In the workplace, there always seems to be at least one person who thinks that they have more power than they really do, and it ends up making others upset.

What would you do if your coworker was responsible for collecting timesheets each week and demanded that you log your time in a certain way, even though your manager said it was fine to do it your way? And to make it worse, what if she then escalated the issue to your manager to try to get you to comply?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, so in addition to submitting the time the way he wanted, he made sure to wait until the last minute that he was allowed to submit his time each week, which he need drove her insane.

While I don’t think that this was the best way to handle the situation, it was definitely the funniest. Read through the full story to get all the details and see what you think about it.

The Colleague Who Wishes She Was Boss

This woman annoys the heck out of me on an average day but thankfully I don’t have to deal with her much.

These types of ‘dotted line’ structures are common in corporations.

She is NOT my supervisor but she completes a lot of the ridiculously little admin tasks that our office requires to take stress off our boss – for example making sure our training is up to date, submitting time cards, etc.

She has her own team as well that she does supervise, but she is not my boss- as my boss is her boss.

Flex time can be very convenient.

We have two ways we can submit any additional time worked – Flex Time or Tracked Time.

We all had to work on a Sunday afternoon. Our boss told us we could use either flex or tracked time to make up for it. I chose flex. Which really is just I worked this # hours on Sunday, I leave those many hours early on Friday.

She is one of those people who has to have things done her way.

Tracked means I claim it on my time card for Sunday and claim it on Friday. We’re talking 4 hours. Colleague decides that our boss is wrong and that I must follow the instructions she gave to her team to only use tracked time.

No, I don’t, is what I told her. She pushes back, I say whatever, rolled my eyes but planned to just shut her up as it is usually not worth trying to reason with her brick wall head but I got busy and didn’t go back into change it immediately.

Wow, she went to his boss to complain.

Truly, she is so annoying that I usually just give in so I don’t have to talk to her ever.

UNTIL… my boss calls me into a meeting that afternoon to understand “why I am causing her stress”.

She went to him, but he didn’t do what she demanded, so she escalated it to his manager.

I tell him and ask him to address his role in this (nicely, of course). We’re good. I then send her a message telling her if she has a problem, she can save us all time and just come to me.

She replies – “I did and you didn’t do it. I have to get these things signed. It stresses me out.” Oh??? Say more.

I can see where this revenge is going, and I like it.

Per policy, our timecards do not have to be submitted until close of business on Wednesday. Meaning I have to submit.

She doesn’t have to sign them until Thursday close of business. But I also learned that she uses the metric of having all the timecards signed by Wednesday to show that she goes above and beyond for the time cards and always beats the suspense.

Oh, I bet she just hates this.

Welp, not anymore. I leave at 5. She leaves at 4:30. I submit my timecard at 4:55. And it is stressing her out. She has tried to get me in trouble with my boss by telling him I’m late.

I just send back the policy on when timecards are due. Rinse and repeat.

She must regret making it such a big issue in the first place.

She had a friend reach out this morning to “see if I have completed my timecard yet?”

My reply, “No, super busy, but I’ll get it done before close of business today.” Eating my lunch, watching her spin out about “being late with the timecards again.” Petty, but feels good!

Is it petty? Of course. Could it backfire someday if this person ever becomes his manager? Yes. But is it funny and worth it? Oh heck yeah!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a team that agreed to work overtime, but then not everyone showed up, leaving the rest holding the bag.

Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about this funny story of simple revenge.

Oh, this would make her so mad. I love it.

I’m not sure this commenter is right.

Here is a similar story of petty revenge.

This would help to protect himself.

I agree, his boss should have stepped in.

Petty revenge may not be good for your career, but it is definitely good for the soul. While this guy may have burned bridges with his coworker, it gives him a little bit of pleasure each week when he submits his timecard, which makes it worth it in the end.

Getting along with people at work is always a challenge, I suppose, and if you are secure in your role, you can have a little fun with it.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who stops speaking up in his Zoom meetings after getting constantly interrupted.