15+ "Main characters" who got instant karma: 'She thought management would beg her to stay... she thought wrong'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 21, 2026 11:00 AM EST

Some people want to be the "main character" all the time, even when everyone else around them is wishing they'd just chill out for a minute. 

There's a philosophy that asserts that, if you want to be, you can be the "main character" in your life. That means that you're self-focused — some might say self-centered — and everyone else around you is a character in your life. This can lead to some rather toxic behaviors, like treating the people around you as NPCs instead of real-life human beings with feelings. It can be really fun to pretend to be the main character in your own life sometimes, such as when you're walking around listening to music. But this leads to an overly introspective way of thinking — you start thinking that everything is about you, that everyone is looking at you and talking about you. But this isn't "The Truman Show," and you're just a regular person. 

This kind of thinking was pretty rampant for a few years, but I think people are tiring of this type of anti-social behavior. As they say, if you want a village, sometimes you have to be a villager. I think it's good to be a villager for at least some of your life! Not everything is about you. When it's someone else's birthday, you don't show up and expect to be the main character. You show up with a gift and blend in with the guests. Or if you're attending someone else's wedding, you bring a gift and dress in a lovely outfit and just like, chill and enjoy the party. Easy. You'd never do something like randomly proposing to your GF mid-wedding, right? That would be a crazy main-character moment, right? Well, one person did that and faced instant karma, which must've been hilarious in the moment (at least, I hope the newlyweds thought so!). 

Being a "side character" for the day is good for the ego — it makes you appreciate how everyone around you has a unique point of view and their own voice. They aren't just an unfeeling NPC who's just there for set decoration. They're actual people, just like you. You're unique, don't get it wrong, but there are also 8 billion other people on this Earth who all have their own problems going on. 

Luckily, though, some people go through main character phases, but don't stay that way forever. For some folks, it only takes one solid moment of humility to cut through their pomposity. Keep that in mind as you read the stories below! Some of these main characters definitely felt that sting of embarrassment and immediately changed their tunes. Others are just built like that, and may never change their ways… but at least someone took them down a peg! 

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  • 01
    Woman in pink pants, white glitter boots, and glittery black top wears sunglasses and poses with one foot in the air, behind her is a glittery backdrop
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

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

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    two_oh_seven Girl is very talented at singing. However annoying she was about it, no one could take that away from her. She has a beautiful voice. After she graduated and her youngest brother was a freshman at our high school, she came into the chorus room before class started and had him start playing a
    via u/two_oh_seven
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    song on the piano while she sang. Most people were ignoring it, still talking with their friends. I was grimacing in my seat because she was clearly trying to have an "and everybody clapped" moment and it was not successful.
    via u/two_oh_seven
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    Halfway through the song, the chorus teacher came in, looked at her with no love or admiration, and just said, "Get out." One of the most awkward things I have ever witnessed.
    via u/two_oh_seven
  • 05
    Sufficient_Cod1... Co-worker quit to start his own business. He tried to do the "Who's coming with me?" bit from Jerry Maguire. The business failed within two months.
    via u/Sufficient_Cod1948
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    Healthylife55 A 'LinkedIn Influencer' trying to stage a photo of him helping a homeless man. The man told him to 'p off' mid-photo
    via u/Healthylife55
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    D... The worst one that I have ever witnessed was a colleague. The company was downsizing due to the economy and he, along with many others, was let go as a result. It was also his first job out of college and he had only worked here for a few months. On his last day of work, he sent an email to the entire company (which was several thousand
    via u/Dry-Subject-718
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    people at the time). In this email, he named every single person he disliked, detailed everything that he thought was wrong with the company, and ended it by urging the "good ones" to rise up and quit in solidarity. I think he saw this as his Spartacus moment, but in reality he was really just a 22-year-old pseudo- intellectual with anger management issues. This
    via u/Dry-Subject-718
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    email went down in infamy. Edit: I forgot to mention that there were several people in management roles who were actively trying to help him find another job before he wrote this email. They wrote him recommendation letters
    via u/Dry-Subject-718
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    and were connecting him with people they knew at other companies. He was truly let go due to the economy and no other reason. All of that was rescinded as soon as he sent that email.
    via u/Dry-Subject-718
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    10S_NE1 I used to work with an older woman who was a bit of a pain. She refused to learn new things (wanted nothing to do with computers as they started coming in, etc.) and was basically petty and stuck in her ways. Whenever something didn't go the way she wanted it to, she would "quit" her job, and then our director would come down and talk her into staying.
    via u/10S_NE1
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    One week while the director was on vacation, she didn't like something the manager asked her to do so she again "quit". I took that opportunity to immediately organize a retirement party for her. As the director was on vacation, there was no one to talk her into staying, and with the party getting organized within hours and everyone congratulating her,
    via u/10S_NE1
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    she realized she would actually have to retire to avoid embarrassing herself. I didn't miss her.
    via u/10S_NE1
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    A... YouTube "prank" person with a huge following booked the 3000 cap venue i worked at for his live show (out of his own pocket, no promoter would touch it, immediate red flag). They spent the whole day in "technical rehearsals" with no clear plan of what the show was even about but making the venue staff change all kinda of things to
    via u/AbbreviationsFar9644
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    accommodate them. Come show time, venue maybe has 50-100 people in it, mostly parents who had brought their kids along, presumably at their kids insistence. Prank guy gets cold feet and freezes at the side of the stage and send his mates on to fill the time, they just do wrestling moves on each other and some weird pre recorded bit where they try to convince their friend he
    via u/AbbreviationsFar9644
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    had cancer and was dying. Not even sure they understood what a prank was at this point, they certainly didn't understand good acting. As soon as people start loudly walking out the main guy comes on stage to give a speech and just goes off on a 10 minute rant about how impressive his YouTube channel is and if you don't know what that means then you don't know
    via u/AbbreviationsFar9644
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    anything. He walks off the stage leaving his mates. standing there discussing if they should keep doing wrestling moves. Incredible performance.
    via u/AbbreviationsFar9644
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    Training-Web7861 A guy tried to propose at someone else's wedding. The bride's dad literally tackled him. Pure justice
    via u/Training-Web7861
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    finnreyisreal It went horribly wrong for my boss at the time lol. After multiple employees had gone to him on their own with issues that had risen in the workplace, Boss (already known to be full of himself) pulls everyone in for a (unpaid) team meeting- just to launch into a fifteen minute speech about how he struggled in his youth
    via u/finnreyisreal
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    (parents were loaded), how his teachers worked extra hard to set him on the right path, and how he didn't understand things like integrity, honesty, etc until he started working at the current business (which he had inherited from his parents). Ends with a grin and is like "does anyone have any questions?"
    via u/finnreyisreal
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    Girl who had been in the company the longest raises her hand. "I thought we were here to talk about the issues I brought to you last week." Instantly crushed. It was beautiful to watch.
    via u/finnreyisreal
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    virginiaclips Someone i knew quit their job dramatically with no backup and when he was released he immediately panic thinking that the management will stop him.
    via u/virginiaclips
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    ducksterr A few years ago I was at the airport waiting to pick up my checked bag. A mariachi band walks in playing, and a man with a bouquet of flowers slowly walks in, stops in front of a women, gets down on one knee and pulls out a ring. Everyone starts cheering and forms a big circle around the band and the couple... the man is
    via u/ducksterr
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    on his knee for a LOOOOONG time. I think the girl started crying (not happy tears) Eventually the crowd all started looking at each other like oh... we should give them some space. I got my bag and left. I felt so bad for both the guy and the girl :(
    via u/ducksterr
  • 25
    punkwalrus When anime cons were ramping up in the late 2000s, we had a guy on a convention runners mailing list declare he was running his own event. We'd see this from time to time, usually by main character syndrome teens or young adults. You begin to know those serious about it (like planning staff, marketing, venue, contracts) and those wishing out loud
    via u/punkwalrus
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    (guests, profit, power). We had one really sad dude try to start one at his university. He made a website, marketed the fuck out of it, but apparently didn't have an ounce of reality in his skull. Claimed guests he didn't have, stole proprietary graphics from other websites (like mascots and logos), claimed tournaments in copyrighted
    via u/punkwalrus
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    companies like MTG, Pokémon, etc. It was all his ego, not "we're doing XYZ," but "I'm doing XYZ!" About two months before the date, some of us tried to reason with him. Around the same time, agents of these "guests," corporate lawyers, and such started posting publicly that he was not affiliated with them, that he never contacted them, and
    via u/punkwalrus
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    so on. They contacted his university who also posted, "this is not a sanctioned function." But this guy doubled down, said all of us actual planners were all conspiring against him, etc. Eventually his abuse got him banned from the mailing list. We're not sure how much money he received for tickets, because we were sure he was lying about his
    via u/punkwalrus
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    registration numbers, but I couldn't have been more than $2000 and was probably a lot less. A few people who claimed that they knew him said he was in denial and when he wasn't promoting, he was slamming and complaining about everyone else being against him. The event was pure fantasy conjecture, and had no bearing on anything real.
    via u/punkwalrus
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    We don't think he was consciously engaging in fraud, just overall delusional.
    via u/punkwalrus
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    Augusta13Green Colleague employed by private employer for 10+ years assigned to cover multiple departments as needed. One day, decided they didn't want to work the half day session they were assigned to a specific department. This was not an out of the ordinary schedule, they worked in this department weekly. It was
    via u/Augusta13Green
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    not a last minute change, the schedule had been released for weeks. Threw a literal hissy fit, refusing to work that department for the afternoon; went sobbing to the business owner when manager said do it or take the day off unpaid. Thought they got away with it until a few weeks later when they were walked out.
    via u/Augusta13Green
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    Astrid Quill I once saw someone try to make a dramatic speech in public, only for their phone alarm to go off mid- sentence with the most ridiculous ringtone. The confidence was impressive, the timing... not so much.
    via u/Astrid Quill
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    serenchi There was a girl I went to high school with, didn't know her personally, but she was fairly well known, mostly because of how full of herself she was. Thought herself the best actress in the schools theater, best singer amongst the girls choir, yadda yadda. Once declared she wouldn't be getting her driver's license
    via u/serenchi
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    because she didn't need it because she didn't need a car "when she was in New York on broadway". Skip ahead to our school's talent show. Naturally, she gets up on stage to sing (I think it was something from Hairspray) and in the middle of it, randomly, she just starts humming the tune of the song. She forgot the words! So she's just up
    via u/serenchi
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    there, humming her heart out, occasionally singing a single line that she remembered. She did not end up in New York.
    via u/serenchi
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    CampClear Had a former coworker who quit after I had just started working there, because she didn't get promoted to department manager. The funny thing is she never even applied for the position! She assumed it would just be handed to her. She had been working there off and on for over a decade but she had left and came
    via u/CampClear
  • 38
    back several times and I think she thought management would beg her to stay once again. She thought wrong because she was essentially told to not let the door hit her in the ass on the way out.
    via u/CampClear
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    butteronmypopt... A fella that worked in a neighboring department a couple years ago now decided to come to work at 3am or so and just sit in the parking lot. He used that time to wait until a now co worker was coming into work between 5 & 5:30am to confront him about parking in his "spot". We have no designated parking,
    via u/butteronmypoptarts
  • 40
    its first come, first serve parking. From what I remember, this fella got suspended with pay by HR, had a list of things to work on, to be able to come back to work, but allegedly he decided to make his own list of demands before he would come back. This got all the way up to the CEO and he basically just fired him at that point. Afterwards
    via u/butteronmypoptarts
  • 41
    he had several FB posts about the workplace and anytime someone posted something about an opening or a job well done, he would comment his own feelings/perceptions - which were always negative. This was not the first run in with HR either for this fella. Apparently thinks highly of himself and that his opinion trumps others opinions.
    via u/butteronmypoptarts
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    Basically has to be the smartest person in the room.
    via u/butteronmypoptarts
  • 43
    midnightcandyxo guy at my old job did a big dramatic walkout during a meeting, speech about knowing his worth and how we would all regret it. slammed the door and everything. came back after lunch because his badge stopped working and security wouldnt let him back in
    via u/midnightcandyxo
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    without hr. had to apologize in front of the same people he just quit on. never tried a main character moment again.
    via u/midnightcandyxo
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    Woman in fuzzy red jacket and black sunglasses holds phone to ear while smiling and painting nails
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

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

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