Just a rant/story:
It was 1987/8. I was working part time at a company that manufactured audio components (remember those?) in their marketing department as a support person while putting myself through college.
My duties centered around the marketing department and included shipping stuff out for them (shirts, mugs, devices samples, etc). Pretty mindless stuff but I absolutely loved the company and their products. At the end of every day, just prior to or when the shipping companies would turn up, this sales/marketing douchbag (DB) would come down and dump a crap ton of stuff on me and tell me to get it out that day.
Mind you, DB had all day to get the pile to me, but he waited until 5:30pm every day, just before his fat ass went off for his high carb dinner.
At one point I called him out on this untenable situation:
Me: “Why do you get these to me at the end of the day? It’s impossible to get these out the same day when you wait until 5:30 and the trucks are already here.”
DB (looking me in the eye): “I don’t care about your homework, study sessions or other obligations. Get it all packed and drive it over to the main office where they have a later pickup time. Shit trickles downhill buddy and you are the bedpan.“
That was harsh and as someone in their early 20’s, it hurt and stuck with me after all these years. I left shortly after that incident (for this and other reasons) and those were the last words we exchanged. I’ve always told myself that I’d never treat anyone with so much contempt and disrespect as that ass shat on me.
Cut to more or less current day. I’ve got a degree, a career, decent salary and I manage a team that's in the same industry (electronics/tech). Gloriously, guess who’s resume comes across my desk?
DB reaches out to me through social media to follow up, asking about the company and wants me to put in a good word for him. He’s all reminiscey, wanting to talk about old times, catch up on our former peers, laugh about the company parties (that I was not invited to since I was PT) so I indulge him a bit with meaningless chit-chat. Then I tell him how I love this company, the comp and benefits, my years here (14), my awesome team, etc.
Then the pivot – I ask him if he remembers the last thing he ever said to me and he doesn’t… so I remind him – word for word. Twice.
He immediately apologizes, backpedals, says that ‘oh, that was years ago, we were young and dumb’ blah blah blah. Then he gets all hand-wavey (as if to discount the impact that had on me), doubles-down and asks for that ‘good word’ to be put in. Now, I’m usually a water_under_the_bridge guy but this one needed serious closure. For both of us.
And with my pocket veto on his employment, I got the Closure I needed with a capital f’ing C. He got the message that he can't treat people like that and expect people to roll over (as I did). And I’ve slept better ever since. Win-win!
I wish this DB, and other DBs around the world, who mistreat, step on, malign others for their own selfish benefit to climb ladders or what have you the same karmic fate. Even if it takes 35 years to come back around, I hope it does for all of them.