Does anyone like staff meetings? No, of course not. This story from Reddit turns an embarrassing call out during a staff meeting into an even worse fate for the tattlers.

Embarrass managers in front of co-workers? Prepare to feel the revenge.

My first job after college was as the accountant for a motel with one of the city’s best restaurants on property.

For time reference, this was LBCP (long before cell phones). The property owners were a family who preferred to leave the daily running of the business to the staff.

Remember those simpler times?

Each week we had a staff meeting led by the Head Chef (male) and the Lead Host (female).

After I worked there for about a year, they hired a new Catering Manager, and she and I quickly became friends.

When workload permitted, we would get together and talk, but our work did not suffer because of our friendship.

It’s important to remember that the work did not suffer. It was just two friends chatting during their downtime. But not everyone saw it that way.

Then one day at a staff meeting, the paper copy of the agenda was handed out to us, and, per my usual, I did not read it.

Instead, I just listened to and participated in the meeting.

I noticed other meeting participants glancing at me with odd expressions on their faces but I didn’t question it.

Author probably should have read the agenda.

When I returned to my office, the front desk manager walked in with me and asked, “What do you think of the last agenda item?”

She had a wickedly-amused expression on her face.

I shook my head and then looked at the agenda.

The last line said, “Accountant and Catering Manager should spend less time talking to each other.”

Not exactly a professional way to handle things, was it?

The head chef did not discuss this in the meeting, but the damage was done.

All the hotel’s managers had seen it in writing, and many shared it with their employees.

I was furious.

The Catering Manager and I discussed it and decided to ignore the whole thing while also ignoring the Head Chef as much as possible.

Though the author was rightfully upset, they had a card up their sleeve.

But there was a lit firecracker in play!

The Head Chef and the Lead Host were both married to their respective spouses… and were cheating on them at work.

BOMBSHELL.

All the staff knew about this.

There were security videos of the Chef and the Host going into empty hotel rooms during the day and coming out an hour later.

A few weeks later, we were informed that the family who owned the business had sold it to another company, and the handover would occur in one month.

None of us were sure of our jobs, but my job was more on the line than anyone else’s.

It made perfect sense for the incoming owners to put their own accountants in place.

So I updated my resume, leaving the ending date blank.

The author kept their ace in the hole until an opportunity came up to play it.

A month later, the new company came in and had their two accounting staff ‘follow me around’ to see how things were done.

I knew it was just a matter of time before I was let go.

Three weeks later, I was asked to come to the Manager’s office, where I found the new company’s management team and the Personnel Manager. (This was pre-Human Resources.)

They were kind and gave me an excellent reference letter and a month’s severance pay.

Then they asked, “Are there any concerns you have with the way the business is running? And please, be as candid as possible. We will not reveal that it was you who shared information.”

And here we go.

Time for that lit firecracker to explode.

I explained how I was worried about the repercussions that were a distinct possibility due to the extramarital affair between two upper management persons.

Complete silence.

“All the staff knows about it. We’ve seen the videos of them entering hotel rooms together and coming out much, much later. And the staff reports seeing them in the storage room.”

Shocked stares.

“I would not say anything about this if neither was married. But they both have spouses and children, and I can imagine the blowback if one or both spouses find out about this. Blowback that would most likely occur on hotel property.”

Not only did they drop the bomb, but they made it almost impossible for the new owners to ignore it.

They had me name the people involved, including the affair-havers and the staff who had the proof and details of the occurrences.

Then they thanked me, handed me my termination paperwork, took my keys and badge, and I was gone.

The fallout, as told to me by my friend, the Catering Manager: the Lead Host was laid off within days of my leaving, and the Head Chef was put on one-year probation, sent to classes for… I would guess… appropriate behavior in the workplace, and he was not allowed to lead any more staff meetings.

You know, I just felt lucky that I never needed to go into that nasty dry storage room.

Wow. That was a spicy one. Wonder what folks on Reddit have to say about it?

Top comment says, they are lucky it wasn’t worse.

Another loves that the author gave the chef a taste of his own medicine, served nice and cold.

Several folks wondered why it was only the woman that lost her job?

And lastly, be careful who you spite, when your secret isn’t so hidden.

What do they say about throwing rocks in glass houses?

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.