Tech employee gets skipped for promotion at his first ‘real’ job because he was out sick, gets revenge on petty manager several years later: ‘I love telling [this story]!’

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Jul 3, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

When you first start working in the career field of your dreams, you have to tread lightly. Like in every field, your first few jobs might not be your best fit. You might not like what you are actually being assigned to do, you might not vibe well with your coworkers or higher ups, or you might just be figuring out that you'd rather be following a different career path. Just because you have all of these snags, does not mean you should burn those bridges. You never know when you are going to have to work with those people again! And that's not even on a career later climbing level, that's just on a human level. What if that coworker you hate coincidentally takes the same job pivot as you and now you're back in the interview room and they are the ones doing the hiring process? You never know! 

 

Here, you can see the most perfect example of a boss making the wrong move on a brand new employee and it coming back to haunt him in the future.  

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  • It was this guy's first job and this manager decided he wasn't good enough because he was “out sick” for one day. Years later, that guy he didn't give the promotion too is on the hiring end, and guess who doesn't get the promotion this time?

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    via Unsplash+ (and freestocks)

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

  • "Boss was a *ick, got revenge years later."

    This is an old story but I love telling it. Years ago I was working in tech at my first "real" job. One day, I found out there was a reorg, and I would be reporting to a new manager. Prior to the reorg my new manager and I had been peers so I was upset
    via zbibbo
  • that I hadn't been given a chance for the promotion. I asked my original manager (let's call him "Bob" - now my boss's boss) about it and he replied, "You were out sick and we had to make a decision." I was like, I literally missed one day of work and that's
    via zbibbo
  • why I didn't even get a chance at the promotion? I knew that wasn't the company for me and ended up finding a better job a couple of months. later. Several years (and jobs) later, I was in a senior management position and
    via zbibbo
  • we were looking for a VP of Engineering. The CFO was conducting the search and he came to me and said hey didn't you work for company X? I replied yes. Okay we found a really good candidate for our VP position-do you know him?
    via zbibbo
  • Turned out to be Bob. I said yes, I know him and I think he would be a really poor fit for our organization. I was fairly well respected so the CFO took my opinion seriously and they did not move forward with Bob.
    via zbibbo
  • Luckily I wasn't sick that day...
    via zbibbo
  • sjclynn The sad part is that Bob just knows that he was no longer being considered. He doesn't know that this a direct consequence of his prior action.
    via sjclynn
  • aceswildfire I did something similar years ago. The job I got right out of college was just supposed to be resume building and getting some experience, but I ended up stuck there for five years, four of which under the same a h le boss.
    via aceswildfire
  • He liked to micromanage and passive aggressively point out issues. Our personality types just didn't mesh, which is one of the reasons I was very surprised I actually got a mild promotion a year before I left (turns out they just liked my degree).
    via aceswildfire
  • Either way, I finally leave that company for a better one. A year or two into that I hear my boss behind me talking to her boss about hiring a team lead. I hear the name of my old company and turn around to find them both looking at me. "You used to work at (old company), right? Do you know (old boss)?"
    via aceswildfire
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    via Unsplash+ (and Getty Images)

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

  • I have a mild panic as I tell them he's my old boss, but when they asked my opinion I actually declined to answer because I was biased against him. They dropped it, but my boss came back later to ask again. So I told her about his behavior, and she had this thing about "empowering" her employees to be better, so I told
    via aceswildfire
  • her he wasn't an empowering boss. Come to find out he had passed the interview with flying colors and they were just curious what kind of fit he'd be for the team. My boss told me that she didn't need someone like that and they didn't hire him. But imagine if they hadn't asked and I showed up one
    via aceswildfire
  • day, him sitting at the empty desk in front of me, my boss again. Terrifying thought.
    via aceswildfire
  • Sinjin_Smythe225 Had a similar thing happen when I was out at lunch one day working for an old employer and my manager changed my password, logged into my pc and took all my research and published it as his own.
    via Sinjin_Smythe225
  • Years later I'm working for my new employer and they run this guys name past me, told me he did a great interview and what did I know of him. I told them he broke onto my computer and stole my work without my knowledge and I'd be very unhappy to have to work with him again. I met the guy
    via Sinjin_Smythe225
  • in the corridor trying to be friendly with me on his way out, I told him I'd be sure to put a word in for him as I knew how he worked. He got his Dear John letter in the post a few days later.
    via Sinjin_Smythe225
  • Celebration Main8329 The first part really reminds me of what happened to me at work like 10 years ago. I worked in retail, and the higher-ups were planning to implement the floor manager position (since we never officially had those before then, only regular employees just got assigned more responsibility for
    via CelebrationMain8329
  • the shift). Anyway, they had been talking about the new manager positions for a long while, I had applied, but there was no concrete timeline for when it would happen. Then I went on a short vacation, and when I came back, we all of a sudden had a bunch of floor managers. When asked, my boss just told me, "You had to be there ". Felt very deliberate.
    via CelebrationMain8329
  • RLOFT7 I love this story. I've worked with some managers in the past that have wronged me. I would definitely black ball them if given the chance. This also serves as a reminder that just because you have power now, that 5 years or so down the road, they might hold power over you. I'm glad you got your revenge.
    via RLOFT7

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