'I will never want to work with you again': Woman gets payback when mean ex-coworker contacts her for a work reference

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

Aug 7, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

I would not want to get on this person's bad side…

This woman shared her tale of a former coworker's comeuppance via this thread on Reddit's r/pettyrevenge subreddit, and let's just say that her comeback was decidedly savage. First, let's take things back a few years. When the Redditor was working for a different company for over seven years, she worked out a situation with management that allowed her to go back to school while working mostly full-time. Essentially, she worked longer hours 3x/week and it more or less added up. However, this one coworker, Patricia, started to get jealous of OP's hours and began to slowly but surely exclude her from gatherings in the workplace. It got to the point where OP felt that the whole work environment became a hostile one.

A few years later, the Redditor was working for a different company and received an unexpected message from Patricia, asking for a reference. Patricia was apparently applying for a job at OP's company, which really set her off. Personally, I feel that on a professional website like LinkedIn, OP could have gotten her message across without being so direct. You don't want to leave that kind of paper trail on a professional networking site. However, we do applaud her for scaring Patricia away and keeping her from pursuing the position.

Keep scrolling below to see exactly what OP said in her own words. When you're finished, check out this post about an employee who got their own revenge on a Karen coworker.