Unfiltered Story #296099

I used to work at an office, where I sometimes felt like I was continually tidying up other people’s mess. Quite literally. And since I am quite sensitive to people leaving their garbage lying around, it heavily annoyed me. Even more so since the people doing this had a very low work ethic anyway.

One day, I found an empty cardboard box on a table. There were people working with the type of papers that the box contained. Yet, they were all sitting at the NEXT table. Apparently, the coworker who emptied the box just put it away on the next table, instead of walking a few more steps to throw it in the cardboard bin.

The coworker in case was a former supervisor, who was demoted after sick leave and since then tries to make the life of the remaining supervisor hell. Before her sick leave, the department was a complete mess with little to no work ethics or following of safety rules. She used to give people she liked for personal reasons high marks (meaning they got a raise) while refusing to give a temp good marks, because “that would make you seem better than the permanent workers”. Since her demotion, she turned out not to be very capable in the work she has been given, meanwhile complaining that she is bullied by the supervisor, simply because she has to do work she doesn’t like. The supervisor, fortunately, is too no-nonsense to care.

Fed-up with these lazy antics, I can’t resist some petty revenge. Instead of ignoring the box or throwing it away myself, I leave a note on it. It says: ‘Where is there an empty box here? Tidy up after yourself, please!’

Shortly after, I hear the coworker in case grumble about it to others. ‘The way they communicate here….’ Meanwhile, I am working at my desk, more or less opposite her own. A very easy way to adress me.

But this coworker is not only lazy and mean, she’s also a coward. Instead of confronting me over my passive agressive note, she leaves another one next to it. It says: ‘Obviously I am going to throw that box away, am I? But I believed the workday lasts until 5:30 PM!’ Note that I found the box at 2:30 PM, so apparently she was planning to leave it there for three hours?

In the end, I have the last laugh anyway. Our supervisor sees both notes, reads them and later tells me she gave the mean coworker an earfull about it. The coworker responded with the accusation that the supervisor seemed to favour me over others (as if the coworker hadn’t done such thing in her own time as supervisor). The supervisor told me she simply replied: ‘Yes, I do, because I don’t want to lose him. While you already have made the decision to leave in a few months anyway.’