'They may have fired me, but I can still access the account': Social media manager keeps 'working' after being replaced by unpaid teenager

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 14, 2023 3:00 PM EDT

This person couldn't believe their eyes when their job position was suddenly taken over by a volunteer. Not just any volunteer — a nepotism hire, thanks to their boss. 

U/fjewioafjksldfhe created a throwaway account to tell r/pettyrevenge seekers about their crafty payback on their former boss. Social media is everywhere, and posting to various accounts in brand voice is a real and important job. Still, as with many types of undervalued jobs, like writers or artists or photographers, some bosses do not take social media management seriously at all. In fact, this boss had such a laissez-faire attitude about it that he decided to save money by letting his niece volunteer to do the job. 

It probably would have ended badly even without OP's interference. But still, they had a crafty plan to get back at this boss. Some commenters cheered the OP on, while others warned them against this plan. As the OP wrote, "You get what you pay for." I bet that boss is looking for a new social media manager right now, but it's too late to undo the damage that's already been done. 

Check out the entire story down below, plus the comments from well-wishers and haters alike. Then, these people told the stories of the most memorable times they were able to get even (or get pay back). 

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  • 01
    Human body - 1
    via Karsten Winegeart on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - Boss replaced me with unpaid labor, so I wrecked what I was working on for the company. Throwaway for obvious reasons.
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  • 03
    Font - My job was running a company's Instagram account (content creation and planning, influencer outreach, responding to DMs and comments, etc.) A little over 2 weeks ago, the company decided to replace me with my boss' 15 year old niece and give her "volunteer hours" instead of paying me. I didn't even get any notification from my boss that I was getting fired, and only found out about this after seeing my boss tell her niece that she'd be replacing me in a DM sent from the company Instagram.
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  • 04
    Font - They may have fired me, but I can still access the account. For those who don't know, engagement rate determines everything on Instagram. Posts with higher engagement get shown higher in people's feeds and explore pages, and posts with high engagement get shown in the "top posts" section of hashtags the photo was tagged with, among other things. So I've been going to the account and quietly removing 5-10 followers per day. With little to no new followers each day and the number of active
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  • 05
    Font - They also got hit with a takedown notice after boss' niece stole an influencer's pictures and tried to pass it off as her own on the company account. Good luck recovering!
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  • 06
    Font - TL;DR: Boss thought they could get away with replacing me with someone they don't have to pay, Instagram account now reflects "you get what you pay for."
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  • 07
    Font - Entropy_5 I like the slow play of lowering the followers gradually. Well played.
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  • 08
    Font - [deleted] do you block followers or can you make them unfollow you? 133 Verrmelho Reply you can make them unfollow you. just go to your followers list and there will be an option
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  • 09
    Font - trbd003 I think social media will always be one of those jobs that people think they don't need to pay for because anyone can do a bit of social media. Like photography, musicians, etc... Its all just good experience and it's basically stuff you do anyway for fun so why not do it for my business and get some exposure, etc etc? You get what you pay for in this life.
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  • 10
    Font - deepfried_mind. As one of my favourite quote goes: You don't pay the plumber for banging on the pipe. You pay him for knowing where to bang.
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  • 11
    Font - RedditSkippy +3. Your ex-boss is going to find out that he'll get what he pays for. Wait until summer when Ms. 15 wants to be with her friends and doesn't want to spend time engaging on the 'gram.
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  • 12
    Font - techieguyjames +3. This is better than going to the Dept. of Labor. Well done.
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  • 13
    Font - SalbaheJim Working for volunteer hours could be legal, but I'm sure there are rules and restrictions. It might only count if working for a non- profit, but you would have to check local regulations.
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  • 14
    Font - manoldo Sorry to read you were let go.. maybe something better comes out of it. Have you found something else already? I guess there's also a lot of opportunities with remote work in the field of social media
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  • 15
    Font - ▸ [deleted] Nice work. I hate that people think that some types of work aren't worth paying for or can be done by anyone.
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  • 16
    Font - + [deleted] Be careful as you may be breaking a company asset, you don't want to be liable for any kind of damages.
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  • 17
    Font - ffffflooofff The boss played bi games and won bi prizes
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  • 18
    Font - smartitardi D why didn't they just have her intern with you? ↑ 5 Reply Share meowhahaha +1. LA
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  • 19
    Gesture - WarioTBH Hope you are using a vpn
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  • 20
    Font - ironison Hahaha this is such sweet revenge.
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  • 21
    Font - Kohana55 Dude - You got replaced by a 15 year old. If I was you, I'd work on my skills. Because let's be honest, this 15 year old is only a few weeks away from earning the knowledge you have. It isn't exactly rocket science.
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Tags

getting fired fired replacement teens boss toxic-workplace manager job teenagers coworkers instagram dms managers social media workplace engagement bad bosses terrible-management
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