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.
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.”
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.
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_
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Brett Sayles
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Mikhail Nilov
Representative Image Source: Pexels | Tima Miroshnichenko
