 Lots of innocent people ended up out of work, simply because the store decided to freak over, one, honest guy. If you like true revenge stories, you found the best place for your vengeful needs. In this episode, we'll dip our fingers in petroleum, to fuel our need for vengeance. And as usual, it'll be finger licking good. Company forces honest employee to quit and blackmail him. But they forgot that he knows everything about their illegal activities. So when the corrupt company lit the lighter, he managed to pour gas on it. Followed by a story about an employee who's critical to the lab activities, but still gets underpaid. Unfortunately for them, the undervalued employee had 99 problems, but taking his expertise elsewhere, wasn't one of them. Last story, in which ungrateful employers, belittle and humiliate a hard-working bricklayer and other construction workers. In reality, he's so talented, he would thrive working for himself. But would he? Be sure to sneak into the like button's office and fill its cabinet up with ping-pong balls. Naturally, viewer discretion is advised. These revenge acts might be disturbing to snowflakes. In all honesty, this account is a throwaway. On one hand, given the time that's passed since this particular revenge happened, I could probably get away with it. But on the other hand there's a chance that this could come back to bite me. It's not that I did anything illegal, but many may argue it was morally wrong at the time, and I probably could have handled the situation a whole hell of a lot better. So, onto the story, at one point in my life, I found myself bored. I needed spending cash, but at the same time, like any typical college student, I needed a job that would work around my class hours. Enter Seacorp. Seacorp was a locally-owned chain of gas stations in the southeastern part of Georgia. And parts of Florida. I forget the total number of stations, but it was under 50, if that matters. I applied and was given a simple clerking position, where I would work weekends and two nights a week. For a total of about 32 hours a week, on average. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I worked there for about a year, when I was offered a position to help reopen a store. That was renovated after a fire. With the promotion to assistant manager. My hours were going to obviously change. But by the same token I gained better pay. And a new day's shift which would help things out. To be quite honest, I even debated taking some time off from school to concentrate on the job. As it was entirely possible I would be promoted to manager of my own store before long. There were veiled hints and suggestions of that very thing happening in a few months as it were. I never got that far, but I'm getting ahead of myself here. It didn't take long for me to start noticing some issues with the store, and the company as a whole. Issues which I did my level best to correct. We were nearing hunting season, turkey and then deer, and in an effort to cater to this, the store started getting in several pallets of ammunition. So, now we had to figure out how to display the various types of shotgun shells, and rifle bullets, while also doing our level best to ensure things didn't get in the way. It was around this time that I found myself speaking with the store manager, having been called on the carpet, as the saying goes, for refusing to sell ammunition to a customer. I explained to the manager that I had attempted to check ID on the customer, who refused to give it. So, I told the manager that I knew full well this was illegal, as ID was required by state law, and furthermore you had to be 18 to buy them. That started me on the path that would lead to my termination a few weeks later. I started noticing company memos popping up in the office, all that dealt with company practices regarding ammunition. One even went so far as to say that it was a terminable offense to refuse a sale of shotgun shells to a customer, regardless of age. That one actually vanished a few days after it went up, with me suspecting someone in the legal department realized the trouble they could get into with it. However, the flow of ammo didn't stop. A week before my termination, things got worse. The state in question has the lottery, of which the lion's shares scratch off tickets. You know the type, pay a buck scratch off and hope you win something. Now, the lottery states on the back of every single ticket, that the retailer who sold it must pay up to $599 in winnings. Anything above that has to be claimed at the central lottery office in the state's capital. Retailers are warned, that should they refuse to pay this, there are instructions on how to do this with the money order, then they can be fined by the lottery commission, or worse. Imagine my surprise then, when I'm written up for following a lottery commission policy and paying out on a $300 win for a customer. I was told, point blank, that company policy was not to pay out anything more than $100. Regardless of what the lottery commission said. The final straw, before my eventual termination, though honestly I quit, they still listed me as terminated, came when training another cashier. The very next day, the count came up short by exactly $100. I refused to sign the write up, which meant the company would have to investigate it, or so I thought. Same day, the district manager called the store and made some veiled threats about calling the police over this, and left me with a note that. If the count comes up $100 over today. He won't say anything. Oh hell no he didn't. I waited till the manager returned from her meeting, dropped all my keys on the counter and told her directly I'm done. I walked out and didn't really look back. I was pissed. Pissed at the treatment I'd been given over my time working there, pissed at being called a thief, pissed at what I knew the company was doing to my little community. And pissed that as far as I could tell, they get away with it. That's when I hatched a plan of revenge. First and foremost, I needed to talk with a friend. One of my college buddies also worked for the county's sheriff office. So I applied him over with some good barbecue and a few beers, and then asked him, hypothetically speaking what would happen to a company if it was found they were doing something illegal. Like, oh, selling ammunition when they shouldn't be, or something like that. He knew I'd recently left C Corp, and the circumstances of why I left, so it didn't take long for him to ask just what was going on. So I spilled the beans, even including the reported theft I had been accused of. He was on the edge of his seat, even going so far as to note that the district manager's actions itself was illegal, and told me to come meet with my friend's boss the next day to give a statement. So I did just that. I laid out everything, told about the memo about not refusing sales, against state law, and then gave detailed information about the DM's call, the incident itself, and other things I had witnessed regarding illegal practices by the company, though not mentioned here. It took the better part of four hours to get everything told and typed out. By the way the detective acted, I got the impression I had either given him one hell of a caseload, or broken some case right open. However, I wasn't really done yet. I had one more call to make. That one would prove pretty simple and short, and involve me calling the Lottery Commission and telling them about the company's policy which went against the Lottery Agreement. I was assured they'd look into things, and that my information would be kept secret. I just had to sit back and wait. The fallout two or three weeks later, our local paper ran a story on the front page, talking about a multiple department sting that happened in our area. The sting was investigating illegal sales of weapons, alcohol, and ammunition to miners. In that raid, C Corp had been hit hard, with several of their stores being shut, and several managers and district managers being arrested on various charges tied to this illegal activity. The company itself was facing severe fines from the state, in the seven-figure range, and it was being called into question whether or not they had the proper licenses to sell ammunition and firearms in the first place. The only mention about what the DM had said to me, came in the form of one of the investigating officers noting that the company had resorted to blackmail, in an attempt to silence anyone who dared question the company policies or practices. The stores did remain open, but you could tell that the managers were seriously nervous about what the future held. Sales of ammunition, and guns stopped completely, and overnight though. About a week after the raid by the police, lottery tickets of all kinds simply vanished from the stores. Big signs out front simply read we do not sell Lotto. The validation machines were gone. The scratch-off ticket areas lay empty. Lottery was not in the building. I can only guess what happened in that case. But I wouldn't be surprised if the Lottery Commission sent people in with winning tickets only to have those people turned away. The fact that they lost their lottery sales would point to it being a serious issue at the very least, that or the Lottery Commission decided to distance themselves from the company which was already under federal investigation. Yes, the ammunition and guns thing, went federal. Ultimately, the company was a shell of its former self. About half the gas stations ended up closing due to no longer being profitable, and what stations didn't close were just shells of their former selves. The company eventually declared bankruptcy. After a final scandal brought them another round of state and federal fines. In that case, they were busted for price gouging after raising the gas price per gallon to about $6 a gallon in cities where they had no other competition. This happening just prior to a pending tropical storm. Fast forward to today. It's been close to 15 years since this all went down. SeaCorp doesn't exist any longer. After declaring bankruptcy, most of the stores were sold off to a competitor who ended up closing all but five or six of the stores due to redundancies. A whole host of, honestly, innocent people ended up out of work simply because the store decided to fuck over one guy who wanted to do the right thing by the law and state policies. Several of the corporate staff were given two and three year suspended sentences, while others ended up paying personal fines on top of what the company was facing. The company has become something of a warning to others about what not to do when an employee voices a concern and above and beyond that. Why it's a good idea to follow the letter of the law exactly as it's written, regardless of if it hinders your bottom line or not. I sometimes think back on the whole affair and wonder, just what they hope to achieve with that blackmail attempt. Some part of me thinks that the DM honestly thought it was the best option and may have even been trying to help out an employee he liked. That was something that always bugs me. Looking back. Every interaction I had with the guy was a good one. Right up to him grooming me to be another store manager. So maybe he was trying to protect me. Then again, he could have just been the asshole I assumed, and that was him showing his true colors. I guess we'll never know. He moved out of the area a few years later, and I sure as hell wasn't about to talk to him again. Not after everything that had happened. So years ago, I was working for a laboratory that did a lot of testing for the military. It was a terrible job for a number of reasons. Despite having enormous responsibility, they never gave me credit for anything. In meetings with the department head, DH, they frequently blamed me for problems that they had caused. But I had solved and they could not. They also hired consultants to come in and tell me I was wrong, only to have the consultants say I was right, and the consultants would get paid one quarter of my yearly salary for one day's worth of work. I only stayed as long as I did because it was my first real job and I honestly didn't know better. By their own standards, I was severely underpaid. HR agreed. They claimed there was nothing that could be done. Meanwhile, other people were given off schedule raises. Well, I wasn't the only one that was underpaid. There were a number of others as well. But none of them were critical to the operation of the laboratory. This part was most important, you have to understand that in practicing my job, you really need to know what you're doing specifically. Eventually, the DH went to the director with a list of all the underpaid people. I found out that my name was on the top of the list as the most underpaid person, not surprising. Using this list, the DH got permission from the director for one-time raises. An announcement was made. Well, guess who didn't get a raise? This despite the fact that I had made massive improvements in some of their processes. That easily saved them millions per year. And their budget was just over $10 million. I was livid. I had enough and decided to leave. They hired two people to replace me at more than double my salary. One of them had just graduated two weeks before. From what I understand, they had a lot of difficulties with keeping up the workload and the demanding tasks of the job. That would have been enough for most people. And maybe even for me for most of my life. To just leave and let it be. But it leaving like this wasn't enough for me back then. I wanted revenge for what they had done to me. So, I arranged a meeting with one of the project managers, PM, from the department of the military that we had done our tests for. I casually mentioned to him that I had left my old job. He was shocked. Remember how I said they never gave me credit for anything? Well, the military PMs considered me an invaluable expert and could not understand why the lab had driven me away. They immediately pulled several million dollars worth of work from the lab and gave it to the competition. Several labs were involved because they had no confidence that the lab could provide the do the work anymore. When I ran into one of the lab managers, the only half decent guy there, I casually mentioned my meeting with the PM and I could tell he figured out how the military knew I had left. It took them years to recover and honestly, I don't know if they ever really did. Last time I checked their web page, it hadn't been updated in at least 12 years. I would have been happy with a $20,000 raise. Ecstatic even. But they weren't willing to spend $20,000 and lost $2 million to start. And more in the long run. I started my own business and now make at least five times what I would if I had stayed there until now, and more than 10 times what I was making when I left. I am a teacher and when I was younger, I would take summer jobs to supplement my income. One summer, I worked for a bricklayer named Jerry and heard an amazing story. I worked for Jerry in the mid 90s, so the story either happened in the early 90s or in the 80s. The setting for the story was a community of small rural towns which had only one brick contractor. Jerry began his career as a bricklayer working for this contractor, a real jerk. Jerk and jerk son, adult working the business with his father, would harass, belittle and humiliate all their employees on a regular basis. No work was ever good enough, and employees were told they weren't worth what they were paid. Not only did jerk mistreat his employees, but he was equally rude to other subcontractors and to the general contractors who hired him. Since he was the only bricklayer in the community, there was nothing anyone could do about it. Needless to say, the turnover rate for the brick business was very high. The only person that stuck with jerk and company was Jerry. Jerry told me that his father had instilled a self-confidence in him, that Jerry could do anything he set his mind to do, and that he should not evaluate himself according to what others said. But rather by the facts. Although Jerry was belittled by jerk and son as were all other employees, Jerry was becoming a very good bricklayer. Jerry knew he was good, jerk knew, Jerry was good, but jerk didn't know, that Jerry knew he was good. You're still with me? Not only was Jerry a good bricklayer, he was very respectful to the boss who disrespected him. Jerk thought that Jerry was a naive pushover who was buying his head games. That would prove to be a huge mistake on his part. One day, Jerry was doing an exceptionally good job of laying brick. Not only was his craftsmanship amazing, he was laying brick at a high rate of speed so that he was making his boss lots of money. Of course, jerk and son were belittling his work as though he was doing the very opposite. This scenario was being observed by the general contractor of the project. After work that day, the general contractor asked Jerry to stay behind so he could talk to him. As did every other construction worker in the community, the general contractor hated working with jerk. General contractor told Jerry that he had heard jerk and son belittling him, and told him that he disagreed with everything jerk was saying. He asked Jerry if he had ever considered going into business for himself. Jerry said that he would like to do that someday. General contractor then said that he would loan Jerry the money to buy a mixer, the most expensive piece of equipment needed to start a brick business, if Jerry would indeed start said business. The only hitch was, that Jerry would need to pay for the mixer whenever he could and that he would subcontract under general contractor. Jerry agreed to those terms and prepared to begin his new venture. Jerry respectfully told jerk and son his plans and gave his notice. The two mocked Jerry ruthlessly and left him to scorn. Jerk told Jerry, you'll be back in two months begging to return to your job, you'll never make it as a subcontractor. Two months later, rather than collapsing as jerk predicted, Jerry was still in business and going strong. One year later, Jerry's business was booming. And a drunk jerk showed up at Jerry's house and begged him to come back to work with jerk and son. Jerry, you're the best employee I ever had. Jerry replied, why didn't you ever tell me that when I was working for you? Jerk couldn't answer the question and Jerry obviously didn't accept the offer for employment. Two years after beginning his entrepreneurial adventure, Jerry heard that jerk and son went out of business. Jerry said that he never intended to harm jerk and son when he accepted general contractor's offer. He said that looking back on things he realized that he had become Jerk's greatest nightmare. I can't say that general contractor intended no harm. I thought the most amazing thing about the story was how Jerry maintained his self-esteem in spite of all the ridicule. I also gained a respect for Jerry's father who instilled an unshakable self-confidence in Jerry. I contacted Jerry today, after 20 years, to let him know how highly I thought of him. He reminded me that his father was will-chair bound and accomplished so much, in spite of his handicap. It was his father's overcoming huge obstacles that made Jerk's words seem to be such a minor obstacle to overcome. Thank you for enjoying this episode, which was made with artificial love. 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