Employee finds out boss looks at their browsing history at work, they purposely search for other jobs, leading boss to offer them a raise when he sees the search: ‘I left it there’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Nov 24, 2025 5:00 AM EST

Technically, your boss is entitled to know about everything you do while you are on the clock. While you are at work, you are supposed to only be doing work-related stuff, and if your boss wants to make sure that is happening, well, there's not much you can do to stop them.

That being said, a decent boss should trust their employees and allow them breathing space during the workday. Snooping or going behind their back to see what they are up to every minute of every day feels a bit… extreme.

When the employee in the story below found out that their boss logs into their computer at work at the end of every day, and goes over the search history to see what they were up to, they were appalled, and rightfully so. One of the employees decided to retaliate against the boss's behavior and use his snooping against him.

Instead of avoiding searching for private matters on the office computer, this employee did the exact opposite, knowing full well that the boss would be watching. Surprisingly, the search history did not get the employee in trouble, but quite the opposite. Keep scrolling to read what we mean by that.

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  • 01
    Working Man Staring at Computer Screens
    via Mick Latter

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 02

    My boss snoops - My very petty revenge.

    So I work in a fairly small office and the owner/boss of the company works from home.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 03
    He has not physically come into the office for about 3 years now, he just barks orders to us via email.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 04
    The only person he speaks to on the phone is the office manager. Myself and the rest of my colleagues, including the office manager have a really good relationship.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 05
    When the boss complains to the office manger about issues, or about us as employees, the office manager shares this information with us and we all have a good old collective moan about it.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 06
    Anyway, one day the office manager told us that the boss had been having a moan about us all being on the internet for personal reasons while in office hours.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 07
    How did the boss know this? Well, this is when I found out that he logs into our computers remotely after we have all gone home for the day and looks through our internet history.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 08
    Obviously he has every right to do this, it is his company, his office work equipment and so on but I disliked the fact that this was kept from us as employees.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 09
    Jobs Search on the computer
    via miluxian

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 10
    He was snooping on us and didn't want us to know about it. Anyway, this was my very petty revenge: I spent a whole work day searching the internet for available job vacancies and asking Google if my wage was fair for my industry and position.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 11
    I did not clear my browsing history. Before I left work for the day, I opened up the internet and typed into the search box "why is my boss an \idiot\?"... I left it there on my screen and went home.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 12
    \My insult was a far worse word than idiot, but not sure if the word I typed in can be used on this sub\ My boss had obviously logged in that night, saw what I had left on my screen and snooped at my search history as about two days later I get an email from him saying that he has given me a pay rise.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 13
    From that day on, if I go on to the internet for personal reasons at work I delete my history before going home for the day.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 14
    My revenge for my boss snooping was extremely petty but I ended up with a pay rise.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 15
    ApprehensiveDog2790 FYI: Your boss can log everything with other tools, deleting your browser history doesn't prevent this type of snooping. Better don't use your work computer when browsing privately. Unless you want to apply for a pay rise, LOL.
    via ApprehensiveDog2790
  • 16
    OP BLB-BLB I'm sure he could, I'm not that technical with computers.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 17
    RedRibbon3KS Never do personal uses for your work computer and don't use the wifi for your phone. All of it could be tracked
    via RedRibbon3KS
  • 18
    OP BLB-BLB I use my mobile data on my phone. But are you saying if I used the company Wi-Fi, my boss could see my phone history?
    via BLB-BLB
  • 19
    RedRibbon3KS Yup. There are some limitations but it doesn't take too much to see the websites visited and devices used.
    via RedRibbon3KS
  • 20
    OP BLB-BLB Thanks for this.
    via BLB-BLB
  • 21
    Linswad Do people not shut down their computers at the end of the day?
    via Linswad
  • 22
    OP BLB-BLB We only turn the screens off. I was told this was to allow for updates on our systems such as weekly rate changes to what we quote clients.
    via BLB-BLB

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Tags

boss work from home workplace-stories employee manager job google search tales-from-the-workplace petty revenge ceo workplace job search company funny
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