Every once in a while, you encounter a boss who likes to break his own rules.

What would you do if your boss constantly paid you late, broke promises about bonuses, and then demanded you return work gear you never officially received? Would you give in just to be done with him? Or would you use his words against him and refuse to comply?

In the following story, one window maker finds himself in this same situation and opts for the latter. Here’s how it all went down.

Forgetting to pay salary on time? I’m leaving with work inventory

So I was working for this window company, making plastic windows, but we were like a small workshop with 3 workers and one overseer who belonged to one of the largest companies in the country.

The boss always insisted on doing everything by the book for us (as long as it didn’t slow down production, if it did, then he didn’t care), but he always forgot to send work hours to HR for us to get paid on time, as stated in our contracts.

Sometimes, he was two weeks late, which meant you were late on payments at that point. Our boss was always hounding him, and he would just brown nose it and then try to lash out at us because he was yelled at. Overall, he was a very unpleasant person.

Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of jobs around, so he had to endure it.

It was the only job in my small rural town at the time, so I just endured.

After three months, I was given work boots, pants, a jumper, and a coat. However, the contract clearly stated that you have to sign for all inventory given and return it if you quit. He didn’t give me anything to sign, and I didn’t care at the time.

When joining, we talked about getting a bonus for work done on time, and we even went as far as to start work so fast he had trouble getting blueprints from the office, as we finished our supposed workload in half the time the company expected. But no pay increase.

The guy really should’ve played the game better.

After the second month of no pay increase and a big boss visit where they expressed surprise at how well we were working, I went to ask why no pay increase.

He tried to weasel out, saying that it wasn’t official (my own fault for not having it in the contract). I said that we talked about it and that it was his own offer and words. He smiled with a jerky grin and said, “Prove it.”

Well, I boiled inside for a week until I found a job in a town over and quit. Two days later, my boss called, saying I need to sign papers for quitting for HR I just said Sure, come by my home and I’ll sign it.

He arrives and starts saying, “Give me the equipment, too.”

Here’s where his words came back to bite him.

I just said, ” I never signed for any equipment, so officially I never received any.” He got serious and kinda angry and said, “Don’t be like that, I know you got it, just bring it out.”

I said with a most satisfying grin: “Prove it.”

A guy who stayed working there said his boss got visited by the big boss and yelled at him, and as he heard it, the cost of it was deducted from his pay.

After 8 years, I still have those boots, and they still serve me very well daily. All other clothes were of really good quality and are still used occasionally.

Yikes! Wouldn’t want to be that guy!

Let’s see what the folks at Reddit have to say about what happened.

It is shocking that the boots are still going.

This would’ve been a great addition to the story.

This reader wants to know what kind of boots they are.

You should always get everything in writing.

This was well-played! It’s so nice to see bad bosses get exactly what they deserve.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.