Supervisor gets petty revenge on difficult employee by purposefully using advanced vocabulary in emails to confuse her, employee files complaint about supervisor, claiming she's "singling" her out: 'Who even says that? I don't even know what that means?!'

Author image for Emma Saven
Emma Saven
Dec 15, 2025 5:00 PM EST

Using someone's intelligence against them is low, but using someone's high school-level English vocabulary against them? Even lower. Nobody remembers what those big, unnecessary Shakespearean words mean… that's why we have Google, right? Or so this employee seems to think, as she starts to irritably regret not paying more attention in her high school poetry class. This employee can be, putting it kindly, "difficult" at times. She's not everyone's favorite employee of the month, and we don't imagine she ever will be…unless the award is for entitlement, in which case she's a shoo-in.

Her supervisor had reached her limit (I'm holding my hand to the ceiling) with the employee's condescending, sassy attitude. One day, noticing her employee's struggles with more advanced vocabulary in a few work emails, she decided to store that information for later use. Soon, she began typing wordy emails that her employee couldn't decipher without the good 'ol Oxford in hand. How is she supposed to do her job if she can't even understand the instructions? Well…maybe that's the point.

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  • A petty approach? Absolutely. But did it help bring down her employee’s ego? Absolutely. However, the employee did eventually complain about being singled out, claiming that no one knows what half the words her supervisor uses even mean. But hey, when you are constantly disregarding your manager's authority, perhaps the only way to get you to change is by teaching a real lesson… and in this case, it's an English one. 

  • 01
    Confused employee reading through papers on her desk
    via dean-drobot

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

  • 02

    A problem employee didn't know the word "slighted?" I made sure my emails used wording they might not know ...

    Edit: Thank you kind internet strangers for the award! Completely unexpected and not necessary. I appreciate that you enjoyed this story enough to give one out.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 03
    I am a supervisor and I had a wretched employee. She caused so many interpersonal problems that we lost people because of her.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 04
    There was an incident that she was involved in and she felt like someone had insulted her and she didn't want to cover this persons shifts anymore in the very near future.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 05
    I got my director involved because this person is very hard to deal with. We basically had to convince her to not burn this bridge because it was just going to cause more problems.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 06
    My director at one point said "I know you feel slighted...." And this person stopped the conversation and asked her to repeat the word and said she didn't understand what she meant.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 07
    The director kindly and patiently explained what she meant. Well, I tucked this bit of information away.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 08
    I didn't think the word "slight" was that uncommon of a word. So it made me think, "what other intelligent sounding words can I use to get under this person's skin?" So I started to use words in my emails to her, to the group, anywhere I could think of that were above average reading level - high school level.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 09
    Two employees laughing over the couch at someone on the phone
    via karola-g

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

  • 10
    Nothing crazy. Sometimes I would even Google synonyms of words to elevate the email a little bit.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 11
    One day, the wretched employee sent a department wide email - it was a daily email that everyone gets with daily safety notes.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 12
    Usually someone else wrote the emails during the daily meeting, but that person was off that day.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 13
    Anyway, she uses profanity in the email. Just one word, nothing to anyone. Just said "good job getting shit done." And I was like really?
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 14
    Everyone can read this! So I email her and ask her to not use profanity in an email as it sets an irreverent tone and I wouldn't want there to be anything misconstrued that this isn't a professional environment.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 15
    Very polite but firm. Her response of course was over the top. Said I was singling her out, other people have done it (they had not) blah blah blah.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 16
    Another colleague and I were talking on the phone that evening and that the wretched employee had called her and complained about my email.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 17
    And especially complained about the word "misconstrued." I think her words were "who even says that?
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 18
    I don't even know what that means?!" Cue Grinch shit eating grin. I told my colleague (this colleague is a friend and hates this wretched employee as much as me but they used to be friends) I did that on purpose and had been doing it for awhile.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 19
    Focused woman reading something on her work computer
    via sydaproductions

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

  • 20
    She laughed and thought that was amazing. I was like thank you, and internally took a bow.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 21
    mycatpartyhouse Why has problem employee not been fired?
    via mycatpartyhouse
  • 22
    OP Artistic_Candy7420 It's a looong story. I will say this person is one write up away from termination.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 23
    DownwardSpiralHam It takes like 2 seconds to secretly Google a word, you'll never catch me letting people find out how stupid I am.
    via DownwardSpiralHam
  • 24
    OP Artistic_Candy7420 It doesn't make you stupid. It makes you curious. Complaining about it to other people would be indicative of stupidity.
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 25
    onlyhere4thelolz I was also once a supervisor to a wretched employee who did a lot to make the work environment toxic. She also tried to undermine me. Senior management / HR were no help. I already knew she wasn't bright to begin with. Once I called her out on something she did. I told her she was being insubordinate and she replied with: "so are you."
    via onlyhere4thelolz
  • 26
    OP Artistic_Candy7420 I would be tempted to say something about not being able to be insubordinate to a subordinate....
    via Artistic_Candy7420
  • 27
    HelMorrigan They are going to make her unwillingly quit...
    via HelMorrigan
  • 28
    OP Artistic_Candy7420 Yes, because she will never voluntarily leave. She relies on the job to create friends. At least that's what I've come to believe. She has said she "doesn't need this job" but was very worried about losing it. Why so worried if you don't need this job?
    via Artistic_Candy7420

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employee intelligence pretty revenge email-wording unfamiliar
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