Feeling used isn’t nice at all.

It is even more frustrating when it happens at work as money makes everything personal.

Keep reading to see how the employee in this story used a boss’s boss’s entitlement to his advantage.

Here are all the details!

Screw me over, I take away your promotion

One day when I’m working from home I take my lunch break, make a quick sandwich and post the items that I’m giving away on Facebook.

I didn’t know it at the time but one of the higher up managers – called Shambles henceforth – from my work was also signed up to that page and he saw my post.

He then took it upon himself to go to the owner of the company and tell him that I was slacking off and posting on Facebook during work hours.

But that was just the tip of the iceberg.

I’d been doing a lot of work for Shambles.

He’d outsourced the running of entire projects to me over the last 18 months and this was the only time in 18 months I’d posted ANYTHING on Facebook.

So the owner contacted me and said ‘It doesn’t look good when colleagues see’ that I’ve been posting items on Facebook.

Me – ‘Completely understand, just so you know I posted that during my lunch break.’

Owner – ‘I was told you were posting at noon.’ (the company lunch break is usually 1-2).

Me – ‘I did but that’s because when I’m working from home I always take my lunch 12-1.’ Owner – ‘Okay, I don’t have an issue with that, just keep your head down.’

I wasn’t really in trouble and the owner didn’t seem to care, but then I started to think wonder, “Who went to the owner with this in the first place?!’

A coworker heard that Shambles had been whining to the owner about me and how I’m always on social media when I should be working.

Then everything starts making sense.

I never got recognition for this extra work.

For 2 years I managed a sub-department completely on my own and Shambles kept handing me work.

The projects he tried to outsource to me I immediately rejected, saying that I had a full plate from my actual job and that sub-department I ran..

Over the next couple of months Shambles starts missing his deadlines, issues come up with existing projects that he hasn’t fixed and employees are complaining that everytime they go to him with an issue it doesn’t get resolved.

It dawns on me that I’ve been doing this guys job for him for years. Screw that.

So I set up a meeting with my boss and put forward my arguments for why I should be promoted.

He completely agrees and says he’ll take it to his boss. For some reason Shambles was at our meeting.

He’s on the same level in the company as my boss’s boss.

Shambles lets me finish my argument then tells me people don’t respect, but they respect him.

Boss’s boss says he’s got the approval of the higher-ups so what he says has too much sway for him to go against him.

I tell boss’s boss I’m going to look for other employment.

He sighs and says ‘I don’t blame you.’

So he put a plan in motion.

I’m an accredited internal auditor for our quality systems and I ask if I can be assigned a couple of last audits before I leave ‘to help them out’.

I carry out these audits, and using my intimate knowledge of Shambles’ projects find every single issue I can.

A number of people also hate Shambles and give me more dirt on him: forging signatures and bypassing multiple company procedures to make his KPIs look better.

I write up the report with tons of evidence attached and send it off.

The report gets flagged at the highest level because of what it shows and Shambles gets dragged over the coals.

He didn’t get fired, but I’m told told he’ll never progress beyond where he is and that he’s lucky to have a job at all.

Apparently it has hurt his ego.

I got a better job and in my last month at that company I gave them all tutorials on how to search for jobs and pass interviews (I’d worked in recruitment previously).

I’ve heard from a number of them since that they’d landed better jobs and thanked me in part for it.

Here is what folks are saying.

This type of person has no shame and no limits. It’s their downfall.

It seems like a very common story.

Definitely. He wanted to intimidate.

Absolutely not. That would show that bias governed the decision instead of letting the facts do that.

I’m very practical and I like this reality, too.

I love that he calls this guy Shambles.

Some nicknames are earned.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.