Employee sabotages outsourced consultant's job in order to hire his friend instead, company finds out, leading to him getting fired: ‘He was taken out of the building by security’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Feb 9, 2026 1:00 PM EST

Never delete a work-related email, you never know when it might come in handy.

If you go into my work email inbox right now, you will find it filled to the brim with different emails. I have thousands, if not tens of thousands, of emails on there, dating back to my very first day on the job. On slow work days, I might try to sort them out into different folders and categories, but I never, and I mean never, delete an email, no matter how unimportant it may seem.

The thing about work is that a lot of your reputation depends on evidence. You constantly have to prove your worth and prove that you are genuinely doing a good job by providing evidence of your work. You show your boss stats that you are making an impact, you create reports that show your work has value, and you have meeting after meeting, ensuring everyone knows what you do and why it is important.

That is where emails may also come in handy. Emails are where most of your conversation in the workplace takes place, which means we all have countless pieces of correspondence all about different tasks and instructions from different people in the company, and those can be great evidence in a time of need.

Take the employee in the story below as a perfect example of how important it is to keep your emails in your inbox. This IT consultant was hired as an outsourced employee to provide tech support to a company. They were told by the head of IT, in an email, that they are to communicate with the head of IT alone and never to provide support directly to anyone at the company. The consultant complied with the odd demand, but that meant that no one ever saw them working. All they could do was email the head of IT directly and hope he follows their advice. 

Soon enough, someone in the company noticed that the consultant was not, well, consulting anyone, which led to a huge, public confrontation. Luckily, the consultant came prepared and showed everyone the email evidence that they operated exactly how the head of IT demanded. All the proof was right there, in clear writing. This led the company to uncover more of the head of IT's alarming actions, which inevitably led to him being let go. Keep scrolling to read how that happened.

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  • A guy in a suit is being led into a car by security.
    via AndreyPopov

    A guy in a suit is being led into a car by security.


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

  • I was told I can only communicate with 2 people. Ok then

    This happened a few years ago, but think it fits in this sub. I was working as an IT consultant for a \very\ niche pharmaceutical firm.
    via tofudisan
  • My role was to provide a production support position. I was told I was only allowed to communicate with 2 specific people on the client side.
    via tofudisan
  • One was the head of IT and the other was his subordinate. This was in an email that clearly, and in no uncertain terms, stated that I was only allowed to communicate to those 2 individuals and they would handle communication with the business side after I sent my root cause analysis of production incidents.
    via tofudisan
  • I thought that was strange but I was informed that the head of IT felt threatened by our company and thought we were there to threaten his job.
    via tofudisan
  • So I was told to play nice so he would realize we really were there to help.
    via tofudisan
  • So for a few months I would sign on and check various system logs for processing errors amd failures.
    via tofudisan
  • I would determine the issue and fire off an email with my findings and solution suggestions.
    via tofudisan
  • Then one day I get called into my director's office. He says the client "is pissed off and wants to know what I've been doing because they see me log on and then nothing else all day".
    via tofudisan
  • I tried to tell the director what I do but he doesn't listen. Jerk even put me on a performance improvement plan.
    via tofudisan
  • Next thing I know I am in a meeting with EIGHT vice presidents from my firm.
    via tofudisan
  • It is VERY clear they plan to fire me by the end of the meeting At this point I ask if I can just show them my email history.
    via tofudisan
  • I show them the email that states | can ONLY communicate with 2 specific people on the client side.
    via tofudisan
  • I then show them the emails I sent to those 2 people as instructed pro iding my analysis and suggested process improvements to handle the exceptions in the logs.
    via tofudisan
  • Tech support employee with a laptop, typing inside a server room.
    via Peopleimages.com - YuriArcurs

    Tech support employee with a laptop, typing inside a server room.

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

  • Suddenly 8 VPs no longer want to sacrifice me to appease the client. Instead they take the evidence to the client.
    via tofudisan
  • A week later I find that out the client's head of IT was escorted out of the building by security and that apparently a college buddy of his wanted the support contract.
    via tofudisan
  • IT head figured he would just make my firm look bad in order to cancel our contract and get a new contract for his pal.
    via tofudisan
  • How the head of IT didn't consider that a digital trail existed is mind boggling. He was worried about us taking his job away and made it into a self fulfilling prophecy.
    via tofudisan
  • Funny enough I have a few more stories from that contract TL;DR Shortsighted head of client IT thinks my firm is trying to get him fired.
    via tofudisan
  • He proceeded to get himself fired.
    via tofudisan
  • tsian Pretty amazing the client tried that with no verification... sigh. Wonderful story.
    via tsian
  • tofudisan Original Poster's Reply It was very bizarre. Since the company was extremely niche specialty pharma, they were growing faster than they expected. They were producing some, frankly, miraculous medications in the narrow field they occupied. Literally life saving meds. So their rapid growth left some holes for internal oversight. The company ended up getting purchased by a global pharma powerhouse. Ironically my company wasn't on the approved vendor list and we lost our contract.
    via tofudisan
  • MakanLagiDud3 So if I may what happened after that? Is the company still around and you still work there?
    via MakanLagiDud3
  • tofudisan Original Poster's Reply Company got bought by a much larger pharmaceutical firm The meds still exist just under a different corporate name. My company was not on the approved vendor list at the new parent company, so we lost the contract still. I got some great references at least.
    via tofudisan
  • Creepy-Selection2423 This, is why I never delete emails with directives. Has come in handy more than once.
    via Creepy-Selection2423
  • tofudisan Original Poster's Reply Exactly. Easier to CYA when they do it for you.
    via tofudisan
  • Tamalene He's IT and is too stupid to realise there's literally a paper trail? He didn't deserve his job.
    via Tamalene
  • tofudisan Original Poster's Reply Most definitely did not deserve the job. There were incidents where he would leave mid-meeting to get food from a product launch celebration He also wouldn't take notes during meetings.
    via tofudisan
  • Warlock2022 Keep everything documented
    via Warlock2022
  • Insila What I find most terrifying is how your director treated you.
    via Insila
  • Intermountain-Gal I'm NOT in any way qualified to be head of IT, but even I know emails leave a digital trail. I learned that back in the 90s!
    via Intermountain-Gal

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boss workplace-stories employee fired manager job consultant tales-from-the-workplace it ceo workplace company
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