Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Add Upworthy to your Google News feed.
Google News Button

Losing a job is never easy, especially when it happens unfairly. Most employees, when laid off, pack up their desks and move on. However, one woman decided she wasn’t going to walk away quietly—she was going to take everything that belonged to her.

A Reddit user, u/everybodys-therapist, shared how she turned the tables on her employer after being let go. Working as a media designer, she had spent years accumulating equipment and resources for the company, often using her own money. But when management blindsided her with termination—replacing her with an inexperienced recent graduate—her boss’s only instruction was to take what was hers and leave. So, she did exactly that.


Representative photo of fired employee by Canva

Years of dedication, dismissed in an instant

Spending years at the company, she had taken on more and more responsibilities beyond her original job description.

"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 explained in her viral post. To make matters worse, she had even invested her own money in high-end equipment that helped with event production and promotions.


"All of that equipment had my name on it to make sure that it wouldn't get lost if I lent it out."
— u/everybodys-therapist

By her fifth year, she had contributed thousands of dollars in gear—cameras, AV equipment, and other essentials—only to be called into a meeting one day and told she was being let go. Management cited downsizing as the reason but revealed that they had already hired her replacement—someone fresh out of college with little practical experience.

Adding insult to injury, her boss made it clear that she wasn’t welcome back.

"He specifically told me to 'take everything that is yours, as you won’t be coming back,'” she recalled.

Representative Image Source: Pexels | Mălina Sîrbu

Taking back what was rightfully hers

Determined to follow her boss’s instructions to the letter, she loaded up her car with every single piece of equipment that had her name on it. Box after box, she carried out cameras, sound systems, and tech gear—everything she had purchased with her own money.

"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 wrote.

"I still remember the fear in his eyes."
— u/everybodys-therapist

She kept her cool, calmly responding that everything she was taking was hers. The real panic set in when she told her boss she needed access to the arena’s AV booth and catwalk. One by one, she unplugged and removed all of her cameras from 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 joked.


Representative Image Source: Pexels | Antoni Shkraba

Karma comes full circle

By the time she drove away, the office had been stripped of critical media equipment, and her boss was left in a state of complete shock. While she admitted she felt a sense of satisfaction, the story didn’t end there.

Within a year, the company completely collapsed.

"The company only lasted another year before they folded entirely, and I like to believe that I had a hand in that," she added.

media.giphy.com

Her story quickly gained traction online, receiving over 12,000 upvotes and sparking conversations about workplace mistreatment and corporate karma.

Other workers share similar stories

Many Reddit users chimed in with their own tales of taking back what was rightfully theirs after being wrongfully dismissed.

u/AcmeCartoonVillian shared a similar experience:

"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."


media.giphy.com



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

Meanwhile, u/DracoDeVis recalled how his mother’s theater company employees rescued their work before bankruptcy:

"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/mrbitterness_

A lesson in knowing your worth

This woman’s story serves as a powerful reminder to know your worth in the workplace. Despite giving 200% to her job, she was replaced without hesitation. But instead of walking away empty-handed, she left with everything she had invested—both financially and emotionally.

For companies that take their employees for granted, this serves as a cautionary tale: Treat your workers well, or you may find yourself dealing with the fallout when they leave.

More For You

Actor James Avery; The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air logo

Uncle Phil, played by actor James Avery, on the sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

Kingkongphoto/Wikipedia

Why millennials are saying Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince is the greatest TV dad ever

Sitcoms hit a peak in the 80s and 90s—and most Millennials can claim that they 'grew up' with them. A lot of time it was the father figures in these TV shows who proved to be standout characters, but one dad captured Millennials hearts over all the rest: Uncle Phil, played by actor James Avery in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Uncle Phil was deemed the best sitcom dad by Millennials, and he earned the title from one of his show's most impactful scenes from the episode "Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse" that aired in May 1994.

In it, Will (played by actor Will Smith) spends time with his dad Lou, who has been absent for the past 14 years. Uncle Phil is distrustful of Lou and protective over his nephew Will. So when Lou decides to dip out on a trip he planned with Will, Uncle Phil steps into Will's pain and supports him. It plays out as one of the most emotional scenes Millennials can remember–making Uncle Phil the best TV dad in their eyes.

Keep ReadingShow less

Dad explains how he 'protects' daughter by taking her into the women's bathroom

While some states have made great progress in improving the child changing stations in men's bathrooms, many still lag behind. A few years ago, father Charles Mau went viral when he shared the appalling conditions he encountered while changing his daughter.

That's why Chronicles of Daddy blogger Muhammed Nitoto decided to share his solution to the problem: taking his daughter into the women's bathroom instead. In a viral Instagram post, Nitoto explained that he does so to "protect" his daughter from "all things that aren't for them, and the men's bathroom is 100% one of those things."

Keep ReadingShow less
Boyfriend critiques girlfriend’s ‘performance.’ She shut him down instantly.
Representative photo by Canva

Boyfriend critiques girlfriend’s ‘performance.’ She shut him down instantly.

Love isn’t a business transaction, but one boyfriend apparently didn’t get the memo. When one woman shared her story, the internet was left cringing and cheering her on after she dumped her boyfriend for giving her a performance review—just like a boss would with an employee. Instead of talking through relationship concerns like a normal person, he decided to critique her ‘performance’ as a girlfriend, complete with a folder of written notes. The reaction? Exactly what you’d expect.

The relationship audit no one asked for

The couple had been together for three years, living in a modest apartment that worked for them. According to the girlfriend, Mark always had quirks—like folding his socks into little balls and getting upset if she didn’t do it the same way.

Keep ReadingShow less
A man handing over a tip.

Representative Image: Tipping used to more commonly known as a gratuity because that's what it meant.

Customer fights back after restaurant refuses to serve free tap water

Some restaurants have adopted automated payment systems that include mandatory gratuities, sparking debates about tipping culture. While many argue that tipping provides essential income for service workers, others believe restaurants should pay fair wages instead. A Reddit user, u/ilikesnark, recently shared a frustrating dining experience that reignited the discussion—this time over a restaurant's refusal to serve tap water.

In their post, titled "Waitress refused to give me water so I removed the 15% auto gratuity," the Redditor described the awkward situation. They had gone out to eat alone and noticed the restaurant’s policy of automatically adding a 15% tip to every bill. While ordering, they requested a glass of tap water, but the waitress instead brought a bottle of water. When the customer asked again for tap water, the waitress insisted they didn’t have any.

Keep ReadingShow less
For 27 years, she photographed her parents waving goodbye. The final shot is heartbreaking.
Representative image by Canva

For 27 years, she photographed her parents waving goodbye. The final shot is heartbreaking.

Saying goodbye to loved ones can be a tender, bittersweet ritual, especially when those goodbyes accumulate over decades. For photographer Deanna Dikeman—known on Instagram as @deannadikeman—documenting these moments became a powerful, long-term project. Over 27 years, she snapped photos of her parents waving farewell in their driveway, culminating in one final image that feels like a punch to the gut.

A 27-year tradition
What began in 1991 as a casual snapshot turned into an ongoing series Dikeman informally called “Leaving and Waving.” Every time she left her parents’ home, she would pause to capture them standing in the driveway, hands raised in a goodbye wave. In an Instagram post shared by @the.pinklemonade, her images spanned from the early ‘90s until October 2017. The collection is currently on display at Réseau L U X (@reseau_lux) in Paris.

Keep ReadingShow less