Recently fired employee uses the perfect tactic to collect a bigger severance: ‘I send a thank you and it doesn't register as sent, seems he immediately blocked me’

Author image for Olivia Arocena
Olivia Arocena • Writer and Editor
Sep 14, 2026 8:00 AM EDT

Laid-Off To Dreamland

Some of us can only dream of something like this ever happening to us. We dream not only of being given the opportunity to stop going to our boring jobs one lucky day, but also of being paid to do it. That's extremely luxurious. And also something to be celebrated.

If this employee had planned it, it wouldn't have come out this good. But sometimes, stars align, and things like this happen- not always, but they do.

Being laid off can be really stressful. If you have no savings, which is something that's becoming increasingly hard to have, you are forced to get a job as soon as possible, and that can be tricky and stressful in itself.  

You're running out of money, and you have to seem professional and easygoing, like you weren't worried about whether you'd be able to afford groceries the upcoming week.

At any rate, at risk of sounding too cliché, some of the best opportunities in our lives appear in the worst possible moments; at least in my life, it always happened like this. This doesn't mean it doesn't take any effort to be granted an opportunity; it just means that sometimes, even though we work hard, things don't seem to be going our way, but if we hang in there, they most likely will at some point.

This is one of those cases in which justice works, and time works in the good guy's favor. The fact that the good guy was well informed of his legal rights most certainly helped as well. Could you imagine keeping a straight face while you offer your employee the worst severance 'deal' ever and act as if what you're doing is totally contemplated by law? Life is wonderful.

Guys, I think I want to move countries…

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  • Cheezburger Image 10663237888
    via Vitaly Gariev

    The employee after his plan succeeded 

    Not actual story subjects



     

  • How firing me backfired for my boss

    This happened a long time ago. I used to work for a big textile company that shipped internationally. My boss was a literal sociopath and cared about no one but himself, and
    via TrantorX
  • making money. I was treated extremely poorly to say the least, him being the literal reason why I deal with constant anxiety nowadays. To give just one example, I remember a girl quitting because he yelled at her and made her have
    via TrantorX
  • panic attack, forcing her to go back to work while she was still having the attack. Later he denied doing it or being the reason for it, all this while the footage of him yelling at her was being playing in the room.
    via TrantorX
  • Anyway, I had wanted to leave for years, but in my country you get paid when you're fired (both by the government, and the company, a sum increasing with every subsequent year of work at the place). So I just kept
    via TrantorX
  • waiting and hoping I would get fired. One day it finally happens. I'm told by boss, in a nonchalant manner that I'm too expensive and not needed. However, he will not fire me yet! He will put
    via TrantorX
  • me on a special gov. status which is a sort of paid leave, which can last a certain amount of months. It's a time for the company to prepare finances to fire you or to find out if they want to keep you after all, while not having to pay
    via TrantorX
  • you (the government pays you a percentage of your salary while it lasts.) Now, there are guardrails so you can't ab e this as a company, but extensions are a thing if all parties involved want them.
    via TrantorX
  • Anyway, i'm put on leave and for 2 months get paid by the government. Cool. As the 2 months are about to be over, I'm contacted by boss and given a paper to sign, where it says that alongside him we ask for
    via TrantorX
  • an extension of the special leave. Clearly he wanted to ab e the system as much as possible, since he wasn't lacking money to pay me a salary or fire me. But more than that, he hoped (as well as the government, which is
    via TrantorX
  • partly why this special leave exists) that I would get another job, at which point I would be considered to have left voluntarily and get no money from any party. Not happening. So I sign the paperwork and enjoy two
    via TrantorX
  • more months of doing nothing while getting paid. All the same, in his incompetence, I would soon find out that he messed up... Another 2 months of
    via TrantorX
  • extension go by, and he calls me to the office. Once there, he looks ped. I try to be cheery since I know it will off even more, and ask him how's everything? Turns out, not fine. Since he took so long to send the
    via TrantorX
  • request for an extension, the extension was not approved, and he found out yesterday. Meaning, these last two months will have to be paid fully by him, while I didn't work a single day. Lovely.
    via TrantorX
  • At this point he has no choice but to either keep me or let me go right now, and he says he will fire me. Great. However, I see him being a bit too elaborate and verbose in the way he's phrasing it, so I expect some ploy of his
    via TrantorX
  • coming. Indeed, he says that he has worked out a few options for my sake as to how the process of paying. me will go. He offers me the following options:
    via TrantorX
  • I can take the full mandatory payment I'm entitled to, but he'll pay it over the course of 6 months. I can take 80% of the payment, but paid over the course of only 3 months.
    via TrantorX
  • I can take 60% of the payment, but he'll pay it all immediately today. I can take 40% of the payment, paid today, and he'll add a recommendation letter on top.
    via TrantorX
  • I can take 20% of the payment, paid today, he'll add a recommendation letter on top, and he'll say I willing quit and wasn't fired. I'm keeping a poker face
    via TrantorX
  • as he says all this and writes it down. He looks at me and smiles, and says to "take my time", and "think about this carefully, because so many employers care about whether you quit or not, and a recommendation
    via TrantorX
  • letter does wonders!". I nod as if I was being enlightened. To say his offers were disrespectful would be a big understatement. This is no small amount of money we're talking about.
    via TrantorX
  • I've worked for almost 20 years with this company and the mandatory payment is HUGE - and well deserved. He's trying to get me to voluntarily give up 80% of my compensation.
    via TrantorX
  • Kopfstandnode 000 000 SQ31 Method Re Survey + Read Question Eboration
    via Sebastian Herrmann

    The boss

    Recreated scenario included to enhance reader understanding



     

  • I say I'll think about it, and go home. Then I do what you should always do, which is to text him asking a few questions while clearly outlining that he has just fired me, so as to put in paper that this is definitive. Once it's clear
    via TrantorX
  • I'm fired, I take a few days to "think" about it. You see, once you're fired in my country, the employer has 7 days to legally pay you what they must, otherwise they're forced to pay you by the
    via TrantorX
  • government, with a 10% extra on top for your troubles. Meaning that even in his "options", the full payment must be done. 7 days from the time he texted me I'm fired, regardless of his preference - unless, of
    via TrantorX
  • course, I agree to a deal with him, which I haven't. Either way, boss forgets to text back asking me whether I made my choice, and I'm just biding my time.
    via TrantorX
  • By the time he texts, it's been over 2 weeks. I tell him that I'm not comfortable with any of the options he presented me, and that I believe it's been over 7 days from the moment I was fired, so where was my payment?
    via TrantorX
  • He goes silent for a couple hours, checking legal guidelines no doubt. By the time he texts back, he just sends one line: "The payment is done." I check my bank, and lo and behold, he's missing the 10%. I smirk. "I believe I'm
    via TrantorX
  • missing an extra 10% for the delay", I say. He goes silent. An hour later I get a simple "Done" from him and the payment. Props to him for not raging on a written medium I could use against him later. I send a thank you and it doesn't
    via TrantorX
  • register as sent, seems he immediately blocked me. Funny to add that If he had. waited a couple more days to text me there would have been an additional 10% on top, but didn't happen.
    via TrantorX
  • And that's the story. I'm sure other employees got f ed by him in the past for not knowing their rights, but at least I got my petty revenge for all those years.
    via TrantorX
  • Cheezburger Image 10663238144
    via Jen Titus

    The piggy bank after the plan succeeded

    Photo is a representation of scenes



     

  • Buburubu May I move to your country?
    via Buburubu
  • Afraid-Hunt-5166 Good for you! You Uno Reversed and he was left holding a hand full of cards!!!
    via Afraid-Hunt-5166

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workplace-stories toxic-workplace work workplace toxic-work-environment
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