His Abusive Boss Weaponized an HOA Board Friend to Levy Thousands in Fines—Leaving Him Trapped in Financial Ruin
Shutterstock
For some reason, some people think that the only way to handle power is to become abusive.
That was the case with the boss in this story, and he was physically and emotionally abusive to his employees.
When one employee’s friend heard about the boss’s behavior, however, she took action. She worked on the boss’s HOA and made sure to give him fines and penalties as often as possible to ruin him financially.
Read through the full story to see how the boss got exactly what he deserved.
Ex Boss assaulted me and invokes the wrath of my friend
I spent two years working for a particular boss, who I’ll call Dan.
This guy sounds horrible.
Dan was (and almost certainly still is) the most unacceptable human being I have ever had the displeasure of encountering.
He was a compulsive liar, a narcissist, short-tempered, unethical, unreasonable, unintelligent, and abusive.
I once witnessed him spend half an hour shouting at a salesman for wearing shoes that Dan didn’t approve of. Not inappropriate shoes, mind you, but just ones that Dan didn’t like.
Why would anyone keep working for this guy?
The salesman in question could have gone home and changed his shoes in the time that Dan spent cursing him out and belittling him. He also sold a client secondhand computers, claiming they were new, and priced as new ones.
This man not only assaulted me, but verbally and emotionally abused me for the better part of two years, and did everything in his power to keep me under his thumb.
This must have been terrible to live through.
He constantly micromanaged me, to the point of just dictating to me what I should write in an email to a client. If it wasn’t done exactly his way, it wasn’t correct.
I had to argue with him just to get a sick day, even though I’m legally entitled to it. I was woefully underpaid, and on call 24/7. This made it difficult for me to find other employment, and is one of the reasons I stayed as long as I did.
He made my life absolutely miserable, and I developed a bit of a drinking problem as a result. I recently watched a presentation on domestic violence, and his behavior is a textbook case of what DV abusers do.
Wow, this is not even close to legal. He should call the cops.
I could go on and on about the things that this man did to be the biggest jerk he could be, but this is prorevenge, not badbosses, so I’ll get to the story.
One day, Dan and I had a disagreement about something (I was right, and I had the emails to prove it, and I was frankly fed up with his attitude).
I told him I wouldn’t be going to work because I was taking a sick day. He proceeded to shove me down to the ground (he’s a big guy, probably one of the reasons he’s gotten away with being the human garbage he is for so long), and starts trying to strangle me.
Good, he is at least trying to stop the guy.
I was able to fend him off and escape, and after I did I filed a police report (there were no witnesses, so that was going to go nowhere. He actually had one of his other subordinates make a claim that the alleged assault didn’t happen. Said subordinate wasn’t there at the time, so false report).
I naturally told everyone I knew, and all his clients that contacted me afterward (I was their primary IT support, so quite a few of them had my personal number) that I had filed a police report against him for assault.
Well, he is going to lose some clients if nothing else.
I specifically said it that way because unlike simply claiming that he assaulted me, telling people I filed a report was unarguably true and not slanderous.
A lot of his clients were already not happy with the services he provided (internet and PBX), so that certainly turned a lot of them off of renewing their contracts.
Let’s see what his friend will do.
A very close family friend of mine, Carol, was naturally one of the first to hear about the assault. I left the country about a month later in search of better opportunities, but my friend remained.
And she became the chairman of the board of trustees for the body corporate of the neighborhood where Dan lived. (A body corporate is basically like an HOA, but with different laws governing them).
Good, he is feeling the consequences of his actions.
She set her sights on making his life hell. Dan had a broken down car (that had been broken down for over a year at that point; he never had the money to fix it, because he’s a bad businessman who never seemed to realize that his business model had really tiny profit margins), and the rules of the neighborhood were changed to force broken down cars to be towed away.
If the owner didn’t tow it, the body corporate would, and charge the owner. And fine them. So, Dan was fined a few times (not small amounts either), and when he was fined, he did what he always does when things don’t go his way: throw a tantrum while having no leg to stand on.
Things are going downhill quickly for Dan.
The tantrum in this case was several expletive-filled emails to the body corporate (which is just such a great way to endear yourself to someone who already hates you), which got him fined again for breaking the conduct code.
This, combined with the loss of revenue for his business, has led to him not having any substantial income for over half a year now. He has no car, nor the money to buy one, several of his big clients are definitely not going to renew contracts with him, and he appears to no longer have any staff in his employ.
And this guy is doing very well for himself.
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
Nobody’s seen anyone coming to his house in months now, and the body corporate is pressuring his landlord to evict him. He’s well and truly screwed.
I’m living happily in another country now, and got an awesome job that pays 20 times what working for him did. (Yes, really. 20 times more money. That’s how little I made under him).
Now that is a great story with a very happy ending. Sadly, awful people like this don’t always get the karma that is coming to them.
Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this story.
Sometimes all you can do is file a complaint.
At least in this story the HOA was helpful.
Wow, this must have been very satisfying.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who wants peace and quiet by the pool, but finds guests and loud music instead.
This commenter had a boss like Dan.
The friend was perfect.
At least karma caught up with this horrible boss. He certainly deserved it.
Enjoyed this story?
Sign up to get our BEST stories of the week straight to your inbox.
