A number of years ago but a pretty good story.
I was working at a 15-person startup, mostly super-senior engineers that would help clients fix gnarly or network or sysadmin issues for an hourly rate, or set up something overnight that would have taken them weeks. It was pretty cool to work with a variety of clients, not have anyone tell me how to do my job, and be truly appreciated when we could fix a disaster.
About one year in, Mike, the boss, decided it was time to “get serious” and have a professionally designed logo / business cards / website. Being a service business putting high-priced consultants in the field, he felt strongly that we should have business cards. I volunteered to help because I had outsourced graphic design at a couple of other startups to do similar things.
I went back to some people I used before, nice folks and very talented. In the very first round, they presented several great ideas, including a gorgeous four-color logo. Mike fell in love with it. The designer said they could develop it further but that printing would be much more expensive than a one-color solution. Insulted by the suggestion that he didn't have the money for it, Mike doubled down and said he “definitely” wanted full color.
At the next meeting, the designer showed us some more refinements of the four-color solution. They were breathtaking. He brought a detailed breakout of the printing costs, clever guy that he was, and insisted that we look at it right then. Mike turned white at the eye-watering fees. Then he turned red and said to me “You were the wrong person to take point on this. You must think we're Apple or Google if you think this budget is reasonable.”
I said “Last week you liked the full color logo and wanted to go with it. If you have changed your mind, that's cool, we can use one of the other designs.”
He turned even redder, raised his voice and said “THAT'S A LIE. I did not say I wanted this.” Now, we all knew Mike was prone to outbursts, and changing his mind a lot. We'd learned to let it go. But calling me a liar? In front of outside people? Nope.
I turned to the designer and apologized, went back to my desk, packed my shit up, and headed for the front door. I had to walk by the room where we had been discussing the logo. As I passed, Mike yelled down the hall “We're not done here!” I don't remember what I said, but I made it clear I wasn't coming back.
I'm too timid to quit a job without another job lined up but I already had a standing offer from one of our clients to come work for them “when you can't deal with Mike's shit anymore.”
So I told Mike I was going to work for [client's name]. He laughed like a cartoon villain and said “You should read your employment agreement, buddy — ” (he actually said “buddy”) “– you can't work for any of my clients.” LOL, “my” clients.
I rummaged around in my backpack, which contained all the stuff from my desk, pulled out the employment agreement and held it up. “You mean this thing I never signed?” On my first day at this place they gave me this agreement to sign, it had a couple of wacky clauses, so I simply shoved it into a drawer to see if anyone would follow up. No one ever did.
Mike really fucked himself, because everyone in the company heard about what happened, and in the next few months about half of them quit. The funny thing is that he's still in business, years later. Maybe he learned something.