UPDATE: 'I just deleted thousands of hours of work from my old job': Worker quits and leaves 18 other workers without access to critical video files

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 11, 2025 11:00 AM EDT

Workspaces that insist on workers using their own tech should make you a tiny bit suspicious. There's nothing inherently wrong with workers lugging their own laptops to the office to use them if it's their choice. But many employers automatically buy every new worker a fresh laptop, while others wipe old tech and gift that to the new employee so they don't have to use their own device. This is an excellent way to separate ones work life and home life. It also keeps a personal laptop from getting weighed down with so many gigabytes of files. If you're any kind of video editor, or if you tend to work with huge files with hundreds of pages, this is exactly the kind of thing that a work laptop is perfect for. 

This person had another sort of issue with their employer that's just as infuriating, if not more so: they were paying for their own Google Drive to house all these large files. That's certainly the type of asset a company should be paying for, not the other way around! 

At least this person really got back at the company! They even shared an update, which you can also check out below. That serves the company right… Let's hope for a third update for when that company really finds out that they're starting over from scratch. 

Next up, have a laugh at these photos from people whose grandparents are being rather irritating, like one person who shared that their "Grandma posts random photos of me sleeping on her public Instagram." 

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  • O.
    via Anna Barsukova on Unsplash+

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

  • About 3 years ago I used to work as a videographer doing social media content for a 7 figure company. I was paid roughly just better than minimum wage and was cranking out (at one point) 50 videos a day. I was freelancing and was on a loose contract. I was desperate for the money.
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  • It was an insane amount of work and however I managed to do it for 6 months is beyond me, especially for how paid. I was The office was an incredibly bitter and snide place and it was clear that management would purpolsely stir sh to watch staff fight as a form of entertainment. I kept well away from it but it was incredibly stressful on top of video work.
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  • After about six months I pitch to the higher ups that my videos are making an insanely positive difference to their sales (I showed them graphs of interactions and direct links to sales on the website via my content) and asked for a pay rise. I compared my ideal salary to others in the industry and made a big deal about how it would still be less than I should be paid however I still wanted to continue working for them. I was fired
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  • hours later for, and I sh you not, not "pulling my weight" as well as not having the desired effect they wanted on social media. I was fuming and now unemployed. I struggled for months to find any other job. Today (years later) whilst browsing a very old Google drive account, I found that said company was still using a folder I created and owned. They were mostly active in the files
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  • containing templates, adjustment layers, presets, and even video that I all created. Over 18 people were actively using it daily to continue with their social media campaigns. This was a cloud service that I was paying monthly for as I wanted extra space for my work. This is my drive and my work. I own it. So I copied the file as a local version for myself and then deleted the online version.
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  • Tomorrow they will wake up with none of their video assets (including things they were working on). LL F them.
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    via Anna Barsukova on Unsplash+

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

  • Here's the update!

    Hi fellas, This is a throwaway account I never use so I only just saw I have over 200 messages about my anti work post lol The update is, nothing. Nothing has came from what happened. The company obviously had no more access to my files so they no longer feature them in their promotion, which is about as good as I can ask for. I also noticed that since then all their
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  • video output is very very below par, and borderline amateur given their size. The takeaway is, know your rights and stand up in your workplaces. Join your local union, protect yourself, help and educate others. We all gotta stand together to beat this cruel employer world. Stay minty x
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  • A quick little update as this is blowing up FAST: • I was using Google drive to store the files • all videoing and editting was done with my own equipment, not even their own. • I have restored the files but removed their permissions, so worst case scenario I can add
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  • them back to it quickly if needs be. • after digging around, my contract with them states that anything I filmed for them was and is my property even after the contract ends. I actually remember them bringing this up and me just stating this was standard industry
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  • practice. At this point they were totally fine with it and had no intention of letting me go as they genuinely quite liked me. • people are hung up on the 50 videos in a day thing so I'll explain the complexity of said videos; they were 1 minute average in length, 5 seperate
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  • shots, voice over, connotations, and subtitles. Individually they didn't take long to knock out but collectively it was a mountain. The reason it was close to 50 was because this was late notice for an event they were launching on multiple products. 14 hour shift.
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