rSlash - r/Prorevenge Fire Me? I'LL RUIN YOUR LIFE!

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

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Our next red-opposis from Leveller Cleveller. I worked at a very big tech company for a very long time, like for decades. Over the years, I'd worked my way up from being a noob to kind of a specialist fixer. I became fairly well known internally as a security slash emergency response person. I got assigned the bad or unfixable projects, many of which made news headlines. Suffice to say, multiple senior vice presidents in various divisions got to know who I was. Because I effectively wrangled gnarly and complex problems and heard many intense technards together to resolve big things in multiple divisions over the years.

It was so much fun. At the time of this story, I was working on a small security team and a product engineering division. It was a somewhat turbulent time, and our team of eight had weathered multiple reorganizations and had so many manager changes. It was a lot, but we kept our heads down and did the work, and we all got along just fine. One of the better managers assigned to run our team immediately assigned me a huge and complicated and urgently important project to manage. It would involve people in six different divisions, head seriously big legal implications, and

our senior VP wanted it to happen by an aggressive deadline within like four to six weeks. Oh, and my manager was leaving imminently on a long planned vacation, so he apologetically would be away for the next three weeks and unable to assist. The project was to do something big and technical and which had never been done before. So no one was entirely sure how to do it, who all it would require and what steps and what order. Some of the key players had what we gently called difficult personalities. And oh, by the way, it would definitely make international news and cause a ripple in the industry. No big whoop.

My manager was a decent guy, and he felt bad about leaving me with this thorny mess, but I pulled it off. We got all the people from all the divisions in a room and hashed it out before the deadline. Actually, well before the deadline for bonus points, then we just lined up everyone to get it done. Before we pulled the actual trigger on this very big thing, I had to attend a meeting with the VP and executive leadership, and with the legal team to present the plan and to assure all the executives that we were ready and had it all handled. So I looked the VP in the eye and assured him that I had this and I did. Our team accomplished this big thing sooner than the deadline and it was flawless.

We rocked it. Just another day in the office, right? A few months after that epic project, our good manager left us for another role and someone new moved over from an unrelated division out of nowhere. We'll call him Kevin. Kevin didn't know anything about security. He didn't know anything about emergency response. He didn't know anything about what our division did.

In fact, no one on our team had ever even heard of this guy. He was the worst kind of middle manager. Self-important, dismissive of everyone, cares most about appearances in ego, micromanages stuff that he doesn't comprehend, and just makes everything worse. But, apparently, he knew the right people, and he got this job because of politics, loyalty? It certainly wasn't because of skills or experience. Ugh, that guy was the worst. One of Kevin's many weird quirks was that he didn't think that it was appropriate for our team to disagree with or correct each other in front of other people. Things in

tech, specifically product development, move pretty quickly, and things change all the time. So if someone from our team was meeting with someone from another team, and that person was like, so we decided to color the sky green and we're on schedule and someone else on our team chimed in to say, actually that's changed. We decided that the sky is now going to be blue and we pushed the deadline back two weeks. We just made that decision in an earlier meeting. Kevin would interrupt and say, we clearly need to get on the same page.

Let's in this meeting right now and reschedule when my team has all the facts straight. Um, what? That's just insane. We would literally never have meetings if we waited until everyone knew all the same information at the same time. Other teams would routinely leave meetings with us

with inaccurate information, which affected release schedules, resources, it was just a mess. Shortly after Kevin became our manager, he started being really hostile to me. Not to everyone on the team, just me. As far as I knew, I hadn't done anything or said anything to earn his hostility. Suddenly, after 20 plus years of this company, I could do nothing right, according to Kevin. While this jerk didn't actually understand most of what my job was, he was sure that I wasn't doing it right.

And he was quick to tell me so, and often in front of others. To the point that my co-workers would take me aside to ask me, WTF was going on, but I didn't know either. The thing is, I was the only woman on the team. Uh-huh, good old-fashioned sexism. And I have a disability. Double, uh-huh, good old-fashioned ableism. Now, I've been through lots of things

working in tech over the decades. It was very much an old-boys club back then. And, eh, I was fine. I'm not one to claim discrimination at the drop of a hat or for no reason. However, when I was trying to piece together the cause of this dude's hostility, some of his comments were sexist and not at all subtle. He also didn't like that due to my disability, and frankly my seniority. I was given one of the few offices with a door on it in our new building.

The rest of our team was an open floor playing cubicles, which everyone hated. Kevin was incensed that I, a lowly direct report and a woman got an office, but he didn't. But I had more seniority than everyone there, including Kevin. So even without my disability, I still would have scored the office ahead of him. Note that other men in our division got offices too, because of seniority, and that bothered him less. But I was the only woman on our floor with a door, and I was his subordinate. His ego did not like that, not one bit. He threw a fit about it repeatedly.

There were lots of other things he said. My favorite among them towards the end was him reprimanding me for my bad attitude in a meeting that we just had. Kevin had told me beforehand not to say anything during that meeting because he was insisting on sharing incorrect information and he knew that I would correct it. So I sat quietly and kept my eyes on the PowerPoint presentation or the floor nearly the whole time. When I asked him how I had a bad attitude, when I hadn't even said anything, as he requested, he said, I didn't like to look on your face. Um, okay dude. After realizing there was

nothing I could do to make this guy happy with my work and to lose his hostility, I finally went to HR to get it on record. I knew they'd do nothing about it, but I wanted to document it at least. So predictably, they told me to work harder at getting along with Kevin. And because this wasn't my first rodeo, I went back to my office and emailed HR saying, thanks for meeting with me about my concerns about Kevin. I fear that his bias and misogyny will reflect negatively in my next performance review. HR should be aware that there's a real problem here, and I hope that you'll take steps.

Which, of course, they didn't. But now, at least it was on record, then a few months later, as expected, Kevin gave me a terrible performance review. He was trying to fire me for underperformance. Unfortunately for me, the company had started a round of layoffs, and it was the worst possible time to be looking for another job internally. And now I had a bad performance review on my record too. I went back to HR and said, that thing I said that I was worried what happened when we met six months ago? Well, it happened. Exactly as I said. So now what? HR, once again, was no help. They'd done literally nothing. But hey, it was on record again, which would be helpful for the attorney later. When I realized that I couldn't score a new job at my company because of all the layoffs,

I scored a new job for much more money at a different local tech company, and pretty quickly. After that was lined up, I called an employment discrimination attorney to negotiate my exit from that company that I thought that I would work at until I retired. Sad face. Because I had documentation with HR explaining Kevin's misogyny and ableism going back for some time, and because they'd done nothing about it, and because there were witnesses who confirmed his behavior, they had no leg to stand on. They agreed to write me a relatively nice check to go away and to not sue them, and I

agreed to not talk about the details of my separation agreements. I went down to my lawyer's office and signed the agreements. Later that year, after I started my new job, I got my signed copy of the executed contract in the mail in October. Who signed it for the company? Not HR, but my executive VP. That same guy who would ask me for their urgent, highly important, legally complicated project. This was the guy that I looked in the eye, personally, and delivered his very big thing for

that he personally asked for, before the deadline that he asked for. That is who signed my separation agreement. I suspect that he had no idea that I'd been fired until he signed my separation agreement. I imagine that he likely had many questions about what happened. And also, why did they have to pay me a big chunk of money on the way out? I chuckled to myself when I saw his signature. Since the VP knew me and we had some history, and since Kevin was new to the division and was one of hundreds of middle managers he'd likely never heard of, I'm guessing Kevin We peenew me and we had some history, and since Kevin was new to the division and was

one of hundreds of middle managers he'd likely never heard of, I'm guessing Kevin had some explaining to do. Wow, I really enjoyed the thought of that. And garlic homo! Smom! Lee! And I move on up in! Your business has grown fast, from opening your first location to planning an expansion in no time. And with your business platinum card from American Express, you can access spending power and payment flexibility

to fuel your growth. Sarah, the contractor's here with the plans. American Express, don't do business without it. Terms and conditions apply as at mx.ca slash business platinum. Now, keep in mind, this area was a relatively small tech community. So, those of us who worked in security would often have run ends with other people who worked in security as well. It was a small world.

One month later, I got an in-company chat from someone who'd worked in security at my old company. We'll call our Rebecca. Rebecca asked me if I knew someone named Kevin. Um, why yes, yes I did. Why do you ask? Because Kevin was appearing on Rebecca's schedule to interview for an open management position the very next day, it would seem that shortly after my former executive VP signed my contract, Kevin was actively looking for a new job at a new company.

Hehehe. Rebecca asked me what I thought about Kevin. I said, you know, I can't really talk about it for legal reasons, which, boom, everyone knows what that means. But if you want to ring my personal cell phone later this evening to catch up on old times, please do. She did.

I hypothetically shared some stories with her about Kevin. I also told her where his hot buttons are, the appearance slash ego thing, the dominant stuff, etc. And all about his misogyny and ableism, which was perfect because she was conducting the interview. I may have shared some specific scenarios and questions to ask which I knew would set him off. I wished her luck, and for the love of all that's holy to please call me afterwards and tell me how it went.

The interview did not go well for Kevin. When Rebecca called me, I couldn't wait to hear the details. Rebecca said, well, he got combative and angry and yelled at me twice during his interview to be hired as manager. Also, at this company, there are four distinct rankings that you can get during an interview. One, strong hire for this role. Two, hire but not for this role. Three, don't hire. Four, don't hire ever, not for any role. Kevin's interview was rated as the last one, don't hire ever. Blacklisted from any job ever, and one of the biggest tech companies in the world.

After, being pushed out the door of one of the other biggest tech companies in the world. Whoops! Shortly after that, it appears that Kevin moved himself, his wife, and his kids a few states away to work at a smaller company in another region. It took less than six months from when I left my old company for him to get fired there as well. What gets me still is that Kevin thought that I was so inconsequential, so unimportant, that he didn't bother to check and see where I landed after he forced me out the company that I loved. And when he had to look for a job himself shortly thereafter,

it also never occurred to him that I'd have connections with thousands of colleagues I'd worked with over the years. Some of whom would be working at company X or Y or Z where he was interviewing. And where I'd scored a huge raise for myself. To this day, Kevin still doesn't know why his interview tanked so badly. And since Rebecca wasn't legally precluded from sharing her story, it's likely that she shared it with all of her colleagues as well. Which means he's unlikely to get a job

at any major tech company in this area, maybe ever. Definitely not a my old company or my new company. And they are big companies, among the biggest. And it's all because he's a butthole, ableist, misogynist, middle manager who undermines little OME. Wow. You see, this is this guy's problem.

He came in from another department, which means he's not the IT guy, but you are the IT guy. So normally, if he were an IT guy manager, he would be immune to the don't mess with the IT guy rule. But because he was an outsider, when he decided to mess with the IT guy manager, he would be immune to the don't mess with the IT guy rule. But because he was an outsider, when he decided to mess with the IT guy, or girl in this case, he had to suffer the consequences. Also, it's funny that you think that he doesn't know why the interview bombed?

Oh, I'm hoping. If he screamed an anger at the interviewer twice, I think he has a pretty good idea of why it tanks so badly. The better question would be, what provoked him in discreming an anger? Our next red oppose comes from Povodure. To Preface, I live in a country that employs a large foreign workforce, in pretty much every industry and in all levels. For someone to move here for work, they have to be sponsored by a company or the individual

that's employing them. I own and operate a small restaurant business here, and employ more than a handful of foreigners as servers, cleaners, kitchen staff, drivers, et cetera. So here's the story. I was lounging on my couch and joined the last of my weekend one day when I get a call telling me that one of our sponsored employees, a server, Janice, was picked up for indecent exposure.

Long story short, she was caught hooking up with a guy in a private booth at a local restaurant. Basically, the cops walked in on them while engaging some seriously heavy petting. They were fully clothed, but the guy that she was with, or was practically on top of, I should say, had his junk out. Turns out that he works at the restaurant two doors down from where she worked. After a bit of chastising and threatening to escalate the situation to have them deported, to sufficiently scare their senses back into them, they let them go. But not before signing a pledge-type document, promising to never repeat the offense. Or else. Basically, the cops gave

them a slap on the wrist and everyone got to go home, but it doesn't end there. That night, something clicked in my brain and I had a thought. How and why did the cops find these people in a private booth in the back of a restaurant before the restaurants own staff did? So I called the other restaurant the next day because I thought that maybe they called the cops on them immediately for some reason. Or maybe the couple got belligerent when the staff asked them to stop, but it turns out the staff didn't notice anything. In fact, up until that day, the cops had never been to that restaurant before, and when they did, they simply walked in, went straight to the backos where the two were, and busted right in. I realized this meant that someone must have seen them and called the cops on them point

blank. But the question was, who? I decided to speak to Janice. I also gave her the employer, you know that you did something stupid, chat, and reassure her that she was keeping her job. I also wanted to ask her who she thought called her in. Without hesitation, she said that it had to be Sammy, who was one of our drivers. I asked, why do you think it was Sammy? She said, he's the one who dropped me off at the restaurant that day. He might have seen my

friend walk in right after me and called the cops on us. I knew that the part about Sammy dropping her off was true because that was literally his job and this was her only motor free transportation. I said, wait, that sounds a bit drastic. Why would he do that even if he did see something to reports? Janice claimed that it was because Sammy was jealous. He was really into her, apparently, and kept trying to get her to sleep with him. What genuinely pissed me off was when she told me that he actually tried to force himself on her once, and she had to fight him off, and since then he hasn't tried or even said

anything since, other than to be very short and curt with her. My immediate response was, why on earth would you not tell me about this? She said that she dealt with it her way and it stopped. Plus, she didn't want anybody to get fired on her account, and she didn't want any interaction with the authorities, so she decided not to make a big deal out of it in the first place. She also declined to press formal charges against him, which I advised her to do. Her declining infuriated me even more. This guy was gonna get off scot free. Now, clearly I was about to fire Sammy, but in my mind that wasn't enough. For someone to attempt to do

that to a person and basically knock it in trouble for it, not okay with me, but it seemed like that was something that I had to live with. Obviously, my next conversation of the day was with Sammy. My intent was to confront him with the accusations. I called him into my office. I didn't really know where to start, so I went with, obviously you heard about what happened to Janice's weekend. He stepped in it right away when he said, heard about it, I called it in. And this is where it started to get super satisfying. You see, for the past couple of years, every now and then, Samy would pull out his wallet and show us all pictures of his wife who was back at home living with his mother. She was younger than him, and quite beautiful, but sadly, Baron, which is apparently why she settled with an older fart like him. He was so proud of how pretty she was.

He was also a devout religious man, or so he claimed. So I asked, and why call the cops? And he said, After I dropped her off, I waited to see who she was meeting with because she's a trouble-maker woman. When I saw the man walking after her, I called the cops because I know him and he's married, and this is against the laws of God and man. At this point, I'm smiling because I know him and he's married and this is against the laws of God and man. At this point, I'm smiling because I know that I got him. I said, why do that instead of calling your direct manager or even me and before even seeing for yourself what exactly they were doing there?

Why make it my problem and the company's problem what she does in her own time? Silence. Sammy hung his head. I said, Sammy, I know why. I know what you did. Janice just told me. I'm disgusted by you, and I'm sorry that we hired you. He had the audacity to mumble.

I only tried once, sir. I almost slapped him. Anyways, I fired him. Handed him a one-way ticket home which was four hours off and told him to GTFO. This is where I get my not-so-peddy revenge. I had his home phone number. I waited until his flight took off and dialed the number. I assumed that either his mother or his wife would answer the call, but I was hoping for his wife. I got my wish. I said, hello, Mrs. Sammy, I'm your husband's employer. Well, his former employer anyway. Just so you know, I fired him a few hours ago, and he's on a

flight home as we speak. Just so you're aware, I was forced to fire him because he attempted to R word a fellow employee half his age. I'm sorry. Then I promptly hung up, but not before hearing his wife gasp in shock. Gotta read this top comment from Mergetroid. I only tried once, sir, and that's why I'm only firing you once. That was our Slash Pro Revenge, and if you like this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day. Like this content, be sure to follow my podcast because I put out new Reddit podcast episodes every single day.