Have you ever had the opportunity to do this?
Where I used to work as a security guard, there was a woman–I’ll call her Panzy–who allegedly had an “in” with her department head so she could do pretty much as she pleased.
She was working one Saturday when I was on duty, and during off-hours, employees are of course required to sign the log when entering or leaving. This evening she didn’t sign out–and I saw her drive off the lot, about 8:50 pm. I wrote, in red ink, the time she left, where she should have entered it. She never returned, to the end of my shift, which ended at midnight.
That might have been the end of the matter, but–wouldn’t you know–the Sunday day guard phoned me and asked me to work the second half of his shift. Fine and dandy. When I got there, I noticed someone had used Liquid Paper to white-out my red-ink entry for Panzy’s time of leaving! I called the supervisor at his home. It turned out she didn’t white it out–she never came back before Monday. But when I returned Tuesday night my security supeprvisor had me look at the lobby-monitor tape. He confirmed that Panzy had left early–even though her “time card” in her department had her leaving at midnight Saturday. The department head apparently caught hell for this, and Panzy herself wound up being transferred to a day shift, much to the relief of the evening shift (and me).
Pleas post here what you did to get revenge, after a fashion, against some snotty coworker–including the intervention of blind fate that tipped the scales in your favor. 
One time I wrote the President of the company & told him the store wasn’t managed very well.
So what happened?
That was good work trying to do the right thing with your co worker, and I’m sorry that it got thwarted, but you STILL acted out the truth, and that is more important than recognition or revenge.
I had a boss many years ago that would take naps upstairs in the back of a department store where we worked. We had all been instructed to say, ‘he’s busy’ if we were ever asked. Finally MY turn came to lie, and I didn’t. I simply said he was checking ‘out furniture stock upstairs’, (this WASN’T his job) The general manager found Mr. Exhausted (who was two timing his wife and it was wearing him out, I guess) and that was probably his last nap, but I got transferred out of his section, so I don’t know for sure!
Maybe it backfired on you. 
Maybe, but if it helped that nogoodnik a little less sleep, I don’t count it as having backfired!
The sales manager of a company that I worked at always always always left work on Friday’s about 1pm and on Mondays coming in about noon or so. She said she always had meetings at travel agencies that were conveniently on her side of town. What are the odds?
I had only been at the company a few weeks and noticed this immediately and kept my mouth shut. So did my supervisor, because my boss couldn’t stand this woman and they had years of bad blood. My boss ( and I) figured eventually her poor work ethic would bury her on her own.
Finally, one day, in front of the VP of the company, as the Sales Manger was heading gleefully for the door early on a Friday for a “Sales Meeting”, again, conveniently near her house, I remarked, " How come you never have sales meetings up in Frankenmuth (way north of us) on Friday’s or Mondays?..Oh wait, I suppose you would if you were going up north for the weekend, huh?"
Boy did I get a dirty look from her.
Same woman, about a month into me working at this company, she comes into my office and drops a huge stack on my desk and asks me to do this. I barely have the ropes covered on my job and this was at least a weeks project she tries to fob off on me. My boss, who just walked into the room, plops the stuff back on the Sales Managers desk and gives her a piece of her mind. I advise my boss that once I figure out the ropes, I will be able to defend myself properly.
Not long later, the SM comes in ( always when my boss is out) and plops even a bigger stack ( like two big fat telephone books thick) on my desk, citing she needs help. I cite that I am busy ( I had my own stack of stuff, even if I wasn’t busy, I will lie. Finish your own damn work you slackers!) and that I could not get to it for at least a week or so. She tries to pull rank. I look at her and in a voice that I’m told by those that know me, basically ripped her a new one,
" You’ve got three assistants in your department. Give this to them."
“They are busy.”
" Yeah, Every time I go in there they are making personal phone calls and doing their nails. Just because you hired in incompent people does not mean I have to pick up the slack for your department."
She left in a huff ( gee, I wonder why?) and just out side the door was the VP and my boss, who came into the room grinning because of how I put her into her place. She never bothered this newbie again. This sales manager was fired shortly after I left because of the Friday/Monday thing, she was working another job.
Oh, and the time she missed several days of work because of “throwing out her back” (what in the hell does that mean, anyways?) she had a doctor’s note to back her up ( as was required by the job). This injury came just before the biggest sales thing of the year, which required ALOT of moving of things and lifting. How convenient of an injury.
My boss and I were skeptic about it. I decided to test her. I took a twenty dollar bill and dropped it near this Sales Manager while she was at the copy machine. We chatted amiably ( Even though I busted her on several occasions, we could have rollicking brainless chatter.) No one else was around ( that she could see) and after I left, she saw the twenty and bent over (something she said she couldn’t do before) to pick it up. I came around the corner and said,
" Hey, looks like your back problems were cured for twenty bucks. Oh, that’s mine, by the way."
Yeah, she had to move boxes for the Sales thing.
HAH.
My old boss is now the Sales Manager and the personal phone calls and nail filing have ceased in that department.
Thanks for the huge laugh, Shirley!!
Slight hijack–
How do I let my boss know that individuals from the daytime shift leave their post everyday to go walking (for exercise) around the grounds, to visit with friends, and to watch soap operas ON THE CLOCK while simultaneously writing in a “No Meal Break” exception on the time sheet (means they get paid the extra thirty minutes that is usually taken out) EVEN THOUGH THEY ORDERED FOOD TO BE DELIVERED AND ATE IT–without sounding like a bitch?
See, technically, it doesn’t really hurt me directly that they do these things because I don’t work alongside them. However, I get to leave the office once a night to go to the bathroom, get food and bring it back, whatever. I have to take care of any business I have in one 5 minute break per night. True, I don’t have thirty minutes taken out of my pay for lunch but hell, neither do they 90% of the time because they claim a no meal break. Also, I cannot sign off the phone to eat–I’m the only one here.
The problem comes from the fact that I can only have a 1% raise because the department is spending too much money on overtime (2 1/2 hours per week for the no meals, per 4-6 employees–it adds up) I need a way I can let my boss in on this info without it sounding like a whiney, 'They can but I can’t" tirade.
Evilbeth! Between the Save-Your-Soul Sisters and now THIS, you need a new job.
I will meditate on your dilemma and see if I can give you a vision quest.
dougie_monty, I got a letter back from him. It’s a huge company too & he said he would change things & make them better. I just wanted the store better & to keep the employees.
Shirley, the funniest/most ironic/most annoying part is that the people I was talking about above are the Save-Your-Soul Sisters!
When I was 19, I worked with a woman named Alice. She was was immediate supervisor and did nothing most of the day. She literally propped her feet on the desk and took naps. She balanced her checkbook or read magazines. Once she even brought her foster child (an infant) to work. In the meantime I worked like crazy. I did EVERYTHING while she ran errands on the clock and cooked dinner. I had so much work that my sister would come to my office a couple of times a week and help me just so I could get everything done.
One day Alice got after me for some computer problem we were having. I’d had as much as I was going to take from her and I let her have it. For the next few weeks I endured the silent treatment. It was a small office (3 in my area) and the other worker had been friends with Alice for 20 years. Conversation would stop when I entered the room. Once they even looked at me and say “Yeah, we’re talking about you.” It was awful. I was stressed out and ready to leave and never return. I still hadn’t said anything to my boss whose office was in another building on the other side of town.
Then one day my boss from the downtown office called asking Alice about employee absences. She specifically asked about absences for our delivery driver with whom she’d had trouble with in the past. I was really angry at that point because I did all the payroll and absence reports for everyone except Alice. It really galled me that this woman who never accurately filled out her timesheet would give this information to my boss. I called my boss and told her that if she had a problem with payroll that she’d better come to me and not Alice because I was the one that did it. My boss was surprised because it was Alice’s job. While I knew I did more than my share, I had never known that this was not my job. I’d been doing it from the first week I was hired. I asked my boss if I could call her back and went down the hall.
When I called her back I spilled my guts. My boss started documenting everything Alice did or rather did not do. When I was promoted to another position at the main office, my boss asked me if my position was really necessary. I admitted that it was only a 2 person job if both people n the office worked. She eliminated my position choosing to create 2 half-time positions down the hall. That forced Alice to start working and boy did she hate it.
When they finally a good enough reason (and documentation) to fire her, I admit that I felt a great deal of satisfaction. When my boss told me they were looking to hire someone else for that position I said “Why don’t you ask Olivia? She knows what to do.” I called my sister and asked her if she’d be interested in filling in until they hired a permanent replacement. I assured her it would only be around two weeks. Her two week temporary job turned into eight years (and counting).
I had a co-worker who was fat, lazy, incompetent, and smelled like an animal. What really got to me was that he was consitantly late. ( he lived 5 minutes away) When I got fed up with it I told him that every time he was late from that day forward, the supervisor and manager would know about.
I documented him being late 17 times in the next 22 work days, each time making my manager aware. (We had just been purchased by a company that were sticklers for punctuality). Finally, they told him the next time he was late he would be let go. He was late 2 days later. They then told him the next time he was late he would be let go. He was late several more times. I got the message and stopped complaining about it.
That’s a bummer, Spooje. Golly, how much rope will you have to give this fat slob before he hangs himself?
When I was working graveyard shift on the guard job, at the Office of Education in Los Angeles County, a guard from an annex several miles away in Bell Gardens (my post was in Downey) had called up around 12:15 to check in. I had a short, amiable chat with him; we rang off and I continued my duties and thought nothing more about it…
…For a few minutes, anyway. Then this guard did a Jekyll-and-Hyde and called me back, his speech laced with obscenities. I couldn’t get a word in. Finally he added one more obscenity and hung up. I didn’t waste time. Following company procedure–embellished by what I’ve picked up over the years, growing up in a telephone-company family–I called the dispatcher to report that another guard, same company, had made an obscene call. Later on that night I got a call from my own supervisor at the guard company, who complimented me on handling the matter “in a professional manner.” I like to think the foul-mouthed gaurd was canned that night–I never heard from him again.
I have since found out that Panzy is no longer employed at this agency; and she has apparently filed a suit against that department head! Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!
(Confidential to the person I called last night: I apologize for not telling you you’d have to be registered on the board in order to use the search engine. :o)
I got my revenge by blowing the whistle on the CEO at my company.
Long ago when the Mac Plus came out, I was spending all my time on the phone taking orders, but we never seemed to get any inventory. I’d see a delivery of MacPluses marked for a certain date, and when the day came, none of my backorders were filled and no units were marked as coming into inventory. I could have sold as many MacPluses I could get ahold of, but I couldn’t get ahold of a single one. Even worse, it seemed that the local grey-marketers had a plentiful supply.
So one day my manager comes to me and says the CEO requests my services for one full day, he needed me to do some repair to the corporate database. I was never on good terms with the CEO, he was a major asshole and every time he got involved with a deal, it went to hell. I spent most of my time on the job ducking him. And now he was cornering me and asking me questions like “can you alter the date of a file without anyone being able to tell?” I was sure something weird was about to happen.
So on the appointed day, I am driven by Mr. CEO up to his HQ. I am informed that I must help him alter the database so that ComputerLand Corporate HQ does not discover what he has been doing. He has been taking every MacPlus that arrives, selling them at cost to his brother the greymarketer, and splitting the profit his brother makes. I am immediately furious. The scumbag has basically been embezzling money out of the company, right in front of his partners (who together hold a 50% stake in the company, CEO holds the other 50%). Furthermore, I am pissed because CEO has been skimming my most profitable product, screwing me out of about $100,000 of commissions over a year. Now the boss demands that I roll back the system clock, alter each invoice to remove the name of his brother and change the buyer to “Federal Communications Commission.” Oh shit. I am sure that if any of this ever comes to light, I will be the fall guy, and it’s now a federal crime. I inform CEO of this, and Mr. CEO kindly responds that if I don’t do what he asks, he will have a friendly person come to my house and politely break my legs.
So having established in my own mind that I am doing this under diress, I complete the job. But not before making a copy of the original file, and the modified one, and storing it on a floppy disk.
On return from the site, the disk went into my safe deposit box at my bank, along with a written explanation of what happened. I send an identical copy by registered mail to myself. The next day I arrange a meeting with the CEO’s partners, and inform them of what has happpened. They are absolutely furious. CEO has been skimming about 5% of the company profits right into his own pocket, untraceable until I provided the smoking gun. CEO is now CEO in name only, all decision-making power is stripped away. Computerland corporate and Apple get wind of this incident. CEO is informed that he should start looking for a buyer for his share in the company, and prepare to exit the business before his dealership is revoked. The company merges with another (weaker) company, the partners move to the new company, the CEO is ousted, and my position is dissolved.
Asshole CEO now is president of a dinky networking company.
I had a coworker who was constantly being granted overtime, even tho she often spent much of the day reading magazines or visiting a friend in another department. One evening when she and I were both on OT, I was passing her cube and I saw her working on her taxes. That became the last straw.
The next day I was a nervous wreck, but I went to the boss and posed the question: “Would you want to be told if someone was abusing overtime?” - like I didn’t know the answer to that. He said yes, and I told him what I saw. He had suspected she was abusing the priviledge.
She was no longer authorized to work after hours, and rather than being viewed as a snitch, I think the boss appreciated my candor. I hated that I had to do it, but it was too blatant to ignore. A few years later, we reorganized, and I didn’t have to deal with her any longer - that was a relief.
My office has a virtual 6-week backlog of work, which is why we hired several contractors to work nights. At first they supervised themselves, then one of my colleagues mentioned to me that when he worked overtime he saw the contractors mostly just milling around or on the phone. I relayed this to the division head which resulted in one of the senior staff supervising the contractors on a rotational basis.
I’ve also had an experience like spooje’s. In my case, it was the office fussbudget. Before my promotion, I had the cubicle next to hers. She’s the type who belives she will someday win the lottery (yeah, right) by using her computer to access internet sites devoted to lottery number tracking. She also gets long distance personal calls that can last an hour or more! She tries to avoid being assigned work which would involve using one of our computer applications, all of which track utilization. She was even made the team leader for a short time, which is when I had enough. I felt that having a goof-off for a leader wasn’t good for the office and told the division supervisor. Said goof-off is still goofing off but not as much. I’d prefer she not be here at all! Problem is it’s nearly impossible to fire anyone from the Government.
Hey, Chas. E: What happened to you? :eek: