Sometimes you have a coworker who just makes everything harder.

It’s even worse when they clearly have something against you for something that’s totally out of your control.

For this man, he dealt with an old coworker who was constantly joking towards him in an inappropriate way, but when he switches jobs and finds himself working with this man again, he has to get creative to get away from him.

Let’s find out what his petty revenge is…

I’ll help you advance your career as much as I can!

I live and work in the UK for 10 years now. I’m from – let’s say – country A. Used to work with a bloke from country B.

He wasn’t necessarily a bad guy, but he had a very weird sense of humor. Our countries aren’t really friendly to each other and while I couldn’t care less, he definitely brought that here with him.

I was constantly a target of his jokes about why my country sucks (it does, but not for the reasons he thinks…) and the only nice thing about us are the girls he loves to… you know… because that’s what his country would do to mine too.

That gets old pretty quick…

And of course, he has nothing against me, he likes me, it’s just that my nationality is what it is.

When I left that workplace because I moved away, I was happy I’ll never see him again. New town, new job, happy days, right?

Right…

I was working at my new place for 4 months when I’ve got promoted to my current position, but that also involved moving to a different unit, where I – you guessed it – ran into this guy again.

I was friendly towards him (I don’t really hold grudges), especially since I just became his assistant team leader, and I didn’t want to start my new role by having one against someone in my team.

He wasn’t happy. He wanted this job and he felt that I stole it from him, even though I was promoted out of blue; I never applied for the position, I didn’t even know it exists, I was told on a Thursday that “That’s what you gonna do from next Monday.”

As the weeks went by and I learnt more and more about the work the unit does, I started to notice small mistakes in people’s job, including his.

I looked at it as an opportunity to learn how to lead and my boss was over the moon that I want to handle these small things on my own (that’s why they promoted me though…).

Seems like a good thing.

So I went around, talked to people, showed them the stuff I’ve seen, asked them if there’s any way to avoid these mistakes or it’s something to do with the material/machines/etc (they’ve had years of experience, I was there for a few weeks…).

I tried not to blame anyone unless it was obviously a human error. I wanted to learn, not to criticize.

When I approached him the first time, before I even had a chance to explain what’s wrong with the stuff he’s done, he tried to start an argument about why it isn’t his fault (didn’t say it was…) and how it’s the company’s fault if they promote people without having any experience on the job whatsoever.

I couldn’t fault him there, I didn’t have much experience, but I wasn’t promoted because I’m good on the shop floor, I was promoted because I think ahead and solve issues before they become problems, and that’s an invaluable skill in the unit they sent me to.

Anyway, the first few weeks trying to work with him was, let’s just say, difficult. Until my old unit started to lag behind and they asked my boss for a few people to help them out.

My boss thought it’s another great opportunity to learn to lead, and he let me choose the people we send over. Now I knew that the job in my old unit sucks.

It’s hard work, it’s noisy, it’s hot, it just sucks, but it has one great benefit; it’s full of team leaders and managers, and if you want to get a permanent contract, it’s the best place to get it. I’ve got mine there.

My old friend however, was still with the agency. Now how am I to take this great opportunity, to let him shine, away from him?

Here comes the petty revenge!

So it took me less than a minute to make up the list. He was on the top of it. He was furious.

He knew that job sucks too, but I told him it’ll definitely help him advance his career. He can show the gaffers how incredibly great he is at his job, and can secure a contract just as quickly as I did.

Don’t let it slip away, he can only win!

His life was awful for the next few weeks, and every single day I went over to my old unit (that’s where the head office was, I had to turn in paperwork every morning) he looked at me like I killed his cat or something.

I always smiled and waved at him, because – again – I don’t hold grudges, right?

And then, a few weeks later, they offered me another position, which while sounded good on paper, was an absolutely horrible job in practice.

I respectfully declined, but recommended him, because – again – who am I to stop someone to advance their career?

Double the petty revenge!

They told me there’s no chance that guy will ever even get a contract with the company, let alone getting any position whatsoever.

He makes way too many mistakes, he’s lazy, he’s annoying, he’s inappropriate towards other people, he can’t work with anyone, and they’re happy we sent him down there because they wouldn’t want to pay someone like him any longer than necessary, but if he’d stay with us they’d never knew.

But hey, I tried to help. Really, really tried.

Here’s what Reddit thinks about this.

This person is impressed by his skills!

Another person relishes in the satisfying revenge.

Overall, commenters loved the story!

This guy is a petty revenge genius!

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