Some of us with terrible jobs and even worse coworkers might have dreamed of one day executing the perfect instance of workplace revenge, but these people actually did it! So if you've ever wondered how to get revenge on an annoying coworker, or even if you just want to live vicariously through these wild workplace vigilantes, read on to discover stories of petty plots, righteous retaliation, and other methods of sweet, sweet revenge - and don't forget to vote up your favorites!
- 1
Ghostin'
Posted by u/jamesjaceable:
So, I like to bring my own food into the office. We have a share fridge, and I have my food in tubs with my name on them. A coworker would sometimes "not see" the names on the food and think it was theirs, so they would heat it up, eat it, then apologize. Last month, I had enough... I ordered a bag of ghost peppers and put the full bag into a big pot of chili that would last for several days...
Midweek, my lunch went missing, and I was waiting for the person who took it to get a shock when they ate it. In reality what happened was someone got sent home sick, the next day they were off, and I was told they went to the doctors for stomach pains… My manager agreed it was on the person who took my lunch without knowing how spicy it was, and I should not be held liable if they eat something of someone else's that doesn't agree with them.
They were fired the next day for "theft of property," and told they would not be given a reference.
Perfect Payback? - 2
Bad Move, Bob
Posted by u/XvFoxbladevX:
I work running a machine for a company that puts out product for customers.
We have a new hire, who we'll call Bob... In order to help Bob, I run the more difficult product while the supervisor continues to train Bob. I do this so he can concentrate on learning the new stuff and just run all the easy product. But Bob starts to get very arrogant. Bob starts talking sh*t about how high his numbers are compared to everyone else's. Bob starts leaving snide notes like, "I ran 30,000 pieces on this machine, you should have no problems reaching the same numbers."
Bad move, Bob.
So I decided to run all of the easy product that night. I run 78,000 pieces and leave Bob with all of the difficult products to run. I leave Bob a note that reads, "Ran almost 80K product, you should be able to run at least that much tomorrow."
I come in the next day, and Bob didn't leave a note. I check his log, he only managed to run 18K pieces of product.... Have not seen a note from Bob since. Worth it.
Perfect Payback? - 3
Special Delivery
Posted by u/crabshack4:
I work construction and have a second job delivering pizzas. I knew this coworker from the construction job... He was the kind of guy that would watch you make a mistake, then berate you, and call you an idiot for that mistake. Not a nice guy by any right.
Another thing he loved to do was brag about how doting his wife was, how hot his girlfriend was, and how much they sacked when his wife thought he was working overtime. Well, one day, I got a delivery with a familiar name. I arrived at the house, knocked, and he opened the door. He looked quite surprised, “Hey, I didn’t know you delivered pizzas!” “Yeah, when work gets slow. Anyway, that’ll be $15.”
He hands me $16 and looks kinda smug about it. I take the cash, and am about to turn around when I say, just loud enough for anyone inside to hear, “Hey, is this your girlfriend’s house, or you and your wife’s place?”
The color drained from his face, and he handed me an extra $20.
Perfect Payback? - 4
Mommy Issues
Posted by u/JCurry2:
I had a picture of my mom and me on my desktop. This guy, Pat, kept commenting on how hot my mom was (he was about the same age as her)... He did this for about a month, so I asked another guy at work what Pat's daughter's name was (she is around the same age as me), found her on Facebook, and asked her if she would help play a prank on her dad. I then went out on a "date" with his daughter, took a picture of the two of us drinking out of the same drink with two straws, and proceeded to put it in a heart-shaped frame on my desk. Finally, I got another manager to tell Pat that I had gotten a new girl and was head over heels for her.
He came straight to my office. I didn't say a word, and all I heard from behind me was, "What are you doing with my daughter?!" To this day, he hasn't asked when my mom is calling next!
Perfect Payback? - 5
Game Over
Posted by u/Rasalom:
A lady on our team never did any work... She just played solitaire. Eventually, it got to the point where we were uninstalling the games from her computer accounts via the local admin accounts.
One day, I noticed she STILL had a game on her PC, even after we removed the default ones. So when she left the office and left her PC logged in, I got on it and found the game shortcut on her desktop. Then I changed everything so that when she clicked on the shortcut, it would open the Wikipedia page on work ethic instead of the game.
She doesn't play games in the office anymore.
Perfect Payback? - 6
Extra Credit
Posted by u/Dsx-Kalista:
When I worked at a pizza place, we had to do boxes. They came as a stack of flat cardboard with the creases and perforations, and we had to fold them up and have them ready. Everyone was responsible for doing this. If you didn’t have anything to do, you folded boxes.
One of my coworkers hated doing them and would constantly wait around while someone else folded boxes, then “deliver them to the front,” AKA take credit for them. Another coworker got petty and started intentionally denting the boxes so they looked crushed. That way when lazy*ss took them up front, the boss would yell at him for f*cking up the boxes. It was fun to watch.
Perfect Payback? - 7
Well, You Can Tell By The Way I Use My Walk...
Posted by u/Gaggamaggot:
[Coworker] never shuts up, likes to one-up people, is loud, gets upset very easily, and likes to pull rank on people when he has none...
So, at 7:00 am PST this morning, I placed a small Bluetooth speaker in the HVAC duct above his head and have been playing "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees on repeat since then. It's only barely audible, and only he can hear it. So far, this is his discovery:
7:30 am: I noticed him stop, look around, close his eyes, and seemingly try to listen for something. He shook it off and continued talking.
8:15 am: He mentioned a car driving by playing some music that sounded familiar. No car had passed.
8:45 am: Started humming the song after I had turned it down.
9:30 am: Asked what music I was playing on my computer. Came over, searched, found nothing. Looked at other coworker, who just shrugged. Went back to talking.
10:00 am: I turned up the music when he was around the corner. He came running back, I turned it down. He asked a customer, "Did you hear that?" Customer said, "Hear what?" He shook his head and ignored it...
3:02 pm: He broke down and confronted us. Shouting sh*t like, "I know you're doing this," etc, etc. But he has no proof. He's now just sitting outside smoking and pouting...
Perfect Payback? - 8
Keyboard Warrior
Posted by u/OppositeOfOxymoron:
The guy beside me at work used to tease me about random stuff, so I grabbed a spare keyboard and plugged it into his PC, which was easy to obscure since his desk was a jumble of wires.
Throughout the day, I would hold down the shift key while he was typing. It was especially effective when he was trying to type his password, as he couldn't see that I was messing it up. I'd lock his PC when he turned around to talk to coworkers. Every time he'd leave his PC, I'd turn on the Caps Lock key. When I saw that his email client was open and he wasn't looking, I'd open a new email message. He'd mumble, "Sh*t. Who was I writing to?"
On the day I got busted, he unplugged all the USB cables, found the extra cable, and yanked it. The keyboard it was attached to flew across my desk and slammed into a bookshelf, and I started laughing hysterically...
Perfect Payback? - 9
Revenge With An Audience
Posted by u/Purplepunch36:
I worked with a godawful employee who made my work day miserable, didn’t do her job, wasted company time, went through my belongings, moved my desk, and ultimately got caught stealing company property... by me. I got her fired… then got a raise and promotion because of it.
The best part is that all of this was done in front of the whole sales team and all the managers - about 20 of them. They all watched this happen, and they all watched her be escorted out of the building.
Perfect Payback? - 10
Morning Workout
Posted by u/dracaenagxx:
There is a middle-aged lady in the office who, for some reason, was mean to me when I started. She would make up bad stories about me, and even shouted at the whole office once that I have such a bad attitude that I don't deserve to be here, and cursed at me...
This morning, I had just gotten into the elevator when I saw her enter the lobby. She was bringing a lot of things with her, so her hands were full, and she shouted to hold the door for her. I just pretended to push the open button as I watch her run for it, but oops! It closed before she reached it.
Both our areas are on the fourth floor... Minutes later, she arrived at her desk, panting.
Turns out, it took a while before my elevator came back down, and the other elevator was closed for maintenance. So she decided to just use the stairs. She kept staring daggers at me and talking about how annoyed she was, but oh, well. At least she got some morning exercise.
Perfect Payback? - 11
Fabulously Evil
Posted by a former Redditor:
I put glitter in my coworker's air vents because he drew a p*nis on my rear windshield. Keep in mind, I live in AZ, and you use A/C most of the year.
Perfect Payback? - 12
Surprise Showers
Posted by u/StrangeLoveNebula:
I started working in a photo lab for a popular store a few years ago, and I was trained by a girl who always made me really nervous... and constantly complained about everything I did.
Anyway, at the end of the night, I would have to remove this film rack out of the film processor and put it in a bowl of water (to keep the rollers from drying out). In the morning, when she would open, she would take it down from the shelf by the sink and put it back in the film processor for the day. In my own form of petty revenge, I began to fill the bowl each night exactly to the brim, then I would set it on the very edge of the top shelf (which was juuuust out of her reach). In the mornings, she would have to stand on tiptoe to get it down, and, inevitably, the water would slosh down on her as she fumbled with the bowl.
She b*tched at me in passing a few times, but I kept it up. She started putting up signs that said not to fill the bowl all the way, or not to put it on the top shelf, but I ignored these and would cackle to myself a little each night as I did this... It's such a petty revenge, but I really got a kick out of hearing other coworkers tell me how she would storm out of the lab in a huff with water dripping down her face and a damp shirt every morning. A few times, it really just toppled down and soaked her completely. It warms the cockles of my heart.
Perfect Payback? - 13
Spamalot
Posted by u/xylerium:
Simple. I posted an ad on Craigslist for an insanely good deal for a 42" plasma. Then I left my coworker's office number, cell number, and email as ways to get in touch.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Perfect Payback? - 14
Customer Complaint
Posted by u/willsixtynine:
Last May, we got a new employee... He would constantly disappear and come back clearly high and slouch around doing nothing to help... so I fabricated an online customer review in which he called a customer a c*nt, and he was fired immediately.
Perfect Payback? - 15
All Shook Up
Posted by a former Redditor:
I used to work night shift at a hotel. Part of my duties included stocking sodas in the gift shop. I quit because of an incident with the manager, who was a Bond-villain caliber of evil, and in my last week, I violently shook about 10 sodas and put them in the gift shop fridge at random.
Perfect Payback?
