Hello! I apologize if my English isn't clear enough.
Wanted to share this story because it feels very good to stick it to an A-hole boss.
A couple years ago I had a crappy job in IT (like most of them). I was supposed to be outsourced as some sort of customer support coordinator, but the guy I was outsourced to actually wanted me to work as tech support. I didn't mind but figured it was a yellow flag, so I called my company's “HR” and said it was OK. My company was VERY small and new, and the owner/CEO usually dealt with HR stuff even though he was clearly unexperienced.
A couple months went by and I noticed I was the one working the most, BY FAR, while the on-site boss and my other colleagues just stayed in the office and watched girls on Instagram. Since I'm a woman I felt like it was a boys' club, but stayed on the job because I liked working with users so I shrugged it off.
One of the long-run tasks I was assigned to was collecting OS licensing and specs from every computer in the 3 different company buildings – a task that demanded most of my time and lasted for a couple months. I filled an individual form with the data from each computer and had it signed by its user, so I carried a bigass binder, with every single form, everywhere I went. I was told to preferably keep that binder with me and take it home after I was done for the day, so it wouldn't get lost or manipulated and so I did.
As time went by, I started feeling more alienated by my team and my boss' demands became increasingly out of place, up to “fixing a security camera”. I went from my previous “perhaps I shouldn't be doing that” to a straight up No. From then on, they all started practically ignoring me which I reported to me company to no avail. I was already past the probation period so they would have to compensate me if they fired me. I figured they'd send me to some other company or whatever but that didn't happen.
The last day I worked there, the boss was on the same building I was collecting data. It was the smallest building so I'd finish that day, which I couldn't because the boss decided to make me tag each computer's wires in a certain way. I was done with half the computers and he then tells me it's been done wrong, showed me a DIFFERENT way of doing and told me to start again. I told him I wouldn't finish everything in time so he suggested I skipped lunch, which of course I did not. So I came back from lunch, started over with the labeling at a slow pace and obviously didn't finish the job in the day. Boss suggested I stayed (unpaid) overtime, politely refused by claiming I had an appointment, and went home.
Next day I was heading to this building and my company calls me to say I'm fired. I wasn't surprised at all but I was still very angry, sad and with feelings of rejection. So I started crying, went into a shop to buy a sandwich and a coke and that sweet elderly couple offered me help and consolation, but I told them I'd be fine and they helped me A LOT by giving me the sandwich for free. I thanked them and went to a nearby park to eat my sandwich while still crying until I realized something and my tears almost stopped mid-cheek.
I had the binder with me. That binder had hundreds of hours of work that hadn't been backed up or digitalized in any way. Every form individually signed. And all those were for an incoming external audit.
So I finished my sandwich and my coke, got up and went right to a nearby garbage container, dumped the binder and went home, almost laughing.
Got home and called my company to reconfirm when I'd go and collect my final paycheck, while reminding them I've reported my situation several times and received no response, which could represent some legal inquiries (at least in my country). When the day came, they received me with caution and a very juicy paycheck. I tried to play it cool calling it “acceptable”, got TFO as soon as I could and went back home almost skipping.
AND A WEEK LATER! Idiot ex-boss calls me, sounding DESPERATE, asking me for the binder. Where could it be, he asked me. “Oh…I'm pretty sure it's in X building, where I last worked. Are you absolutely sure it's not in the office? Well call X, maybe it's there. I hope you find it”. I was dying to tell them that it's probably turned into mush or dust, but didn't in case they were recording the call (most likely). Later that day, an ex-teammate called me and asked again and gave him the same answer while trying not to sound like a grinning villain.
All that work I did and threw wasn't even in vain – got several contact references, a couple of side-hustles to make it through unemployment and even a scholarship for the career I'm doing now! And some people that kept in touch with me asked me WTF happened, since I wasn't around anymore and my boss and teammates were all over the place frantically doing my task AGAIN. Didn't tell the full story, but implied that my work was “mismanaged”. Don't know exactly how the audit resulted but I know for a fact it was an absolute sh*tstorm and I'm sorry I've missed it.
As for them? The company that hired me doesn't exist anymore – they were not “evil” but thoroughly incompetent.
The A-hole boss? Fired shortly afterwards, started his own project but didn't work so he's a “supervisor” somewhere else.
I hope you enjoyed the read, and I hope this gives some a hint of hope in this times of inhumane work ethics and capitalist despair.