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Just because someone is in a high-up position at a company doesn’t mean that they would be immune to jealousy or pettiness.

That seems to be the situation in this story where an IT guy was fired by a big boss, quite possibly because the IT guy was trying to date the boss’s beautiful assistant.

Fortunately, the IT guy knew that the boss didn’t have just reason to fire him, so he filed a lawsuit that the company settled for a big payout. On top of that, he was in the middle of an important project that the company needed finished, so he agreed to finish it only if his ex-boss apologized and they paid him a huge consulting fee.

I don’t think that things could have worked out any better for this guy. Read through the full story below and see what you think.

Big boss does not want me to go out with his assistant, and fires me. It backfires for him.

My first job after college many years ago was working for an office supply company. It started as a summer job, and got extended.

Wow, they are billing a lot for his work.

This was the kind of company that, when a big firm moves into a new building, they would roll in with interior architects, designers, electrical workers, IT, gardener, and everything needed to make it ready for business.

My job was to coordinate the IT part for the bigger clients. If clients needed special solutions, they billed my time at $600/hour. I was astonished by this rate, but on a multi million $$ bill, this would be a small part.

I can see that this is going to cause some conflict.

The top boss had a really beautiful assistant. He clearly liked her a lot. And I started to hang out with her. Top boss typically wanted to go to lunch with his assistant and other managers.

She would rather be with me, but could not tell her boss this. And with some excuse, she often met up with me for lunch. She was smart, funny, and a blast to be with. We all had company cars.

Giving yourself plenty of time to get things done is a smart move.

The sales department had at this time received a database of products from some vendors, and it was not compatible with their database. I was asked if it was possible to import it all.

I found out fast that I could do it in a few days time. I told them I would do it but and would take a few weeks, since I had to do it when I got open time slots.

Wow, he is taking the time off even though it is unapproved.

One weekend, some friends of the beautiful assistant invited her to a party in a city 10 hours away. She invited me to come with, and we both asked for monday and tuesday off, since festivities was planned until sunday evening.

She got an OK, and I was told no. There was really no reason for denying me this, so I suspected unfair play, but the girl was more important to me than the job, so I decided to go anyway.

I hope this party is worth the risk.

Before I go, I tell sales department boss, he will get his database updated next week, and also a program to import future updates from suppliers. He was very happy about this as this has been a big problem, and they had some big orders waiting for the tools I was writing.

Weekend comes, and we take her company car, and go. On Monday, boss calls, and I tell him I can not come in before Wednesday.

Well, you know this just isn’t true.

He tells me he had oked the days off but big boss overrode him, and denied it, and now big boss is pushing on him to fire me unless I come in immediately. I can not because I am not anywhere near.

Wednesday morning, I show up to work, and my desk it cleaned out, and I am told I had been fired. My boss tells me he is sorry, but it was demanded by the big boss, and most of my colleagues knows what is going on, and is pretty much on my side.

I wonder where he is located with these laws to protect him from being fired.

Now load up my stuff, and I drive my company car to an attorney. He tells me (1) until I have a written termination notice, I am still employed, and being paid, and also that (2) the way I had been fired had broken a bunch of laws.

He writes a letter to the company that he plans to take them to court. Turns out the company is in the middle of being bought out, and that they really did not want a lawsuit during this process.

Wow, that is quite a good settlement.

So, a top manager with a company attorney from a headquarter flies out to resolve. They are really upset at local big boss for breaking laws when firing me. (I think he was mostly mad at me for taking his precious assistant away for the weekend, and acted irrational) I agree to settle for $50,000.

After the agreement is signed, the local big boss tells me he never wants to see me or have me do any work for him, and this is where the malicious compliance comes in.

I bet they will be more friendly now that they need him.

When the sales department manager finds out I was fired, he is quite upset. He calls me and tells me how sorry he is, and asks if I can finish the work for him.

It was not much to do, and I would have finished it for free, but I tell him, I very much would like to, but the big boss had specifically told me I could not do any work for them, so I could not unless I got in writing from big boss that he retracted what he said, and that he would allow me to be paid as a consultant.

There is definitely some conflict at this company.

He tells me he would talk to big boss, and get back to me. It takes a long time, but after two days I get the mail.

I heard there had been some serious yelling at a meeting between sales dept manager and big boss.

He walked away with a really nice paycheck.

Anyway, they agreed, and I billed them 40 hours to finish the tools and set it all up, and then 40 hours for the conversion, all at the usual rate of $600/hr.

After the merger when through, they restructured, and the big boss was laid off.

When you make yourself valuable, you have some great options available to protect yourself.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.

It is a bad idea to put a girl above a job like this.

This person wonders what laws were broken.

I think he deserved to be fired too.

This commenter is asking the real questions.

Things couldn’t have gone better for him.

Honestly, I think this guy deserved to be fired. Things definitely worked out well for him, but there has to be more to the story than he is telling. A company can fire you for not showing up to work when you are scheduled.

He also doesn’t mention where this takes place. Different countries have different employment laws, I suppose.