'They were planning to fire him': Employee has manager fire them before the manager themself is fired

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Jul 13, 2023 9:00 AM EDT

Throughout the course of your working life, there will be people you just gel with—people who operate on the same wavelength as you and with whom coexistence and cooperation are effortless. There will be others who you just can't seem to get along with—the antithesis of yourself—like a foil that some cunning author wrote into the narrative of your life.

But this first group, these people who are a cut from the same cloth as yourself, become the best coworkers and even lifelong friends. When one of you leaves your job, meaning that you'll no longer spend 40 hours a week together, it can feel like the end of an era–like things will never be the same again. Continuing on with the job without them feels like an impossible task and may mean that, eventually, the other will leave too.

One has to imagine that this is the level of closeness and camaraderie that this worker had with their manager, who managed their small team. One day, while the manager was away on leave, the powers that be called the rest of the team in for a meeting, telling them that someone had lost their key and the locks needed to be replaced. It was obvious that something was afoot; the close-knit team was able to easily confirm amongst themselves that no one had lost a key. Reading between the lines, this worker approached their manager to warn them that their head might be on the chopping block come their return to work on Monday. Together, the two hatched a cunning plan.

See the story as it was originally shared on Reddit's r/ProRevenge subreddit by Redditor u/LS-CRX below. Next, see this worker who was laid off and then asked to return to work three months later.

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  • 01
    Font - Fire my boss unethically? Enjoy paying for my unemployment benefits! This took place more than a decade ago. I started working for a small branch of a company and got along really well with my boss (the branch manager) and used to compare him to Michael Scott (not to his face), I would have been Jim Halpert in this scenario. After working there for a while, my boss was approached with an "awesome" offer to go manage a bigger branch a few hours away. This was because the owner wanted to pl
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 02
    Font - My boss graciously turned down the offer, his kids had just started at their new schools and he didn't want to uproot them again (he'd relocated to take the current position). This was not taken well by our corporate office, but they couldn't fire him for it... not directly. A few weeks later I saw our office manager (a lady nobody in the office liked) in my boss's office filing paperwork (or so it seemed) which was odd but not alarming. The next week my boss was going to be on vacation,
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 03
    Font - While we were at the corporate thing our office manager handed out new office keys to all of us (three) that were there (my boss was on vacation, and salaried). I asked, "why are we getting new keys?" and she said it was because someone lost theirs :-/ None of us had lost our keys, we were all sitting together and could easily confirm this, so I texted my boss to ask him and he had no CLUE what she was up to. I got a bad feeling about what was happening.
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 04
    Font - I called him after the meeting and told him to come by my house Sunday when he got back from out of town. I explained that I was 95% certain they were planning to fire him Monday, I didn't know what reason, I just had a gut feeling. I said it was too bad because if he was fired I wouldn't want to work there anymore knowing that they would do shady stuff like that. He (jokingly) said that he should fire me first, so I could go on unemployment. I laughed and told him that he should write me
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 05
    Font - So we did, and he was fired Monday (for misfiling paperwork of some sort), and I definitely did not go back to work. They tried calling me in, and I told them that my boss had fired me already. I took the proof with me to the unemployment office and was good to go... until they (former employer) disputed my claim. I had a hearing (on the phone) with the unemployment office and my corporate HR person:
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 06
    Font - HR: "He wasn't fired, the paperwork he submitted with his claim isn't the right paperwork, it should have come from HR, not his manager" Unemployment: "Why did the manager not do that then? Where is he?" HR: "He no longer works for the company" Unemployment: "Why did he leave?" HR: "He was fired" Unemployment: "Why was he fired?" (getting exasperated) HR: *mumbles* "For doing paperwork incorrectly..."
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 07
    Font - Unemployment: "Well that is hardly the fault of the terminated employee!?!! How is he to know that the paperwork is invalid that is coming from their supervisor?" They told my HR that they could rehire me or not, but my claim was valid. They couldn't rehire me because they'd already filled the position. So I got to collect unemployment for a while before moving on to my next job. My former boss is doing well now it seems, and I don't feel bad at all.
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 08
    Font - For the record, it is VERY likely that they would have "invented" a way of firing me after they got rid of my boss. Had they done that, they would have made CERTAIN that my termination was such that I wouldn't be eligible for unemployment, I took that power away from them by getting fired preemptively. I am also positive that when I saw the office manager in his office (while he was away) she was arranging the setup for him to be fired.
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 09
    Font - ReactorOperator Every Dwight believes he's a Jim. Reply Share 3.0k IndySGZ That's assistant regional manager to you. 920 LS-CRX OP Reply Share Identity theft is not a joke. Reply Share 900
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 10
    Font - [deleted] Damn. Do you know if your boss had to relocate again? For the sake of his kids I hope not Reply Share 209 LS-CRX OP He started his own company, don't think it succeeded, but I'm friends with him on Facebook and he seems to be doing well now. 274 jesuschin ... 181 Reply Share Can confirm. The Michael Scott Paper Company no longer exists Reply Share ..
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 11
    Font - [deleted] Qoffice politics. People are aces who can't see past their own pathetic, conceited self-absorbed selves. Like what tf is so damned important that you have to fire someone in such a manner?? FuO nothing. Nothing is that important and 99% of life is trite and trivial and not worth a damn! Wish more people could see that, but no. They gotta feel important and good about themselves 4489 Reply Share
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 12
    Font - k1r0v_report1ng Nepotism at its "finest".. Frequent shady behavior like that is a great way to sink a company. 474 Reply Share
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 13
    Font - zyzzogeton So if they admitted that the old Boss was fired in the HR meeting, I wonder if the termination for cause (misfiling paperwork) could have been overturned and the old Boss could have gotten unemployment. ✩ 46 Reply Share
    via u/LS-CRX
  • 14
    Font - LS-CRX OP The way they framed my old boss was by (from my understanding) claiming that he had misfiled or lost some important paperwork that could have created a very big liability for the company. They never disputed that during my hearing, in fact they stuck to it and made my case even stronger. 68 Reply Share ●●●
    via u/LS-CRX

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getting fired workplace-stories in-the-workplace jobs fired toxic-workplace workplace-story work workplace employment
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