Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
The backstory
Lemme start with context: this was what happened when I quit my job back in 2016 and this is what kind of animal my former boss was.
This is the story of the office environment, the setup, and ultimately the revenge that followed.
The workplace was badly run – I ended up doing things beyond my job scope
My work environment in events management (pre-pandemic of course) was a mix of bullsh*t, horsesh*t, and cowsh*t held together by extensive screaming, yelling and verbal abuse, and profanity.
I was hired as a digital creative, and then suddenly got shafted into doing most of the HR and Accounting and Payroll work. This was on top of everything else I had been originally hired to do. This happened because my boss got mad and fired people – or screamed at them enough that they would quit.
This meant that there was a lot of legal documentation, and technical processes that had to be followed and, of course, documented. Naturally, it could be digital or a physical paper trail. I opted for digital.
The company was barely equipped for their employees
My boss had provided an IBM THINKPAD laptop for work use… and as you can imagine, this thing was nowhere near powerful enough to do… well… anything. Don’t get me started on how slow the damn thing was. I could turn it on, make coffee, smoke a cigarette, and come back and it STILL wouldn’t have finished booting.
This was actually one of the more powerful computers in the entire business, for context.
I made a call into IT and requested to add my personal laptop to the company’s networks. I was told “sure, no problem” and got my request approved by my boss. This let me set things up so that my work is done on the Google Drive account tied specifically to my email. This was great because it allowed me to work from anywhere, long before work-from-home was a thing.
There were days my boss wanted me to pretend like I was his PA and had me do my work in his office. Other days, I would find myself running around KL and PJ meeting clients. Sometimes I was the go-to marketing person. Other times I could say “I am the HR Department!”
There were emails aplenty to prove that I’d been assigned these duties and responsibilities, which I took the liberty of BCC’ing to myself.
Months of this went by and I’d accumulated a lot of extra tasks, duties, and responsibilities. Many of them were tediously mind-numbing. But with the right tools and my own personal spreadsheets, something that would take 2-3 hours by hand could be done in about 30 minutes.
I quit in a blaze of glory
My last day of work is pretty much summed up here.
The short version was that he was yelling at me about something, and I had the lightbulb epiphany moment. Even as he continued to yell at me, I went back to my desk, typed out my resignation letter, digitally signed, dated, it and sent it to HR.
Sitting at my desk, I transferred one month of salary to the company bank account in line with HR Policy as I would leave without serving my notice period.
As the “acting” HR, I acknowledged the receipt of my resignation, and that I had paid in lieu of serving notice which I also CC-ed my soon-to-be former boss. The entire chain of correspondence was also BCC-ed to my personal email.
I did a full backup to my personal google drive account. Of course, I did not delete anything from the company account.
I then proceed to carefully click “log out of all locations” on my Google account, and pack away my laptop and a few personal belongings.
My last action was to leave my printed resignation letter on the “HR Desk” and walk out the door.
The venti Americano from the Starbucks downstairs was one of the best cups of coffee I have ever had. It tasted of freedom.
Revenge is a dish best served cold
Things started to break down very quickly after I left. I blocked every work-related number for anyone associated with my former boss. A good friend kept me updated as the situation spiraled into a disaster.
My ex-boss’s cronies revealed their lack of competence and ability with hourly Whatsapp messages to find out how to compile weekly reports, how to enter certain time-sensitive data, or where to find things on the company server. I just blocked them.
I also started blocking email addresses in response to the flood entering my inbox.
I finally conceded and agreed to meet so I could give them a thumb drive with all the necessary files (it was a download of that Google Drive account). I would have gone along with this plan – until I met my ex-boss again and he started screaming at me (again). I just walked out. Suffice to say I took all my knowledge and skills with me.
Almost a month later, I answered a call from an unknown number. I was looking for a new job and it had been a few weeks since I’d left. My ex-boss had changed his number and was calling to make some demands.
Finally, I had something that gave me some power over him
I told him that I’d come into work for him – at FIVE times my monthly salary. I wish I’d written down his verbal tirade. It would have impressed a few drill instructors and made sailors blush.
But then he moved on to trying to negotiate. He drew the line at three times what my monthly salary was. I countered: seven times. He got abusive again.
Enough is enough.
“You probably missed one payroll already – and another payroll is in 1 week. Monthly accounting is probably behind as well. I’m guessing invoices and support documents have not been sent out? Quarterly reports were due LAST week, and the Annual Reports are due in about 3 weeks.”
He was silent, as it sunk into his brain that he needed me, not the other way round.
And I dropped the hammer on him:
“I will contract for you. Freelance. 40 hours. FIFTEEN times my monthly salary. Written scope of work: I will only do what is written down. I get to work remotely. I will only come in to submit the work once it’s complete. You pay in full upfront. Email me.”
The aftermath
All the information, the drafts, the pictures, everything he needed was located in my company email account’s Google Drive. I was under no obligation to tell him this – it was all in my resignation email after all.
I spent four days doing what normally takes two weeks.
I walked into the office the following Monday, sat down for half a day to tie up a few loose ends. Then I met my soon-to-be-again-ex-boss. I plugged a thumb drive into his computer and unlocked it (password protected). He checked it, had his cronies check it, and everything was there per the scope of work.
I got him to initial and countersign the scope of work to confirm that everything had been delivered. And then gave him the password: “Bl@rdyF00l1”. That password is a coincidence, I swear.
The company survived my departure and my freelance consultancy fee of RM45,000. No surprise as my ex-boss is a multimillionaire who can afford to lose a few tens of thousands a year while “operating” a business.
I made enough to take a month-long holiday and since I tended to be in the area regularly, I’ve always considered whether or not I should send coffee to those still suffering there.
For more stories like this, read: Is Your Favourite Small Malaysian Business Taking Advantage Of Their Workers?, Malaysian Income Inequality Is Getting Worse – What You Need To Know, and Malaysia Has An Ongoing Brain Drain Problem – This Is Everything You Need To Know About It.
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