If things go downhill at any kind of company, whispers among employees can eventually turn into an uproar…and then things can get ugly.

In this story, an airplane mechanic shared what he did after his managers made things more complicated than they needed to be and employees rebelled.

Read on and get all the details below.

Quitting would be doing you a favor? Fine. I’ll do you a favor.

“I (31m) was in Navy Aviation and used my GI Bill to get my A&P license (for those of you who don’t know, FAA certification required to work on non-military aircraft).

Small Air had a new boss, applied, got the job. Small operation, maybe 10 mechanics total. I grew up with an older crowd so I typically get along great with people in their 60s. I’ve watched all the old shows, know their music, etc.

They usually love me. Except for one guy. Let’s call him RayRay. Well RayRay was a grumpy stick-in-the-mud. For some reason he despised me. Maybe because of my annoying personality.

Mind you, if someone is uncomfortable with my jokes or anything I am respectful and stop or keep it away from them, depending on what it is and what they ask. At the end of the day, I’m there to work.

He wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary.

Nothing I do is dangerous or ridiculously offensive, but for those of you who know military guys you know what I’m talking about. I get my work done, I do it correctly, I own up to my mistakes, and ask for help when I need it.

RayRay never addressed me directly but I could tell he wasn’t my biggest fan so I did my best to avoid him.

Well over the next 2 years, he made it my mission to nitpick and find reasons to complain to try to get me fired. Double checking my work (not QA) to look for mistakes, re-inspecting things I signed off.

I reported him to my supervisor and boss: “thanks for letting me know, I’ll take care of it, just ignore him.”

Fun fact: they never did.

Boss: old Marine. Got along with him at first. In fact, during the interview, him and the supervisor explicitly informed me “RayRay is a grumpy old man and has a habit of finding a reason to dislike someone then trying to get them fired.”

I appreciated their honesty and typically steered clear of RayRay and when I had to interact with him I was professional. Boss seemed to brush off complaints from RayRay, which made me feel like he had my back.

There was a guy a few years younger than me, lets call him Javier, but had been there longer. We became friends and he showed me how to do certain inspections (I specialize in electrical).

These two were gettin’ it done!

Because of our specialty, we became the dynamic duo. We volunteered to go fix problems out in the heat/rain, and would work through lunch/break and get overtime until it was resolved.

Then things with Boss changed.

Authorized overtime. Yelled at me on the hangar floor for working too much. This happened two times during overtime season.

Later, Javier and I had an issue that just wouldn’t go away. Boss was no help, neither was supervisor. Boss suggested we contact the manufacturer.

We did. Got a recommendation and tried. Boss told us the manufacturer was stupid and they just build the product, they don’t fix it.

Then told us that we wasted our time and shouldn’t have bothered. He then gave us a suggestion. Javier and I tried to explain fluid laws and explained why his suggestion was not physically possible to have been the issue.

He demanded we do it. Javier and I agreed to do it. We agreed with each other that if it worked, we would go apologize to Boss and ask why he knew it would work.

You can guess what happened next…

If not, we were clocking out and leaving. We ended up clocking out and leaving.

Too much to include also happened.

I had been applying elsewhere already but hadn’t heard back. One day, Javier and I were working on a plane with a required item. Not due for inspection. Finally close up the bird and get it ready to fly.

We see that RayRay wrote up a ridiculous discrepancy. It didn’t affect airworthiness so we deleted the write up. No big deal.

Whoa!

Much drama followed but ended up resulting in my firing a few days later, or so Boss thought. He called me in and proceeded to lay out all the reasons I was fired.

The main thing to take away from his side is that he told me that when Javier and I walked off the job we should have quit because we “would be doing him a favor.”

I responded calmly (but not with professional language) that 1) I had reported RayRay for targeting me and nothing was ever done 2) they warned me about him when they hired me so they knew he was an issue and never did anything about it 3) I always changed my behavior if I was asked and tried my best to keep it away from those who didn’t care for it (BTW, just RayRay) 4) a few more but not important for the story

Boss realized that firing me could possibly give me legal recourse due to 1 and 2. Then told me to get back to work.

Not 5 minutes after I left his office, I got a call for a job. I accepted on the spot I told Javier (aware of my conversation with Boss) that I was going to “do Boss a favor”. Forget the Boss, I would grab my stuff over the weekend and come in to quit Monday.

The next day, I realized that didn’t work out logistically so I packed my box, got a parts guy to load it in my truck with a forklift, and went to drop it off at the new job. No 2 weeks, just packed my stuff and left.

I texted Javier and told him I would be back to drop off my uniforms and airport badge. He told me that I would have to give it to him in the parking lot because I wasn’t allowed in the building/hangar anymore.

Apparently someone saw me leaving with my box and asked Boss “did he quit? I saw him take his box and leave.” Boss came out to the hangar floor absolutely enraged “I don’t want that jerk back in my building!”, etc.

Javier got in trouble for going through my box (for non mechanics, this is a thing. Basically just making sure you aren’t taking company property when you leave), he didn’t care because he despised Boss and it was worth it to see him that mad.

Parts guy got in trouble for using the forklift without asking boss, but same thing. I dropped off my badge and uniform to Javier who said that boss locked himself in the office then went home early.

This story wasn’t over yet…

I thought that was the end of it but then I hear from Javier that after my leaving he keeps talking trash. So I inform Javier, Andy, Robby, and Quentin about job openings at my new place.

Quentin gets hired about 3 months later and apparently Boss still has it in for me. So now, every time there is an opening, I refer all my old coworkers. Hopefully I can poach every decent mechanic he has, making him look bad to his boss for the turn over during his time in his position.

I’ve been at my new place for about 8 months and I occasionally hear from old coworkers that Boss will complain about me. Apparently I’m living rent free in his head.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot. Quentin said that during his “exit interview” that the boss couldn’t stand me and that if he ever saw me in public he would knock me out. I PRAY that he does.

Please for the love of God, assault me in public, in front of witnesses, I would love the lawsuit.”

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This is what happens when bosses treat their employees like dirt!

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.