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He is not alone — other fired employees are sharing how they got revenge on the companies that unfairly let them go.
By Megan Quinn — Written on Mar 22, 2023
After a man was let go from his job, he certainly was not about to let all of his hard work benefit the company in any way. In an ultimate form of revenge, he was sure to make them aware of the mistake they made by firing him, and he is not alone.
He was fired after working on a major project for the company.
The laid-off worker used his final days on the job to delete all of the work he had completed for the company so that they would have to start from scratch.
Getting laid off from a job is nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, 40% of Americans have been fired from a job in their lifetime at least once. However, they may not always seek to plot pay back on the companies who let them go and take the measures that this man took.
The employee shared his story to the subreddit thread, r/antiwork. It was later discovered by TikTok user @gabrielle_judge, and she took it upon herself to post his revenge tale in one of her own videos, in what she calls the most “insane” work story.
According to the post, the man worked for a billing office and composed programs that made it easier to keep record of clients, payment methods and records. It was extremely beneficial to the company and consumed a lot of time for him to complete. Unfortunately after finishing up the programs, the man was fired from his job. He was told to wrap up any remaining work he had for the company in two weeks before he was officially let go.
That’s when the man decided that he would get the ultimate revenge against the company and make them regret their decision. “In that time, I removed every program I’d created for them and put them back on their outdated, original program,” he wrote.
“This is insane.” Gabrielle praised the employee. “This takes a lot of confidence and a lot of ‘I-don’t-care-about-this-bridge’ energy.” She then asks her followers if they had ever done anything similar to the man after being fired from a job or if they would ever do it.
Surprisingly, many TikTok users confessed how they got their own revenge against companies that had unfairly laid them off, and they’re pretty impressive.
“My friend copyrighted the name of the company he was fired from. They had to buy it off of him,” one user revealed.
“I was fired so that they could bump my assistant up for less pay. They let me clear out of my office alone, I deleted everything,” another user revealed.
“My pastry chef got fired and took all of her recipes from the 20 years she worked at the restaurant and burned the copies. We had to start from scratch,” another user commented.
“I came up with a patient tracking system at my old hospital. When I left, I deleted the whole system and shredded all the templates,” another user added.
Those who never did anything similar praised the man for his actions and his ultimate revenge plan.
Dissatisfaction and underappreciation in the workplace is on the rise.
According to Zippia, millenials change jobs once every 2.75 years, with 21% of them reporting with switching jobs within the past year. Part of the reason is that many employees feel underappreciated by their employers, so much so that they do not see the point in treating their company respectfully when they are let go. A study conducted by daVinci found that 80% of millenial workers would become more loyal to their employer if they were appreciated more or felt eligible of recognition in the workplace.
Those negative feelings are only heightened when employees are fired from the company. Emotions including anger, embarrassment and shame cloud one's judgement, enough to impact their loyalty to any companies they've worked for.
The biggest lesson here is that if you’re going to fire a hard working employee who contributed greatly to your company, don't let them know two weeks in advance, giving them enough time to undo all of their work and leave your company stranded.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.