Revenge may not be the correct word.

Years ago I worked for a company that was planning on moving to a nearby city. This idea was laid out a couple of years ahead of time, was highly confidential and as time passed it was a project moved to the back burner.

A year or so later we had a major corporate planning meeting and one of the projects discussed was this move. At the time nothing was mentioned about keeping it confidential but I understood that we were not to discuss the move with other employees.

Immediately following the planning meeting the boss published a recap with a memo that said “be sure to share these strategic initiatives with your subordinates”. I immediately sat down with my direct report shared the recap and discussed each project including the possible move. I remembered thinking that the move should not be in the discussion but it was too late I already shared his recap paper, so I just told her to keep it quiet. I trusted her.

Several months passed and the boss took her on a day trip to a different facility. While they were driving she mentioned the move.

He of course was livid and hauled me into his office with HR and other managers and he involved our corporate HR team from the home office. I don’t know what they had planned but I think they intended to terminate me. I was given a couple of days to respond.

I was probably on “double secret probation”.

I needed to find his original memo. A lot of time had passed since these meetings and I was looking for something that was a vague memory, I was not even sure the memo said what I thought it did, I searched and searched through files and piles of paperwork and eventually I found the original memo from him with the move listed and his statement to “share with your direct reports”.

When I finally found that original memo from him I swear it glowed like the open briefcase in “Pulp Fiction”.

I wrote a short memo to Corporate HR and him saying how I could not understand how I can be disciplined for following a direct order “in writing” from him.

I never heard another word from him or anyone else in the company about the incident.

Corporate life is often made up of small victories, that was one of the best.