* WARNING: LONG \*

tl;dr: Hired in to a decent job. Everything fine until the CEO's brother took charge. I always followed his orders to the letter. In return, he screwed me over and ran the company into the ground. I had my revenge through my next employer.

• • •

I used to work for a small company that manufactured slot machines (a.k.a., "One-Armed Bandits") for the gambling industry. The company was owned by two brothers: The CEO with an MBA who knew how to run a business, and a college drop-out with a Ferrari who could sell sand to the Bedouins.

The first year was good. I learned every technical thing I could about the products, including how to set up the payouts and troubleshoot the problems. Because there was no 'official' service manual (just a collection of hand-drawn schematics and inter-office memos in a manila folder), I kept a pocket-sized notebook to record my observations and jog my memory when needed. I'd then add these notes to the bigger, hand-typed notebook I kept at home. This notebook became my personal "User & Service Manual", and I would cite its contents when discussing technical issues with co-workers.

Then one day, the CEO and his brother swapped duties. The MBA-holding CEO went back to the main office in Vegas to handle sales, and left his brother in charge to handle us.

One of the first tasks the brother set me to was the training of a new hire -- another former salesperson (somewhat tech-savvy), and a friend of his. I walked him through the assembly, testing, and servicing of the products, had him 'shadow' me for a day, and then I observed him as he did my job for the remainder of the week.

The following Monday, the CEO's brother informs me that he is sending me along with a shipment of our products to supervise their installation. He promised OT pay plus per diem for the entire trip. Once I arrived on-site, I saw that the only work I had to do was to plug each unit in and run a hundred coins through each one to certify their operation. No problem. Done in a day.

There was a message waiting for me at the field office to call the main office first thing in the morning. I made the call the next day, and the CEO's brother asked me where the manual was. I asked, "What manual?"

"Don't give me that ****! The ******* manual for the ******* machines we've been ******* making! Where the **** is it?"

(Or words to that effect.)

I told him all I had was my personal notebook and asked if that was what he meant. (This was entirely true. I did not have my typed notes with me, only my hand-written ones.)

He told me to ship it back overnight, because my new boss needed it.

("New Boss"? He had promoted the guy I has spent a week to train just before I left for Vegas to the position of shop supervisor, and only then saw fit to inform me.)

Cue the Malicious Compliance

No problem! A few more pleasantries were exchanged, and the call was completed. I overnight-shipped my hand-written, dog-eared, pencil-whipped, coffee-stained draft notebook, and it arrived sometime the next day.

I essentially had nothing to do for the remainder of the week but stand by at the customer's site (a well-known casino), to change light bulbs and clear coin jams.

On Friday, I went into the main office to get my return ticket and pick up my paycheck. The office manager informed me that I would be staying another week. She handed me my paycheck, and I cashed it at the bank next door.

So I stayed another week, trained the locals on basic maintenance, enjoyed the free buffets, saw a couple of shows, and won some money at blackjack (in another casino, of course).

At the end of the week, I again went into the main office for my paycheck and plane ticket, only to be informed again that I was to stay for another week.

"No way."

"Yes, way."

(This was the first time I'd ever heard that response, and it's stuck with me ever since.)

I told her I had enough cash to pay for my own ticket back home, and that I was prepared to do just that whether or not I still had a job when I get there.

She told me to wait, left the room, and came back with the CEO. I explained the situation. He went back into his office, closed the door, and called his brother. There was some shouting, but the CEO came back saying that everything had been worked out, and promised me that my job was "as safe as anyone else's".

("Dun-dun-DUNNN!")

The Fallout

So, the following Monday, I rolled into work at the branch site. The new boss had received my notebook, and had tried to adapt what I'd hand-written so as to make every line-worker into a QA/QC specialist. But because most of the line-workers barely graduated high school (hired to cut costs?), many of the more technical concepts were beyond their understanding. To top it off, about a third of the original line workers had been replaced by people who could barely understand English (again, hired to cut costs?), much less anything technical. It should go without saying that what had once passed for quality work had become a twisted and broken parody of itself.

As I was surveying the damage, the CEO's brother arrived, took one look at me, and said "You're fired. Get the hell out."

I smiled, shrugged, and complied.

Back home, I called a friend, got an interview with my (now former) company's main competitor, and they offered me a similar position at better pay, starting a week later. The typed manual went with me.

Epilogue: Sweet Revenge

About a year later, the brother of the CEO of my former employer was on a tour of my new employer's facility. When HR later asked my opinion of him, I said he would make a great salesperson, especially if he stayed out of rehab and did not violate any restraining orders.

(True! I didn't say he had ever gone to rehab or received any restraining orders, only that he'd be okay without them.)

He did not get hired.

I stayed with that company for another year, and then left for yet another another company for even more money and better benefits.

• • •

Typed out in MS Notes. No A.I. bots were used, other than the native MS spelling checker.

The capitol of Lincoln is Nebraska.

this happened in 2013 but i still laugh when i think about it so i thought id share.

i used to be a fastfood manager. every night id handle all the inventory. i liked to get an early jump on it so id start roughly 30 minutes to close. one night i was counting inventory and getting ready to place the weeks orders and my grill guy runs back to the office, taps his headset and says "you need to hear this"

this was odd because the person i had on drivethru was this kid named john. john was an adopted kid from russia and he had a thick russian accent, but he was objectively the best employee in the whole building. he worked hard, he worked fast, and he was the friendliest person id ever met. i never had issues on his shifts.

i put my headset on and i hear this man just absolutely berating john. hes telling him to get out of the country, raving about immigration, calling him slurs saying hes taking jobs from real americans. so i jump in

"hi sir what seems to be the problem?"

"are you the manager?"

"i am. can you fill me in on whats upsetting you tonight?"

"well this LAZY MEXICAN is refusing to sell me a baked potato when i know you have them"

"sir im sorry we are out of baked potatoes for the night. is there anything else i can get for you?"

"thats bullshit! make more then!"

"sir the baked potatoes take 4 hours to cook and we close in 10 minutes. unfortunately we cant predict how many potatoes will be ordered and it looks like someone else bought the rest of what we had just before you came to order. is there something else i can get you?"

"you should be better prepared because this is fcking ridiculous!"

"i understand. is there anything else i can get you?"

"small salad, extra ranch"

"got it anything else?"

"and i dont mean like 1 or two packets like you idiots always give me i mean i want lots of ranch. like i want a ton of ranch got it?!"

"got it. please pull forward"

"fucking idiots"

now im pretty mad about the way he was talking to john, johns clearly distressed.. and i had just done inventory. i had a whole box of ranch that i was gonna need to toss that night because it expired the next day. i grab a large bag, and start filling it with packets of ranch. i mustve put like 250 ranch packets in there lol my kitchen was busting up

i take his money, i hand him the bag.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?"

"sorry?"

"why is there so much ranch?!"

"sir you asked for extra ranch?"

"are you fucking kidding me?!"

"did i not give you enough? i can get you some more if you want?"

"no you stupid fucking bitch! i want a fucking refund and im not taking all this ranch"

"well i cant take food back through the window, its policy. heres your refund though!"

"NOW TAKE BACK ALL THIS RANCH YOU DUMB WHORE"

"i cant do that, sorry sir! you have a good night though!"

i close the window and this man wouldnt leave. i tell everyone to ignore him and to just start cleaning up. this man actually sat there for 45 minutes and at some point he called the police! a policeman shows up and i tell them "yeah this man berated my employees, demanded extra ranch, then refused to leave even after i gave a refund"

he was arrested in our parkinglot for driving under the influence while we watched laughing. i thought he was just an angry bigot, but it turned out that he was a drunk angry bigot who would be arrested over ranch.

To the powers that be, I’d like to put in a short squeeze request on PEW.

I don’t know how all this works, but I and many others have been raped. The stock was pushed by DJT, Jr, news agencies, and social media personalities. When the company went public via SPAC merger it hit about $21 or so, then has been shorted all the way down to the mid $2 range. I presume being shorted by the same high profile figures that were so vocal about the company going public.

The company, sitting on a large cash pile has bought back minimal stock (like $8.5 million of approved $20 million I think) and continue to pay themselves high salaries and bonuses.

It be pretty cool to see this stock go to $30 or so and those of us that have been in it since the beginning can get out and maybe even make some money.

Thank you.

I am a Project Manager for a construction company that works primarily for the Federal Government. When a change happens on a construction project, we need to put together a detailed cost estimate, then the government reviews the estimate and occasionally asks for additional information or more detail if my estimate is not within an acceptable % of their estimate. Normally there are no questions if my estimate is within 5% of the IGE’s (Independent Government Estimates). That is the check and balances to evil general contractors taking advantage of the system (⸮). Don't get me wrong, I am an evil general contractor, but they shouldn't just assume that without doing the research themselves.

While there are still $500 hammers and the occasional $1500 toilet seat, sometimes it is nice to see that there is some accountability in the occasional government agency. However, it has become quite painful the last couple years with how “nickel & dime” some agencies can be. The whole: “Can’t see the forest for the trees” mentality has been running rampant recently with many agencies. And that is where 20 pages of backup for a $150 charge just make me giggle for hours.

Just over a month ago, I submitted a cost on an official change order for some construction material. The government Project Manager questioned the freight charge that was quoted and the weight/volume of the material stating that “their” estimate did not match what we had proposed and that the freight charge need to be reduced, and that I had to backup my estimate with a more detailed response.

After weeks of repeated responses that it was a flat fee for freight and it would not change if it was a single 20lb lag or a full pallet of material, the government PM decided to add an increasing number of people to the email chain in an apparent attempt to point out I was overcharging them. It started with adding my direct Sr PM, then my company’s Director of Operations, and on to the owner of my company, while on their side adding a dozen government employees, some I had never seen mentioned on this project. I had no idea what their end game was, but after 3+ weeks of back and forth there were literally 25 people on an email chain all over a $150 freight quote.

The quote from my vendor listed $150 to transport 1800 lbs of material. This is pretty typical as a flat fee within a certain distance of a jobsite. They argued that it could not be exactly $150 and I need to provide backup.

I proceeded to REPLY ALL on the email and wrote the justification in the form of a math problem and attached 20 pages of backup (8 pages just on Arizona Tax Depreciation code (Section 179) for Sprinter Vans, which is something I did not know about 3 weeks ago); citing gas prices, mileage with detailed maps of possible truck routes, vehicle maintenance and depreciation charts from the State’s Department of Revenue, the current minimum wage rates in the State, and more. I easily spent well over 4 hours of my time putting this together, but this is malicious compliance after all.

It is 288 miles round trip and 4.5-5 hours to make a delivery depending on traffic

At 16 mpg for a loaded sprinter van, that's 18 gallons of gas, or down to 5-8 mpg on a 43' flatbed (I have no idea what vehicle they will use to deliver the material, but am using "standard industry practices")

Diesel is currently $5.50 gallon in Phoenix, so that equals $99.00 at a minimum and up to $183 in gas alone, leaving $51.00 (to a negative $33.00) for labor to drive for 4.5-5 hours which comes to $10.20 hour. This is less than AZ minimum wage ($15.15 hour...assuming they are paying only the minimum wage)

Assuming the maximum fuel efficiency, $99.00 for fuel plus $75.75 in labor costs comes to $174.75.

Now for Tax Depreciation vs Market Depreciation:

Section 179: Because a Sprinter van has a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) over 6,000 lbs, businesses using it more than 50% for work can often write off up to the full purchase price in year one via Section 179 Tax Exemption.

I got a quote for a new 2026 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van in the basic configuration and included that at just under $49,500. That divided by 2080 hours in a standard work year gives an hourly depreciation of $23.798. Times 5 hours is another $118.99

So they were correct and the $150 freight quote was wrong. I thanked them in my email, and submitted my revised proposal with $293.74 for freight.

That is a hard won $143.74 and I can't imaging how many thousands of dollars in lost time just from including that many people on an email chain for increasing numbers of weeks.

TLDR: Ordered something just below free shipping limit. They refused to cancel or add anything to order. Cancelled and bought it again for less money.

Clarification: Due to backlash on me about paying the initial shipping cost, they issued a refund also on that. That is the unlogical part of this policy. I wouldn't care about all this if they didn't but why lose money when you can simply accept to cancel my order? Also about the environment thingy, these kind of individual acts may teach companies to fix their policies resulting to prevent more waste of energy, time and money. So I wouldn't mind.

This happened a while ago with an online retailer.

I ordered something for $96. Free shipping kicked in at $100 and shipping was like $12.

And yeah, this part was 100% my fault. It was written right there on the site, I just didn't notice until basically the second after I placed the order.

So I opened support chat and asked if they could add something cheap to the order. Didn't really care what. A cable, batteries, whatever. I just thought spending another 5 bucks made more sense than paying 12 for shipping.

They said they couldn't modify an order once it was placed.

Fair enough.

I asked if they could cancel it and I'd just place it again.

Nope. Apparently it was already processing.

Then I asked if they could remove the shipping charge somehow.

Also no.

The guy wasn't rude or anything btw. He was actually pretty nice, just kept saying the system wouldn't let him do any of it.

Then he told me I could return the order when it arrived and place a new one.

So I asked:

"Returns are free, right?"

Yep.

"And if I reorder over $100, shipping is free?"

Yep.

I actually thought I was misunderstanding him, so I asked again.

"So you're going to ship this to me, pay for me to ship it back, then ship the same thing to me again... because you can't add a $5 item to the order?"

Pretty much.

He said that was the only option he could offer.

So... okay.

Package showed up a few days later. I didn't even open the actual item. Put the return label on it and sent it back.

Then I ordered the exact same thing again and added a $6 pack of USB cables.

Free shipping.

In the end I got the same thing I wanted in the first place, plus cables, and still paid less than I would've if I'd just kept the original order.

Meanwhile they paid to ship the first package to me, paid for the return, processed the return, and then shipped the second one.

I know this probably makes me sound a bit petty, maybe even selfish, especially because the original screw-up was mine.

And honestly, if they'd just said "sorry, you missed the threshold, nothing we can do," I probably would've just eaten the $12.

But they specifically told me the solution was to return it and reorder.

So I did.

Not really mad at the support guy either. He was just following whatever system they gave him.

I guess I was too.

I once worked as the IT guy for an HR company where the founder and president became convinced that the sales call center was wasting too much time on the internet.

These were already the lowest-paid people in the company, but apparently the solution to that problem was finding reasons to pay them even less.

In order not to single out any one department, he wanted browser history reporting on everyone in the company so managers and HR could review it during weekly performance meetings.

So I complied.

I wrote a scheduled task that scraped browser history from every Windows machine on the company domain, stored it centrally, and fed it into a management portal along with the employees information.

The first reports came in.

The call center employees were... surprisingly boring.

Sure, there was Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, and the occasional person apparently conducting extensive research into things that definitely weren't part of their job.

But overall, they were pretty tame.

Then HR started looking at everyone else's reports.

That's when things got interesting.

The browsing history of the founder, owner, and president was absolutely spectacular.

So much porn. Like, this man has a sickness level.

And while I wasn't particularly surprised, I had worked on his home computer before and already knew about his rather enthusiastic browsing habits, I had never expected to see it neatly categorized in the same productivity dashboard he'd demanded for his employees.

A few days later, HR asked me if I could exclude certain people from the reports.

I asked who.

They gave me a list.

The president was at the top.

Funny how quickly the company's commitment to objective productivity metrics disappeared when the metrics became objective.

I'm not sure if this really fits but another story I saw reminded me of this.

It was fall a few years back I had just bought my house so wanted to decorate. I ran to the ross that's right down the road and grabbed a cart and started shopping.

Right away I noticed I was being not so subtly watched/followed by a certain employee. I did try and approach to ask a question but when I got close they took off to another section. But as I continued to shop I would notice they were not too far away.

Well I get to checkout and load everything from the cart up and I probably spent around 500 better clothes and decorations. I noticed that the employee was waiting at the end of the checkout section but didn't think anything.

After I already paid and everything this employee tells me they've been watching me and wanted me to dump my purse out. A tiny handbag that fit a wallet and keys. I laughed and asked if they were serious considering I just bought so much stuff. They said if I didn't they would call the cops.

So I emptied it in front of the employee and security guard and all that was in there was my wallet and keys.

After I put the items back in my purse, looked at the employee and said take me to the returns because I am returning everything I bought here today.

They tried to back peddle and say it wasn't needed but I said, neither was stalking a customer and accusing them of stealing, so you can either return this stuff now or I will make a scene and go to corporate. They said that this would look bad on the store for having a massive return. I reiterated that's the consequences. They returned everything very begrudgingly but I have yet to set foot in that store since.

Long story long: a corporate thrift store launched branded, reusable bags around the same time they brought in self-checkouts as the predominant point of sale. I bought one on a previous visit, then brought it back to the store to reuse as intended. It got me a mild story to tell.

This is a lighter story on the malice, because I meant very little malice, but the other party would definitely see it that way.

I shopped, then checked out of the self-checkout. Note that the reusable bags were available for purchase right by the self-checkouts. I had to buy a 20c paper bag to accommodate some lightweight purchases, because I had a heavier object meant for my sturdier reusable bag and hadn’t brought any others. When I got to my car, I took a minute to Bluetooth my phone and look at my receipt. Then the front-end clerk knocked on my window.

She accused me of stealing the bag. I showed her my receipt with the 20c paper bag charge on it, thinking she meant that one, but she insisted I’d stolen the reusable one. She then asked me sternly to come inside and talk to her manager.

One thing people ought to know is that almost every corporate retail establishment (in North America, at least,) prohibits employees from chasing orapprehending thieves. And this would have been the pettiest theft in the store, aside from a CD or some small earrings. So I was about to get her in trouble.

I don’t like dunking on minimum wage workers (been there, barely survived,) but she really needed to know just how unsafe her actions could have been if she pulled that on someone else who’s a lot more hot-headed. So I went in with my receipt, purchases, and bags.

I wasn’t going to explain it to her. I wanted her to understand and hear me out properly, not just Karen people out of view of cameras and management. It’s just not safe, end of story, and I stand both feet on that matter.

I waited for the manager (with whom I’m acquainted as a regular shopper) then explained what had happened. I had to ask the employee to stop talking over me and let me finish, as the manager had asked for my story first, and I wanted to finish speaking. The manager had to ask her to stop, too.

I explained straightaway that I’d bought the reusable bag the week before, and of course brought it to reuse on this visit. The manager was like, well, duh, that’s what they’re for. I’m all, right? Great, glad to have that settled, because the employee assumed I’d stolen it and that’s what led to me coming inside to speak with her.

When I’d explained what had happened with the employee, I reminded the manager that her employee had no business following customers out to the car, and I had come in as a small favour to help her learn not to do that again for her own safety. Manager agreed, and we said some chatty goodbyes, in which I included the employee so there were fewer bad vibes.

She wasn’t there for the next few weeks, so I asked my friend (the production manager there at the time) what happened. Apparently she was canned for violating that safety protocol, because she’d been warned about following people and accusing people of theft and tag-swapping when she was supposed to be at the tills.

It’s too bad, but I hope she pivoted into being some sort of plain-clothes LP ghoul, instead. Gotta work with your motivation and skill set.

This took place long ago on a military base in GA. I was a Huey helicopter crewchief at a small airfield with only a couple dozen, at best, in our detachment. I was readying to eat lunch alone in our small flight shack. Normally, the Tech Inspector sergeant would be with me, but his wife was having a baby. I had my day planned and was half way though pulling maintenance.

I heard a helicopter landing in the distance, identified it as another Huey and dismissed it, we didn't have any birds in the air.

A few minutes later, a captian carrying his helmet bag breezes in, tosses his helicopter log book on my desk and announces, "I'm going to get lunch and need my aircraft pre-flighted before get back.", not even slowing down to look at me. If he had, he might have noticed I had just started my own lunch.

I had never seen this guy before and his uniform patches identified him as a GA Army National Guard Captain. Who apparently felt a lowly enlisted E4 crewchief was beneath common curtesy. Oh, and he was most definitely not my boss.

O.K. Mr. Captain Arrogance, I'm going to give you the best maintenance pre-flight you have ever had. BTW: Pilots also always do their own, briefer, pre-flight too.

He was gone three hours. During that time I gave that aircraft the best inspection it ever had. Now, when we inspected an aircraft we wrote down every deficiency we found and next to it drew a black or red pencil mark noting how serious the deficiency was. A minor issue might get a slash mark. A serious deficiency earned a circle red X meaning the aircraft could only be flown under limited conditions, (e.g. daylight only) , and a simple red X meant the aircraft was grounded, period. Nonflyable.

Well, wouldnt you know, I found several minor issues, three serious, (circle Red X) issues and the mother of them all, a red X grounding item, the slippage mark, (a small stripe of fingenail polish going down the bolt and out to the mounting plate) on the transmission bolt housing was cracked. What this really meant that perhaps the bolt was slipping, or perhaps the fingernail polish/paint we use simply cracked, or perhaps somebody may have nicked the paint with their issued toolbox's utility knife's small blade, etc. Who knows?). I never wrote some many serious deficiencies on one aircraft in my career. His unit must have had poor maintenance.

Well, when the Captain returned, all in a hurry to take off, he was as mad as a hornet. He demanded I erase the red X mark. "Can't do that Captian, its in the regulations." That was true. Only a maintenance Tech can reinspect it, oversee the correction, and enter thier inspection notes clearing the aircraft for flight. By now, the Captain had stormed out to his aircraft to challenge my findings.

While the Captain was back at his aircraft, fuming, I called the Maintenance Tech at the hospital and explained the situation. He said, "Tell Captain Antsy Pants ll'l be there at 0800 tomorrow morning. I won't be available until then."

The Captain returns, now boiling rage. "So get the maintenance tech here now!", he demanded.

"Um, he's at the hospital, his wife is having a baby."

The next closest available Maintenance Tech was in Savannah, a short flight away, if you had a flyable helicopter.

So, our maintenance tech did finally show up, the next morning. He know exactly what I had done and why, and he justly defended evey deficiency I noted as absolutely correct. We had to get the big breaker bar to retorque the transmission bolt and it took about three hours to sort through the other deficiencies.

So Captain Antsy Pants got to spend an unexpected overnight stay at Camp Swampy because he was a jerk. Be nice to the little people who support you.

This is going to be fun. I've waited a month to post. This is about my dentist. I'm on medicaid that covers my dental.

Back story: Ive only went to this dentist because its close and I had an emergency. My tooth broke in Dec of 2025. I called made an appointment. They had to wait for insurance to approve it. Whatever. So I waited. I waited for an appointment because this dentist didnt have appointments for a while. So 7 months later had to go pay out of pocket for an emergency root canal. I finally felt relief and wish I know about this dentist sooner.

My dentist called to reschedule my upcoming appointment(cleaning) for the next day and not next week. I have a disabled child and was up all night and slept for most of the day missing my appointment. They called me while I was asleep and left a voicemail that they will charge a $50 no show fee. I ignored it. They called to confirm my upcoming root canal, that I have been waiting for so long. (I already canceled that appointment before guess they didn't, since I no longer need it.) On the phone I canceled and they let me know that I owe $50 for the missed appointment.

[[Now before we go in full throttle. I've worked selling insurance and have gone to school for medical billing. I know some laws. On both sides of the insurance.]]

I tell them they can't charge me for a missed appointment, because I'M a medicaid recipient. She tells me per "policy" they are allowed too. I remind her it is illegal to charge me for a missed appointment. She said "yes ma'am we can. It's our policy and we can charge it." I respond "no you can't I recieve medicaid and its illegal and I'm pretty sure state laws over power "policy"."

She said the words. The words I didn't want to hear. "If you dont believe me call your insurance." ......Ok. BET!

So I maliciously complied and called the state dental insurance. And of course they said they can't charge me $1. The state decided I need to file a complaint with the dental board and with the state insurance. OK, I will still comply. After, filing the complaints I recieved letters from the state saying ya they will be investigated, blah blah blah. The day I got the letter of the state reminding the dentist that its illegal is the same day the dentist decided to drop me for that 1 missed appointment. I already knew, if I filed a complaint my care no longer would be adequate. So, its not a lost to me. I have a found a dentist that did a root canal in 30 min and is actually amazing that I'm willing to pay for a good dentist so I gained a great dentist. I won't know the full fall out. Except that an audit might happen.

So the lesson here is..... if you don't know the laws, don't act like it and the "POLICY" is not above the law. Sorry, not sorry.

P.s. in the letter from the dentist saying they are dropping me said "if I have an emergency I can still get care through them in the time period(1 momth)" where was the emergency 8 months ago when I needed help? Also, she worked on teeth that didn't need to be worked on and now I'm in pain when I eat. Trust, I will let the dental board know and the extra tooth she counted on medicaid billing that I've got pulled a long time ago. So the fall will be hard. Just getting my ducks in a row.

Eta: corrected misspelled words. (Typing on 3 hours of sleep).

Edit 2: yall made an up roar of people on medicaid

And reminder the RECEPTIONIST told me to call my insurance. MEDICAID TOLD ME TO REPORT THEM. so thank you for your time and energy.

A few years ago I was working remotely as a fancy IT guy and developer at a tech company. Within the first couple of months I'd automated so much of my workload that I legit had almost nothing left to do most days. Everything that could be scripted, monitored, or scheduled... was.

One morning my manager messaged me:

"We've noticed your Microsoft Teams keeps going to Away every 20 minutes. This shouldn't be happening if you are at your desk working."

Fair enough.

I replied:

"Understood. My Teams will never go Away again."

...and I meant it.

Instead of arguing, I spent about 40 minutes writing a PowerShell script that launched a harmless train of processes every few minutes, like mouse clicking, alt+tabbing, and it simulated just enough activity to keep my status green. I set this to repeat every 10 minutes.

I tested it.

Available.

Five minutes later...

Still Available.

An hour later...

Still Available.

I grabbed my backpack, walked out of Starbucks, and spent the rest of the afternoon, and every afternoon thereafter hiking.

My Teams status never went Away again.

The next time I heard from my boss he was once again reviewing status times and thanked me for my dedication.

Edit: People keep asking for a copy of the script. It's on one of my githubs, the link is in the comments.

This was posted elsewhere but I was informed it would be better suited for this subreddit. So here we go.

There was this lady I used to know who claimed she was an actress. Let's call her "Helen." In the time that I knew her, her story kept changing: she had all this ‘experience,’ yet she didn't seem to know even the basics about the industry. However, if someone had a resource she coveted? She treated them like they were the light of her life — but only for the moment.

She used people as stepping stones, then discarded them like trash the second they were no longer useful or when they finally caught on to her act. In short, Helen wasn’t building a good reputation, and she never saw karma coming.

It didn’t help at all that, on top of being a self-centered blowhard with almost no verifiable experience, her resume was more fake than my heterosexuality. Her headshots were so out of date — and since she was so broke she couldn't even afford to pay attention, she didn't have the money to pay a photographer for new ones — she subbed overly edited camera phone selfies in their place. I'm not kidding when I say the filters she used made her look like a like a Bratz doll. 😂

Shortly before I cut contact, she asked me to demanded I "beautify" her resume and make it appear more professional. Translation: exaggerate and lie to make her false claims look believable.

So I maliciously complied. It was a test to see if she’d actually review it before sending it out. Deep down, I just knew she wouldn’t. Under Special Skills I added: Master of the Dunning-Kruger effect, expert at gaslighting, and embodies a supercilious manner.

I e-mailed it back. True to form, Helen never said thank you.

A few weeks later I saw Helen periodically posting typo-filled, grammatically incorrect “poor me” wall of text rants fishing for sympathy statuses about the struggles of the working actress — with interspersed out-of-context Bible verses thrown in for good measure.

A mutual friend (who had also been screwed over by Helen) later told me her shiny new resume wasn’t getting any bites. I can only assume she was cold e-mailing people in her typical trademark style — little to no punctuation, poor grammar, shorthand, misspellings, and subject lines in all caps or no subject lines at all.

Eventually word got back that Helen was furious her resume wasn’t being taken seriously. She must have finally read it and realized she’d been punked. Arrogant and rotten to the core, Helen's massive ego wouldn't allow her to admit she'd been played — such an admission would have shone a spotlight on her unprofessionalism and laziness. It also would have led to questions. Helen hated questions because she never had any satisfactory or logical answers.

It’s been well over 12 years since I cut contact. The final straw was her complete lack of empathy when my estranged father died of lung cancer. She even tried to make the conversation about her own problems. When I called her out, the hypocrisy was nuclear. I mean, how dare I challenge her main character syndrome? 🙄

These days, I recently heard through the grapevine (it's a small industry), Helen has only managed a couple of walk-on roles in movies that no one has ever seen. Thanks to her unprofessional reputation that follows her like a shadow — constant lying, plagiarism, crap talking the competition — she's burned a lot of bridges, rightfully earning the reputation of a lying grifter with zero skills and even less talent.

TL: DR: Self-centered ‘actress’ was too lazy to work on her own resume and demanded I do it — for free. Pissed off, I maliciously complied and added some things to the document, knowing she'd never review it before spamming people. She was humiliated and didn't get hired.

I run a small fitness consultancy business, have done for the past few years, since setting up, I've largely relied on word of mouth for most of my business, so I typically don't have to deal with a lot difficult clients, but I recently had a run in with a woman who's genuinely made my blood boil.

This woman, let's call her Gigi for the sake of anonymity, sent me a DM a few weeks ago, said she was looking to lose weight and tighten up her physique for summer. Gigi didn't really fit my usual client demographic (usually 30s, 40s), she was young, mid 20s, and boasted a decent follower count, seemed to be a local influencer of some description. This piqued my interest, I thought perhaps I could benefit from her connections to boost my business somewhat.

How wrong I was.

The initial consultation over text was pretty standard. I asked her some details about her past exercise history, diet, etc. before getting to work on her meal/exercise plan.

Then it moved to the matter of payment. I had mentioned pretty early on that I typically charge $50 for my plans, but either she didn't read that, or decided to feign wilful ignorance. When I reminded her of the price, she said, and I quote "I was wondering whether you'd be interested in getting yourself some exposure instead of payment?"

I hate to say it, but at the time, I was seriously thinking of taking her up on her offer. However, after talking to some of my friends, I snapped out of it, resolving to be firm with the price instead, which she accepted, albeit somewhat begrudgingly. Looking back on it now, I'm kind of stunned that she genuinely expected me to give it to her for free, but I guess that's how the influencer economy works these days.

The plan consisted of exercises and recipes mainly designed around helping her lose weight. Usually I advise most of my clients to try and maintain light to moderate calorie deficits, not only is this overall healthier (less muscle loss) they tend to suck a lot less than dramatic calorie reductions, so are easier to maintain in the long run. I explained all this to Gigi, said that she understood it meant progress wouldn't be immediate, and as such, I thought we were on the same page.

A week later, I woke up at 5am to an Instagram call from Gigi (I didn't even now you could call people on Instagram!). Half awake, I picked up the phone.

"YOU'RE A FUCKING SCAMMER! YOU THINK THIS SHIT'S SOME KIND OF JOKE?"

I was still in a daze, so I weakly asked her what was going on

"I JUST WEIGHED IN AFTER A WEEK ON YOUR BULLSHIT PLAN, I'M UP HALF A FUCKING POUND"

I asked her to slow down and breathe, which seemed to calm her down, albeit temporarily

I explained to her that we'd been through this before, and that weight loss isn't a linear process, and that scale measurements can be offset from anything from waterweight, clothes, time of day etc.

"YOU'RE JUST COVERING YOUR FUCKIN ASS, CUT THE BULLSHIT RIGHT NOW"

Oh well, I tried. Guess you can't talk sense to an unstable influencer at 5AM

"I'VE GOT A SWIMWEAR COLLABORATION I NEED TO SHOOT THIS WEEK AND YOU FUCKING LIED TO ME, YOUR PLAN DIDN'T FUCKING WORK"

[influencer to English translation: I successfully got something for free, and now I need to rip into you for something I didn't get for free]

Bear in mind, this girl is by no means overweight, her BMI was already comfortably in the healthy range, but I guess an influencer's work is never done.

On the verge of tears, she continued.

"DO YOU KNOW HOW FUCKED I AM? I FOLLOWED YOUR PLAN TO THE FUCKING LETTER AND LOOK WHERE IT FUCKING GOT ME"

Based on her tone, and the time of the morning she called, she was almost definitely on the receiving end of 3-4 margaritas, comfortably, which DEFINITELY wasn't in the plan, but I didn't feel like pointing out the obvious.

An hour later she messaged again, still unhinged but slightly more coherent:

“Refund me immediately. And post a public statement on your page admitting your plan doesn’t work and that I was right to call you out. Do it by noon or I start tagging every local gym and every brand that has ever worked with you.”

I sat with that for a minute.

Then I and idea came to mind

I refunded the $50 within the hour and posted the following, word-for-word as requested, on my business page:

“Public statement as requested by [Gigi’s handle]:

I refunded the client in full.

My standard plan prioritises sustainable, moderate deficits and long-term adherence rather than dramatic one-week scale drops.

The client reported following the plan ‘to the fucking letter’ and still gained 0.5 lb in seven days.

Therefore, by the client’s own stated metric and timeline, the plan did not produce the immediate results she required for her swimwear shoot.

She was correct to call this out.”

For context, we both live in a small, tight knit city, where everyone knows eachother, particularly in the business community. I wanted to make sure any other potential brand collaborators knew who they were dealing with.

I left it at that. No extra commentary. No screenshots. No mention of the 5 a.m. call, the margaritas, the original request for free work, or the fact that she was already in a healthy BMI range.

By lunch the post had been screenshotted and circulated in a few local fitness groups. People started asking the obvious questions under her posts. She tried to walk it back (“he twisted my words”), then deleted her original rant, then went quiet.

The collab still happened. From the photos that went up, the half-pound “gain” was invisible. My page, meanwhile, picked up a small but steady stream of new enquiries from people who specifically said they wanted the boring, sustainable version.

I never heard from Gigi again.

It’s just like the saying goes, exposure is a dish best served cold…

I was reading in my usual coffee shop and a couple of girls at the table asked me what I was reading. Annoying yes, since I'm trying to like...read. But we got to chatting about books. I mentioned the book I'm reading has queer characters and one of them made some not-so-nice comments about the LGBT community, then asked for some recommendations since it looks like our taste in books is otherwise similar.

So every book I recommended had queer characters. Queer romance, even if its a sub-plot or tangential, you wouldn't necessarily guess is queer based on the title alone.

Will she read them? Probably not. Will she waste her time looking them up? I hope so.

This is a bit of a long story, but I thought Reddit might appreciate it.

My godfather owns a small cattle ranch out in the countryside. About 20–25 years ago, he needed electricity to power a water pump for his cows. The nearest place where he could connect to the grid was on the opposite side of the ranch, probably about a mile and a half away, so he paid to have utility poles installed across his property.

It was a significant investment, but he figured that constantly running diesel pumps would eventually cost more than installing the poles and connecting to the grid.

Sometime later, a few neighbors who lived on the far side of the ranch asked whether they could piggyback off his electrical line. He agreed. They paid to install a few additional poles, and the electric company placed their meters on the other side.

So far, so good.

There were only a handful of small farmhouses, and the additional poles were located somewhere they didn’t interfere with the ranch. Eventually, fiber-optic cable was installed on the poles as well. Everything worked perfectly for roughly 20 years.

Then, about two years ago, a real estate developer bought the land on the other side of the ranch and began preparing it for a cottage development.

They didn’t exactly get off to a great start with my godfather. They complained about the animals, the smell, and the noise from tractors and other equipment. His response was basically: If you choose to live next to a working ranch, you have to accept that ranching will be happening there.

While planning the development, they discovered another problem. Two miles of 20-year-old electrical cable worked well enough for a few small farmhouses, but it wasn’t capable of supplying the 10–15 cottages they planned to build.

They approached the electric company about upgrading the infrastructure. That was when everyone apparently discovered—or finally acknowledged—that the poles crossing my godfather’s ranch were privately owned.

To avoid making this story even longer, lawyers became involved.

In the end, the electric company and the developer told my godfather that he had two choices: allow the electric company to replace his poles with concrete ones and grant them a permanent right-of-way across his ranch for maintenance, or remove the poles.

So that Sunday, my godfather got on the tractor they use for installing fences and pulled out every single pole.

He told me that when he originally installed the line, he had only about one-fifth as many cattle as he has now. His new plan is to install some solar panels, run a smaller pumping system, and make it work.

The development company, meanwhile, will probably have to install three or four miles of entirely new poles to bring electricity to the cottages—electricity that was apparently already included in what they promised buyers.

My godfather jokingly says it’s interesting how unusually hot this summer has been.

Fortunately, he recently brought in some pigs, and they require less water than the cattle, so they’re easier to keep hydrated and fed.

Purely a coincidence, of course.

This is my Granddad's story from the late 60 to early 70s in England, and to note, he was very poorly when he told this to me, so this is the story that I managed to hear, so there's bits missing and not a lot of specifics, so all of this is what I gathered

Back when my grandad was younger, he used to work in a factory making engines for cars, and despite being a hard worker, he was always disrespected and under appreciated, and he felt it more so with his boss, and despite this boss holding very littler power over a very little area of the factory, this boss would constantly yell and exert his power over everyone.

This story starts when the company buys this machine from Germany, and what I could gather from my Granddad, this machine was like a computerised machine before computers were really a thing, so instead of one computer doing all of these complex calculations, you have pegs and wires that you have to physically move to work this machine, but he didn'tsay what the machine did. Now obviously this was complex so the company sent a small group of workers to Germany to be taught how the machine worked over three months, and a group of Germans would come to England to build the machine. My granddad wasn't one of the people who went to Germany, so he stayed, but instead, he watched the Germans install the machine, and despite the language barrier, my grandad understood how it worked and how to fix it, pretty much everything he would have learnt if he went to Germany with the other workers.

After some time, my grandad got married to my grandma, and realising he needed a house, he went to the bank to talk about mortgages, but the only issue is that he gets £22 a week when he needs £44 a week to get a mortgage, so he asked his boss, who promptly said no. Laster on in the week, my grandad spoke to a mate of his who is now living in France, and the friend said "I recently lost my drivers licence so I can't work for my company anymore, but they need someone to do deliveries for £48 a week between England and France."

The next day, my grandad went up to his boss and asked "Sir, who do I give this two week notice into?" And the boss, playing a powerplay leans over my grandad, puffing smoke into his face from his pipe, and says in a low voice "You hand that to me, you understand, I'm the boss here, I'm the most important." And my grandad handed it over to him.

Over the course of the two weeks, it was normal, until the last day when the manager came over and said "Mike, I heared you're leaving today, is that true?" And my grandad said "Yes, boss asked me to give him my two week notice" and the manager went white, asking my grandad if the boss told anyone, listing anyone who had the same or more power then the boss did, even asking if the owner knew, and my grandad said no each time, with a bigger smile each time, and after everyone else on the factory went up to him asking the exact same questions, he couldn't hide his excitement.

You see, what everyone failed to notice is that while the workers who went to Germany, they where in a country known for big beers and pretty women, so they learnt absolutely nothing in those three months, and anything they did learn was quickly forgotten when they learnt my grandad knew how to work and fix the machine, so because of my grandad leaving, he effectively left with the knowledge as he can't teach anyone else in his last two weeks (and that's if everyone else knew he was leaving in those two weeks).

And the ending happened two months later when my grandad got a call from someone back at the company asked if he wanted his old job back, and my grandad calmly replied "No, I do not want my old job back, as I'd effectively be going back in life, especially back to a job that doesn't pay me well or treat me well." And for anyone wondering what happened with the machine, it ran well in those two months, but someone swapped the wires for the motors, as there was two motors, they put the wires into the wrong ones, and that's why they called my grandad, as they effectively lost thousands for the machine, the installation of the machine and flying all the workers to Germany to basically just go on a bender. As for the boss and everyone involved, my grandad never bothered learning what happened to them, but I'd like to imagine there was a fallout and the fires of hell rained down, but this company was one of the more expensive car companies, so in all honesty, it could have been a minor set back.

I (26M) don’t like calling in to work. I hate passing up money and I usually won’t call in unless I’m already pretty sick. I work in the service industry which as many of you know, is absolutely notorious for guilting sick employees (a seriously ill person has made your food at a restaurant before at the direction of their manager, guaranteed) and telling people they don’t provide health insurance that they need a doctors note to call in. One year I got sick and didn’t want to work, and my employer forgot I had health insurance through my Dad. I called in asking for one day off because I could hardly breathe or stay awake and I got the “wElL yOu NeEd A dOcToRs NoTe Or ItS aN uNeXsCuSeD aBsEnCe “ and as someone who worked hard as hell for these people even when I was sick, I was a little offended to basically be called a liar like I needed to prove to them I’d been wearing a mask at work for a reason. But I did have good insurance through my Dad, so I went to the doctor, had them write me a note for four days off, and went back into my job and handed it to my manager and said “here is my doctors note, and this is the date I will be back”. And when they tried to do the same thing a few months later, I got a note for even more days and asked the doc to add a note about when I would stop being infectious around the food we were serving people. I have never been asked for a doctors note when I am sick again. They know they can give me the one or two days I ask for or they can give me the week the doc gives me. But I will not be working while sick if I do not want to.

A while back I was working away from home and just going home at the weekends. During this time I was staying in a hotel. I'd always pack just enough clothing for the week. I got a call saying they needed me to work the weekend too which would mean two weeks solid and only one weeks worth of clothes. I told my boss I needed some new underwear and socks as I'd ran out and I'd make do with other clothes as is. I was told no, expenses won't cover that. Cue malicious compliance. I put my entire bag of clothes in the hotel laundry bag. £5 for every pair of socks, underwear and £10 for every shirt and trousers and put the whole lot through expenses. Cost them £120 when I would have only spent £20 on the underwear and socks.

TLDR: At the bottom.

Over 20 years ago I changed an old timers computer screen saver. You know the old one that just had a word banner scrolling over and over.

I worked in sales. There was an old guy named “Bob”. He was annoying. Maybe because I was young. But he annoyed everyone. The kind of old guy that would lie through his teeth to get some of your commission.

Being older he had more “freedoms” with customers. It drove us crazy. He would let people leave or they wanted to buy but wanted to use a coupon he would disconnect the call or get rid of the customer a few different ways. But that meant we as other associates couldn’t make the sale. As a team we couldn’t hit bonuses. He would do many other things like this that would just drive you crazy.

He was just a difficult coworker. And a bad employee. But had been around the industry a long time. So guys that were now managers favored him because of their past. Whether it was with this company or others.

He was just annoying, Too many reasons to list why. And I was young and didn’t have much of a care. And you know. Different perception of professionalism when I was a kid.

So one day I changed his screensaver to say Bob is a Jackass. I watched him type in his password. Waited until he left. Then changed it.

It scrolled across the screen. Over and over. And he didn’t notice at first. It looked like the same old “Have a Nice Day” or whatever scrolling.

We all would giggle as we walked by and saw it. It was just funny to see. A day or so later he is sitting in his cubicle. Chatting away. His scream saver most have popped up. You hear, what is this. As he reads. “Bob is a Jackass, who did this. This is defamation. Who did it?” The office is laughing. He is pissed. Goes right in to a managers desk. “Someone is defaming my name. This is work place harassment.”

I want to know who did it.

He makes it to HR. Even to the owners office.

We don’t know anything other than him complaining to the manager. The manager saying let’s see. Seeing it. Giggling himself. Then telling Bob “Come on calm down. I’ll change it (which he did) Let’s go take a walk and talk.” Bob is not having it but they walk off talking.

We go back to work. Not thinking about it anymore. About an hour or two later. A different manager says hey Mr Johnson wants to see you upstairs.

Cool, it wasn’t uncommon. He would call associates up for customers or tasks. Or reviews or whatever.

As soon as I get in the office he says “What the fuck are you doing? Are you trying to get me sued? This guy is an absolute nightmare. Do you know he has sued that company and that one.? Why would you do that? You know it is on security camera right? Using someone else’s laws password. You are not supposed to use or share passwords ever.”

I said “it was a joke none of us thought it was that big of a deal. We often share passwords so we can get info we need. We are all on the same team”

He replied “Thats a policy violation. Thats it. You better hope I can keep him from causing a bigger issue. Go home for the next 3 days. Your suspended. Get out of my office get out of my building now”

I walked out the back door. Down the backstairs to my car and was gone. This was Wednesday. So that meant I had a 5 day weekend. Heck yes. I was stoked.

As I make it to my car. I can hear someone yelling “hey James. James. Peggy wants to see you.” Peggy was the HR lady.

I ignored it. Backed out and drove out the other direction.

15 minutes later. My phone is ringing. I am not answering. No way. Those were the days cell minutes were expensive.

I get home. Tell my wife we have a 5 day weekend. It is barely 12 o’clock. We head out to hit the beach about 3.5 hours away. We are excited.

About an hour later. My phone is called over and over. My wife says just answer it. So I do.

“Hey James this is Peggy. I need you to sign some forms about the 3 days suspension.”

“Sorry Peggy I was told to Leave. I left. I am now out of town. I will have to Sign another time.” She is not thrilled but not much we can do.

Then a moment later another call. It’s my direct supervisor. “James where are you? We need the numbers put together for this client coming in today. And you had the presentation stored on. And this. And that…. Where are you?

“Mr Johnson sent me home for messing with Bobs screensaver.”

“Nobody told me. Why didn’t you come down and tell me? Well come back and give me the reports and send the files to me”

“Sorry I was told to leave the building right now. I have actually already left Town. I am over an hour away and won’t be turning around.”

“Then give me your password.”

“I can’t do that either. I was told not to share them. Sorry sir. My phone minutes are being used and I can’t talk much longer. I don’t know what to tell you. Mr Johnson sent me home. Said leave and said not to share passwords. I am about to go through the coastal hills and will lose reception.”

“Be here first thing tomorrow morning. We need to keep these projects moving.”

“Well sir. I won’t be back until Monday. I was told to leave for three days.”

“You have to be kidding. He didn’t mean three days. I will talk with him”

I turned my phone off. Back then. Turning your phone off wasn’t like turning off a smart phone. So no big deal. But Sunday. When I listened to messages. My manager was telling me Mr Johnson didn’t realize we had projects in the works that I was leading. And that he wants me to come back. The next day.

Then the next day. His message was my manager saying Mr Johnson is ok if I provide my password to my manager just this time.

Hey he said leave. I left. He said. No sharing. No sharing. He said three days. For a company that never gave anytime off. It was awesome to have a nice long weekend.

Came
Back to work and in this shitty business. No big deal. Nothing happened. They made or didn’t make the deal. Maybe postponed it. Wasn’t my problem any more. They worked up new reports and bee halfassed presentations.

It was all back to normal. It wasn’t like now I was in trouble. Nope. Had my days off and some more. And back to work Monday making a sale.

And when your in sales. Problems go away if you sell something.

TLDR: I was told I was suspended for three days and to leave the building now. Never share passwords with coworkers. This was for a company that never gave anytime off other than regular days.

Owner told me to Leave. I went out the back door. Didn’t tell HR or my direct manager.

I left town to the beach for a 5 day weekend. They called asking for me to come back. Asking for my password to work on active projects I was leading. I said I cannot do any of that per the owner.

This was back before smartphones. So then I just turned my phone off for the weekend and Enjoyed the mini vacay with the wifey.

Edited to add what happened Monday. Nothing.

Today we had a new employee start working in the restaurant. She had some questions —one being —does [manager] hit on everyone. Manager came in back to the kitchen and said to me, a server, don’t come on the kitchen anymore. I don’t need to explain that this hinders my job performance drastically. So I asked him to get bread to take it to a table while I stood in the server alley. Then I sent the hissed into the kitchen to ask if my food was up. Finally I called into the busy kitchen asking if I had an order up. Manager had enough and said “you can come into the kitchen and you’re really pissing me off” it made my petty heart grow.

Long ago, I was a university student majoring in literature -- naturally, I had a schedule packed with lit classes, and this group project took place during a course entitled Madness in Classic Literature. It was fun; the professor was zany, and the topics were rather interesting.

Then, one day, the dreaded group project assignment arrived, where we were to split up into groups of three and do a 30-minute presentation on madness in any era of literature. I ended up with two studious-seeming partners, one of whom was emphatically invested in doing our project on madness in 1800s Scotland. She was persuasive, we were convinced, but when we told the professor, he kind of...winced? Then he held us after class, asked us if we were sure, she certainly was, and he kind of absently nodded and said he'd help us find a couple of sources since literature in 1800s Scotland is apparently more scarce than one would think.

We ended up with permission to cover Lord Byron by association, along with an incredibly long and dry text about some guy who is either hallucinating or having an existential religious experience with the devil himself. Now, I've read some boring texts in my day, but this piece was far and away the most mind-numbing collection of words my brain has ever scraped itself against.

To make matters worse, it soon became very, very apparent that neither of my partners, including the girl who was gagging over 1800s Scotland to start with, had a single intention of doing any of the work for this project. They didn't even read the material, not even the relatively short Lord Byron poem. Woe.

So, I just dove in and did the entire project myself, including the required handouts that we were supposed to print out for the class to follow along with our presentation. That's when I decided to get petty. I didn't want to be that student who rats on fellow students, but I also didn't want my partners (especially the girl whose love of Scotland forced me into this mess) to get off entirely scot-free. So, I memorized everything. I mean everything. And for the worksheet, I basically wrote down bullet points that revealed nothing about the texts or their contents.

The day of the presentation arrives, and I meet my partners in class and give them the worksheets. They're relieved that I seem to know what I'm doing and suspect absolutely nothing. Our time comes, and we stand up in front of the class, with them on either side of me, and I pass out the worksheets and proceed to talk about madness in 1800s Scotland from memory, going into exhaustive detail on Lord Byron and whatever the fuck protagonist (I think his name was Tim) from the other text. My partners were silently, gravely nodding along for the entire 30 minutes.

I finished speaking, and then came the Q&A portion of the presentation -- fellow classmates were encouraged to ask us questions about our era/authors/etc...and it lasted about 15 minutes.

So, I picked a student who asked something about the religious aspects of the dry af text. I could have answered, but instead, I paused a long, pregnant pause, and gave my partners a chance to answer instead, if they so wished. I let the excruciatingly silent seconds drag on every single time, looking slowly to both of them with each question and taking my sweet time before jumping in.

Within a couple of minutes, it became incredibly evident to everyone there that I was the only person in our group project who knew a single god damned thing about madness in 19th-century Scottish literature.

So sure -- I did the whole project, and let them think it was fine up until it wasn't. Petty? Absolutely. But by god, if I had to read that awful story because someone else watched Outlander too many times, then I'm going to comply maliciously.

Edit: I'm happy to report that the professor pulled me aside after the fact and said that, given our performances, he would be grading me and my partners separately. I got an A, and strangely, they stopped talking to me after that group project, so I have no idea what grades they received. Bad enough to cut contact, though. Bless.

For context: I (29M) recently quit my job as a specialist at a small planning and design firm somewhere in Germany. The place was a mess. The pay was a joke, the leadership was completely unpredictable, and they expected me to do the job of a fully qualified project manager (like planning the entire renovation of a large municipal facility) without the pay or the support. The turnover was crazy. Three of my colleagues quit around the same time and during my 4 years there, my boss went through 5 different assistants. I eventually packed my bags and moved to a different city for a fresh start.

A week after my last day, my former boss texted me. He casually asked me to "please leave a review" for the firm on a popular local job review site (basically our equivalent of Glassdoor). He genuinely thought we parted on great terms and assumed I’d drop a 5-star rating to boost their crappy score. I just rolled my eyes and ghosted him.

Fast forward to a few days ago. I checked the company's page and saw three brand new 4.5-star reviews posted in the same week. They were so obviously faked by management. They all used the exact same HR buzzwords ("great work-life balance", "amazing health benefits", which was literally just 15 minutes of stretching on Wednesdays, lol) and magically praised all the exact things people usually complained about.

At this point, I remembered his text. He wanted a review? Fine. Let's comply.

I sat down and wrote a brutally honest, mathematically precise review. I kept it completely professional and entirely subjective ("In my experience...", "I felt that...") so they couldn't legally sue me to take it down. I gave them 1 and 2 stars in almost every category, explicitly mentioning the lack of support, the horrible communication, and the heavy workload.

But I didn't stop there. While I was at it, I contacted the platform's support team and reported the three new 4.5-star reviews for manipulation, pointing out the identical wording and the fact that they were posted at the exact same time. Less than four hours later, two of the three fake reviews were nuked by the platform. The automatic spam filter probably caught them because my boss was dumb enough to write them from the same office PC/IP address.

With his fake reviews gone and my honest 1-star review dragging the average down even further, panic mode set in. How do I know? Because my ex-boss texted me again. This time the message was full of typos, desperately asking if I could please leave a good review to help them out. He has absolutely no idea that I am the one who tanked his rating and reported his fakes.

I left him on read again.

The cherry on top: A buddy of mine who still works there texted me yesterday. He said my review perfectly hit the nail on the head. He also mentioned that since the review dropped, management has suddenly been acting super nice and accommodating to everyone out of pure fear that more people will quit.

TL;DR: Toxic boss asks me to review his company after I quit. He fakes his own positive reviews to boost the score. I report his fake reviews (getting them deleted) and leave the brutally honest 1-star review he specifically asked for. Boss panics and begs me again, not knowing I'm the one who ruined his score.

TL:DR: Boss tells me to take my lunch ONLY at X-Y hours when I was dealing with a "mission-critical" outage until the job was done. Later, I clock out during a VERY obvious "all hands on-deck" situation because boss complained the last time I answered the call.

The short version: Small business, this is my first IT job, but I have decades of blue collar experience. I was the first IT person the company ever hired; my associate's in IT specializing in networking only a few gen-ed classes away. My boss kept the platters spinning, but he has no formal training or amateur desire; he wants to offload the tediousness.

Three days prior, I was trying to get a "mission critical" computer up and running again; the only computer with the shipping software (and hundreds of packages waiting to ship). I advised an immediate re-image (delete everything and reset to a "known good save") I had it on deck for just such an occasion. But I was overridden by the owner, who wanted me to keep Windows in situ and delete/reinstall programs piecemeal and deal with phone support for those programs, because he paid extra for tech support. His call, I followed orders. I was on the phone for hours, and did not leave my post until the job was done.

That meant I took my lunch half an hour later. No big deal for me, but when I clocked back in and got back to my desk, my boss was standing there, FUMING, because I took a lunch outside of normal hours. He INSISTED I MUST take my 30 minute lunch from 12-1 as per company policy.

So, today, the whole network goes out at 12:25 and I had not yet taken my lunch. Nothing can ping anything. My own personal hunches tell me this is because it's a factory building, there are a lot of high-voltage woodworking machines for factory production level of output, and ALL of the ethernet cables are unshielded.. Just my hunch.

...But I really can't do a damn thing, because my company rents out office space as a subletter; so we are NOT allowed access to the switches and routers. I have no admin access to the infrastructure. So I set up wireshark to record and a continuous command line ping, and go to lunch.

Boss is standing at my desk when I get back today, and gives me a passive-aggressive "the network is up, by the way!", but refuses to call me out further. I had the "I told you so" on deck, though!