Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Add Upworthy to your Google News feed.
Google News Button

Being abruptly fired from a job can be emotionally devastating, often leaving the dismissed employee stunned and hurt. While most people quietly pack their things and depart, one woman chose to fully comply with her boss’s instructions—and her compliance ended up unsettling him greatly.



media1.tenor.com

The professional media designer, who shared her experience on Reddit under the username u/everybodys-therapist, described how, over the years, she became overwhelmed with responsibilities that weren't initially part of her role. "This company held large events, and I was gradually assigned more and more unrelated responsibilities until I was effectively performing the roles of at least four people," she shared in her popular post. Beyond workload alone, the employee generously used her own money to acquire essential media equipment needed by the company. "All of that equipment had my name on it to make sure that it wouldn't get lost if I lent it out," she explained, highlighting how she'd carefully sourced and built up a significant personal inventory.

By the fifth year, her personal investments in equipment, mostly for the organization's promotional and event-related activities, reached into the thousands. Everything changed abruptly one day when management summoned her. “They informed me of an upcoming downsizing and that they had hired a recent college graduate, with limited practical experience, to take over my responsibilities along with those of several other roles,” she explained. Completely blindsided, she began the process of leaving with a colleague’s assistance. The instructions from her boss were explicit: “take everything that is yours, as you won't be coming back.”


media1.tenor.com

Taking these words to heart, she meticulously collected every piece of equipment bearing her name and loaded it into her Ford Explorer parked outside. "With every box we loaded into my car, my boss grew increasingly panicked. At one point, he said, ‘You can only take things that are yours,’" she recounted. Calmly yet assertively, she reassured him that everything she had packed indeed belonged to her.

But the moment her boss truly realized the gravity of the situation was when she requested access to the arena's AV Booth and catwalk. "I still remember the fear in his eyes," she wrote, describing how she disconnected all her cameras previously lent to the events team. "I felt like the Grinch just walking around and taking all the random things in the building that had my name on them," she reflected.


media1.tenor.com

Reflecting on the situation later, she described mixed emotions. "I had given 200% in every way, but they picked someone younger and fresh out of college to replace me. I won’t lie—the smug satisfaction of watching their faces as I stripped the place bare was worth it," she admitted. The toxic environment she experienced had lingering effects, but in the end, the company itself couldn't survive without her contributions. "The company only lasted another year before they folded entirely, and I like to believe that I had a hand in that," she concluded in her Reddit post, which resonated with thousands, receiving nearly 12K upvotes.

Representative Image Source: Pexels | Antoni Shkraba

Redditors quickly chimed in with similar stories of workplace justice. User u/AcmeCartoonVillian shared, "Twenty years ago, I did almost exactly this while working as a Sales Copy Center Manager. My colleague and I left to start our own sign company and copy center, taking a significant portion of legacy customers with us." Another user, u/DracoDeVis, recalled, "When my mother’s theater company laid off its production team before going bankrupt, her costume team discreetly retrieved thousands of costumes they had crafted, taking them back for themselves.”

Image Source: Reddit | u/That-Dutch-Mechanic

Image Source: Reddit | u/mrbitterness_

More For You

A man and woman kissing in the kitchen

Welcome to the "Boy and Girl apartment" trend

Unsplash

Women living in beautiful apartments share their secrets to co-habitating with a boyfriend

Blending styles can be difficult. Naturally, when two or more people are brought together, their visions aren’t always going to mesh. Like getting a haircut then realizing, after they spin you around for the big reveal, that your barber actually didn’t “totally get” the inspiration photo you brought in. Or teaming up with some friends for a group project in school who you didn't realize were petrified of public speaking. Or, take One Direction for example. Five solo singers who at didn't get along at all at first, brought together only after Simon Cowell corralled them all into a boy band.


Keep ReadingShow less
airport, flying, airport travel
person standing with holding luggage bag

Psychologist reveals exactly why everyone acts weird at airports

Fewer places bring out weirder human behavior than airports. Sleeping on floors? Acceptable. Paying $8 for a bag of chips? Acceptable. And 9 a.m. beers? Totally acceptable. Time (and personal space) seems to suspend itself when you're traveling in them. And psychologist Steve Taylor, a Senior Psychology Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, explained exactly why everything and everyone feels so weird when you're in an airport with The Conversation.

Simply put: airports cause disorientation. "Due to the haziness of time and place, airports create a sense of disorientation," he explains. "We define ourselves in terms of time and place. We know who we are in relation to our daily routines and our familiar environments. We also define ourselves in terms of nationality. Without such markers, we may feel adrift."

Keep ReadingShow less
10-year-old violin prodigy stuns airport travelers with flawless Vivaldi duet
Representative photo by Canva

10-year-old violin prodigy stuns airport travelers with flawless Vivaldi duet

A beautiful blend of talent, courage, and classical music left Rome Airport travelers in awe when a 10-year-old violin prodigy, Yeonah Kim (@yeonah_kim_violin on Instagram), performed an impromptu duet with pianist Julien Cohen. The duo’s breathtaking rendition of Vivaldi’s “Summer” turned the airport’s Terminal 1 into an unexpected concert hall, captivating both onlookers and millions of viewers online.

  Representative photo by Sebastian Mark | Unsplash 

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot from Madeline Delp's TikTok video

Madeline Delp records her encounter with a parking attendant.

TikTok | @madelinedelp

Woman chased down over disabled parking spot despite being completely within her rights

A woman using a wheelchair was left shaken after a parking attendant chased her downhill and berated her for parking in a disabled spot—despite her having every legal right to do so. Madeline Delp (@madelinedelp on TikTok) shared the unsettling experience in a series of videos, sparking outrage and support from viewers.

Delp had parked in a wheelchair-accessible spot near a business complex before heading to a doctor's appointment. However, as she made her way down a hill, a parking attendant aggressively pursued her, accusing her of misusing the spot.

Keep ReadingShow less
She noticed something odd in a news photo—25 years after her brother vanished
Representative image via Canva

She noticed something odd in a news photo—25 years after her brother vanished

When someone close suddenly disappears, their family clings fiercely to hope—even if the search stretches across decades. A woman who had spent years desperately searching for her younger brother, Tommy, discovered an astonishing lead after 25 years of uncertainty. Ahead of Thanksgiving, a seemingly ordinary detail in an online news story changed their lives forever.

For decades, the sister had carried deep sadness about Tommy’s disappearance in 1999. According to CNN, Tommy had vanished along with his vehicle without leaving any trace. Over the years, she anxiously scoured reports of unidentified remains, fearing the worst. However, her fortunes changed dramatically after coming across an article in USA Today, which featured a hospitalized man whose identity was unknown, as he could neither speak nor communicate effectively.

Keep ReadingShow less