People Speak About Their Triumphant Moments Of Revenge
13. Dad Gets Revenge On Homophobic Couple
“About 10 years ago my parents & I went on holiday to India.
The hotel we were staying at had an odd choice of doors for their hotel rooms.. they were rustic-looking wooden doors with bolt locks on both the inside and the outside of the door. There was also a regular lock underneath the bolt for locking your room when you were out. Basically, you could bolt your door locked when you were on the inside but anybody could bolt your door locked from the outside.
Stupid idea, right?
In the room, next door to us was a lesbian couple and in the room across from them were the homophobes. For the entire duration of our stay the homophobes would verbally abuse the lesbian couple at any chance they got by calling them all sorts of derogatory names and it really started to annoy my family & me.
Things came to head when every morning we would be awoken by one of the ladies next door shouting over to us on the balcony that they couldn’t get out of their room because the homophobic man had bolted their door shut.
So our new morning routine would be to let them out of their hotel room, and of course, they were obviously really upset. Imagine someone purposefully & spitefully setting out to relentlessly ruin your holiday just because of who you are? Honestly, it makes me sick.
I remember one time my dad telling the ladies that the couple will ‘get what’s coming to them’. And by god, they did.
On the last day of our holiday, my dad took me out shopping early in the morning for one thing in particular.. a lock. He went into every shop he could find disregarding all the small suitcase locks he was offered until finally he found and bought a huge, heavy-duty lock.
We went back to the hotel room and my dad bolted the homophobe’s door shut and put the lock in place.
Dad’s logic was if you’re going to mess with those ladies, I’m going to mess with you back a lot worse. A taste of their own medicine so to speak.
Later that morning when our taxi came to take us to the airport, my dad told my mum what he had done and she was lukewarm to the idea. The one thing she asked was ‘did you at least leave the key under the mat?’…
that was when my dad, without saying a word, removed the key from his pocket, opened the window of the taxi, and tossed it onto the motorway.
I know it wasn’t the most morally correct thing to do to bolt and lock someone in their room for god knows how long (at least until the staff could find some bolt cutters), but if there’s one thing I hate, it’s a homophobe so if you ask me, they had it coming.”
12. There's No Fury Like Forensic Accountants Scorner
“Back when I was in my late 20’s – early 30’s, I had a great job with great co-workers and an amazing boss/owner (hereafter AwesomeBoss). Honestly, he was more the office Dad than the boss. Kind and patient, I don’t think I ever heard him raise his voice. His amazing wife (hereafter AwesomeBossWife) was even nicer. She’d stop by all the time with food, small little gifts if she saw something that made her think of one of us, and hugs.
Whenever one of us had a new baby, she’d stop by the hospital to visit with a carload of things that babies need.
We provided consulting and professional services for our clients. We were specialists in a particular industry (small enough that I won’t mention it here), with far-too-frequent forensic accounting engagements which were never fun. Ever need to tell a client his wife/son/brother is embezzling? 0/10, would not recommend it.
While AwesomeBoss owned the business, he had a generous profit-sharing program. In good times, this could be 15 – 20% of your paycheck, paid monthly. Every quarter he’d share the books with us because he believed that if you’re messing with someone’s paycheck, you owe them transparency. Frankly, the level of trust was so high that we rarely did more than glance at the numbers.
When our boss hit 60, 60 hit back.
Hard. His health decreased rapidly. Within a couple of years, he decided to retire and sell the business. He reached out to find a Silent Partner (important later), who we knew slightly. SilentPartner didn’t want to run the business, but SilentPartner had a long-time employee and was willing to help him get started for a small ongoing percentage. For simplicity, he’ll be NewBoss.
NewBoss bought 10%. SilentPartner paid for 45% of the company and AwesomeBoss retained 35%.
There was a schedule for NewBoss to buy each out over 10 years after which NewBoss would own 90% of the company.
What of the remaining 10%? The two most senior employees (SeniorEmployee1 and SeniorEmployee2) had already been 5% each. Both of these guys had worked there for years, including some VERY lean early years. When they had to go without paychecks for a couple of months, AwesomeBoss rewarded their loyalty with a piece of the company.
The terms of the sale had three conditions regarding the rest of us. First, each of us was to receive a very nice bonus. Second, the monthly bonus system would remain intact. Third, the quarterly company performance review remained.
Initially little changed. AwesomeBoss would show up once a month to check in with us which was always great. Then he, NewBoss, SeniorEmployee1, and SeniorEmployee2 would go to the office to discuss the company performance.
Sometimes AwesomeBossWife would accompany him just so she could visit with us, which we always welcomed.
At age 64, AwesomeBoss suffered a heart attack and died shortly after. We were crushed. It hurt nearly as bad as when my own father passed away a few years earlier.
While NewBoss wasn’t the most personable guy, he did know his business and we were growing rapidly. From the time of the sale until shortly before AwesomeBoss’ death, our bonuses were up to 25%.
Nobody could replace AwesomeBoss in our eyes, but NewBoss was doing a good job.
After AwesomeBoss’ death, AwesomeBossWife would visit with NewBoss, SeniorEmployee1, and SeniorEmployee2 to go over the books, but despite her brave face, you could tell she was still crushed. After a couple of months, she stopped coming. When we asked, she said it just hurt too much. She was moving a few hundred miles away to live with one of her sons and his family.
Meetings became NewBoss, SeniorEmployee1, and SeniorEmployee2…
At our next quarterly review, NewBoss explained that after consulting with SeniorEmployee1 and SeniorEmployee2, he wanted to drop our bonus to 10% because he wanted to accelerate his purchase agreement with AwesomeBossWife. She clearly wasn’t interested in participating so it made more sense to buy her out quickly, and as a widow, he wanted her to have a little extra financial security.
He asked for our OK. I’m sure some may have felt pressured under the circumstances, but when everyone agreed, he called SilentPartner on speakerphone and informed him of the plan. NewBoss thanked us, and for a moment, we foolishly admired the man we would soon realize had no soul.
It went on like this for about a year, when as luck would have it, I had a business trip just an hour away from AwesomeBossWife’s new home.
I called and great news, she was free for dinner at short notice!
When I got there, I was shocked at how she looked. She looked like she aged 10 years. The happy and energetic woman with the perpetual smile was now looking feeble and frail. I was greeted with the customary hug, and I apologized for letting so much time go by without talking. I asked her how she was holding up and she smiled weakly and said she was taking it one day at a time.
Then she asked, ‘How are you guys doing? I know the business is really hurting. Are you guys OK?’
I was shocked. I explained that business was great. Where had she heard that we were struggling? ‘NewBoss called. He said business was really bad, and asked me to delay the repurchase for a couple of years so he wouldn’t have to lay anyone off.’ Already having been paid for 55% of the company, she agreed.
She would wait for the cash if it helped us.
The obvious question popped into both our heads. If both the employees and AwesomeBossWife were not getting their cash, where was it going? She looked horrified and managed a quiet, ‘Oh My God’ before she began to cry. Her tears were over what became of her husband’s legacy and for us employees who she always treated like family.
Instead of a pleasant visit, I was left watching her second major heartbreak in three years. Her son and daughter-in-law came in to see her in tears and were naturally enraged. I promised them I’d get to the bottom of it.
I had not even pulled out of AW’s driveway before I was on the phone with SeniorEmployee1, who called SeniorEmployee2. It was late, but I drove straight through, all the while on speakerphone with SeniorEmployee1 and SeniorEmployee2 who had gone into the office.
It took all my concentration to avoid setting new land speed records on the interstate.
By the time I had arrived around 3 AM, they had figured most of it out. Because SeniorEmployee1 and SeniorEmployee2 have authorized signers on the corporate credit card and banking accounts, they were able to pull transactions and it quickly became clear there were multiple sets of books, with us being shown the Harry Potter version.
By 7 AM, we had the complete picture. NewBoss had embezzled at least $700,000 that we knew about, possibly more. Frankly, he did a poor job of covering his tracks, clearly counting on our trust.
Worse, the company actually was in really bad shape. In his greed (we later found out to get a good deal on a boat), NewBoss left the company in debt (which we later found out there were two short-term, high-interest business loans expecting a major deal, which never came through).
Servicing that debt was crippling the company.
Now what? We could call AwesomeBossWife, but we were honestly worried about the impact of the news. I thought I might kill her, or drive her son to drive up with dangerous malice in his heart). SeniorEmployee2 came up with the answer. Enter Silent Partner who had provided financing. While NewBoss had purchased some of his shares, SilentPartner still was the majority shareholder.
Including SeniorEmployee1 and SeniorEmployee2’s shares, it was still under 50%, but it was clear which way AwesomeBossWife would vote and they didn’t want to put her through more emotional turmoil. After a short call, SilentPartner agreed to review everything and told us to shut up and work like it was another day.
We were seeing red, and not just because of the bloodshot eyes. But we carried on and completed our workday.
No updates from SilentPartner. Nothing for the rest of the week. We kept our composure, but it was hard to hide our contempt for NewBoss and we were growing angrier by the day.
Monday, the cavalry arrived. SilentPartner showed up at the office unannounced with a lawyer in tow. He summoned SeniorEmployee1 and SeniorEmployee2 into NewBoss’ office. Shortly after it began, NewBoss’ shouts of indignance filled the air.
Soon he was silent, and after a little while, he handed over his key and left, having signed some documents. The three agreed on SeniorEmployee2 running the company temporarily. I don’t know everything that was in the documents, but one involved repayment, the other… Well, let’s keep reading.
SilentPartner was able to get the banks to renegotiate the loans, but it still put the company in a bad place.
Which is worse in a company going under – to be let go, or to be left behind having to save the company? I had a wife, three kids, and a job I could jump to immediately, from a friend who had been recruiting me for months.
SeniorEmployee2’s ‘temporary’ management became permanent. He was able to save the company (barely), and he and SeniorEmployee1 remain there still.
SilentPartner purchased AwesomeBossWife’s shares so she didn’t have to deal with the risk or drama. While she was relieved, I don’t think it did much to mend her twice-broken heart. She died a couple of years later, way too young, at 64. All of us and most of our spouses drove out to attend her funeral. Thinking about it still brings a lump to my throat.
And NewBoss? Sadly, it looks really bad for a company like ours to have an embezzler running it, so no charges were filed. There wasn’t much value in some of the things he bought like season tickets to THREE professional sports teams, his Alma Mater’s football team three states away, and his Mercedes. He was forced to sell his boat and downsize his house from a large house in an upscale suburb, but since he had such little equity, just a fraction was repaid.
And I don’t imagine there are many markets for used breast implants, so his wife got to keep those. So he mostly got away with it. For a while…
I waited about a year. I wanted him to think the worst was behind him. Then I wanted to invoke the worst case of worse in the history of worse. I would enlist the aid of the most tenacious and infernal machine ever assembled by man.
A machine capable of unmitigated and unrelenting destruction, that would cause Satan himself to cower in fear. That’s right – the Internal Revenue Service.
While law enforcement won’t get involved in embezzlement if no charges are filed, if you have unreported high-six-figure income, regardless of source, the IRS will get involved. The IRS cares about these things. A lot.
I filed a Form 3949. I could have put in for a reward, but I’m just an honest citizen seeking to ensure everyone pays his fair share.
No thanks are necessary, Uncle Sam! I’m glad to help partially fund the $325,000, a 13-year study that proves couples are happier when they aren’t screaming at each other. Who knew!
About a year after that, NewBoss was forced to sell his downsized house in a less upscale suburb. He’s now renting in a decidedly un-upscale neighborhood after moving to Florida. Apparently, it was not up to the standards of his now ex-wife who while she undoubtedly enjoyed the ‘for better’ in their vows, was decidedly disinterested in ‘or worse’.
I doubt she got much in alimony but probably got to keep her breast implants. I suspect he’s not allowed visitation.
Oh, and that other requirement that NewBoss had to sign? SilentPartner had some tasty revenge codified in the document. If NewBoss uses his employment at SilentPartner’s company, he waived the right to sue when SilentPartner responds to inquiries that NewBoss took a voluntary termination to avoid For Cause termination. So he doesn’t just have a 20-year gap on his resume, he has a 20-year canyon.
Last I heard, NewBoss was working as a truck delivery dispatcher for a small production company. He’s likely making $15 to $25 per hour today, compared to the six figures (and 90% equity) he’d have if he had only played it straight.”
11. Sure, I'll Put The Carts Where They Need To Go
“So when I was a cashier at a local grocery store, I learned that my boss was purposefully not going to promote me. I was angry and kinda broke as an employee. I put in my two weeks and said ‘Whatever’ doing the absolute bare minimum to complete my job.
Throughout the year, they had added work to my role that wasn’t my job, but before I was willing and happy to contribute to the team, thinking I would eventually work my way up to Customer Service.
Now, I was done, I had no more care to give.
I was asked to bring the carts in from the parking lot, which wasn’t my job. A friend convinced me to do it for her anyway since it was late, and that it could make it longer for us to close and we all just wanted to go home. So I start gathering the carts. It is dark when this guy in a Corvette drives up and swerves at me, getting within almost a foot before he turned back.
I yelled at him and his buddies, shouting, ‘Hey, you almost killed me!’ They just flipped off and made jokes about me being just a grocery store worker.
So, being just a grocery store worker, I decided to put my carts somewhere else, because it wasn’t my job anyway. So I took them, flipped them all upside down, and surrounded this guy’s car with them! Then I just went back to my register and waited.
I told the Utility Clerk what had happened, and she just laughed
Sure enough, they came up to another register, still being major jerks. They check out and walk out. After a minute or so, the clerk comes back in almost out of breath for laughing so hard. I ask her what happened, and she tells me they ordered her to do her job and put the carts away.
She told them that wasn’t her job, and started to walk off. They grabbed her and told her they demanded the manager and to pull the tapes.
She just grinned and told them she would be happy to and would be calling the police as well. She was sure they would be interested in the tapes where they almost hit me and just then when they grabbed her and essentially assaulted her.
They clammed up and told her that wasn’t necessary, and that they just wanted the manager to fire whoever did this. She told them she was the manager, and that would not be happening, and rushed back in to call the cops. They pulled those carts away as fast as they could and sped out of there quickly.
She was nice enough to put the carts away for me AND RECORD THE INTERACTION so we could all laugh at close. It was amazing to watch them turn white when they realized that, although I was being a jerk, it wasn’t against the law for me to put carts around their car. It was 100% illegal for them to assault a clerk and harass me by pretending they were going to hit me with their car.”
10. She Took The Car But I Took 80K And Made Her Waste More
“I lived with my stepmom for about a year after my dad passed. She was abusive to me and often tried to embarrass me when we went out, often grabbing at me and making… Not the best remarks about my body and stuff. It made me uncomfortable, and it went on for about a year until things actually started getting dangerous.
So that woman starts to abuse me.
Like… Hitting me, yelling at me, and all that ish. It gets dangerous for me, and I choose to leave. I move in with my aunt. A couple of months afterward, I tell my aunt that the car was originally supposed to be mine and that my dad had a will. My aunt, not knowing that, encouraged me to get a lawyer to try and reclaim things.
So we see the lawyer and begin to work against my stepmom. I wanted to see what other property I could reclaim, seeing that I didn’t even have access to my student funds. She tries so damn hard to stall for time, eventually dragging the case to be a year. This is mainly because she owns a small business, and often evaded reporting her income. That sorta thing.
Legit, all I wanted were my college savings and whatever else my dad could have chucked in for me.
She’s dragging that case out until sometime in the fall, where we finally get a hearing. Basically, someone transcribes the back and forth, and sends it over to a judge. Simple stuff. Her lawyer thinks that I’m trying to charge them for abuse, while my lawyer is trying to get some footing to provide child support/prove a connection between her and my dad (which, thinking back on it, is a bit odd because they would have been common law with how long we all lived together? Dunno).
Anyways, my stepmom picks up on this shortly afterward and starts to profusely deny she had any sort of relationship with my dad, which annoyed me. My lawyer asks my stepmom to provide my dad’s will, to which she claims she burned it. Then later on, in the same conversation, pulls up what I assume to be a fake will because the signature, sure enough, wasn’t my dad’s.
I’m sitting in the room, trying not to fume while my lawyer digs deep into the woman about what I was legally entitled to as the daughter of my dad, and what I should be given access to since she no longer had custody of me anymore (it was passed over to my grandma, shortly after she kicked me out). She still refuses to settle, and the thing is sent over to the judge.
At the very least, something amusing did come out of it. She ended up panicking when asked about what the two letters of her salon meant, and she decided to go ‘toes and phoot’ when asked (the actual letters are T and P, meant to stand for both family surnames) and thought that because ph and f made the same sound, she could just say that.
The woman transcribing the conversation even looked at her screen in confusion lol.
The last time I saw her was in court, where she and her lawyer were trying so hard to fight for me to just drop the case. It ended with the judge advising my stepmom to go with a settlement because she was going to lose the case. I already knew that she was losing a lot of dough, having to pay for legal fees because she’s the one who dragged it on for so long, then she decided to just meet my demands as a ‘settlement’.
That was funny because it didn’t fly, and it ended with my brother and me getting 50/50 of life insurance from my dad, which I never knew of. It also ended with me being compensated for the survivor’s pension she’s been taking from my bank account the year he passed and getting about 30K in college savings.
Oh, right, and her having to partially pay my legal fee lol. The total I had to pay to the lawyer was about 35K, and she ended up having to cover for about 20K while I had to fill in the remaining 15K. Still, I think that was a win for me in the end.”
9. I Finally Broke And Called Her Out
“When I was in high school, I worked at a fast-food chain. I literally made enough to pay my car insurance and drive myself to school with about $50-60 left over to spend.
I was a part-time worker and after working there a few months got offered a weekend gig. 11 pm-7 am Fri and Sat. It sucked, but I got paid more due to hours and a promised raise.
I got about 5 cents. The first weekend I worked, the business made the most it ever had on that schedule. I was polite and I had return customers. I was basically the weekend manager…. without being a manager. I was told this.
Well, one of our managers was a horrible lady. Lazy, snide, etc. She had a bad habit of coming in at 8-9 am to relieve me from my shifts.
I was kind of a manager right…? So I couldn’t just leave. I was told this.
So one evening, while my parents were out of town, my car wouldn’t start. I knew I had friends that could take me, but it would take a while to get them there. So I called up work to let them know I was on my way but I might be a few minutes late.
So lady manager decides to yell, threaten my job, how dare I. I told her I was doing my best and I would get there. I called some friends, got a ride (with no solid ride home), and walked in about 5-10 minutes late.
I mean I was proud of being able to get there so fast…. but she just exploded. She was just so inconvenienced at that 5-10 minutes.
Even while I was thinking about how messed up it all was and being quite upset, I apologized (I was a very timid teenager) for being late, and tried to explain that I had called, she did know, and I had indeed made it like I said I would.
She. Would. Not. Stop. She had nothing else on me but this one time. That was all. And she kept yelling.
The other night worker (only two people on nights) was just watching with a ‘yikes’ look.
So finally I broke. I called her out on all those times she had been over an hour late and how I never complained. How this 5-10 minute was nothing compared to going to school then working a 10-hour shift. Then I told her to get bent, figure out the schedule herself because I wasn’t going to be treated that way…
so I QUIT!
I stepped out and called my friends to pick me up. A few minutes later the other guy walked out. We chatted for a few minutes. It was his first day, I was supposed to train him. After the blow-up he saw, he said he didn’t want to work there anymore. He actually thanked me…
She kind of screwed herself. I never asked how it went but I doubt she managed on her own.”
8. Keep Me From Joining The Marines? I’ll Make Sure You Don’t Get Into College
“When I was a senior in HS, the three most important things in my life were football, my significant other, and joining the Marines after I graduated, not necessarily in that order.
Well, that all went downhill when my younger brother, 16 at the time, decided to take the 1903 Springfield my dad gave me out of its locked case and show it off to his friends, while my friends and I were in the garage smoking.
I didn’t hear the shot, but my neighbor did and called the police. My dumb brother had decided to load my rifle and then shot a hole in his bedroom ceiling. The police came, nobody was arrested, but I got a ticket for smoking illegal substances and my parents got an encounter with the cops when they got home from work.
I ended up the scapegoat for everything because somehow it was MY fault my brother had searched my room for the key to my gun case when I wasn’t home and decided it was okay to take other people’s property without asking.
The paraphernalia ticket was enough to get me disqualified for military service.
On top of that, my parents took my car (which I paid for) and basically everything else I owned, other than my clothes, and essentially locked me in my room whenever I wasn’t in school. That ended on my 18th birthday. I took all my stuff back, moved out, and didn’t talk to them again, ever.
Somehow my brother never got into any trouble at all, and to this day he has never apologized, nor have I.
Two years later, I’m living with my significant other, struggling with bills, smoking, and drinking too much. I got busted for shoplifting, and that’s where I saw my opportunity. I gave them my brother’s name. I had his DL number memorized. We look alike.
They gave me a citation and my brother had to pay the fine. That incident prevented him from getting into college, where he had planned on going into ROTC.”
7. Block My Promotion? Okay, I'll Follow Your Advice
“So, I’m a Software Engineer at a Medium Healthcare Company. Let’s call it Arcade Health. (AH). WELL, at the beginning of 2020, I started there. The team I was joining had like 5-6 offshore people on it before. Now, they were dumping all of them for two onshore resources (to save monetary capital). As such, we had DingBat (my lead), myself, and an older guy named Tim.
Dingbat was my lead for the Content Management side. Though, I ended up having Angel also be another lead when Grim (dingbat and my’s functional manager) assigned me to another project.
After about 6 months, it was apparent I was excelling in my role, but to assert her dominance, Dingbat called me on my personal number and yelled at me. So, I tell Grim and he assures me it would be handled.
Spoiler alert: It wasn’t. Now Grim and Dingbat have worked together for almost half a decade and had a positive relationship.
Grim came back and said, it didn’t happen. Well. Fast forward a month, Dingbat has laid off and instead taken to harassing Tim. Tim wasn’t a Software Engineer, but he was forced into being one. So, Tim had a steep learning curve. So, she questioned his intelligence multiple times.
Finally, he had enough, and we had a meeting with Dingbat and Grim to say this isn’t cool. So, Grim has to accept that Dingbat isn’t actually the person they portray.
Well, things simmer down and Dingbat actually gets to be moderately okay to work with. Meanwhile, my project with Angel ramps up, and I have less time to devote to Dingbat’s project. Well, Dingbat forced me to do her project like I had nothing else going and assigned me an asinine amount of tickets.
Angel can’t actually devote much time to the one we have because she’s the lone engineer on another. In total, I have Dingbat’s project, and Angel’s project. So, I sit down with Grim and explain I have worked 80 hour weeks for a month.
Grim… Takes me off Dingbat’s project temporarily. He tells Dingbat she can only give me a handful of non-taxing tickets. Dingbat is mad but complies.
At the yearly end where our leads report to our managers, Angel basically gives me a glowing recommendation to get promoted.
I created a solution that would indicate the KEY JSON values are intact for all models. Basically, if these screw up, the entire functionality is broken. So, the user wouldn’t be able to send data to the server as fields would need to be changed in the code.
In total, this was a 2-month effort taking about 80 hours a week on its own. Dingbat… Calls me incompetent and says I have demonstrated a bad attitude. Mostly, Dingbat always had negative comments, so after a while, yeah you get annoyed.
So, Dingbat’s heavy criticism blocked the promotion that I was promised would come by Grim. Angel lobbied hard every meeting she could insert it to make it clear to Grim that I worked hard, had a good attitude, and deserved an upgrade.
In the end though, Grim and Dingbat were closer friends or whatever.
Fast forward three months, I’m back on Dingbat’s project. While I was away, she harassed Tim multiple times every day. She has nitpicked and criticized me at least twice literally every day since the new year when I was put back on the project. So, I told Dingbat in a chat that how she acted was completely disrespectful to Tim and me.
She didn’t do something she was supposed to do, so I didn’t know I needed to do a few tickets. Well, she added Grim the next day to the chat. Grim sets up a meeting and I outline what Dingbat has been doing since starting.
Grim: I think you have been really disgruntled since being taken off Angel’s project, and you’re taking it out on Dingbat.
Me: NO.
Dingbat is harassing me every day as a verbal punching bag, has called me twice and cursed at me, and created an overall hostile work environment. None of this is new.
Grim: You need to really see how others perceive you. This attitude comes off as negative.
So, Grim gets his Boss ‘Cherry’. Cherry and Grim put me on a performance plan. In this plan, I have to create a survey targeting the issues outlined in this plan and I have to find a new area to work under within 6 months.
In that meeting, they say:
‘You should really evaluate how you are seen by our team and decide if you wish to remain at this company, and follow this PIP to a T. ONE TOE OUT OF PLACE AND YOU’RE GONE.’
I said, ‘I didn’t even think that was really that inappropriate. She brought it to that point anyway. If you look, I gave pretty clear indications not to bring it to that level, but she pressed the issue.’
Them: ‘I guess this is an exercise in learning how to speak to others and watch our words.’
Strike 1: So, Grim REALLY harps on my forced survey.
They are targeting as guiding that response. So, I just let Grim write it for me. Basically, every survey comes back:
‘OP has a really great attitude, is a pleasure to work with, and is never negative at all. They focus on the issue and find a resolution.’
Strike 2: Grim and Dingbat pretty much just assume I’m going to be there until the plan is up. They don’t talk about my replacement.
Meanwhile, I approach the Manager of another team we work closely with on Dingbat’s team, and he did not have anything. Yet, another team did. Within 2 months, he set me up for an interview with this team. However, my POSITIVE reputation preceded me. So, I was given the job. I had to put in a notice on my old position with the same company (again weird corporate HR rules).
Up to this point, Grim just ignored my emails about a possible transition. Passes off that I would get another position. Basically, not planning on me leaving for a few months.
In my notice period, I had no new tickets. Though, I set up a system Dingbat claimed she wanted. Well, Dingbat gets all up in arms and I just use the Webex quote feature for her own words.
I said ‘I’m following the schematics you laid out. You said you wanted to press only a single button. You don’t even have to press it if you don’t want.’
Dingbat: I DON’T CARE. IT’S. NOT. USEFUL.
Grim: Dingbat, why are you fighting this? It’s very helpful.
Dingbat: FINE. I’ll look at it. OP HAS JUST NEVER MADE ANYTHING USEFUL FOR US. They aren’t even technical.
My new job is actually way more technical than she has ever had to be.
Grim: Just try it. OP. Book the meeting.
Dingbat: IT HAS TO BE A WEDNESDAY BECAUSE IM SOOOO BUSY.
Me: Sends it out for Wednesday.
Later on:
Grim: Can you do it later or earlier? I have 3 hours of meetings already and this is my only slot of a break.
Me: Nope. Sorry, Dingbat insisted Wednesday and this is the only time I have until I leave.
Grim: Oh. Okay.
Cherry hears about it and is ANGRY.
Though, she can’t touch me. I’m on my notice and I’ve only done what I was asked.
And it went like that for the next two weeks.
On the way out, my incoming manager was like, ‘why are you wearing so nice clothes into the office?’
Me: (Tells the truth) ‘I was told to by Grim whenever we came back. I was told slacks and a solid pilot with a tie.’
Grim: (A week ago) ‘Why did I get asked by HR why I was forcing you to wear business casual?’
Me: You said that to ANY OFFICE I wear that.
I know by their tone, he meant it as a guideline but I followed it to a T.
Grim: I GOT REPRIMANDED FOR IT.
Me: ‘I guess this is an exercise in learning how to speak to others and watch our words.’
Grim: No comment
Strike 3: I told Tim on my way out that the way Dingbat is running the show is unsustainable. So, with my absence entirely, he’ll be expected to learn more.
Keep in mind, Tim is a Senior Citizen. So, none of this is ideal. I hear the anguish in his voice. I told him to see and apply around to another team at the company. Well, that weekend, Tim’s wife dies. May she rest in peace. Well, on his way out, Tim mentioned my comments and his wife passing as a reason that Tim has decided to retire.
Now, Dingbat has Zero help, has a system that basically does Tim’s job she was expecting him to use, and has to work on two other systems for her migration project alone while she waits 2-3 months for the whole corporate bureaucracy to replace us both.
Meanwhile, I have a front-row seat to see Dingbat’s incompetence come back to bite her in the butt.
MC revenge is sweet.”
6. Men Getting Harassed By Women, It Happens
“I’m an autistic person, mildly, I’d have to add, since I’ve always had a job and managed to keep them for as long as I enjoyed them, and never had a hard time finding a new job. I can get along with most people, the only difficulty for me is judging other people’s emotions when they are subtle and not blatantly obvious. I never got the hang of recognizing the body language associated with subtle emotions.
I do however compensate for that by being calm, collected, and friendly. Which in most cases suffices. Also, I’m a bit overweight, due to my meds (that I no longer need now, but still relevant for the story), not massively, mind you, but I’m not one of those walking needles. I have a bit of a ‘man bump’, but you only notice it when I sit down.
Due to my overall length (198cm / 6″4), it’s hardly noticeable especially if I have the shop overcoat on.
It was in the late ’90s and I had switched my Saturday job in the local supermarket into a full-time contract for the summer. And since I recently turned 18 I was offered a contract which I took. The pay wasn’t that bad and the job wasn’t that exhausting.
The supermarket I worked for was a big one, not as big as some of those in the USA or France, but for my country, it was one of the largest. My job was to stock and manage the separate liquor shop and ring up customers their booze as well as shifts stocking in the main store and the occasional shift at the registers. I liked doing the liquor shop as it was small, I knew most of the regulars and felt respected since I knew a lot about the drinks we sold.
Even our regulars sought me out for advice on the occasional gift to someone else and came back to me telling me I had ‘nailed it’ with the gift suggestions. Admittedly I didn’t get it 100% right all of the time, since I didn’t know the people they bought presents for, but by asking the right questions, you usually get a good idea about likes and dislikes.
I want to clarify that I’m not substance-dependent by any stretch of the imagination, far from it, I do like an occasional drink on the weekend and I rarely consume more than one. However, over the years that I had worked there (4 years), I did manage to taste most of the liquors and distilled goods if bottles got returned (either opened or unopened) for whatever reason or if a distiller or distributor did a demo in our department.
All in all, it was not a bad job for an 18-year-old.
In order to get from our department to the breakroom, there were 3 routes I could take, however, all routes passed by the meat department and they recently hired some new girl, let’s call her Lindsay. In the beginning, Lindsay was nice to me, but my calm, collected and friendly demeanor apparently ticked her off to no end when that wasn’t the emotional response she’d expected to her stories.
Years later I heard she may have had a crush on me, but since I already had a significant other I wasn’t very receptive to her, well, her way of asking for my attention.
Back to the story.
One day I was on my break, unbuttoned my shop overcoat (a sign in my country someone is on their break/indisposed), and headed for the breakroom. As usual, I stopped to chat with some colleagues on the way, said my ‘hellos’ as the store was so big you could easily not see each other all day.
It was a good 5 minutes walk to the breakroom, and since earbuds with music weren’t as common yet, greeting my colleagues along the way was a welcome distraction. As I reached the meat department, Lindsay was already cleaning off the meat slicers and as soon as I rounded the corner, she started to chat. When I said ‘hi’, as I usually did, she started to chat me up as she tried to grab my attention.
Mind you that as I’ve said before, I wasn’t open to her advances by any means. I barely even knew her. As soon as I made myself clear in a calm and friendly tone that I was going on my break and that I was in serious need of some coffee, she started to insult me.
‘Sure, go on your coffee, fatso.’
Again, I’m not fat by any means, but I’m not slender either.
I’m somewhere in between; 6″4 (198cm) tall and about 90Kg (~14 stone / ~180 pounds). On the way back from my break I got similar insults from her, and ever since that day, she slowly ramped up the severity of the insults. I have thick skin and I don’t really care what others think of me, only those opinions of people who matter to me. And needless to say, she didn’t fall into that category.
It went from ‘fat jokes’, which clearly didn’t have the desired effect, to jokes about my ‘manliness’. Since I’m a man, I should love a small, blonde, blue-eyed girl, right? In her jokes, she was always the perfect little girl, and I was the big, impotent(?), brute. It got to the point that she even started to call me ‘bundle of sticks’ or ‘happy/jolly’ (gay) since I didn’t adhere to the stereotypical man of drooling over her physique.
I admit, she wasn’t bad looking on the outside, some might even say pretty until she opened her mouth. She cursed like a sailor and had the manners of a chimpanzee. Although I have seen chimpanzees eat with forks and knives, so I’m not sure if that would be a fair assessment regarding the chimpanzees. I heard from colleagues she was a high-school dropout, lived with her parents in some dilapidated part of town.
Some said she lived in a trailer, others said she lived in a house. All these years later, I’m not sure anymore, but it doesn’t really matter for the story. The part of town she lived in is what we call a ‘volksbuurt’ over here, basically a subsidized low-income neighborhood with more prison years on record per square mile than days of honest labor.
Since her calling names obviously didn’t work and didn’t have the desired effect, she approached with a new tactic.
When I went on break she went out of her way to synch her break with mine, even as far as to call my dept. head to find out at what time I would be on break. Over several weeks she managed to synch her break time with me several times and she would walk up to me, pinch me in the butt so that I would spill coffee or soda all over myself.
I tried as hard as I could to ignore her, but that only made it worse. But I knew that if I snapped and slapped her, my job would be on the line. As in those days, it was her word against mine, and who would, in their right mind, believe my word over hers? Me a big 6″4 bear of a guy, against a 5″4 tiny blond girl? The odds were not stacked in my favor if I were to lash out.
So I needed a plan, as this had to stop. My significant other at the time told me to report her. She was right, I figured as much, but the problem was proof.
Our breakroom had no cameras, nor had the hallway leading to the breakroom. The warehouse DID have cameras, but who in their right mind would take their break there? Well, that’s me… I knew if I took my coffee from the machine intended for the delivery drivers, and ate my sandwich there, sitting on the dock, I would be in full view of at least 2 cameras maybe 3.
She wouldn’t dare pull her stunts there, would she? What can I say, I already said she was blond. I could now also add ‘not too bright’ to the list of her character flaws. My plan worked; Either I could eat my lunch in peace there, or I would have enough proof to get a formal complaint into Management and HR.
By the end of the week, I had not one, not two, but three incidents caught on camera.
And since my department had the safe with the camera-recording equipment, I only needed the cooperation of my department head to exact my revenge. Since my dept. head knew all about my ‘handicap’ and we could get along very well on the job, it only took me 5 minutes to convince her to save the tapes from the days I had my ‘encounters’. And it took us another 10 minutes to isolate, copy and store the incidents on a separate VHS tape (It was the 90’s, don’t judge us).
She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the footage. She admitted that she thought only men could do such things. She apologized profusely for not noticing anything when she was on camera duty. I told her not to worry as it wasn’t her fault. We also made some print-outs, just to be sure, of the incidents with ‘enhanced’ images of her grabbing me and me spilling coffee all over her since she physically never had gone ‘below the belt’ so to speak.
Since I’m a nice guy when I want to be, part of my revenge plan was to get her to stop. I knew she wouldn’t or only say she would, but that was all I needed. If she had done that, I would not report her to management and/or HR, only if she ever did it again.
But would it have been a serious revenge if she accepted that? Right…
We called her to the office of my dept. head and she asked her if it was true what I was saying. Lindsay, of course, completely denied everything, and turned it around on me or at least, attempted to. Well, would you look at that, a Karen in training? And she chose me as her ‘willing’ victim. After all, what ‘man’ doesn’t like to get the attention of a sweet, small, blue-eyed, blond girl? She said that I touched her several times and that I always took my break when I knew she had a break and that I grabbed her all the time, etc.
and that she merely reciprocated. My dept. head was not impressed, and grabbed the VHS and loaded it into the playback machine, and showed her the compilation. She went from white to red and back to white so fast, she would have given a cuttlefish a run for its money. She started looking skittishly around her to see where she could hide or run as we kind of put her on the spot there.
She asked her, kindly but stern, if she was sticking to her story or if she was willing to revise her story at that point.
All the time I really had to keep from snickering while I was standing near the door to prevent her from fleeing. A procedure we also do with shoplifters, but that’s for another story, someday. She started to tear up and told my dept.
head, that she was sorry and that these videos were out of context. Even though it showed me arriving, then her, her leaving, and then me. So in no way could I have instigated these incidents whatsoever. My department head turned to me, ‘(OP), what do you think we should do?’ My response was as calm and collected, ‘I’d like to send this tape with many complaints to the Manager, and have him judge this video, as it is obvious she isn’t going to admit.’ Lindsay immediately turned around and as if there were no tears present said something to the effect of, ‘They will never believe you, I’m a sweet girl, and I’ve never done anything wrong.
You’re a guy so you are to blame’. My Dept. head looked at me and said, ‘You may go now, I’ll have a chat with this young lady here’. I knew exactly what this meant and as soon as I closed the door I heard my department head rip into her. I could not hear the exact conversations, but bits and snippets were clear to hear.
‘What sick game are you playing?’, ‘What fool do you take me for?’ and ‘What is your problem with (OP)?’ were some of the sentences I heard together with some loud wails as Lindsay had finally broken down.
The next day at work I was called into the manager’s office for a statement. Again I had to explain and relive the past 3 months she made my workplace despicable for me, up to the point I couldn’t even take a break in the breakroom anymore.
I was ambushed, grabbed, harassed, verbally assaulted as well as inappropriately harassed both verbally as physically. The manager sat there stunned as I broke down, I told him I kept myself together as not to give her more fuel to feed the flames, but that it had come to the point where I would hand in my resignation if nothing was done. He couldn’t believe what he saw on the video and called the regional manager and after a short phone call, I was told to wait outside in the breakroom.
When he saw the look on my face he told me that I didn’t need to worry, as Lindsay was not there, he checked that himself. He was right and for the first time in over a month, I could drink a coffee in reasonable comfort without having to sit on the bay of the cargo dock. I could hear the manager announce the PA system, and called for the dept.
head of Lindsay and my own Dept. Head to come to the office. Until now, her Dept. head was blissfully unaware of Lindsay’s actions. As my dept. head didn’t want to play their hands and tip people off that things were going down. Her dept. head was known to gossip, and that is something that could seriously damage our plan and case. After I heard them all enter the Manager’s office, Lindsay was called into the office.
Again, I heard muffled screams, shouting, and wails of crying as she kept up the innocent ‘act’. Not 10 minutes later I heard a door slam so hard, the blinds between the breakroom and the manager’s office fell. I will never forget the view, I looked straight at 3 shocked managers sitting there with a stare of disbelief watching the door that barely hung in its doorway.
The force of it being slammed was great enough to shear one of the hinges completely off the top part of the door, leaving a sizeable gap at the top as it only hung by the bottom hinge. The store manager came out and told me that she had just been fired for harassment and that they were also going to report her to the police and sue her for criminal damages she just did in the office.
Apparently, she broke the VCR and TV by throwing a chair at it before leaving the room with such violence the Venetian blinds fell and the door sheared off one of the hinges. The company was good to me and I remained there for another 3-4 years before I looked for a job in my own field. After all, it paid reasonably well and I could afford to live and study at the same time. Since my town was not one of the biggest in our country, I did come across her once, and she still, to this day (20+ years later), blames ME for having her fired.
I have no regrets.”
5. My Man Organized A Sting Operation
“Fernando (Fake name) (23) is my significant other. He has a sister, Luisa (Fake Name) (26), who lives in Bogota, Colombia. Luisa and her baby girl live in quite an impoverished part of town, about 2 hours with public transport from the city center.
Recently, Luisa and the father of her child decided to buy a plot of land, with the hope of eventually building a house for themselves.
They talked to this estate agent and paid him almost all of their savings… in cash. (Fernando told me it’s not uncommon for more impoverished people in Colombia not to use banks or have bank accounts).
After they paid him, the guy stopped replying to their calls or messages and started ghosting them. Because of this, they started digging into him and discovered that this guy has loads of fake profiles on social media and lots of properties and plots of land that he’s claiming are his to sell.
They felt hopeless after discovering this; it dawned on them that they lost all their savings. This was their hope at a fresh start. Hearing this, Fernando told her that he’d help them out.
He took an old unused social media profile he had and changed the name on it. By replacing his profile picture, he made himself look like a wealthy man (profile picture in front of a pool, a big house, and fancy cars in the background).
He also bought a new SIM card and got in touch with this guy. He pretended to be interested in purchasing a property, and they agreed to meet.
(Fernando told me the guy was quite trusting and naive himself, buying all of Fernando’s stories about his wealth and his desire to buy a house). They agreed on a property Fernando was to put a deposit on, and so Fernando asked for his bank account to make the transaction.
The guy was like: I’m having troubles with the bank, I’d much rather we do this with cash. So, Fernando told him he could only give him a few thousand through cash, and not the full amount.
They had agreed to meet yesterday in front of his ‘letting agency’.
Instead, Fernando called the police. He arranged that they’d be nearby with his sister and her partner.
Just in case, Fernando put some heavy branches in his backpack, giving the illusion that it had a lot of cash inside.
On the day, Fernando told the guy: ‘I’m here, but I can’t see you, send me your live location.’ So the other guy did, which Fernando forwarded to his sister, who was with the police at that time. As the guy was talking to Fernando on the phone, the police and his sister could hear his every word.
Fernando finally met the conman outside the agency, who was nervously looking around to make sure they were alone.
It was at that moment that the police jumped in and caught him.
They discover nine fake IDs on him, as well as hundreds of pages of counterfeit property ownership, similar to the ones that Fernando’s sister Luisa was given. As they were arresting him, he tried to plead and even attempted to bribe the police – who luckily wasn’t having any of it.
We don’t know yet if this story will have a happy ending.
Luisa does not have a whole lot of evidence regarding the cash transaction and is unlikely to get the cash back through the court system.
I’m proud beyond words of my significant other basically organizing a sting operation, but it breaks my heart that Luisa and her daughter have been conned off of a fresh start. So half vengeance.”
4. Ruin a Company? Then Ruin Your Life
“I worked hourly at this franchised company maybe 6 or so years ago and had been working there for 4 years. The first 3 years were fine, had some good people and the annoying ones were easy to ignore. But then a lot of people retired or left and the new people hired were much harder to ignore. It became a place that reminded me of one big high school clique because everyone acted like a spoiled rotten popular kid aside from some of the ‘veterans’ of that branch.
But these people were in their 30s-50s acting like children and took any opportunity to brush off work. They’d go on nightly drinking sprees, and because the higher members of the branch were in the clique, work would end early. And if you are hourly, when work closes, you don’t get that cash. You get a lesser paycheck than anyone else, who were all salary. It also doesn’t help the wound that none of us were ever invited to join in these parties.
The worst of those higher members were in positions they really had no business being in, and I’ll be focusing on two of them. We will call them Small and Bighead. You will see why. They were what made the place specifically hard to stay at for my department (if we weren’t in need of the cash) as a lot of the extra work that they couldn’t figure out was shoved on me and my colleagues, also hourly.
I’ll start with Small. Small was the sort of guy that was clearly self-conscious of how short he was, and so he wore big clothes. The big clothes made him look smaller, honestly. If you can’t fit into triple-X clothing, don’t wear it. But he did, and it made him look like he had parachute pants.
Small also had another complex going. He was divorced, and really had a liking for stupid younger women.
He was always bringing in new interviewees, and they were always girls ten years or so younger than him. And they were always hired. If you were a stupid woman ten years younger than Small and only worked in fast food your whole life, you’d earn yourself a 65k salary job with him as long as he thought you were pretty.
The worst of them were women I’ll call Anime and Hilda.
Hilda had more experience under her belt than Anime (granted, Anime didn’t have any at all) but she was a total witch and was actually banned from one of her positions because our customers hated her. She thought she was motherly or something, petting me when she had the chance. I stayed far away from her. Far, far away.
Meanwhile, Anime was a woman that acted like she was 4 years old.
She skipped around our tiny office building, barely ever did real work and got raises anyway, and would cry and pout around if Small wasn’t available for her to talk to. Because she never worked a job like hers in her whole life, Small had to do everything for her. I highly doubt she even did any work for herself. She was simply hired because she made Small…
Feel less small.
Well, Small was eventually let go because the company changed hands and the new owners didn’t like him. That eventually lead to Hilda quitting, though she really should’ve been fired. Anime, on the other hand, stayed. But she latched on to someone else; Bighead.
Bighead was this kind of guy that just expected things to sort of fall into his lap. He was one of the big-shots at work and had a position that he really didn’t deserve.
If he needed something fixed, he would never do it himself. But Bighead was a family man. He had a wife, a young child, and a new baby. While I didn’t care for him, I at least respected that he had a nice family. His kids would come to visit him at work once in a while, and they were the cutest things.
Without Small, Anime was lost but obviously didn’t leave because she wanted to keep those raises that he had gifted her.
So, Bighead was the one to start covering for her and do all her work for her, be the subject of her pouting fits, etc.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, at one of the drinking hours… Anime got super wasted and started boasting, really loudly, that she was in bed with Bighead and that she was going to ‘ride her way to the top’. She started showing everyone else from the company with her the inappropriate texting between her and Bighead, pictures included.
Do you know how if you see an accident happen you just can’t look away? Well, after that whole thing, management received several reports about her… Announcement. To make it even more hilarious, when Anime was brought in to have a talk, she stormed out of the meeting room screaming at the top of her lungs ‘I NEVER SLEPT WITH BIGHEAD’ so the WHOLE building knew what was going on.
That was the only reason I knew because with an outburst like that of course the gossipers are going to circle the word around.
Well, yeah. She was sleeping with Bighead. They were inappropriately texting on the company phones, so management was able to see the evidence for themselves, even IF they decided not to believe the 10 people who came forward.
Needless to say, she and Bighead were fired. And I have no idea if Bighead’s family even knows. It’s not really my problem, anyway. I left the place after that because it was not worth it.”
3. That Time The Bully Got Bitten In The Butt
“I (F, 33 at the time) once had a run-in with a blatant bully. My family owns a business. We come from a lower-middle-class neighborhood and kept close contact after we moved.
Jane (F 93, was in her 70s at the time) was our old neighborhood friend. She was an office worker all her life. She was one of the ‘forever’ dwellers in our neighborhood. I had a specially close bond with her.
Not anymore.
Jane worked 40 years at a factory, then got a job at another manufacturing company (after retirement). She got laid off, so she found a job at a dentist’s office. Dr. Jake owned three dental offices, so he depended on his employees to keep things running while he wasn’t around. Jane worked for him for about 5 years.
Jane and the other workers (all females) formed some sort of a clique.
They loved her because she was their elderly pal. I would visit Jane on some Saturday afternoons, bring pizza or lasagna and enjoy how the day ended in my old stomping grounds just like in the good old days. I left my old neighborhood when I was 16, but I still cherish it. She always talked about her work friends, and sometimes they picked her up for an outing or they would carpool to the supermarket.
There was this friend, in particular, Nancy (F60s). She was the one who seemed most friendly with Jane. I’d like to add that I NEVER, EVER had a conversation with any of these women, much less any type of a fight.
As their relationship progressed, Jane volunteered a lot of info about Nancy’s life. She was more or less a lonely female who loved to gossip and was involved in a relationship with a married man (Ed, M now maybe 43) whose wife worked as a receptionist about 3 minutes away from the dental practice.
Jane said Nancy was ‘crazy’ because she liked to stalk her lover’s wife and gave him cash often (help with a loan monthly payment, help pay for his car, buy him food so that he would come to visit, give him one hundred here, 80 bucks there, etc.).
Their friend group was tight, so much that Jane would call them to clock her in. They would do this for each other all the time.
My friend who also knew Jane kept telling me the office always seemed empty, except for the days when the doctor showed up.
Jane suddenly lost her job. My mom took her in when our secretary got sick. My mom kept Jane in even after our secretary came back and for years, it was all good. Jane maintained the friendship with Nancy and ‘the girls’. Because we worked closely, I heard Jane tell lots of gossip about Nancy’s private life.
This seemed odd. Also, she had fits whenever Nancy called her. She would say: ‘omg, again? so needy’. This usually took place (Nancy’s insistent calling on lunch breaks) whenever she heard something about Ed’s married life. She was devastated to learn his wife was pregnant again, or that he bought the wife a new car, etc. For those wondering, I grew up with Jane having a place in my life, just like an Aunt.
Jane would usually wait on the sidewalk because Nancy would come to pick her up after work so that they could eat dinner together after work. So, basically, I was very loyal and very die-hard. Nancy would sometimes wave goodbye at us, but nothing more.
There were rumors that the dental office may close down. No lie. Patients must have been switching doctors because office hours were erratic.
The remaining days when the doctor was not in were supposed to be used for scheduling, which wasn’t happening. Jane said, ‘she never indulged in this, just saw them do it’.
Jane’s job was simple. Never had anything to do with cash. She was with us most of the time on the computer. Simple as that.
Beatrice, our secretary, came to me one day and said she had something to share.
She was very worried because of Jane’s closeness to our family. Beatrice said she had caught Jane persistently going to our cash box and counting the cash. When Jane saw her, she said she had permission to guard the petty cash. Until then, we never had any reason to distrust Jane. Beatrice said she was coming forward because she was scared something might happen and wanted to make sure her name was clear.
We were shocked and baffled. It seemed ridiculous, but we still changed the box location. Again, it happened. We set up cameras and caught her ‘counting the cash’ about twice a day. She was caught taking bills, crushing them in her fist, and stashing them in her chest on three occasions during the same week. We never paid attention because our business is based mostly on electronic transactions, so the cash is left for buying stuff and other small purchases.
So, in a week, she took about 350.00. This is the price you pay for not having control over each dime. We just left our petty cash lie in a box. We will never know how much she took.
We confronted her with the video. She got mad at us and left the job. Obviously, she told everyone her own version. My mother and I were so astonished it took us months to assimilate.
I’m talking about a woman who was invited to 500% of family events and was handsomely paid at work.
We moved on as usual. Some old neighbors would occasionally tell us that Jane complained she was fired for no reason. Beatrice was yelled at at the mall by one of Jane’s friends because ‘she was the thief but had Jane scapegoated.’
About 3 years later, my mom went to eat at a seafood restaurant.
She’s very hardworking and never takes ‘me time’. She went to eat but told me she ran into Nancy who was sitting nearby with some other women. Jane wasn’t there. So Nancy bullied my mom, who was sitting by herself. She cracked jokes, wouldn’t stop walking by her table and saying things under her breath. Nancy clicked ‘mean girl’ mode and cracked jokes. Then, they stood up kind of surrounding her.
My mom was intimidated so she just paid and left. Mom said Nacy yelled something like ‘hey, can’t take the heat?’ Mom tried to conceal her feelings but I know she was hurt. Nobody should have to go through this. I was annoyed but mom begged me to leave it at that. Okay.
I was paying for my stuff at a local mom-and-pop’s pharmacy I visit quite often.
The pharmacy is on the same street as Nancy’s job, our business is pretty close to everything. For this reason, it’s like the first choice to buy anything. So I was there on a Sunday morning, which I really like because the street is empty. I was talking to a friend on my earphones. I’m first in line, already paying, but I heard strange sounds from the line.
Because this isn’t a Walgreen or big-box retailer, the pay line is kind of less organized. I keep hearing laughter and a loud voice from the line, and the cashier begins to look uncomfortable. Because I’m on my headphones I’m not 100% aware of what whoever is talking is saying. The cashier keeps looking at someone in the line and the lady two spaces away from me says ‘we don’t need that.’ I saw Nancy pointing at me.
Honestly, I was confused at first. So I tell my friend on the phone to hold on.
Nancy is laughing at me, pointing at me. She’s telling everyone ‘look, she’s crazy, talking to herself’. She knows damn right about the existence of earphones. She tries to rally the people on the line by cracking jokes and calling me a ‘dumb witch’. I took off my earphones. I was so angry my arm was tingling.
I told Nancy I wasn’t gonna do anything inside the pharmacy because I respect that place, but I know who she is and I’ll wait for her outside. Her face changed. I gave her the option to repeat and tell me to my face the whole thing she said/did to my mom since she feels so superior that she’s messing with me. Nancy got quiet immediately.
I got my things and told her I would be outside. I waited outside and the witch never came out. So I hopped in my car. Five minutes later, she comes out. I think she thought I left. So I drove my car really slow next to her and told her to tell me what she said. She kept walking. I yelled at her from my car, that she better open her mouth and talk.
She didn’t.
Nancy went into a bakery nearby. She took a street (on foot) that had no entrance for me. No problem. I took the next entrance and parked at the bakery. I stood next to her and told her off. Then ordered some takeout food. I warned her that if she ever saw my mom or anyone in my family, she better cross the street. Oh, and please call your friend in my old neighborhood who put you up to this to see if she can come to help you now.
Nancy just kept her head tilted to the side. I left. I called Nancy’s partner’s wife and told her. I gave her all of Nancy’s details and how to get to her house based on Jane’s constant gossip. Basically, Nancy lived about three blocks away from her job, in front of an Adventist church. I told her Nancy’s car information. I didn’t call as a snitch, I called saying I was Nancy who suffered from rightful indignation.
The woman hung up on me but took my next call again.
I called the dentist at his other office. I said I was an inspector to get him to come personally on the phone. Once he did, I told him everything I knew but never gave my name. I called him lazy and incompetent to keep an office and hung up.
I do know for a fact that the dentist fired everyone because he closed the office down.
My friend who worked nearby said Nancy would stop by now and then but he avoided her because she was needy and he didn’t want her to latch on to him. She told him her significant other dumped her for ‘calling his wife’ and said she was obsessive and irrational. I don’t know much else. I never disclosed my involvement.
I saw Nancy at the same pharmacy somewhere around 2015 (more or less 10 years later). She’s extremely thin and bent over. She didn’t even see me and I just kept walking. I do see Jane maybe now and then at the farmer’s market but I don’t talk to her. We just act like we don’t know each other.”
2. Use Me To Lie? Get Disowned And Suspended
“This happened a little while ago and I recently got in contact with Face’s sister who filled in some blanks on the times I wasn’t around for.
About 5 years before D-Day I met Face. A beautiful, highly intelligent girl who I developed a huge crush on. We shared an art class and she sat behind me and a different friend Little Mermaid (who isn’t that relevant to the story) sat next to me.
The day she found out who I was, happened to be one of my bad days. I was talking to Little Mermaid about my bad day and Face laughed and called me stupid for being so emotional. Me being a hot-tempered teenager instantly turned around and yelled at her to ‘shut up and mind your own!’ She didn’t take too kindly to that and yelled right back and we both got sent to the dean’s office.
I got sent first because I yelled first. The dean pulls me into his office, I get told to stop being an idiot and apologize next time I see her and I’m sent on my merry way. Slap on the wrist, nothing major.
A week later I man up and apologize to Face for snapping at her and ask her if there’s some way I can make it up to her (side note: I love drawing on the side and was learning animated/manga style art).
She told me I could draw her a picture and if I did it well enough she would forgive me. So I did. I drew a picture of her drawing a pic of me. I gave it to her the next day and she gave me her number, from there we became fast friends. It was every day that we were either texting or on phone calls for…
actually the entire day. Telling the story of our lives and how stupid our first real interaction with each other was. We had to write a statement about what happened. She wrote an essay, I wrote the following: ‘Got sent there cuz I yelled at a girl. Oops.’ We laughed about it afterward and I met her family, went to church with her a few times and she came to mine.
She moved away and we still visited each other and video chatted as much as we could. Closest I’ve ever been with someone who wasn’t blood.
Michael is my brother. Born 10 months apart and was the closest human being to me. Close-knit, and he and I talked just as much as me and Face. When I was 5 our mother and I had to move away and Michael stayed with his dad and we lost contact for a while with an occasional phone call from his dad now and again when his dad was home for more than 10 minutes.
When he turned 11 years old he got his first phone and he called every day to talk to me and our older brother. Somedays getting yelled at because we were always using the house phone when the adults needed it. I got my own phone eventually because my mom was tired of sharing a phone with me. It was a brick of a Nokia with about 1 hour of call time before I ran out of minutes.
Still works to this day. So when I turned 12, I moved to Florida with my dad and told Michael about 5 minutes after I got off the plane. It took my dad and me roughly 45 minutes to get home and 10 minutes for my brother to show up with his dad. This is all just to give you an idea of how close we were, and how much we annoyed the adults to stay close to one another.
About one year of getting to know Face, she and Michael meet because I dragged him with me to her church the second time I went there. She got a small crush but according to her let it go because it was ‘weird’. (It’ll be important later)
To the juicy part.
Year 5. I have a significant other and have completely denied my feelings for Face because she’s 1 hour and 30 minutes away from me and I don’t have any magic ways to get to go see her except for the off occasion my oldest brother is kind enough to take me to her.
Face, at that time, was super popular at her new school, loved to dress up and show herself off every morning before school so she could impress Brad. I never liked him, but held my tongue because Face wasn’t afraid to fight me; neither was I but I knew when to pick my battles with her at least. Michael slept over at my house on weekends and I at his every other weekend.
I was deadly afraid of letting Face and Michael talk because I had a suspicion that if I did Michael would win her over and start seeing her and somehow I would lose my best friend to my brother. Now I know this seems weird as I mentioned I had a significant other and I have denied my feelings for her. The truth was I couldn’t admit that I had feelings for Face.
This is because she was so far away and we’d been friends for so long I didn’t want to spoil the friendship if things didn’t work out.
I didn’t want Michael to go out with her because I was afraid that meant he was better than me in some way. It’s weird to me now, but those were my thoughts on it. Well, one day as Michael is sleeping over at my house, he and she talk to each other over video chat because she convinced me to let her.
I thought it was a quick hi and bye because they had met before but this time was different. I just didn’t know yet. She was way more into him than she had led me to believe and they exchanged contact info and talked a lot. When I found this out I got physically sick, couldn’t sleep, or eat. I got wildly depressed and after about 3 days of being weird my significant other asks what’s wrong and I couldn’t tell her what it was.
I couldn’t admit to myself, especially not her, that I had unresolved feelings for another woman. I realized after talking with Michael that night I had feelings for Face I didn’t want to admit. I never told my significant other at the time because ultimately Michael and I concluded that trying to do anything with Face wouldn’t work. That I should focus more on the relationship I’m already in than start a new one with someone who may not even be into me that way.
Secretly he had already started going out with Face and didn’t want to tell me because I told him this. Face came to the same conclusion as Michael.
So for 2 weeks, they kept it a secret until I put 2 and 2 together. Face wasn’t talking to me as much and wouldn’t tell me why and Michael was doing the same. Funny enough always at the time.
They admitted after I yelled at both of them that they were going out. I was crushed. My brother and best friend are together. And I hated it. So I didn’t talk to them for a while. After about 1 month I finally let it go and decided they should be happy. Who better to be with my best friend than my brother. They were together for 6 months with no issues and due to a fallout with my dad I was forced to move away to my mother’s and they both came.
We cried. A lot. And I left.
One month after being in a new state, Michael and Face are having issues with each other. Face doesn’t want to talk as much to Michael who is suspicious of her. With good reason. I knew that she had been talking to Brad and going out with him to a theme park near her house. I didn’t say anything because she had told me nothing was going on and it would needlessly worry Michael.
Face later on had shared a screenshot with Michael of a conversation between me and her and he got offended by how we would speak to each other. Calling each other pet names, as well as nicknames, we made for each other over the years. We fought for a solid hour over the phone and decided we wouldn’t speak to each other. Face took this as an opportunity to separate us and I didn’t know it at the time because I was busy dealing with a different set of problems.
So Face went out with Brad all while telling me she had left Michael when he tried to control her not too long after he and I stopped talking. Even went as far as to do it over the phone with me on the call coaching her on how to not destroy Michael’s heart while still breaking up with him. I still cared for him and didn’t want him to be emotionally crippled so I tried to help her say it in a way where he wouldn’t be devastated for too long.
I mostly stayed out of the way the entire time and cried for him because I knew he was hurting. I refused to talk to him out of pride though. Which was my fault in hindsight.
Face then openly went out with Brad and lost her virginity to him and told me all about it. I didn’t agree with it because she had only recently left Michael and it was upsetting to hear how quickly she moved on.
Well, Brad two-timed her. Twice. In 2 weeks. And on the second time, she called it quits with him. For about 2 weeks. At that time tho she had gotten very intimate with me. Me having broken up with my significant other months ago due to the move and not knowing when I’d see her again, welcomed this surprise. I even let old feelings come to the surface, ready to try again and hoping that I was actually ready.
Surprise I wasn’t.
Feeling guilty, I reconnected with Michael. It took 30 seconds for him to reply to my texts asking me to call him and I did and we shared a heartfelt moment. I apologized for not putting myself in his shoes and he apologized for not remembering I’d been friends with her for years and Face and I just had a certain way of talking to each other.
He told me about him and Face having recently met up and how it was good to finally hear from me knowing Face wasn’t talking to me anymore. Me instantly being confused asked politely ‘What? What did you just say?!’ He repeated himself and I hung up the phone. He texted me confused as to what’s happening while I called Face asking her if she was seeing anyone.
She shyly tells me she’s seeing Brad again, and I laughed maniacally. She got confused and asked what I was up to while I hung up the phone and started thinking of a plan to get back at her.
This girl, who for 5 years was my best friend. Separated me from my brother for a little over 1 month. Had the audacity to use me to betray my brother and ANOTHER MAN TOO?! You have got to be joking! How could I be so bloody stupid!
What I did was simple.
Oh boy did it have a big impact on her for a while.
I called Michael up after settling down from a violent rage fit. Asking him how long he’s been with Face. He told me about how she broke up with him for a few days and they got back together. I asked how long ago did it happen when we stopped talking?
He asked, ‘What does this have to do with—‘
‘Michael.
You’re my brother. We grew up in the same crib. I want you to know I would never have let this happen if I had known.’ I start sobbing. ‘Face.. she used me to be unfaithful to you…’
‘…..what…?’ Almost a break in his voice, scared and confused
‘She’s been two-timing you and has been using me and someone else to do it,’ I said holding back my tears.
In the coldest voice, I’d ever heard come out of him. ‘What?’
‘His name is Brad.’ He hangs up the phone.
Phase one. Complete.
I clean up my face. Breathe and ready for the next steps. I called her mother and father on the phone and asked if I could have a moment of their time. Meanwhile, their daughter Face is in her room furiously texting Michael and declining his calls asking what he’s talking about and who told him.
Also texting me if I started talking to Michael recently. I of course don’t respond. I tell her parents only what they needed to know. Their daughter was out sleeping with other guys, sending pictures, passionately hugging in their house, backyard, cars, and occasionally at school. The school part was a lie, but school was important to her and I wanted to burn her house to the ground but since that’s not legal I’ll do something a little fewer hands-on.
They thanked me and asked if I was okay. I broke down and cried and explained what she did to Michael and me. We talked for 10 more minutes and they gave me words of encouragement and told me they would handle their daughter. They also offered to be there for me if I ever needed anything. Quickly her parents descended on her like the wrath of God.
They took her phone, her car privileges, and computer privileges and told her she would be getting signed up for home school and to prepare herself because the only reason she’d have any tech is to do school work and check the time. This was only after Michael had savagely cursed her out and exposed her to all of her friends who thought highly of her.
They were all disgusted with her. Most stopped being her friend, others didn’t care because they didn’t know Michael that well. Michael had visited Face several times and met every one of her friends in her new city, even Brad.
Phase 2. Complete.
That Monday morning. Guess who called the school before her parents did. Me. Told them all about Face’s extracurricular activities. They thought it was about as funny as airplane food jokes and called her parents for a meeting at which the parents were happy to agree.
They however had set the appointment for the next day. Which gave her friends enough time to talk about Michael and all she had done for him. That got to Brad who went and broke up with her very publicly. Even though he two-timed more than her. Nonetheless, she was humiliated. Someone had told a teacher who told the principal that Face had been sending photos and sleeping around.
This is a hard no at her catholic school. This was talked about in the meeting with her parents the next day and the principal agreed to let them pull her daughter out of the school without putting an expulsion on her record. She had perfect attendance and was an A’s and B’s type of girl.
Phase 3. Complete.
She texted me and asked me why. Cursing me out and telling me how much she wished she’d never met me and how I should die alone.
In between all of this. I said this.
‘You taught me how to hate.’
I blocked her on everything and Michael and I reconnected, but to this day he never looks at me the same. We no longer talk every day. Would be hard-pressed to get more than 10 minutes on the phone with him once every 2 months or so. Ultimately I felt the most lonely I’d ever been.
I’d lost both of the closest people in my life to this stupid girl who I let separate me and my family. My brother.
Years later, I reconnected with her baby sister who was 10 at the time of this occurring. She filled me on what happened at the school and home and her friends. She told me it took almost 2 years for her parents to start treating her normally. ‘They were disgusted with who they had raised. Never knew their kid could do something so evil to her best friend and his brother’.
We didn’t speak again after that. Still, friends with her on social media so occasionally I’ll see photos of Face. Still the prettiest girl around.”
1. I Ruined The Bullies' Friendship
“This was a traumatic experience for me. There are holes in this story, but I will try to share as best as I can remember.
This is a story about a 15-year-old kid (me) who got bullied. Also, I live in the Netherlands.
Let’s get some context first because I also did some things which caused some people to mistrust me and also to show that I was a jerk.
A year prior, I figured I might be trans and became depressed. There was no one for me to share my feelings with at the time. I was recently betrayed by a kid I’ll call Scumbag who only put his name on a project we both worked on and claimed I didn’t do anything.
I later had a falling out with a friend who thought I was doing the same to him but was a misunderstanding.
This issue was resolved, but he still did not really trust me.
I had fairly won a handicraft competition and wanted to receive the prize. I didn’t know that the school wanted the winner to donate the prize to a charity. I still think it’s a nonsensical thing to do. I initially refused to donate but saw that classmates got angry, and I felt very guilty and donated the prize.
The story happens shortly after this.
This must have been my third school year, and I noticed a new kid in the hallway. I tried to make friends with him because I didn’t have many. We hit it off pretty well.
Now enters Scumbag who was in the same class as NewKid. Scumbag started spreading all kinds of rumors about me to NewKid, causing him to mistrust me and not be my friend anymore.
NewKid didn’t believe anything I said because of the context story #3, which Scumbag told him about.
I noticed Scumbag was trying to be one of the ‘cool kids’ but got bullied by them instead. I had a falling out with those bullies a year prior and I figured they might have instructed Scumbag to bully me.
The same day, I got approached by TeacherBob who asked if I wanted to join his team for another competition, I forgot what the prize was but I think it was a scholarship + doing the graduation speech and all that.
I refused this because I have huge stage fright, I hate attention, I was depressed and still felt guilty about what happened earlier. I felt like I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t tell TeacherBob my reasons. TeacherBob asked if I was sure and I said yes. He later asked New Kid which was fine because he was also a great student. He accepted.
NewKid told me, looked down on me, and asked if I was mad.
I said he had done well. NewKid tried to rub it in my face and I approached TeacherBob because I wanted another shot. TeacherBob in the end agreed but since he can’t simply undo his promise with NewKid, he decided to have a small competition to retrieve something. I forgot what it was, but it was needed.
I knew Scumbag had the thing we needed so I felt doomed from the start, I approached him about it but he wanted 70% of the benefits.
I refused because it was ridiculous and not worth it. He gave NewKid a much better deal and NewKid won. I simply congratulated him and gave Scumbag the finger. He then proceeds to rub it in my face every time I see him and creates more lies about me.
I tell TeacherBob about this but he does not believe me. It was 2 vs 1. TeacherBob would only believe NewKid and Scumbag because he figured I was salty about it.
(I was)
Meanwhile, NewKid but mainly Scumbag were basking in their newfound success and got a bit more popular because of what they were working on with TeacherBob. Scumbag made friends with the bullies now while still being NewKid’s ‘best friend.’ NewKid thought the Bullies were cool kids so accepted their ‘friendship.’
A week later, TeacherBob and NewKid accused me of destroying some things, I denied but Scumbag came and said he witnessed me doing it.
TeacherBob believed him and due to pressure, I said I did it. I afterward corrected myself but the damage was done. TeacherBob didn’t believe me at all.
They would cause me multiple times and I kept denying it from then on. In the end, I had no proof to show that I didn’t do it versus NewKid and Scumbag saying I did it.
I figured I always need to have an alibi from that point onwards.
I still had few friends who I was in contact with, but had asked me for some distance earlier while at school because of ‘reputation.’ I asked them if I could hang around them as much as possible to prove to everyone I didn’t do all the stuff I was accused of. They agreed because they also wanted to know for sure.
This worked, NewKid and Scumbag’s accusations became more ridiculous each time, including that I had hit him but I now had multiple people saying I didn’t do it because I was with them.
One of those friends was the one from Context #3.
Scumbag tried to ruin my friendships by spreading more lies but failed. This went on for a while and friends realized NewKid, Scumbag, and Bullies were bad people. TeacherBob obviously talks with other teachers and now they didn’t believe me, I had approached one for help because she knew me well, I still got penalized and yelled at a lot because there was no proof supporting me.
New Kid and Scumbag continue the false accusations but I made sure to have witnesses or an alibi. They once accused me of doing something, but I was talking with a teacher about homework at that time they accused me of doing things. TeacherBob only believed those two but was proven wrong by said teacher.
All of these things hit my capacity and I was very depressed.
I needed to convince TeacherBob that I was innocent. I tried to find TeacherBob alone, without NewKid and Scumbag. This took multiple tries before I got the opportunity.
I approached TeacherBob and I said I never did any of those things and that NewKid and Scumbag lied, instigated and escalated all the accusations. He didn’t believe me at first but I convinced him to follow me so I could prove it.
He just needed to stay unseen.
So I walked to the locker area, where I knew NewKid, Scumbag, and Bullies would be. This was all the way in the front, in view of everyone and the perfect position for me. I greeted them in a rude way. TeacherBob was standing next to me around the corner, unseen.
At first, they thought I was going to fight them, but I apologized for being rude.
NewKid and Scumbag immediately started hurling abuse at me, calling me afraid, a loser, a wimp, and rubbing it all in. Classmates and friends figured by now they might be lying but saw me not doing anything in retaliation.
Scumbag was the kid who instigated NewKid to bully me so I hated him the most. I saw Scumbag whisper in NewKid ear and I saw NewKid readying their fist to hit me.
It took every bit of willpower in me to not react to their provocations. I didn’t move because I was in full view of TeacherBob, while he was still unseen.
NewKid walked to me and when he was about to actually throw a punch, he saw TeacherBob and his face went white. Scumbag was still standing at the lockers with Bullies yelling at NewKid to hit me and beat me up.
NewKid yelled that I set them up.
TeacherBob heard everything + many witnesses and was VERY mad and kicked both of them from his team immediately, NewKid was begging for apologies and another chance, TeacherBob said I could decide. I was considering it because Scumbag instigated NewKid into doing all these things. While I was considering it I saw Scumbag have that disgusting smile as if I just gave him power again.
I immediately refused, telling Scumbag to take that disgusting smile off his face. NewKid realized what Scumbag had done, pushed him very hard, and blamed him. The bullies started laughing at Scumbag and NewKid because they got caught and because they lost everything.
I asked TeacherBob if I could get a shot but he just yelled at me and refused, I accepted the decision because I also did a few awful things in retaliation to NewKid and Scumbag.
Anyway, I had won and there was this flood of relief washing over me. I noticed later that multiple teachers were paying attention.
The aftermath: Scumbag tries to rile Bullies up against me but gets shunned and bullied instead.
NewKid actually gets depressed because he lost something he earnestly worked very hard to get. His ‘Cool Kids’ friends shun him, telling him to get lost.
NewKid comes to me for forgiveness and wanting to make things right with me.
NK had actually met a new friend during this whole period but he didn’t really know him. This new friend is a really good dude, I told NK I would never be his friend again, but that the new friend really wanted to be. I also told him to get therapy because he felt depressed.
NewKid’s new friend actually thanked me.
Scumbag still tried to ruin me but I told him to get lost, no one trusts him anymore.
I made sure that everyone knew what he did.
NewKid actually got therapy, apologized again, said that I was right about Scumbag and I forgave him. Scumbag saw this and tried to apologize (take advantage of the fact), I told him to screw off for everything he did and for still trying to do. I don’t forgive him even today.
So in short. I had won. NewKid and Scumbag’s friendship was ruined.
Everyone shunned Scumbag until graduation. I had a talk with teachers afterward, basically me just yelling at them. After that talk, Teachers would patrol the student areas more often and lock classrooms.
There is actually a bit more to this story because I did some not nice things in retaliation but I forgot as this is about 12 years ago. It was pretty traumatic, I remember feeling very isolated, lonely, and those uncomfortable eyes from everyone when they didn’t believe me. I still can’t believe that I was a pushover who let this happen to himself. Even today I will flip out when someone puts their lying words in my mouth.
A while later I found out through rumors that TeacherBob was Scumbag’s dad.”
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