We can talk a lot about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on humanity, but what can be said for sure now is that it has definitely influenced the paradigm of office work and its exceptional efficiency. The world has seen that working from home can be no less convenient not only for the employee, but also for the company, and now it's not so easy for employers to return staff back to the offices.
However, there are exceptions here. It happens that some employees, having received a certain amount of freedom with their working from home, began to openly overuse this freedom. Even to the detriment of the work process and other employees' performance. What remains then? Perhaps petty revenge - as it happened in the situation with the author of this story we're going to tell you today.
The author of the post does office work and has to conduct audits for the upcoming year
Image credits: Berkeley Communications (not the actual photo)
Almost all the employees are eager to help with data and information for the audit, except for one remote worker
Image credits: throwaway46808752
This guy, named Paul, had never ever answered any single call or email from the author
Image credits: LinkedIn Sales Solutions (not the actual photo)
Image credits: throwaway46808752
So when the author had to buy company shirts for the staff, they once more asked Paul about his size - and after zero answers, ordered him an extra-small one
So, the Original Poster (OP) says that they are doing office work - in particular, they were hired by a company largely to conduct an audit, to get the files prepared for the new year. During the work, a lot of unpleasant things became clear about employees missing many items - but the author gradually sorted out all the issues. Except, perhaps, one thing.
The company has one employee - the original poster calls him Paul - and we'll follow that rule. So, Paul works exclusively from home, and almost never bothers to answer calls or emails. And the data from him also affects the results of the author’s work - so one can understand their indignation at such constant ignoring of any requests.
To top it all off, as the OP admits, Paul's immediate boss is the owner of the company, and they seem to be pretty close friends, so reporting Paul likely won't bring any results. So the original poster has to resort to all sorts of tricks in order to somehow compensate for being ignored by this elusive and unreachable guy.
However, it has been said more than once that revenge is a dish that is best served cold. So this time, the company's higher-ups planned to buy employees new shirts as a gift, because they met the sales goals. The owner warned in advance that there would be no returns or exchanges, since it is impossible to please everyone with colors and styles - and the order was assigned to the original poster.
Now try to guess at once which of the employees never bothered to tell the author their size? Small hint: a four-letter male name that starts with Pa- and ends with -ul. So, when submitting the order, the original poster made sure to select a size extra-small for Paul. Maybe it's not exactly revenge, but at least it's definitely petty.
Image credits: Solen Feyissa (not the actual photo)
However, most commenters were still delighted with this idea, rightly believing that arrogance should be punished, even in such a petty way. Although, as some folks think, with such an attitude towards his colleagues, Paul doesn’t even care about the company shirt. "Amusing. Unfortunately, Paul probably couldn't care less about a company shirt," one commenter aptly wrote.
Unfortunately, the original poster rejected numerous suggestions to complain to management, since they were sure that this would lead to nothing - after all, Paul, as we noted earlier, is friends directly with the owner of the company. “Lot of nepotism in this company,” the author of the post sadly stated.
And people in the comments seriously doubt that Paul brings any benefit to the company. "Does he actually do any work or are they paying him just to pay him?" one commenter asked, and the OP answered directly: "I wonder that same thing every day."
Well, if the owner of the company is willing to pay his friend for unknown reasons, it’s their business and their money. In any case, petty revenge took place, and the commenters liked it. “Revenge, a dish best served extra-small” - this was perhaps the wittiest comment ever. And what do you think in general about this situation, as well as about the method of petty revenge chosen by the author?
People in the comments were simply delighted with this sort of petty revenge, though presuming that Paul probably couldn't care less for a company shirt as well
Image credits: Dane Deaner (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Austin Distel (not the actual photo)
