When someone is new in a place but doesn’t take the time to learn the ropes, they can come off as arrogant… And this can backfire.

In this case, this man’s new coworker acted as everyone’s superior and unapologetically took the chair that he had been using for years. An office crime.

So he removed his adjustments to it and let him keep it.

It wasn’t so comfortable anymore.

Let’s read the story.

Take my chair? I take your comfort.

My boss was loved by everyone.

She was given the opportunity for an early retirement and jumped on it.

Her replacement (Art) was from another branch of the company, and he quickly replaced one of his direct reports with a guy (Denton) from his previous branch.

He then named Denton as his deputy in an unofficial capacity.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t that nice to be around.

Even though we were all equals, the new guy acted as if all of us worked for him now.

He was a jerk, and we all disliked him greatly, but he had immunity from everything because the boss loved him.

He delegated everything, took credit for all that went well, and criticized all that didn’t.

Denton was pushing people’s buttons and didn’t care.

I had an office chair that I had used for years; it was comfortable and I could move it easily in my cubicle between the bookshelves and my desk.

Well, one day Denton appropriated it.

When I protested, he responded by saying it belonged to the company not me, and since he had just been moved to an office from a lowly cubicle, it was necessary.

Art did not want to be bothered with the dispute.

Nobody saw a problem with his behavior. So decided to avenge his chair.

I had replaced the chair castors a few months earlier.

The new castors had a slightly longer pin inside the legs of the chair, and they raised it up about a half inch.

I stayed late one night, went into his office, and replaced the front castors on his appropriated chair with two of the old ones.

You couldn’t tell by looking at the chair, but the seat was slightly higher in the back than the front.

In true Jim Halpert style, this guy got even with his annoying coworker without confrontation.

Denton was constantly twitching and having to slide back in his chair, because his bottom would slowly migrate toward the front.

I told two other coworkers (who disliked Denton) what I had done.

Every time one of us had to sit across his desk after being summoned to discuss something, we smiled inside seeing his discomfort, and then would report back to the others.

I left the company about a year later, and would get the occasional call from the two who were still there about Denton’s constant repositioning.

This could have been avoided if he hadn’t felt entitled to snatch someone’s chair.

Let’s see what Reddit has to say about this petty revenge.

A reader shares their thoughts.

Oof.

Another reader chimes in.

Michael!

It probably backfired and helped his posture.

Exactly.

He probably did.

Are these Jim and Dwight?

This is pretty funny.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.