I was lowly a insurance assistant admin for a regional medium-sized brokerage firm in SF (known among the local industry network as just “DL”) in the early 80s. I handled mostly the mundane clerical stuff that involved servicing commercial insurance clients. About a year into my job, one of the programs I was working on called “Special Hazard” insurance was given to me to handle entirely because none of the account execs wanted it. It was a strange policy and required too much “clerical” administration like giving quotes to clients, binding coverage, and then sending invoices. Still, this program netted the company some $100k in commissions, which was small potatoes to them and not terribly sexy like the big fortune 500 accounts the executives of the firm managed. Through the second year of my stint with this brokerage firm, I became pregnant. Make a long story short, my employer’s intention all along was to lay me off after my maternity leave to their overhead expenses, and just simply hand my program over one of the bosses’ secretary. After working so hard to make money for them and making sure the clients were happy with my service so we wouldn’t lose them, I felt betrayed, and quite frankly discriminated against.

After my maternity leave, I was easily able to find another job, this time with one of the largest brokerage firms in the world doing pretty much the same stuff, assisting account execs in servicing commercial insurance clients. Shortly after getting hired at my job job, my old special hazard clients started calling me after finding out that DL had let me go and that I was rehired at a big famous brokerage. Apparently they were unhappy with my replacement and could they use me and my new firm as their new broker for this special hazard insurance. I had a conversation with the senior leadership at my new firm, and after assuring them that I did not sign any non-compete agreements with my former employer (because I was a lowly assistant) and that the special hazard insurance program was not exclusive to DL, they set about supporting me in stealing away all my former clients including the program. Needless to say, it stunned DL that a lowly personnel like me could steal a 6-figure commission account away from them.

To sum it up, I got promoted to full account exec, my salary doubled in a year, I got to do a lot business travel, and eventually got relocated to work at the corporate headquarters in NYC. Revenge never felt so sweet that when I bought a new car, I had vanity plates made that read “EX DLer.”