Employee gets even with critical boss by using her flawed format for submitting reports before quitting: 'I hope you're having a bad day, Paula. You deserve it!'

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Feb 16, 2026 8:00 AM EST

This bank employee felt that her manager was after her. She was right.

In any professional environment, you may eventually get the feeling that a coworker or boss doesn't like you very much. At first, you might consider that you're just being paranoid. But after a while, you start to compile evidence that you are being treated more harshly than the other employees in your office. 

This author started to feel like there was nothing she could do to impress her manager, Paula. Whenever she submitted her weekly reports, Paula always criticized her work without fail. It got to the point where there was clearly some personal vendetta going on, and the author was determined to prove Paula wrong.

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  • For starters, it was clear that Paula's critiques had nothing to do with the actual data the author had been reporting. It was always about the author's formatting choices. Week after week, the author felt like there was no way to satisfy Paula.

    So, she did a little digging and pulled a file that Paula herself made years ago when it was her job to submit similar reports. The author copied the same format and submitted this new one to test her theory.

    If Paula had nothing negative to say, then the author finally landed on a format that was preferable to her. However, if she provided harsh criticism yet again, then the author will have confirmed that Paula just had nothing nice to say to her.

    Obviously, the author's plan is a risky one, but there is something to be learned from here when it comes to deciphering where your manager's potentially unreachable expectations are coming from.

  • An older professional woman speaks candidly with an employee on a couch.
    via Unsplash+ (Andrej Lišakov)

    An older professional woman speaks candidly with an employee on a couch.

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

  • Boss always found an error with my monthly reports and cover letters, so I used her old ones and watched her rip them apart.

    I was telling this story the other night, and I was told to post it here.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • This takes place 19 years ago when I worked for State Street Bank for one of the worst human beings ever, Paula.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Real places and names so I do not care. If you live in Boston and a looking to work at this place, skip it.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • It is a horrible place to work. Anyway, on to the story. I had just started working for Paula, the team was a mini project team tackling complex financial operation problems with high SVP visibility, that's how it was sold to me.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • In reality it was a mushroom farm, with Paula keeping you in the dark and feeding you s
    via MerryMisandrist
  • All I did was compile reports and gather data from people who were terrified of my team.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Needless to say, I was bait and switched and was looking to get out shortly after I got there.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • She had a habit of always criticizing your work to h with the stupidest things. One the reports I was responsible for was a weekly update on certain Oil warrants out of Nigeria.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • To those that do not know a warrant is an agreement to buy a commodity at a specific price, regardless of what the current value is.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • The reason being there was an option to buy at $30 per barrel when prices peaked at $90 per barrel.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • We had no idea if the holder knew about this or not, but we had to monitor and report because the liability and loss would have been massive.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Any who, week after week after week after week Paula would review and rip me a new a ole over the format, verbiage and every stupid thing not related to the actual numbers being right.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Total ticky tack stuff. One day I was going through the network files and stumbled across an old folder for a similar project.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • An older professional woman sits at her desk.
    via Unsplash+ (Andrej Lišakov)

    An older professional woman sits at her desk.

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

  • It was Paula's handiwork before they gave her a team to manage. So, I decided to use her format for everything, even changing the report structure to look just like hers and using her cover letter language.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I brought it to her office to review and sign off, and she absolutely lost her s.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • She asked what happened to the old format. I told her since she didn't seem to like what I had been doing I thought it best to change it around.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • She said that this was worse than before, probably the worst I submitted to her. She went on and on for what seemed like forever.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I just looked at her and didn't interrupt with blank look. Her last question to me was what I was thinking when I made these changes.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • An older professional woman speaks candidly with an employee on a couch.
    via Unsplash (Andrej Lišakov)

    An older professional woman speaks candidly with an employee on a couch.

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

  • I told her that I used the formatting and language she used when she was doing a similar report a few years
    via MerryMisandrist
  • That I found the folder online and used her past work verbatim, just with the numbers and relevant information changed.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I gave her printouts of her reports and letters to compare. She just looked at me and had this dumbstruck look on her face.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I asked if this was bad should I go back to my format then? She just signed off on the reports and said to send them as is.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I just wanted to confirm that they were fine to send because less than a minute ago she said it was basically unreadable.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • She said they were fine as is and we didn't have time to redo them. So, I sent them out.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I was smart enough to find and save all of her old work, for example, to use.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • I noticed that she went thought and deleted/moved the older folders after I encountered because I expected her to.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • This cat and mouse game went on for remainder of my time there. I would use her templates/past work and wait for her to tear it apart.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • After a few more times, she eventually figured out I grabbed all of them. She asked and I told her I created SOPs using all of her past work and had it saved locally.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • It seemed like a logical thing to do. I was able to quit a few months later.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • An older professional woman sits at her desk, looking offscreen.
    via Unsplash+ (Andrej Lišakov)

    An older professional woman sits at her desk, looking offscreen.

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

  • Unlucky-Total4573 I salute you well done
    via MerryMisandrist
  • j_jilly69420 My Paula was Deanna. Good for you OP!!!
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Stop_The_Crazy Paula is a goblin who likes to spread misery around.
    via MerryMisandrist
  • gilbeys 18 I hope you're having a bad day Paula! You deserve it!
    via MerryMisandrist
  • Zealousideal-Group87 Excellent, really, well done, I enjoyed that!!
    via MerryMisandrist

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employee toxic-workplace satisfying quitting story Horrible Bosses quitting
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