When your work life is toxic, your whole life is. The foreman in this story understands this and knew he had to take action to make things better.

Check out why and how he spearheaded a protest.

14 People, including me, walk out in protest.

Friday the 13th happened. It was glorious, for all intents and purposes.

I run day to day operations for a decent sized company. We have a president who runs the company in house. He can be tedious, overwhelming, and an all around jerk sometimes. Other times, he can be cool as can be. This was one of the times he was an overbearing, micromanaging jerkbag.

It’s a big problem.

As shop foreman, I take my job seriously with morale. If my guys aren’t happy, good product isn’t produced. If good product isn’t produced, customers aren’t happy. Looking towards quality control, it doesn’t help when guys are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated.

Friday was one of those days that started out well, but by 6:40 am, it had deteriorated. (Note: We officially don’t start work until 7 am.) After the start, it was complain about this, micromanage that. Several people being cussed at and belittled, everyone had had enough.

Once in our programming office, the idea was floated by someone that we should walk out. He can’t fire us all. Now, we’ve all joked about this time after time, but it’s never been more than a thought. We grit our teeth and bear it.

That day was something different.

Things are about to boil over.

After getting yelled at again for something out of my control, I finally said screw it. When someone asked if I was in and serious, I said yes. Then, it snowballed from there.

A total of 20 were supposed to walk out, but due to cold feet, and a few taking a shit, only 14 made it. At 10 am, we made our move. I told everyone to wait until he would be distracted with a machine and we’d all clock out and leave.

We all waited. When he was distracted, I gave the round up signal, and everyone left. A few stopped for beer to relax. We weren’t intending on going back to negotiate until Monday. We all met at a guys house and discussed why we walked, what we wanted, and what our terms were. One thing was very clear: We all came back or no one did.

After talking for 2 1/2 hours and coming to our terms, we decided to head back after a text from him. We were going to corner him, we were going to talk it straight, or we weren’t working anymore.

Fortunately, their solidarity made an impact.

The talk lasted almost two hours with both parties flexing their given muscles at some point. But one thing was made clear: things were going to change, or we’d all go look for new jobs.

After several people were threatened with being fired, and none being let go, we came to terms that benefitted us. For once, our work place had so much morale. People were excited to work again. We went back to work with a purpose, agenda, and pride.

This is the first Monday I’ve looked forward to work in a year. Even the guys who couldn’t come, the people in the main office – we stirred the pot. We’ve made it known, we’re not going to go thru this anymore.

I’ll vouch for any of my men… and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Here is what folks are saying.

Not quite a literal union, but close.

I don’t see it as begging, but I appreciate the sentiment.

I don’t see how that could go well.

It makes me sad, to be honest.

I’m sure he gave them a feeling of control!

No one deserves to be mistreated at work.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.