Sometimes at certain jobs, you just know that the axe is about to fall and that you might be one of the workers to lose their head…

It isn’t pretty, and that’s why you need to be prepared for those kinds of situations!

And we think you should pay close attention to this guy’s story so you can be prepared just in case something like this happens to you.

Check it out!

Fire my boss unethically? Enjoy paying for my unemployment benefits!

“This took place more than a decade ago.

I started working for a small branch of a company and got along really well with my boss (the branch manager) and used to compare him to Michael Scott (not to his face). I would have been Jim Halpert in this scenario.

After working there for a while, my boss was approached with an “awesome” offer to go manage a bigger branch a few hours away. This was because the owner wanted to place his son as the branch manager of a small location, and needed to vacate a position to do so.

My boss graciously turned down the offer, his kids had just started at their new schools and he didn’t want to uproot them again (he’d relocated to take the current position).

That didn’t go over well…

This was not taken well by our corporate office, but they couldn’t fire him for it… not directly. A few weeks later I saw our office manager (a lady nobody in the office liked) in my boss’s office filing paperwork (or so it seemed) which was odd but not alarming.

The next week my boss was going to be on vacation, and all the office staff had to attend a meeting for non-salaried employees at the corporate headquarters.

While we were at the corporate thing our office manager handed out new office keys to all of us (three) that were there (my boss was on vacation, and salaried). I asked, “why are we getting new keys?” and she said it was because someone lost theirs.

This didn’t sound good…

None of us had lost our keys, we were all sitting together and could easily confirm this, so I texted my boss to ask him and he had no CLUE what she was up to. I got a bad feeling about what was happening.

I called him after the meeting and told him to come by my house Sunday when he got back from out of town. I explained that I was 95% certain they were planning to fire him Monday, I didn’t know what reason, I just had a gut feeling.

I said it was too bad because if he was fired I wouldn’t want to work there anymore knowing that they would do shady stuff like that. He (jokingly) said that he should fire me first, so I could go on unemployment.

I laughed and told him that he should write me a termination notice, and then if he doesn’t get fired on Monday it would be just between us… but if he does get fired I could take it to the unemployment office and have proof that I was fired for something that would make me eligible for benefits.

Good thing he had that notice.

So we did, and he was fired Monday (for misfiling paperwork of some sort), and I definitely did not go back to work. They tried calling me in, and I told them that my boss had fired me already. I took the proof with me to the unemployment office and was good to go… until they (former employer) disputed my claim.

I had a hearing (on the phone) with the unemployment office and my corporate HR person:

HR: “He wasn’t fired, the paperwork he submitted with his claim isn’t the right paperwork, it should have come from HR, not his manager”

Unemployment: “Why did the manager not do that then? Where is he?”

HR: “He no longer works for the company”

Unemployment: “Why did he leave?”

HR: “He was fired”

Unemployment: “Why was he fired?” (getting exasperated)

HR: *mumbles* “For doing paperwork incorrectly…”

Unemployment: “Well that is hardly the fault of the terminated employee!?!! How is he to know that the paperwork is invalid that is coming from their supervisor?”

Payday!

They told my HR that they could rehire me or not, but my claim was valid. They couldn’t rehire me because they’d already filled the position. So I got to collect unemployment for a while before moving on to my next job. My former boss is doing well now it seems, and I don’t feel bad at all.

For the record, it is VERY likely that they would have “invented” a way of firing me after they got rid of my boss. Had they done that, they would have made CERTAIN that my termination was such that I wouldn’t be eligible for unemployment, I took that power away from them by getting fired preemptively.

I am also positive that when I saw the office manager in his office (while he was away) she was arranging the setup for him to be fired.”

Check out how people reacted to this story.

One Reddit user had something similar happen.

This individual had a hard time with this story.

One reader shared their own story.

This person thinks they might get into trouble over this…

Now that is some savvy thinking!

Good luck in the job market!

Want to read another story where somebody got satisfying revenge? Check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.