There’s something deeply satisfying about watching a workplace choke on the exact rules they tried to weaponize against you.

So, what would you do if a coworker kept dumping their paperwork on your shift to avoid responsibility, and your supervisors acted like it was your problem to solve? Would you pick up their slack without complaining? Or would you find a way to turn it all around on them?

In the following story, one welder finds himself in this situation and opts for the latter. Here’s what happened.

Payback

Years ago, I worked for a defense contractor doing heavy manufacturing and welding. Every process, fitting, was documented.

When ready to be welded, it was inspected by quality control. We had an inspector who would write a rejection report, and by doing this, he passed this off to the next shift so he could skip the paperwork.

Normally, the piece he’d reject was an engineering issue, nothing serious. We would just weld it like normal. So, one day, my partner was stuck with this and decided to follow the repair procedure. Remove the assembly, and do an edge buildup on the piece.

Even though they followed procedures, everyone was mad.

We normally did that with a piece in place. This time, we removed it, followed the correct procedures, and the assembly was ready at the end of our shift for the daytime guys.

They complained and moaned. Daytime supervisors were mad. When we came the next night, we were confronted about what we did, and we showed them the correct procedure for the repair work.

After that, we no longer were stuck with doing that. Also, the inspector was moved and assembly error was corrected. I enjoyed using their procedures to prove a point. There was no more hurry up games played.

Wow! What a great way to prove a point!

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about this whole thing.

This reader doesn’t understand the story.

Most people would probably agree.

Considering their business, that’s scary.

Here’s someone who sounds like they can relate.

He did what was asked, so if anyone should take responsibility, it should be management.

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