When a new boss takes over, they often feel like they need to make some big changes to everything, even though it often messes things up pretty badly.

What would you do if you had a new boss who started replacing qualified employees with low-paid workers, and eventually fired you from your position?

That is what happened to the guy in this story, so years later, when he was working for a new company, he saw his old boss come through looking for a job because he ran his previous company into the ground. Of course, this guy made sure that his old boss was not hired.

Never Bet Against the House.

I used to work for a small company that manufactured slot machines (a.k.a., “One-Armed Bandits”) for the gambling industry.

He is diving into his new job.

The company was owned by two brothers: The CEO with an MBA who knew how to run a business, and a college drop-out with a Ferrari who could sell sand to the Bedouins.

The first year was good. I learned every technical thing I could about the products, including how to set up the payouts and troubleshoot the problems.

Keeping your own notes can be very helpful.

Because there was no ‘official’ service manual (just a collection of hand-drawn schematics and inter-office memos in a manila folder), I kept a pocket-sized notebook to record my observations and jog my memory when needed.

I’d then add these notes to the bigger, hand-typed notebook I kept at home. This notebook became my personal “User & Service Manual”, and I would cite its contents when discussing technical issues with co-workers.

This could be an interesting shake-up.

Then one day, the CEO and his brother swapped duties. The MBA-holding CEO went back to the main office in Vegas to handle sales, and left his brother in charge to handle us.

One of the first tasks the brother set me to was the training of a new hire — another former salesperson (somewhat tech-savvy), and a friend of his.

Getting paid to travel can be fun.

I walked him through the assembly, testing, and servicing of the products, had him ‘shadow’ me for a day, and then I observed him as he did my job for the remainder of the week.

The following Monday, the CEO’s brother informs me that he is sending me along with a shipment of our products to supervise their installation. He promised OT pay plus per diem for the entire trip.

This is going to be an easy trip.

Once I arrived on-site, I saw that the only work I had to do was to plug each unit in and run a hundred coins through each one to certify their operation. No problem. Done in a day.

There was a message waiting for me at the field office to call the main office first thing in the morning. I made the call the next day, and the CEO’s brother asked me where the manual was. I asked, “What manual?”

Wow, what is his problem?

“Don’t give me that ****! The ******* manual for the ******* machines we’ve been ******* making! Where the **** is it?”

I told him all I had was my personal notebook and asked if that was what he meant. (This was entirely true. I did not have my typed notes with me, only my hand-written ones.)

He told me to ship it back overnight, because my new boss needed it.

Oh, I would be very angry about this.

“New Boss”? He had promoted the guy I has spent a week to train just before I left for Vegas to the position of shop supervisor, and only then saw fit to inform me.

Cue the Malicious Compliance

No problem! A few more pleasantries were exchanged, and the call was completed. I overnight-shipped my hand-written, dog-eared, pencil-whipped, coffee-stained draft notebook, and it arrived sometime the next day.

The trip has been extended.

I essentially had nothing to do for the remainder of the week but stand by at the customer’s site (a well-known casino), to change light bulbs and clear coin jams.

On Friday, I went into the main office to get my return ticket and pick up my paycheck. The office manager informed me that I would be staying another week. She handed me my paycheck, and I cashed it at the bank next door.

They can’t just force him to stay.

So, I stayed another week, trained the locals on basic maintenance, enjoyed the free buffets, saw a couple of shows, and won some money at blackjack (in another casino, of course).

At the end of the week, I again went into the main office for my paycheck and plane ticket, only to be informed again that I was to stay for another week.

“No way.”

“Yes, way.”

(This was the first time I’d ever heard that response, and it’s stuck with me ever since.)

Something weird is going on.

I told her I had enough cash to pay for my own ticket back home, and that I was prepared to do just that whether or not I still had a job when I get there.

She told me to wait, left the room, and came back with the CEO. I explained the situation. He went back into his office, closed the door, and called his brother. There was some shouting, but the CEO came back saying that everything had been worked out, and promised me that my job was “as safe as anyone else’s”.

(“Dun-dun-DUNNN!”)

They are clearly trying to replace him.

The Fallout

So, the following Monday, I rolled into work at the branch site. The new boss had received my notebook, and had tried to adapt what I’d hand-written so as to make every line-worker into a QA/QC specialist.

But because most of the line-workers barely graduated high school (hired to cut costs?), many of the more technical concepts were beyond their understanding.

What a jerk.

To top it off, about a third of the original line workers had been replaced by people who could barely understand English (again, hired to cut costs?), much less anything technical. It should go without saying that what had once passed for quality work had become a twisted and broken parody of itself.

As I was surveying the damage, the CEO’s brother arrived, took one look at me, and said “You’re fired. Get the heck out.”

I smiled, shrugged, and complied.

They don’t get to use his personal manual.

Back home, I called a friend, got an interview with my (now former) company’s main competitor, and they offered me a similar position at better pay, starting a week later.

The typed manual went with me.

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Epilogue: Sweet Revenge

Now this is too funny.

About a year later, the brother of the CEO of my former employer was on a tour of my new employer’s facility. When HR later asked my opinion of him, I said he would make a great salesperson, especially if he stayed out of rehab and did not violate any restraining orders.

(True! I didn’t say he had ever gone to rehab or received any restraining orders, only that he’d be okay without them.)

Nobody feels bad for that guy.

He did not get hired.

I stayed with that company for another year, and then left for yet another another company for even more money and better benefits.

It is implied that the company went out of business, though he should have made that clearer. It is crazy that the ‘good’ brother let it get that far.

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

He was fired to save the company money.

This commenter is asking a good question.

These brothers had no idea how to run a business.

They didn’t have a real manual, but that seems weird.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a bank employee who immediately resigns after being denied a bonus.

Was he really a good salesperson, though?

Bad managers (or CEOs) think they are so smart that they can’t be wrong, but they end up running their business into the ground. You don’t always get the opportunity to get revenge, though.

Luckily, this guy had a chance to really get revenge by ensuring his old boss didn’t get hired for a new job. The old CEO deserves anything that happens to him at this point.