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There are many times when you just don’t get along with your manager, and usually, you just have to endure it.

What would you do if, after your manager assigned you to work at the butcher counter, she tried to write you up for failing to complete one part of that job (which you were told not to do)?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, so he went to the union to appeal the discipline. When he did, he found out that the manager violated major union agreements by making him work at the butcher desk. He got several weeks of paid time off and came back to learn that his manager had been fired.

Everything just fell into place perfectly for this revenge. He wasn’t even trying to get her fired. Read through the full story below and see what you think of how things went down.

There was an attempt to fire me for malicious compliance.

So, in 2012, I found myself working as a over night maintenance laborer for a family owned collection of properties.

This type of experience is invaluable.

Two shopping complexes, a winery, a few warehouses, ect. But most of the time, I was working keeping a grocery store built in the late 60s functioning. Worked my way up to night maintenance manager and loved my job.

I was getting the kind of education you can’t buy; hands on electrical one night, plumbing the next, welding after that. All taught to me by 3 men that could build a house, up to code, single-handedly.

Management that truly cares is quite rare.

And we all got along great! It was the first time in my adult life I had real responsibilities and I was respecting myself because I respected the job I was doing.

The owners were all people that truly cared about their employees and they proved this when, in 2017, they sold the Main grocery store; one of the many things they included in the sale was all current employees had to be offered a new positions at their current pay level.

What will this new company have him doing?

The company that bought us (I won’t say their name but think the opposite of “dangerous path”) does not employ an in-house maintenance team. Something breaks, they outsource the fixing of it.

So, they really didn’t have a ready-made place for me to fit into like the other department managers. The store manager also did not like that I was making $18 an hour, 6 bucks over a new hire rate.

They really want to get rid of him.

Thus began the systematic (what I saw as) harassment and what has been later confirmed to me as standard operating procedure for legally getting rid of someone at this company. Some of my favs include:

• Making me (35 year old) a bag boy. (Jokes on you; I love doing easy work for good money)
• Writing me up for spending 20 minutes talking to the police about an accident I had seen while returning carts (I thoroughly enjoyed the district manager apologizing to me for that)

He clearly knows what they are and aren’t allowed to do.

• Cutting my hours down from full-time to 24 hours a week ( which is completely allowable, but as the second most senior member in the store, everyone below me has to get their hours cut first).
• No, you can’t force me to take a salaried manager’s position.
• Yes, you can make me a cashier (a position you know I do not want) but you have to give me the $3 pay bump

Having the union on his side is very helpful.

And on and on and on, in addition to the many broken verbal promises and out-and-out lies. I became very well-versed on the union rules, my specific contract rules, and how to protect myself. 7 Union arbitrations in my first 5 months, all ended in my favor.

Meanwhile, the assistant managers love me. I can cover any department because I’ve done most everything and I’m a quick learner for what I don’t know.

He is a very valuable employee to have around.

Anything breaks down in the store (it was falling apart before they bought it) if I can’t fix it, I can at the very least make a detailed work request so it gets fixed sooner. I become the go to cover guy, filling in any position that needs it.

Which, at long last, brings me to my malicious compliance. The store was not doing well, sales wise. About a year-and-a-half in, they couldn’t get a closing butcher.

There are many reasons not to use equipment that you’re not trained on.

So, the night manager taps me to work in the meat department for 3 hours every night just to close it out and clean it up. In the department there is a bandsaw that’s used for cutting meat with bones in it.

It’s a pain to clean, so after reading the department manual I realized you were not to use that piece of equipment if you hadn’t been trained on it.

He isn’t going to complain about doing less work.

Now, I 100% had been trained on that bone saw. I knew how to take it apart, fix it and put it back together. But that training was with the old company and I had been informed many times that the new company only thought I’d been trained when they had trained me.

Perfect! I can close down the bone saw earlier and get it cleaned. If any customer needs me to cut meat with a bone in it, I inform them that I hadn’t been trained on that piece of equipment. Shouldn’t be an issue: This is late night and the stores not doing that well begin with. I clear all this with the assistant manager.

The manager thinks she has him now.

This goes on for months until finally I’m called in to the manager’s office during the day. Turns out one of the customers I had informed that I could not use the bone saw was a secret shopper.

The store manager is writing me up for failure to complete my duties. She’s also writing it up as ‘malicious’ failure ( I forget the term they use; it’s basically two write ups instead of just one) and that coupled up with my previous write up (I was 15 minutes late once; thats on me) gives her the three write-up she needs to fire me.

Oh, this is not going to go well.

As I have done so many times in the past with this woman, I invoke my right to Union representation and declined to talk with her until after I’ve spoken with them. At this point I’m thinking “they can’t bust me; I was following the written directions” but oh no!!! it got so much sweeter and so much worse.

While talking to my union rep it quickly becomes clear that the butchers are a completely different Union. The store is in violation of the butchers Union contract by having a non-union employee work that department.

This is going very well for him.

So, first my union fights the write-up , wins and gets me paid for the four/five days I missed of work. They then get me a lawyer who tells me I am not to speak with any store manager in any capacity, due to The butchers Union complaint against the store.

2 weeks off, fully paid, for me; I can’t very well work at a store where I cannot speak to my bosses.

Say goodbye to the bad manager.

I then get two more days off paid while I speak to the various Union reps for my testimony. The store is fined ($50,000 is what I was told) for breach of Butchers contract.

When I return to work, my store manager does not work there anymore. Her replacement only accepts the job if his bonuses are not tied to the store’s overall performance, so he doesn’t mind I’m overpaid.

As icing on the cake, no one really liked her so I’m basically a hero when I get back 😁

His manager really set herself up for failure here, but it couldn’t have gone better.

Check out what the people in the comments have to say about this great story, though.

Here is someone who loves unions.

Unions have helped this commenter many times.

Apparently, this company is known for treating employees poorly.

This person’s father-in-law had something similar happen, but he didn’t have a union.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a client who regretted paying for a cross-country flight after the IT specialist just flipped a breaker.

Unions can be helpful in many situations, though.

A bad manager’s worst nightmare is a strong union. They not only protected this employee, but also got the bad manager fired.

Maybe if she had treated the employees well, this wouldn’t have happened to her, but that was too much to ask.