Manager: Can you come in this weekend to work.
Me: Nopes. No can do.
Mgr: Why?
Me: Busy.
Mgr: It's Sunday, what do you have to do on Sunday?
Me: I like cleaning cobwebs. So I take a long handled broom and walk around the neighborhood asking random people if they would like me to clean their homes.
Mgr: What kind of reply is that?
Me: It means – What I do on Sunday is none of your business and don't ask me that question again unless you are dying. And FYI if you are dying I'll assume the office is closed for next 13 days in mourning. I will of course send a nice condolence message to your home with a bouquet.
Mgr: This work needs to be completed before Monday.
Me: No. I've sent the last batch to customer on Thursday asking them to give feedback by Monday and outlining various options and timelines. We will not be doing any work on the project till we hear from them and only work on the lines they approve of.
Mgr: I still think we should do the work this way.
Me: Look I am the Project Manager. I'm speaking to the customer and I am answerable to them. You are not a technical person and you have zero idea of what you are asking. The approach you are suggesting is a waste of time and will not work. We have already discussed and rejected it even before the project began.
He goes ahead and calls the team to work on the approach he wanted to adopt. They work on the weekend and run into the snags I warned them about.
In his pettiness he has them delete the backup files of the work I submitted and overwrite the raw files with his changes.
I come in on Monday and find out he and his lackeys have destroyed one month's work. I resign on the spot, so does the rest of the team. 5 resignations from a team of 7 in a single day.
Only the people who worked on weekend are left. They lose the project when client hears of the snafu – the Project Manager from the customer team called me on my personal phone to find out what happened. The other partners are livid. Company closes down.