Some employers will go to extreme lengths to push out the people they don’t want, especially when those people are protected by law.

What would you do if your years of service, expertise, and legal rights were ignored in a corporate plot to get rid of you?

Would you fight back quietly?

Or would you wait for your harassers to dig their own grave?

In the following story, one defense engineer finds himself in this exact scenario and opts for the latter.

Here’s how it all went down.

She was batty

Me at the time: 59 years old, degreed engineer, 40 years of experience in the industry.

Decorated military veteran of 27 years. Gave the employer a patent.

That all figures into the story as I was working for a defense contractor at the time.

The company wanted to reduce headcount, but not get rid of young people; they wanted to get rid of ‘old’ engineers, but we are a protected class.

So, they started harassing us one by one.

They’d write us up for things like using the printer.

They said that meant we didn’t know how to use a computer.

When they did that to me I shared a picture of myself with my high school electronics class lab partner who invented the Apple I computer in 1975 or so (I also worked on it a little bit).

That kind of petty harassment went on for over a year.

Then, he found himself in a very awkward situation.

It came to a head, though, when in a private one-on-one meeting, my manager wore a super-short skirt, which was out of place in a conservative, corporate work environment.

During our meeting, she started wiggling around.

It seemed odd at first, but then I realized the short, tight, stretchy skirt was riding up.

She pulled a Sharon Stone move from the movie Basic Instinct.

I saw Nebraska.

Once that happened, I just locked onto her face and didn’t break eye contact.

Oh, and for context, my mother was in the hospital hooked up to machines and had been read the last rites just prior.

I needed to work to pay bills and take care of her house.

I was protected by the Family Medical Leave Act…but.. they didn’t care.

He was upset about what happened, but unsure what to do about it.

After her “wardrobe malfunction,” I was pretty furious.

That had crossed a line.

I think she was trying to get me to make a move on her (she was a pig, frankly) so they could get me for that.

I didn’t know what I was going to do….but then…two days later… she did it for me.

She brought in a baseball bat she’d had engraved with the words “Attitude Adjuster” and her name on it.

She stood behind me in front of all my coworkers, thumping the bat on the ground and talking about adjusting attitudes in the department.

Luckily, he didn’t have to think that hard.

She made it a point to walk around so I could see her and patted the bat into her hand while making threatening remarks.

Oh, she was “joking,” of course.

I didn’t make eye contact, ignored her, and just kept typing.

That evening, the idiot left the bat in the lab. I took pictures of it and went down to file a Federal EEO complaint.

The woman in the EEO office looked at the picture and just said, “It has her name on it,” like she couldn’t believe it.

To cut to the chase, they fired me but found me another job nearby.

I now make almost double my salary there.

She and every manager in my department no longer work there.

Several “retired,” meaning they would not be working in that industry again.

Yikes! It’s always amazing how some people make it into management in the first place.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit have to say about this situation.

This person thinks he’s looking too much into her malfunction.

Seriously!!

They sure do!

This person is so right.

Talk about a terrible manager.

Let’s all hope this woman never makes it to management again.

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.