Don’t ever mess with a person’s livelihood.
And it doesn’t matter what line of work they’re in, it’s a huge NO-NO.
And a manager who tried to play games with an employee’s life and job ended up getting some justified revenge exacted on them.
It all started in a warehouse…
Manager tried to take Delivery Man’s livelihood, makes him fear for his families future… Don’t worry I’ve got your back.
“Back in the warehouse days we had an ever growing clearance section.
Because of this the company employed a delivery driver to be solely responsible for delivering clearance items purchased by customers.
It sounds like his co-worker John was a great guy and a great worker.
This delivery driver… lets call him John, was amazing. He was a veteran of the industry, had two trucks… a smaller and a larger one… did most of the heavy lifting… always took the time to chat to me as I helped him Load up his delivery run… would bring me beer when it was an extremely hot day… and knew I’d been busting my ***.
He had worked for a bunch of high end furniture stores but when the recession hit, and companies went belly up or cut costs… he found himself struggling for work.
The company I worked for had a problem with delivery drivers… due to the fact the company was cheap… and wouldn’t pay the industry rates most delivery drivers charged.
John was happy to make a few concessions for cash in hand deliveries… and naturally Management took advantage of that.
So he asked John if he could start working for him.
After a few problems in the warehouse, I asked John if I could get a few shifts working for him as his delivery offsider.
John immediately said yes as he had problems of his own with lazy employees.
I immediately fell in love with the work. We would do a 4am start to get deliveries on the watch 6… and if we scheduled it correctly we could be done by 2-2.30.
I loved the physicality of it, loved being on the open road… and loved swapping stories with John. He would talk about his wife and kids… and I’d make fun of his tacky scorpion tattoo.
But then some problems started…
The problems started when John would get his delivery run sheet from the store… and would see the delivery prices quoted to the customer from the Manager.
To give you an idea… the store would charge $95 for a local delivery.. this was with a full day of deliveries… and approximately 20-30 deliveries.
John would charge slightly more as he was doing maybe 5-8 deliveries and they’d be all over … as opposed to all being in a specific area.
John would go in and chat to the manager and ask why a customer was only being charged $50 for a3 seater sofa bed, going up six flights of stairs … when normally it would be a $110 delivery charge and $100 for every flight of stair past the first level.
The manager sounds like she was a real jerk…and John paid the price for it.
The manager would just shrug and say she reduced the delivery to close the sale.
We’d get other deliveries where we’d have to carry a ten piece sectional sofa up seven flights of stairs because the customer wouldn’t reserve an elevator… or in some cases the goods wouldn’t fit in the lift.
We’d get the sofa inside, unbag it, connect the sections, take the rubbish away only for the customer to hand John $30 in cash.
It was soul crushing.
I remember getting the customer to sign off on the paperwork as John said he’d meet me back at the truck.
I grabbed the last bits of rubbish and made my way downstairs and jumped into the passenger seat. John was trying not to look at me… he’d been crying.
John was clearly having some issues.
I asked if he was okay and he kind of broke down a little… and confused in me.
That he was struggling with bills That the company I worked for was his only decent paying job That he was getting screwed over by the manager… That he might have to sell his trucks to pay his bills
My heart went out for this guy. He was becoming a fast friend and genuinely loved his job.
I began to hatch a plan… based on my inside knowledge of the Manager, the AreaManager, the General Manager and the company in general.
So this guy decided that revenge was in order.
I took John to a small bar and bought us a few drinks.
We sat in a booth and I began to lay out my plan for revenge .
I asked John why he didn’t give the Manager a price list and charge more for his deliveries.
John – if I do that, the Manager said that they’d drop me as their driver and find someone cheaper
I laughed.
Me – call her now and quit.
And there was a good reason he told him to quit.
I explained that we had seen the run sheet for tomorrow… we had a massive run… 10 deliveries and we already knew the Manager had quoted ridiculously cheap prices… like $20 a delivery.
John wasn’t sure.
Me – look, any other contract driver would charge $200 minimum per delivery… there’s no way another driver will touch this company….
John got on the phone, called The Manager ( put her on speaker) and quit right then and there.
The Manager, as expected talked a big game, she said they’d be better off without John and that he just lost his biggest contract.
John hung up…looking sick and panicked.
So they bided their time…
I reassured him it’d be ok. I checked my watch… the store closed at 5pm it was currently 1 pm.
I promised John by 4pm he’d get a call back from the Manager.
In the meantime we set about creating a new list of demands… that if they were to employ John they’d do the following-
charge a pre set price, given to them by John
pay for Johns off sider and gas
for any difficult deliveries, balcony lifts, fire escape deliveries they’d charge an additional fee
that if they wanted to terminate John they’d have to give him the appropriate notice
And then it happened!
Sure enough, at 4.30… Johns phone rings. Would you look at that… it’s the Manager.
John answer and puts the phone on speaker…
The Manager, in a much more polite tone.. says that if John will do the delivery tomorrow she’ll offer him a $50 gift card for the store .
I hang up the call.
John looks at me in disbelief. I tell him when she calls back… you lay out your demands… and that’s that.
Five minutes later his phone rings again… it’s the Manager. John answers and puts her on speaker phone.
The Manager starts her spiel but John cuts her off.
Now it was John’s turn to be in charge.
John begins listing the problems he’s having with the company. At first he’s nervous but then the months of being screwed over kick in and he lays down the law like a champion.
The Manager laughs off Johns request and I encourage John to relay the next bit of information to Manager-
John – you know as well as I do no other contract company / contract driver would get out of bed for less than $250 a delivery… for what you’re proposing…you either sign off on my demands or good luck tomorrow
Manager – fine fine do the delivery tomorrow and then we can—
John – no… I’m coming down there now… you’ll sign off on everything… then we will load the truck up tonight and finish the delivery tomorrow
He hangs up.
Now it was time for a face-to-face meeting.
We go to the store and the Manager looks mad. She keeps complaining that John has her between a rock and a hard place and that John is extorting her.
I can’t help but point out that I’m sure Johns kids would like to eat tomorrow…John slaps the new contract he’s written up by hand in the truck…. and says Sign it
The Manager signs it… and John backs his truck into the warehouse.
We notice as per usual it’s sofa beds, glass coffee tables… the heaviest items this company sells.
The Manager walks out to the warehouse and smirks as we struggle to load the extremely heavy goods into the truck.
As we finish the Manager has a few snarky parting words
Manager – John, with this new contract.. just so we are clear , you have to fulfill the delivery no matter what?
So an agreement was reached…and all they could do was follow the manager’s directions.
Me – no matter what huh?
Manager – even if the customer isn’t home, I expect you to make sure the goods are there, I don’t want any goods coming back to the warehouse
John – you got it
It was a glorious delivery day the next day… 80% of customers goods wouldn’t fit… as the Manager didn’t explain to the customers that they had to measure their door frames. We had customers screaming at us… abusing us… saying it was unfair they had to now pay more than $20… and how dare we charge them more. We just laughed and complied with the Managers directive… we left every piece of furniture at the property…
And what a nice story of revenge it turned out to be!
Some in the hallways Others in the middle of doorways Some we just left at the front door as some customers refused to accept the delivery as they didn’t want to pay us any money at all….
For the nice ones who had cash ready and were happy to pay us for our obvious efforts, we went that extra mile to get the goods in… and make sure they had the best delivery experience possible.”
Check out how people responded to this story.
This reader is looking for a job that pays like this.
Another individual said this must have happened in New York City.
One individual shared what they paid for a big delivery.
And this reader just isn’t buying it…
This boss sounds like the worst of the worst!
Good thing he got put in his place!