While at work, having a great group of co-workers can make the job so much easier.

What would you do if a new boss came into town and tried to disrupt the way your team worked by attempting to get one of your members in trouble?

That is what happened to the team in this story, so they all banded together to teach this guy a lesson.

Check it out.

Don’t mess with Sandra

Players – Sandra – super-sweet secretary loved by all (true – I worked with her. She was amazing).

Fred – Sandra’s boss.

Tom – local VP. Bigshot – incoming manager from back East.

Al – lead engineer on the team.

This occurred in Salt Lake City, which if you don’t know, family was a HUGE part of culture.

Even at work, family matters took precedence, and local management knew this and allowed for it.

Well, Bigshot’s office minions in another corporate location noticed some slight irregularities in timecards, like days off without pre-approved vacation requests.

So, he got himself transferred to the Salt Lake City office to ‘straighten things out’.

He was pushy, and naturally, he was quickly hated. Bigshot ended up as a middle manager between Tom (at the top) and Fred.

One morning, Sandra got a call from her daughter was unexpectedly in town and wanted to have lunch.

Naturally, Fred and Tom gave her the okay.

Bigshot didn’t like that, although it wasn’t explained why.

Maybe it wasn’t ‘by the book’, maybe he was upset that Sandra went over his head.

In any event, he decided to stick his nose in.

What a jerk.

But rather than just say ‘no’, he dropped a last-minute urgent travel request on Sandra’s desk, and it had to be done because he expected to fly out that afternoon.

Sandra was heartbroken that she wouldn’t get to see her daughter, but she had her work responsibilities.

Stopping by to drop off some paperwork, Al noticed that Sandra looked a little down – a huge change from her normal chipper mood.

He naturally asked why, and Sandra explained.

Al told her (he had no authority, btw) to go have lunch and “we’ll take care of it.”

Bigshot got his travel packet, got on the plane that afternoon, and flew off to his meeting.

That’s when things started to go wrong.

The rental car reservation was invalid, and there were no cars available at any of the agencies – all had a ‘hold’ on them pending confirmation from some clients.

So Bigshot ended up getting a Rent-a-Wreck. (for those too young or not in the US, there really was a discount auto rental agency by that name!

Quality was not job 1.)

Nothing is going right for this guy.

When Bigshot got to the hotel, he found that his reservation was no good.

He had to wait around until after the ‘tentative’ reservations expired – which was after 6 pm.

Getting suspicious, Bigshot looked at his tickets – and found they were one-way.

He had no flight home.

To say Bigshot was incensed was probably an understatement.

The next morning, Tom flew in to join him, and he gave Bigshot a packet that was marked “extremely urgent” that had been left on his desk with a note to take it to Bigshot; it was Bigshot’s return ticket.

On the way back, Bigshot detoured by the corporate head office and got a very senior exec to come with him because of some ‘very serious personnel problems’.

He wanted to get her fired.

The next morning, Bigshot led the senior exec and Tom into a meeting with all of Fred’s department and began publicly berating Sandra for incompetence and so on.

When he got to the part about the tickets, Fred interrupted and told the senior exec that Sandra couldn’t have done that – she was on approved time off having lunch with her daughter.

This raised the senior exec’s eyebrows and got Bigshot even angrier.

The senior exec said if Sandra didn’t mess up the tickets, who did?

Fred stepped forward. Then Al.

And one by one, every single member of Fred’s team stepped forward to take responsibility to protect Sandra from Bigshot’s wrath.

Tom and the senior exec knew instantly what had happened.

They were willing to put a lot of work in to teach this guy a lesson.

Everyone on Fred’s team had burned up the phones making ‘tentative’ reservations for rental cars and hotel rooms – leaving Bigshot stuck with a one-way ticket, worthless reservations, and no alternatives.

Within the hour, Bigshot’s desk was empty and his badge had been turned in.

It was never explained if Bigshot was fired or if he was just quickly relocated.

The senior exec stuck around to get to know the team; he was very impressed with how the whole team stuck together and protected their own.

I guess they know how to take care of their own.

After he finished telling me the tale, the engineer said bluntly, “Don’t mess with Sandra. We love her, and we WILL make you pay if you upset her.”

Message received loud and clear.

As I worked with Fred’s team, I got to understand why everyone loved Sandra.

She was an absolute gem in the organization – efficient, super-friendly, just an all-around wonderful person.

I bet Bigshot was livid, especially since he knew there was nothing he could do about it.

Let’s see what other people have to say about this story.

Here is a comment from another secretary.

I’ve never heard of this place, sounds scary.

This is true.

Good question.

A good secretary is invaluable.

I love it when a team stands together.

You can’t pick on one of them!

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.