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It’s amazing to me how many bigwigs at businesses out there waste their time bringing lawsuits against former workers.

Sure, sometimes they have a good case to make, but it seems like, in many cases, it’s a big waste of time.

Take today’s story, for instance.

The guy who wrote it did nothing wrong and was targeted by a company where he worked for 20 years just because those folks wanted to be petty.

So, what happened here?

Well, read on and get all the details below!

Petty revenge on old construction company on three-fold.

“This started a year ago.

So the construction company I’ve worked for for 20 years got a new president and decided to bring in a coaching company because he heard that other big companies are doing so.

Well this company told them to bid on everything and anything so the company could grow from 50-65 million dollars a year to 750 million a year. Sounds great, except most job are out of state and or country. Then they started looking at the books and see what everyone is earning a year.

He’s done one hell of a job…

Now mind you, I’ve been here for a while and making 65k a year as a lead carpenter before bonus. About double what a new guy would make. I say bonus because the first president saw huge potential in me when I first got there by saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars by doing things in house instead of more subs.

Best bonus was from a job where we were supposed to finish the job at 5% profit and ended up with close to 20% on a 24 million dollars job.

I get called in to the office and a meeting on Friday afternoon with HR, president and “the coach”.

Conversation went as such:

The coach – be assertive, it’s your company.

Me- what the hell is going on

Uh oh…

HR- it has come to our attention that your pay rate is more of a superintendent than a lead carpenter.

Me- what’s your point? I’ve been here a while, just like everyone else.

President – you’ve also trained most of the superintendents and some project managers.

Me- yeah I like to make my life easier by showing them common sense.

Hr- well we are thinking that you’re going to be a better fit as superintendent than a lead carpenter.

He wasn’t into this idea.

Me- No not going to happen, I’ve told Steve this 8 years ago. Don’t feel like dealing with you people on a regular basis.

Coach to president- be confident.

President- here’s your choice. Become a superintendent or this will be your last job site.

Me- can I get the weekend to decide.

Hr and president looking at each other then looking at the coach.

HR- sure, but Monday we need your answer.

Took my wife to dinner and we talked about it and she was interested in taking a job across the state and become a principal. She could quit making 45k a year and go straight to 90k a year and move in the middle of nowhere.

Things were about to change…

Start of the petty revenge.

That Monday I turned in my 2 week notice with 8 months left on the job site. Now each job gets assigned a connex box, a “big metal shipping container”. Mine has traveled with me for 15 years. The container belong to the company but the tools, not so much.

When the previous president took over he would deny any tool receipt I would turn in. Every time I would get the denial reimbursement I would tattoo my name on that tool.

Many guys did this but left the tools behind when they retired. Not me, I was forced to quit. I turned the company truck Monday evening and took my dually truck to work hauling every tools out of the connex. I’m talking tools for welding unit, concrete saw, bull float, shop saw, grinders of all sizes and bending brake.

That’s a lot of tools!

Total estimated value $45,000.

Come to find out one of the job they bid on was in Canada and they were banking on me to be a superintendent there since I have dual citizenship and not costing them a few thousand dollars in visas.

They were trying to get even with him…

After 6 months I get a letter from court saying I stole tools from the the company when I left. I quickly hired an attorney to see what was up. They were trying to get all the tools that I purchased out of my pocket returned to them.

I was the only carpenter at the company that did not have a company email so every time a denial refund email was sent I put it in a special folder.

When court time came the attorney hooked me up with a serious nice hotel with nice waterfront view. Keep in mind, I only spent $5,000 in retaining fee.

So they start on claims court and the judge is warning my attorney that I could be on the hook for felony theft and he reserved the choice to call bailiff to escort me straight into federal jail. I’m like what the hell, but the attorney has a sly grin on his face and tells the judge, no problems.

So they had changed all the denial letter to release of fund.

Now they had 2 problem with this: 1- he turned in all the emails printed out that I submitted to him. 2- they could not provide any evidence that I had received any payment.

Boom!

After 4 days of trial I was acquitted and they had to pay for attorney fee which included my travels and hotel room. Got the $5,000 back.

They on the other hand are in serious trouble for perjury and $30,000 in attorney fees and court costs.

So my petty revenge was 1, leaving them early with no replacement for the site I was on costing them few thousand dollars to hire a bunch of small subs.

2, sending them scrambling for tools they thought I would leave behind.

3, getting nice hotel with a view of the Atlantic Ocean on their tab.”

Check out what folks had to say about this on Reddit.

This reader had a lot to say.

Another person weighed in.

This individual spoke up.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about an employee who decided to push back against time micromanagement.

And another Reddit user shared their thoughts.

What a waste of time and money!

Some people never learn…

But this guy had nothing to hide and he knew it!

He wasn’t gonna play their games and he showed them what was up!