. Do you have my check?

He gave me the check and I went and cashed it and then went back and gave him his laptops.

They were going to have to fire me. My boss had ratcheted up the verbal abuse while I maintained my work ethic. When the gut feeling hit that my day might be coming, I started to remove all of my personal stuff a little at a time.

The big day came when I got “ambushed” by my boss w/ HR. They gave me the big spiel replete with, “… your severance is contingent on your signing this ‘not to sue’ contract.. “

So here’s where the answer to the question lands:

1. The HR hag was well-known for being vindictive; I expected her to be secretly recording – and they ‘knew’ I had a rep for speaking my mind. I never uttered one word. They pranced around and jumped through their little hoops for 20 minutes. I didn’t even open my mouth to yawn. Not even a ‘Bye.’ Walked straight out of the building, got in my truck and drove away with three months worth of full pay in my pocket.
2. They spent so much time trying to manipulate me during their exit interview, they completely forgot to ask me anything about the major project I had been working on for 18 months; it was being segmented and stored on multiple CDs (tech at the time.) Smiled when I later heard they had spent the next year, along with too much money & too many man-hours, unsuccessfully trying to rebuild the project with the segment files before finally abandoning whole thing. – It was one click in the menu of the software used to create it that would have automatically reconstructed the whole thing.

Haven’t wasted another minute thinking about that 15 years until this moment.

I worked at a Biotech Research company. My lab was a support lab for a majority of the company. My direct boss was ‘downsized’ and my lab was transferred under a different group. Apparently this new ‘Boss’ was partial to the employees in his original group. He sent them to work in my area although they knew nothing about the technology.
One woman decided she knew better about ‘everything’ and re-programmed a very large and expensive piece of machinery. The entire lab came to a crashing halt. That cost the company almost $250,000. I got let go and he kept her. Guess what company went out of business?

In 1999 I was told my slot was being eliminated due to the completion of Y2K work.

Senior management didn't handle the downsizing well. The CIO ignored anyone on the list. The VP for development would duck into a conference room if someone being downsized was coming towards him.

Revenge Act I

It was traditional at the company to have a parting gift and farewell lunch. One of my cohorts got that arranged. Hehehe!

Revenge Act II

A few months later I was back with a Big 6 accounting/consulting firm. Of course that meant lots of travel.

The company that I had been with was HQed in Dayton OH with a major office in Atlanta.

My new office was in Atlanta. My first client was in Miami FL. One fine Monday morning I was in DIA, awaiting departure. A few old cohorts were in the area. I said “Hello” to some, nodded and waved to others. I took my seat.

As I'm sitting there, probably looking over materials for the day, Sam the Scum Sucking Dog, aka CIO, sat next to me.

I looked. I noticed who it was.

“Good morning, Sam.”

He replied civilly. We knew each other.

Within 30 seconds or so he got up and moved away from me.

I had been hired, as casual labor, to work with another, older guy to tear up an existing driveway, in preparation for a new one, and dispose of the rubble. We did so. It was tough work. I took a few breaks during the afternoon, but we got the job done.

The contractor came around and surveyed the job. He seemed satisfied with what we had done. After his inspection, I asked him if I could catch a ride with him in his pickup truck to downtown, to which he agreed to. As we were trailing to downtown, he told me that the other guy said that I hadn’t really worked that hard, and that I took a few breaks, and so he was only going to pay me some fraction of what he owe me. I wasn’t in a position to argue with him, even though I was upset.

When we arrived at the downtown location, he (& I) walked away from the truck; he had business elsewhere; I was going home.

As soon as he was out of sight, I returned to the truck. I popped the hood, and proceeded to yank out the coil wire (one of the 9 wires going from the distributor to the various spark plugs). I took it with me and disposed of it in a nearby garbage can. That true was never going to start with that wire missing, and it probably cost the guy MORE than he had withheld from my pay to replace the Spark Plug wire set. I still feel great satisfaction over having done that, even though it was nearly 50 years ago.

I worked for a small airline in the 80’s. My pay was $800 a month, paid once a month. I got a call during a 14 hour work day and was told they were closing, so finish my out of state run and bring the plane back to the hangar in a different city. I was to pick up my check taped on the hangar door. After taxes it was $712. I got a taxi and went to the bank. I went in and tried to cash my check. They told me the account did not have enough to cover my check. The bank teller asked me if I had $20. I did and she deposited it in the account and I got $712 in cash. The next night the owner called me screaming about the paycheck- I just said- “Now John, you wouldn’t write me a bad check would you?”

I wasn't fired, I just quit a job with a window replacement contractor after finding full time premanant employment. I called to inform the man and give him two weeks notice. He cussed at me and slammed the phone down. I called him right back and asked him to send me payment for the previous weeks work and he ratteled on about how I installed those last windows wrong and that he would not be paying me what was owed and told me never to call again followed by a loud “click". So, I tallied all my hours plus all the OT I'd worked but was never paid more than a flat hourly rate. I took this document to the owners of the business he had contracted with, explained the situation and said “I just want to give you the opportunity to resolve this before I take the matter to the labor department” (they had a local office). The owner said “Thank you" and said they'd take care of it. The man was in a back office supposedly waiting for a meet so I said “Great! We will just need to come to agreement on what he owes me" The man said “Nothing to worry about there, whatever you say". I asked when I might expect payment from him and the man said, if this amount on your records is good, I'll cut you a check right now and we'll just deduct the funds from his contract payment. I never saw the man again but he was a hot head all the same and I could feel the burn of his rage as I drove away.

As for my ability to install windows… The man had previously took me aside, giving me a raise because, as he said “You're the only one I have who can read a tape measure”.

This didn't happen to me but to a friend of mine.

She transferred from the IT department to a small marketing team which she felt was a better match for her skills and talents.

After a while it became quite unpleasant. The other team member (I did say it was a small team!) did not pull her weight and was hostile. No use complaining to the boss because he was having an affair with the other team member!

Anyway, my friend quietly looked around for another job and was offered a post elsewhere at a much higher salary. She wrote out her resignation letter and took it into work the next day. She delayed handing it in, perhaps not wanting a confrontation. During the morning the boss called her into the office and told her she was being made redundant! She took her remaining holiday time and left with a hefty redundancy payment, straight into her new job!

I worked as the CFO of a company and made them millions of dollars. Unfortunately the company owner was a crook, he was a liar a thief and a cheat. He came to my office one day and told me about a business proposition he had received and needed my help. He needed me to fix the financial balance sheet so he would qualify for the deal. In other words, falsify the numbers. I told him no, I would not. He then said, ok I will do it myself and sign your name on the financial statements. I resigned immediately. I was the person in the company that had set up all the inventory and working capital financing and these banks and financial institutions trusted me so much that all I needed to do was call them and ask for cash amounts, they often waived the required paperwork because they trusted me completely after years of fulfilling financial obligations. I told them I had resigned and the reason for the resignation. All financial institutions then cancelled their financial agreements with this company. The liar owner was left with no financing and had to have a holding company take over management of his company at a cost of $100,000 per month for several years. So screwing with the wrong guy can be very costly, instead of letting me continue to make millions for the company, it cost him millions in losses. That is what happens when you allow Satan to direct your actions,

I had signature authority on the federal license at the company I worked for, since my prior experience had helped them get it. When management asked me to do something I knew was illegal, I refused, which put me in conflict with them.

They shortly “laid me off”.

As I left, I called the federal licensing department, and told them to take me off the license, as I no longer worked there. The agent then told me “they don’t have anyone else listed on the license, and without me they were out of business”. When I told him it was no longer my problem, but I didn’t think they knew or understood their situation, the agent called them. They were shut down before I got out of the parking lot.

It took them 6 months to get their license straightened out and back in operation. They probably lost a million dollars a month. Now THAT’S revenge!

When I was about 21 or 22, I worked for this remodeling contractor. My dad does remodels and has rental properties, and I've always been a DIY type of guy, so I learned young and had about 10 years of experience at the time. Anyway, one day I was at work, and the boss nor the crew lead could figure out how to solve a problem with some vinyl flooring and the customer was there watching them for a good half hour or so. I repeatedly tried to make suggestions but just kept getting ignored. Finally I just stepped up and tried something and it worked. The next day the owner told me that work was slow and he didn't need me to come in. That same afternoon he called me and let me go due to “not having the quality of work that his company is known for". I'm sure he was just upset that I made him look like an ass in front of a customer. Anyway, fast forward to a week later, this customer had a family member that was also gonna get some work done by the same company. The previous customer gave the family member my Facebook info and she contacted me and asked if I could do a job for her. About 3 days in, my old boss came and the look on his face when he saw me doing the job he came to bid for was priceless.

…

What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?

I once had a “manager” who believed I was providing too much assistance to other departments in the company and suggesting improvements in our operations to stay abreast of regulatory and competitor developments. Since he couldn’t fire me for that he did suggest that I seek opportunities elsewhere.

Which I did.

And within two years my new job was providing much nicer benefits and a great deal higher salary than my former “manager” was making — and putting me on track for a senior staff engineering position a few years later.

[raspberry]

Moral of the story: when you notice that you have a third-rate manager and a second-rate employer, it behooves you to move on, and up.

I had been working at this company for 13 years and one day, near the end of the day, my boss asked me to write out the process for completing a certain task. It required some Excel knowledge. He told me he was going to give it to one of the BI teams to automate. So I stayed late, past my regular shift to write it up. Afterwards he tested it in his office with me standing there to make sure it worked. It did, so I went home.

Next day started normal but just before lunch, the HR girl called one of my co-workers away, which the rest of us thought was weird. He never returned and someone came by and dropped off an empty box. Then another co-worker was called away. I immediately started backing up personal files on the computer onto a flash drive and sure enough I was called next. We all were let go because of downsizing.

I reached out to my coworkers who weren't let go a few weeks later and found out my boss didnt do something in the process correctly so the whole thing was “broken". It was a critical reporting process that I built.

It wasnt intentional but i think it was a nice bit of karma.