When someone has been in their job for a long time, they often think that they can do anything without getting fired.

That is how the guy in the Dutch military in this story acted, even though he was always insubordinate and even put people in danger. He thought he could get away with anything without losing his job.

Eventually, however, his leadership got frustrated and found a way to get rid of him once and for all.

Keep reading for the whole story.

If you don’t like it, then fire me!

This happened in Den Helder, approximately 20 years ago.

One of my coworkers was a typical “Amsterdammer” in the worst sense of the word; loud mouthed, arrogant, really full of himself and he thought of himself as untouchable, just because he had been a Dutch marine for over a decade.

Let’s call him Adam (not his real name, obviously).

A little disclaimer just to make sure I don’t stigmatize people from Amsterdam: I’ve met a lot of typical “Amsterdammers” who were so in the best sense of the word; loud but really enjoyable, very confident but humble and decent.

Let’s get to know Adam a bit.

Back to Adam with just a few examples:

He would brag to people about cheating on his fiancé, but he would also make sure everybody knows he actually really loves her very much.

When called out on his hypocrisy, he would get loud and offended and he would tell you that you ‘just don’t understand and to shut up.’

People like this are insufferable.

He would argue about new policies and critique everything, but never in a constructive way. It would always be as offensive as possible.

He would argue with our chief (a sergeant) and the head of Transport (an adjudant) and he would always be loud and deviant and would tell them he was stationed there longer, so they should back off and respect him.

This always ended undivided, because nothing was actually said or done that would warrant any form of punishment or reprimand. It would annoy the heck out of the higher-ups, though.

Now he is putting people in real danger.

He would operate heavy equipment dangerously.

Adam would drive forklifts in a dangerous way, steering too aggressively so the vehicle would behave instable.

Lucky for everyone, those machines were very heavy and stable, but even so.

Adam once drove on the highway with an empty coach because he had to pick up a group of people.

He is downright reckless.

He put the vehicle on cruise-control, got out of his chair, stood next to the steering wheel holding it with one hand and used his phone to video himself doing just that.

Then he would proudly tell everybody in the driver’s pool about his shenanigans and show the video as proud evidence.

Nobody ratted him out, but the higher-ups got wind of it so they asked him about it.

Of course he denied everything and the video was non-existent according to Adam, so he dodged consequences.

It would make everyone happy if they fired him.

He then proceeded by telling all the coworkers about his little talk and ended with something like: “What are they going to do? Fire me?” and then laugh.

Later he got even bolder and he got into even more frequent arguments with the higher-ups and he started to shout things like: “If you don’t like it, then fire me!”

Then after he would brag about it and tell everybody they obviously can’t fire him, even if they wanted to.

It’s fair to say that the atmosphere within our unit grew tense and it was evident that the higher-ups were very much fed-up with Adam’s behavior. Until one day Adam overstepped.

Let’s see what happened.

He got into another argument and came up with his usual bickering.

Of course it got loud and he came with his usual “Then fire me!” comment, but to his horror the adjudant responded with something like: “Great, you’re fired! Now, walk with me to my office, so we can make it official.”

This went like a shockwave through the driver’s pool and we could hear Adam shouting in the office, which was a little further.

His screaming started with a lot of fire, the adjudant and sergeant responded in kind.

His reality is setting in.

Then Adams tone changed to a more desperate tone and after that it got kind of silent.

When he left the office, his eyes were red and he did not say a thing to anyone.

In hindsight it was obvious that the higher-ups were waiting for a moment like this to present itself.

Adam took his last PTO and vacation days and was very docile for his last few weeks. Thing got a lot more pleasant after his departure.

Those leaders were undoubtedly thrilled to be rid of someone who was not only insubordinate but also very dangerous.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who was facing serious accusations before retirement, but luckily had security footage that proved his innocence.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about this very satisfying story.

Here is a similar story that happened to this commenter.

Management won’t keep people like that around.

This is how it should be.

Things are different over there.

Don’t threaten them with a good time.

It took a while, but he finally got what he asked for.