It’s hard to work with someone incompetent, especially if they are your superior, seem to think they are more proficient and are on a power trip.

But that mess does create opportunities for you to improve your situation.

Check out how the worker in this story did that.

The Sign-on Bonus trap, Sprung

In my profession it is very common to have employers offer sign-on bonuses to attract potential hires.

Not many qualified licensed individuals, and not an overly attractive pay scale, so finding workers can be a real PITA.

However, the sign-on bonus also works to trap people for typically a period of 2 years with their new employer, less they have to repay the whole thing back.

It was rocky from the start.

So my first real job in my college trained career was an escape to a small island in the pacific.

Being completely broke, I was excited that I would be able to pay for my flight and a down deposit on a rental with the offered sign-on bonus.

I was hired on a phone interview, so I wasn’t entirely sure what I was in for, but how bad could it be, after all I’d lived through plenty of bad jobs before.

Well, it turns out it was pretty bad from the start.

Meet Pete.

The manager who had hired me and I at least liked per the phone calls, was being rotated out to a new obscure location in what rumors told as a move to replace him with a company man at the bigger operation.

The new company man was likely loyal to the company but was also a textbook example of the Peter Principle, and displayed incompetence in about every interaction we shared so we will call him Pete.

I didn’t know it at that moment, but we were destined for a bit of a battle.

OP really needed the sing-on bonus.

The first problem at hand was not receiving the $7k sign-on bonus. and all of my temporary arrangements were running out after about 2 weeks.

I needed that money to secure a rental along with cover the plane ticket to get there in the first place.

To accentuate my manager’s incompetence, the main office was located at a different location and on a different island. To get any of this process moving required some coordination between my new inept boss and the unknown bodies sitting at the main office.

It finally got straighten out.

This struggle led to a daily visit to Pete to verify if he had turned in the paperwork that the main office had requested, or whatever various task was considered the hold-up on that particular day.

Every conversation about my situation would require a recap of the entire situation and actions already taken, along with what was needed to move forward.

No real big problem, I know there is more to the job than my situation, but it was also getting a little ridiculous that Pete was incapable of the slightest answer beyond “oh…I don’t know”.

Through sheer determination of will I was able to get that $7k and start to settle into my new routine.

Life wouldn’t be that bad, my shift was 4x 10’s Mon-Thur, so I would have long weekends to party which was all I cared about.

But it all went to waste.

Then Pete called me to his office.

Turns out Pete had hired one too many employees, he had two spots open and hired three, but he had a solution, we would reduce our hours, and I would also get the joy of working a rotating schedule which now involved working the weekends.

I was pretty steamed, but also pretty young and naive, willing to put up with nonsense, so I did as most and just took it.

Later that week I got another smack down when I followed up on my State license progress since I hadn’t heard anything back yet.

OP wanted to quit, but what about the bonus?

It turns out that all the documents that I had given Pete at his direction to get my license had never been sent to the State.

I get called to Pete’s office and am told since I don’t have my active State license he’s going to have to pay me a reduced rate.

So I gave him my notice.

Then I was threatened that if I quit I have to pay back the $7k.

Ok, sure, I did a fair job feigning interest like it’s no big deal. In reality that money was about all I had from the reduced hours and soon to be reduced pay.

The next day Pete provides me with a letter from the main office detailing the repayment of my bonus, how I need to list a credit card, bank account, and how I agree to pay all legal fees and interest if they don’t get their money back.

So he started scheming.

It was a pretty intimidating contract, but I had an ace up my sleeve, Pete.

After work I went home and typed a new “contract” which started by typing up the exact contract I was given. I carefully restructured some clauses and wording until the document was entirely in my favor and coincidentally looked very much like the original contract.

However, I did make one great improvement by adding a counter-signature line for Pete’s approval.

I waited until my last day before strolling into Pete’s office. “Hey I have that contract signed, could you please give me a copy after you sign?”

“Oh…ok, sure.”

He never had to repay the bonus.

So with a copy signed of my new contract I finished my day, boarded a flight, and went home.

Once I was home I typed up my entire dealings with Pete from notes I took during my employment, along with highlighting his incompetence in regards to the sign-on bonus repayment contract which with his signing approval said I was not responsible for repayment of anything and they would be responsible for my legal fees if they attempted to pursue.

I sent my letter to the main office addressed to the CEO and HR.

About a month later I got a very nice letter from the CEO who was very apologetic for my experience, and explained how they were going to change a lot of things to make things right for future hires.

I also heard via grapevine that Pete was not long for the job after that and got rotated to obscurity as well.

Wouldn’t changing the contract like that and tricking Pete be illegal?

Here is what folks are saying on Reddit.

If you’re into fraud and your manager is incompetent, I guess?

There are more meaningful regrets in life than this.

Because they are sketchy.

I think revenge thirst sounds more fun to people.

Maybe because it’s fraud?

I had no idea so many people were into falsifying documents.

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