One, never mess with an engineer.

Two, never mess with an engineer who has YEARS of experience.

It won’t end well for you!

And the hero in this revenge story definitely fits into both of those categories and he made some folks pay dearly.

Fired? Are you sure? OK.

“My friend’s father (since retired) was a mechanical engineer. He was around 55 when this happened and VERY experienced in his field.

In fact, he had some skill sets that were close to unique to the extent that you might be able to replicate them, but at extreme costs – we’re talking multiple people from multiple companies from multiple countries taking weeks if not months to get up to speed with specific projects to do the same things.

This guy knew his stuff and was set in his ways.

He was also a no messing around kind of guy who did his job, did it well but also pointed out problems and expected others to point out problems to him. He was extremely solution-oriented and had no time for office politics or “keeping a positive attitude” at work. Basically, your every day grumpy older engineer who really knew his thing and always ready to help if you asked, but not very forthcoming in team building exercises and so on.

And he had side hustles, too.

He also ran his own business on the side, doing minor projects and so on. As was required by his employer, he had reported this and was sure to not cause any conflicts of interests, so his employer knew and accepted this.

He was considered a valuable employee and got several awards (that he cared little for, but anyway) during his many years with this employer. By all accounts, they paid him well, respected his knowledge and accomodated his style and he returned the favour by working very hard and making sure to mentor younger and newly employed engineers to make them effective co-workers.

New management came on board…and it didn’t sound like a good thing.

Then his firm was acquired by a larger firm, and a new management team installed. Initally, everyone was promised that things would remain the same, but with the new management came a new office culture. The new management pressured for unpaid overtime, for a more “American” corporate culture with cheering and clapping and so on.

This guy didn’t want to play along.

He considered it extremely cringe and refused to participate. His status as a long-standing and knowledgeable employee kept him safe for some time, before the new management realised that resistance to the new “culture” centered around him and started pressuring him to play along.

When he did not, they turned increasingly hostile, realising that he held a lot of “soft power” in the company, having mentored a large percentage of the engineers and resistance to their leadership centering around him.

Things got ugly.

They started ordering him to work overtime, he answered that he was on time with his projects and that if they had identified an emergency requiring overtime, they would have to bring it up with the union to negotiate the over-time and make sure it was an actual emergency – the contract with the union said no overtime unless in an emergency.

They tried to force him to participate in the cheering and clapping by making it mandatory for him to attend and yelling at him to participate and he did but so unenthusiastically that the event turned even more cringe and people started laughing.

He was prepared for the worst.

The workday turned more and more hostile, and he knew that things would come to head sooner or later. Being an experienced engineer and knowing how to document things, he already had his ducks in a row.

Then it finally happened – they caught him answering an e-mail for his side business on his work laptop, brought him in and fired him on the spot for theft of company resources. He sat at the conference table and looked the three managers in their eyes, one after the other and asked.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

They all said yes.

“Are you really sure you want to do this?”

He was escorted to his desk by security to leave his phone, his badge and his computer at the desk and then escorted out.

He got in touch with the union.

Once out of the building, he phoned his union representative, who immediately cancelled the firing, claiming there was no just cause, which meant that it would go to the labour board for arbitration.

You see, the company had an IT policy that it was ok to use the company laptop for personal business, including a side business, as long as you were on a break and compliant with IT security protocols, and the company was aware of and had approved his side business. And he was on a break.

Of course, he had his declaration of a side business (signed by his former manager) and the IT policy available and sent both to the union representative.

And he got his lawyer involved.

Then he called his lawyer and asked him to send the pre-prepared cease and desist on two patents he held – patents that were not that significant and nothing he could make any serious money out of since they were mostly for very specific things used by the solutions he designed and used at his employer’s, but still his that he had brought with him into the employment and allowed the employer to use in exchange for a slightly higher pay (all duly documented in his contract, of course).

Then he went home for some vacation and tending his side business. He was always a man to prepare and had enough money saved up to last him for a good time, to the extent that he considered retiring entirely.

This guy was smart and knew what to do next.

My friend said he had two job offers from competitors that had looked to sniping him for some time within the week – basically as soons as they learned he was available. He was gracious, but declined, but offered them to consult with his side business, now that he had the time, which they eagerly accepted – at twice the hourly rate he had made at his earlier employer’s.

All he could do was say NO.

His colleagues started ringing the day after for advice, since the projects he had managed could not go on without him, he was perfectly polite, but denied any information and help, saying he had left everything he had with management and to contact them, as he was no longer employed there.

Several clients that phoned his private number were told the same thing. Since his private number was not on a public registry, he suspected that both colleagues and clients spent some time and/or money to find it.

And then he got a phone call.

It took two weeks before a manager phoned him and asked things. He politely declined to answer, got yelled at and replied with something like “I am sorry, you must have mistaken me for someone who works for you.” and hung up.

This happened a few times, and the next week HR phoned him and stated the firing had been a mistake and he was welcome back to his job. He again politely declined, saying that he awaited the labour board’s decision, but until then he was happy to consult for them at six times his hourly pay (after taxes and administrative costs, of course).

This guy was about to get PAID.

After a few days of wrangling and trying to negotiate, they had to accept. And then he sprung the patent issue on them, forcing them to pay for those too. Less than two and a half week after being fired he was back at his desk.

After roughly three months, the firing came to the labour board. The employer stated that they believed they had handled the issue correctly, but were still willing to offer my friend’s father his position back, in the interest of “good will” and “reconciliation”.

Big time!

My friend’s father and the union simply stated that he was now employed elsewhere (his own company) and no longer available. The labour board ruled in my friend’s father’s and the union’s favour, and he got the normal damages – 3 months pay damage and 24 months pay severance package, including pension and of course the lawyer costs of the union paid by the employer.

According to my friend, her father continued to work there until he retired, working 20 hours or so per week and 10-15 hours for other companies, making a pretty penny, continuing to charge them three times what he charged their competitors as an “******* tax”.

Pretty impressive!

The managers were not fired, but they were moved into their own group apart from the rest of the department when it came to bonus calculations and the costs of her father’s consultancy fees and the costs of the labour board arbitration were budgeted there, meaning they were constantly over budget and thus ineligible for bonuses for several years, which was a decent percentage of the incentives at that company, making at least one of them quit.

My friend also said her father usually met any management complaints with a big **** eating grin and “What are you going to do? Fire me?” after that.”

Let’s see how folks reacted on Reddit.

One person was very impressed by this story.

Another individual was amused by a particular line.

This Reddit user was reminded of their own experience by this story.

And this reader shed a tear because they loved this story so much.

This guy really knew what he was doing!

I guess you can say that his company got the short end of the stick on this one.