Those Files Aren’t The Only Things Going In The Trash

My company is under investigation. I honestly couldn’t tell you what we’re being investigated for nor if we’re guilty, but legal requested that I catalog some documents from the server for them.

My manager countermanded that with a written order to “delete everything instead”. I hated the man anyway — he gave me a half-dozen orders a month that would get me fired if I actually followed through — so I decided this time was the final straw that would get him fired.

I made sure to keep printouts of the documents that legal wanted and a printout of the order; [Manager] helpfully wrote “delete absolutely everything” and underlined “absolutely”. I proceeded to do exactly what my boss requested of me.

I deleted everything — every single file for every single project, and the OS files. I left the backups alone; my goal was to get my boss fired, not to wreck the company.

The next day, absolutely nothing worked. It was absolute chaos. I hand-delivered the files to legal, smiled, sipped my coffee, and waited for the inevitable. Upper management soon came knocking on my door to accuse me of sabotage.

I showed them my orders, and said that the backups were still good and I could get everything running again in about a day. 

My manager was out the door so fast he practically blue-shifted. I got a reputation for being overly literal, and they gave me an official warning on my record, but I’m still employed. 

And I did get the whole computer network set back up again in about a day, by working overnight.