Employee has the last laugh when the boss tries to replace him with friends and gets into trouble

When bosses are being unfair and inefficient, all one can do as an employee is sit back and watch the commotion unravel. If one is smart enough, they prepare to leave such a toxic work environment and find another job before they are unceremoniously kicked out. That was what u/Tazwegian63 did when his boss began getting rid of valuable assets of the company and replacing him with his buddies. Sharing his experience with the toxic new boss, the IT Contracts and Supplier manager revealed what happened when it was time for him to leave the company.

Having more than 25 years of corporate knowledge, the employee took on multiple roles at the company and was also happy with their compensation. But things changed when a new boss arrived. "A new boss gets hired and proceeds to get rid of people he doesn't like and hires his buddies into various roles. The workplace culture took a nosedive pretty quickly," the employee wrote. "I knew my time was limited as I wasn't in his inner circle." Knowing the boss' nature, the employee began looking for other jobs. All this while the boss had already planned to give the employee's specialized role—which required strong technical, contractual and legal knowledge—to one of his friends who didn't even understand it.

However, the boss decided to taper off the employee's responsibilities gradually. "He tells me he wants to move me onto an upcoming project and to finish off what I am currently working on and not take on any new work," the employee mentioned. Though the employee knew there were no new projects or budget for one, he decided to maliciously comply with the boss. When the employee wrapped up his work and pretended to wait for the new project, the boss asked them to "sit tight" and not to start anything else. Later one day, the boss told him, "The project isn't happening and as you have nothing else on your plate, we will have to let you go."

Thanks to his shrewdness, he already had a new job offer waiting. But things at his old job were piling up and he knew that chaos would unfold when contracts weren't renewed or services were canceled. Also, the employee was entitled to redundancy pay since the boss told HR that his role wasn't required anymore. "I happily accept the $200k payout (his face goes pale when he hears of the amount because it comes out of the team's budget), walk out the door and into the new job the day after," the employee wrote. With a stress-free new job in hand, the employee came to know that things at his previous job were going crazy. "He didn't even ask me to document what I did to hand over to anyone else," he mentioned and added in one of the comments that though he had documented his work, his "idiot" boss didn't ask about it and so he took it back with him.

This viral post resonated with many. "My wife just got out of a place like this. Her replacement was held for three weeks. Competitors are building similar services because they expect the company to die in the next year," wrote u/CaptainBaoBao. "Something a lot of new bosses don't realize is the job that looks easy is just because the one doing that job is just that good," commented u/javelyn10.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 19, 2024. It has since been updated.