‘He lost his PhD because of me’: Employee gets boss's PhD revoked after getting fired for taking lead of the company

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
May 19, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

Don't mess with people if you don't have the means to back it up.

One rich boss inherited a lot of money from his ancestors, which he slowly but surely dwindled away by making avoidable mistakes at work. He had a company, but he had no idea how to lead his employees, and even though most people went along with it, one employee didn't. This person, who we'll call OP, kept calling the boss out for his mistakes and took the lead so that the boss's decisions wouldn't lead to chaos. Well, you can imagine that OP's boss didn't like that very much, and he got fired fairly quickly. Bitter, angry, and furious, OP decided to hatch a plan to get even with him, which apparently, wasn't so hard. The first thing OP did was look up his former boss's degrees. And that's when things began to get really heated… let's just say it didn't end well for the boss.

Then, here is a story about a housemate who stole money from their roommate for food, and when outed, refused to pay them back.

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  • 01
    "He lost his PhD because of me. "
    via Canva
  • 02
    My boss fired me - So I took his Masters and PhD title
    via u/Tiredworker27
  • 03
    I had a rich boss once - that was only rich because of the wealth from his (Grand) Parents. Guy was a complete and utter m on. He made nonsensical financial decisions and burned through hundreds of thousands of Dollars in completely avoidable mistakes. But because he had money from his ancestors he just shrugged of these losses and continued.
    via u/Tiredworker27
  • 04
    He had also only but the faintest idea about his company or how to lead or keep employees. I was bascially keeping the company together. As such I was the Nay-sayer that blocked 90% of his stupid plans and decisions. Due to my "negativity" I was fired. The guy was also arrogant as hell because he had a Masters and PhD in economics. I though "no way in hell can this guy have a Masters/PhD hes so dan stupid". So I searched for his Masters and PhD thesis - went to the University library - and what
    via u/Tiredworker27
  • 05
    passage without citation. After like 40 minutes I found another 10 passages he copied without citation. I spent only some 20 Minutes examining his PhD thesis and found already 2 cases. I made pictures of the text passages he copied and the books from where he took them and wrote an anonymus Email to the University. A year later he lost both his Masters and PhD because of his plagiarism. I know this from people that still work with him because he exploded - the university just thanked me but told
    via u/Tiredworker27
  • 06
    So either he had a ghost writer write it for him who didnt care - or he just copied and thought he would never be cought. He wrote both in the 80s. Chances are many Masters and PhD theses from these times are plagiarised because there were less possibilities to check. After all imagine its 1985 and you are at the University of Chicago and during a trip to Miami you visit the library and write of a thesis there. If you change the title, there is almost a 0 chance that you will ever be caught.
    via u/Tiredworker27
  • 07
    So if you have stupid bosses/people around you with a degree that are older and did you wrong - it might be worth your time to check their thesis
    via u/Tiredworker27
  • 08
    punklinux 13 hr. ago I had a customer tell me that having a PhD on their letterhead was a "sure-fire way to get government contracts." As in, when making a proposal, if they said one of their team had a PhD in electrical engineering or something, they'd get to the top of their heap, especially if the project had specs requiring it. "So, do they check to see of these people actually have PhDs?" "No." "Sounds unethical."
    via u/punklinux
  • 09
    "Everyone is doing it." No idea if that's true or not, but there you go. 857 Reply Share 1102inNOVA 12 hr. ago · edited 12 hr. ago I'm not sure how long ago this was said to you, but I award government contracts for a living, so I feel I can chime in here. You're not going to the front of the line for putting PHD in there. However, if my requirements state X# of PHD people required, then if you don't have the required number of PHD.'s in your offer, then you will be removed from the competition.
    via u/1102inNOVA
  • 10
    If I don't have a requirement for a PHD and you send me a proposal with PHD in there that's great but I am not going to pay you PHD wages so while thats great you have a PHD that doesn't help you in any way. I can't speak for every office, but I have reviewed candidates' resumes, and again, if a PHD. is a requirement, then better believe I expect to see the transcripts and degree in your proposal. 271 Reply Share
    via u/1102inNOVA
  • 11
    Blacksmith NZ . 8 hr. ago I have doubts about the story, but have worked with somebody who claimed to have a PhD that I believe was fake. It is surprisingly hard to verify. In my case I was a consultant working for a large government owned utility. A lot of work, and I was being pulled in as a consultant as they didn't have a lot of experts in the IT system they were using. I had suggested they hire more people in the department to build more knowledge in-house, and they were excited to finally
    via u/BlacksmithNZ
  • 12
    After a couple of meetings I quickly figured out he was full of s. t. He would repeat stuff back, use some buzz words but never seemed to contribute anything technical and would never give a straight answer to anything. About 6 weeks into the project, he was supposed to make a key architecture decision we had been waiting on re the new system, and he presented it in a big meeting with all parties; showing a power point of my work I had done detailing options, but no decision. When I pushed him f
    via u/BlacksmithNZ
  • 13
    I then tried to figure out how they employed him and if he really had the skills. Everything reeked of fake; the PhD was granted at a low end university in the UK who didn't do many PhD programs and no signs of anything he had produced online. He supposed ran a big department in the corporate in the UK, but no signs of that and he would have had the position young with little experience. Had a friend in the UK who I asked to check details, but university would not confirm details due to privacy
    via u/BlacksmithNZ
  • 14
    In the end, I changed job, and I later discovered he moved on from that government department within -a year, and seemed to go to another similar job for 6 months. Seems to have changed job (and country) very regularly for a while and has not worked in the industry in more recent years. Suspect others discovered what I did, but still surprised recruitment agents don't seem to really check qualifications and that universities don't have easy look up to verify people got the qualifications they sa
    via u/BlacksmithNZ
  • 15
    barracudan 6 hr. ago And here I came in to this thread after reading the title thinking that you just stole his framed diplomas from his office or something ② 9 Reply Share Mother_Was_A_Hamster · 14 hr. ago Master and PhD are not achieved with a single thesis/dissertation, so this story does not seem credible to me. If you found plagiarism in this PhD dissertation, that does not prove he plagiarized his Master's thesis.
    via u/barracudan, u/Mother_Was_A_Hamster
  • 16
    If he didn't cite the passages, how do you know what books he took them from? Did you read every book in his bibliography? 442 Reply Share Pure_Cantaloupe_3195 14 hr. ago In the UK at least, you absolutely have to, and have for a long time, had to produce a 30,000 word thesis for a Masters and a 100,000 thesis for a PhD. These are what you are judged on, nothing else. 270 Reply Share
    via u/Pure_Cantaloupe_3195
  • 17
    marmitespider ⚫ 5 hr. ago I have some super smart friends who hold PhD's. They only bring out the "Dr" honorific when dealing with govt departments or other businesses where productivity and effectiveness go to die. 8 Reply Share sheissonotso 5 hr. ago Lmao knew a dude who straight up lied about graduating from Clemson and made almost 200k a year until he ped someone off and they figured out he was full of st and got him fired.
    via u/marmitespider, u/sheissonotso
  • 18
    MicIsOn 12 hr. ago How did they thank you if it was anonymous? 48 Reply Share xplosm 8 hr. ago They replied to the email... 10 Reply Share AgentOOX . 9 hr. ago I assumed it meant he created a new email address that didn't have his identity tied to it to submit the evidence. But he still had access to it later. 32 Reply Share
    via u/MicIsOn, u/xplosm, u/AgenOOX
  • 19
    Schmandrea1975. 7 hr. ago I had a teacher who tried to continue the work of his mentor only to find out his mentor made all the numbers up. Sad. Hurtful, and a giant waste of time. 5 Reply Share
    via u/Schmandrea1975
  • 20
    sitcom_enthusiast · 4 hr. ago I wrote a bs and a Ms thesis, two different universities. For one I had to submit several copies, including one that was loose paper (which could easily be scanned, I suppose). The second one required only bound copies to be submitted. I remember thinking it would be harder to scan and check for plagiarism.
    via u/sitcom_enthusiast

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