Tech employee gets petty revenge on the company that thinks he's "no longer needed": 'I turned off every automated task I had ever set up'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Apr 26, 2025 3:00 PM EDT

We all want our bosses to recognize our hard work, but some companies just refuse to do so. 

Many employees find themselves carrying the weight of their company on their shoulders. "What would this company do if I quit?" or "This place would crumble if I stopped taking on extra work" are common thoughts about this type of management structure. When the boss just gives employees more and more work, while failing to manage the other workers all the while, it makes the employees carry this heavy extra burden that they may grow weary of. 

This dude got an incredible idea when he found out that the higher-ups were considering laying him off, so he sent out 3 strategic emails and let the chips fall! Check out the full tale below. 

Next up, read about some restaurant workers who revealed their biggest mistakes they've ever made at work, like one dude whose goof-up "Closed the restaurant for 9 days and the plumbing bill alone was $89,000."

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  • 01
    About 5 years ago my company brought in an individual to see if my position was "no longer needed". I passed with flying colors... Not to give too much info away, I was hired at an organization as a job title of basically "helper". Well for someone who is supposed to just be helping, I had a ridiculous amount of work.
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 02
    Almost all of my coworkers were huge technologically illiterate boomers. So I actually sort of thrived this as a very useful person. For example, one guy would spend half his day copying items and passing them into another program we use. HE DIDN'T EVEN USE CTRL C CTRL V he would right click then copy then go into the files menu or something and "insert copied item from clipboard". He was so proud of himself when he showed
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 03
    me because "don't worry you won't have to retype everything!" I wrote a program to do this automatically but did not tell him. So I would just run it occasionally as part of my responsibilities. Anyway, I did a lot of stuff like this, I'd estimate i saved about 15 hours of work every day, on top of the 8.5 hours I did too! but then insert sergeant f face. (This wasn't the military but I just like to call him that.)
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 04
    We are having a team meeting when he shows up. White hair combed okayish, a scrunched face, glasses. He just sort of just showed up one day and took notes during our morning meeting. At one point someone brought up a name of one of our customers. I said, oh is that the 300 lb guy with a big beard? Sort of as a joke because I mostly do back end stuff. There was a guy like
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 05
    this I recently did some entrance stuff for. But I was wrong and my boss said no it's blah blah some other person.. okay. Then we talked about that person a bit. Fast forward about a week and this Sgt ff is a complete to me. I don't know why, he will ignore me during group conversations and literally sometimes scoff at me. Who actually scoffs at people??
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 06
    I was having a really rough week looking for some extremely important files. People were yelling all day. I was exasperated. Too much to do, I was having anxiety attacks at home in the middle of the night. But it was Friday so I was pulling through. As i looked for this file I ended up deep on our file structure and the search returned a personal folder structure within one of the drives. I clicked out of curiosity and there it was "Sgt ff's notes".
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 07
    I opened it and there was a whole section about me. This guy basically goes from location to location getting people fired to save the CEOs money. And he was working on me now. I scrolled through his notes and at the very top I saw "Frosty thought a 4'10 24 year old female patient was a 300 lb bearded man. Clearly atrocious attention to detail"
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 08
    That's just ONE example of how completely f ed up his comments were. So, in combination with my job (which I generally liked and enjoyed helping people) knowing I wasn't getting paid enough for my effort. This horrible week I had. And Sgt f faces comments, I said fl this.
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 09
    I set up 3 email configurations. 1. To my boss letting him know I will be taking 2 weeks of vacation time. To be sent at 10pm tonight. 2. To the company letting them know I will not be present for 2 weeks so whatever work they currently need me to do they will need to do themselves. To be sent Monday morning at 4 AM.
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 10
    3. For any emails that came in, I set an auto response that said "I will be out for an unknown amount of time, for any routine, emergency, or even occasional items, it is imperative you reach out to Sgt F Face at xxxxx for assistance"
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 11
    Then? I turned off every automated task I had ever set up. Then I swung by ff's temporary office and said "I think I found a way to make your job easier!" He didn't even really turn his head to look at me but just raised one eyebrow. Then I left.
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 12
    I actually got multiple calls on Monday morning I didn't answer. It didn't last long apparently. But I stayed strong and didn't respond to anything. On Wednesday I had a little anxiety about it but I stayed as strong as i could. I thought about the tasks that needed a 2 day turnaround... there's no way some of the guys were keeping up with their normal duties. Guaranteed at least 2 people were no longer doing their normal
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 13
    jobs just to keep up with my automated tasks. I got a long email to my personal account (I guess from my resume or when I interviewed) from my boss on Thursday night of the first week! It went something like this:
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 14
    "Frosty, I know you're a smart person and probably figured out what the company had us doing. I would say it's very important you call me but that probably isn't going to work I see. I've talked with sgt ff's boss, and he will be leaving our location. I explained our progress meetings seemed to be going in the wrong direction and that you are one of our most valuable employees here.
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 15
    I am sure you are probably looking at other jobs at this point, or maybe you have even started one. I hope not. If you could please reach back to me I would like to offer you a raise. It has become very apparent how useful you are around here. I hear about it every day, believe me." So I came back on Monday with a 10,000 dollar raise and Sgt f face out of my face. My boss apologized again in person and said he didn't get a say in it. I
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 16
    think it's a little weird he could have a say after I left, but not before... but I sort of get it.
    via u/Frostytoes99
  • 17
    Cheezburger Image 10498474752
    via Getty Images For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 18

    This commenter had a great idea for a KPI system if this worker didn't already have that kind of thing in place

    Baronlbelin With jobs that involve 'helping' or 'fixing problems', your work is often difficult to show on paper- which is why a ticketing system might help! That being said, my own company has a decent ticketing system, but most of my clients don't open a ticket, and my life is filled with shoulder-taps.
    via u/Baronlbelin
  • 19
    spryfigure I fully believe your boss. Only after sh really hits the fan will the C-suite listen.
    via u/spryfigure
  • 20
    EdgeMiserable4381 Nice! Managers often don't appreciate the people who "only help" behind the scenes. Support staff is a huge deal
    via u/EdgeMiserable4381
  • 21
    denasher Probably he has no hard evidence of your contribution but with your leave of absence everything came into place for him to convince the higher ups. Credits to him for stepping up in the end and get you a raise, though not sure if it's reasonable enough
    via u/denasher
  • 22
    ThinkerWhoTinkers Always know your self worth and don't be afraid to throw small tantrums to get your way at work if the company makes things difficult for you. At the end of the day, your first priority has to be you and your career.
    via u/ThinkerWhoTinkers

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