They sometimes say that revenge is a dish that is best served cold. This saying reminds us that getting revenge is not always about getting it immediately, sometimes it is better served after some time has passed.
The problem with revenge is that feelings tend to change over time and we may even lose our desire or perhaps our nerve before the revenge takes place. Then again, we may just be concerned that we are going to have it backfire.
The best thing to do for many people is to simply live vicariously through somebody else. You can do that here as people talk about their greatest stories of revenge.
1. Force Me To Serve Moldy Strawberries? You’re Going Down
“A few years ago I started working for a buffet-style restaurant that’s pretty well known, at least in the Mid-West area.
The job itself was horrible, as most food industry jobs are, but I was grateful for the work, and for my friend who had gotten me the job there as a hostess, so I tried to put in actual effort. A few months into the job I found out that basically all of the managers were doing shady things like; doing substances during their shifts and nodding off at their desks, sleeping with waitresses and giving them more hours than the rest of the staff, cutting people’s hours down to 5 a week if they complained about anything.
All of the horrible things you hear of happening in management. I went in, put on a smile, and did my job as best I could.
The restaurant itself was going through some hard times, so one day the Big Guy In Charge (I think a district manager) came in for a staff meeting to basically rip all of us a new one, and put all of the blame of the bad reviews and low sales on the wait staff, and me, the hostess.
I was told I needed to present myself more confidently by wearing makeup and taking more care of my appearance, which sent me off because first and foremost, I am a feminist and that was misogynistic as heck, but also, I was confident in myself and my appearance. But it’s hard to keep a smile when I’m constantly dealing with people who are angry over outrageous meal prices (that were advertised as being much lower) or people angry over their disgusting food.
I also pointed out to him that I have worked in restaurants my entire life and I had applied to be a cook, not a hostess, and felt I was way more qualified to be back in the kitchen, but I was placed as a hostess because they needed to fill the spot quickly after their last one quit. So he told me that on my next shift, I could clock into the bakery section and work there instead.
I was pretty excited about this because I love to cook/bake and I would have the entire kitchen to myself in that section, and I would be getting a small pay raise. Seemed like a pretty sweet deal all around, right?
So, a few days pass, my next shift approaches and I go in early just to get a better feel for the kitchen and the recipes I needed to make.
It’s all super basic stuff: banana pudding, bread pudding, carrot cakes, nothing too hard or fancy. I find out that I’m going to be trained that night by one of the assistant managers who I had previously gotten into a little argument with because he shamed me, in front of a line of customers, for not wearing an Oxford cotton shirt to work, which I didn’t even know was a rule and no one had ever told me otherwise as I had been there for months at that point.
I pulled him aside after my shift that night to tell him I didn’t appreciate him doing that in front of customers, and besides, the type of shirt they expected me to buy was expensive, and they wanted me to have at least 3 of them, which would’ve been at least half of my paycheck, to be honest. (I was only there part-time) And since they weren’t willing to pay me the wage I had requested when I took the job, I wasn’t able to afford to buy special shirts like that for work.
It was bad enough they also forced everyone to order crappy non-slip work shoes through a company of their choosing, and it came out of our first paycheck. Between the shoes and the shirts, we are basically expected to fork over around $400 on gear just to work there for minimum wage. Ridiculous. So, needless to say, he and I already didn’t like each other very much, and I knew him training me was going to be a real bad time, but I thought it was worth it for the position change.
Anyways. I clock in and am told immediately that it’s a very special night because they’re having a huge promotion where kids eat for free, and it was expected to be extremely busy. I panic a little because the kids always go nuts for the bakery area, but I figure it will be fine since I’m not alone on my first night. The night goes pretty smoothly at first, but then it happened; we ran out of strawberries for the chocolate fountain and I needed to run to the cooler to refill the pan.
Only, when I get the box of strawberries out of the fridge, I noticed every single one of them, all three boxes, were covered in spots of white, fuzzy mold. So I start taking all three boxes out to the dumpster, and that’s when the assistant manager stopped me, completely livid, and screamed, ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’ Stunned, I explain that they’re all moldy, so I’m throwing them out real quick.
He gets angrier, takes the boxes from my hands, and just tells me to follow him. We go back into the kitchen, in the way back part away from the dining area so no one can see us, and he starts showing me how they just use the spray nozzle on the sink to power wash the mold off the strawberries. My heart literally sank to my stomach.
I asked if this was something they do a lot, and he said yes and they’re still good to eat and not to worry about it. I told him I wasn’t comfortable knowingly serving moldy strawberries to children, and I wasn’t going to do it, so he snapped at me and told me just to go back to the hostess station and start seating people.
I’m pretty angry, but it’s already pretty chaotic in the dining area, so I did as I was told, the whole time planning the phone call I was going to make to the health department later, and what I was going to write in my two weeks notice.
Not even ten minutes later, a customer came up to me with a bowl full of strawberries, complaining she had found mold on them and her child almost ate it.
Obviously, I feel horrible of course, and start trying to apologize to her, while waving the assistant manager over to talk to her because she asked to speak with one. He comes over, sees the strawberries, and I just go, ‘She found mold on her son’s strawberries and would like a refund.’ Right away he’s all smiles and sincerity, apologizing to her and walking her over to my cash register to give her a refund, when I hear him tell her, ‘Our bakery cook is still in training, so I will make sure I bring this to her attention and correct it.’
Aaaaand that’s when I snapped. I walked right up to them and said, with the most confused look I could manage, ‘I thought you told me to just wash the mold off and they would be fine? I’m just doing what you told me.’
Words cannot even begin to describe the look of sheer bewilderment on both of their faces.
She yells first, ‘Are you kidding??’ I knew I was getting fired already at that point, so I start gathering my things from under the counter and clocking out while listening to him try to diffuse the situation.
Apologizing, telling her I misunderstood him. Meanwhile, my heartbeat is ringing in my ears and I’m about to have a full-blown panic attack because I had never walked out on a job before, so I wasn’t able to pay much attention to what all he was telling her, but it was obvious he was just trying to keep her quiet so the rest of the dining room didn’t hear what was happening.
While that’s happening, I go to the back to grab my coat from the staff closet and sneak into the cooler to take pics of the moldy strawberries so I could send them to the health department. I made that report anonymously, honestly, because I didn’t want my friend who had gotten me the job to possibly face repercussions, and figured maybe they would assume it was the customer who reported them.
I got my stuff, and snuck out the backdoor so people wouldn’t see me in tears, having a panic attack, and went home. Later, my friend called me to tell me that they shut down the whole chocolate fountain for the rest of the night, and ended up having to refund a ton of meals because the lady warned everyone around her not to let their kids eat the strawberries, and of course, many already had.
Apparently, it was a disaster, and I’m kinda sad I missed watching him have to hand out all of those refunds on such an important night.
A week later, I go in one morning to pick up my final paycheck, and guess who’s the only manager on site? Of course, he was a huge jerk about having to do anything for me and didn’t think it was funny when I asked how he still had a job at all.
He made me wait at the front counter for over an hour because he was ‘having trouble getting into the safe to get my check.’ Which worked out perfectly for me, because in walked the Big Guy In Charge and I’m like, okay I’m telling him what happened. So I walk up to him and said hello and everything and he asked how I was enjoying the bakery and I was like, ‘Funny you should ask…’ and told him the entire story.
The new hostess, who was a previous waitress who had also worked that night, was also at the front counter backing up everything I said, and he just couldn’t believe it. I almost showed him the photos of the strawberries, but honestly, I didn’t want a lawsuit or anything, so I was glad my former co-worker was there to back me up. I apologized to him for walking out, and he offered me the position back, but honestly, that was just way too much drama for me and not enough pay, and I had already found something better anyway, so I declined and said I just wanted my last paycheck that I had been waiting on for over an hour at that point.
He went and got my paycheck for me, apologized again, and assured me that he was going to ‘talk with the assistant manager.’ I didn’t think anything would come of it, but apparently, he actually did get fired after their talk because someone from the HR department reached out to me to discuss everything. She told me that he tried to pin the entire thing on me, but another cook came forward and admitted that he was forced to serve moldy food as well, so they were bringing in an entire change in management.
I think she basically just wanted to make sure there wasn’t any bad b***d, or that I wasn’t going to try to sue them or something. I told her I just wanted to be done with it, and that was that. They closed down a month or two later, but I can’t imagine why!”
2. Need Me To Take Out My Earphones? As You Wish, Officer
“Happened this morning. Even though I made a complete and full stop at a 4 way stop, I get pulled over by a police vehicle, lights flashing, the works. I turn my dashcam around to face me and whoever goes in front of the driver’s side window.
I roll it down and ask, ‘what seems to be the problem officer?’ Officer looks at me the way one would look at a sticky piece of gum stuck to the bottom of one’s shoe.
‘You didn’t make a complete stop,’ he says. I adjust one of my hearing aids (lost part of my hearing due to being a touring session musician previously) and before I could speak, he firmly orders, ‘Sir, take off your earphones when I’m talking to you!’
I take both hearing aids off and look at him. I can read lips a little but we’re both masked so I can’t understand what he’s saying.
I communicate in sign language simultaneously while speaking verbally ‘I’m deaf and I didn’t understand what you just said. Can you communicate to me in ASL (American Sign Language) please?’ He points at my hearing aids that look like Apple Air Pods, motioning me to put them on. I respond, ‘Yes officer, without those I can only communicate in ASL. Please instruct me in ASL and I will be compliant in every possible way.’
He looks at the dashcam that’s neatly pointed squarely at us and mumbles ‘For Pete’s sake.’ He then motions for me to go, giving me 2 thumbs up. Needless to say, I rolled up the window and drove away as fast as legally allowed.
Couldn’t wipe the smile off my face all day, Lol.”
3. Sacrificing Hot Showers Just To Watch Him Suffer
“So several years ago I was a firefighter in a small ARFF (Airport Rescue Fire Fighter) station where I was the only female.
So I was assigned the Captain’s bathroom which was separate from the bunkroom bathroom for showering and using the restroom.
I was on a shift with a captain who was a grade-A jerk. His way or the highway, and he was verbally abusive to everyone, especially me. Anyway my ‘shower time’ was morning and I, being a female also shaved my legs. One morning I cut myself pretty badly and had to rummage in the first aid kit for a bandaid.
He asked what happened and I said I cut my leg shaving. He flipped out. Started yelling I had no business shaving my legs, etc. Keep in mind that I only ever spent 10 minutes with the water running, if that. I was in and out as fast as possible to avoid his wrath. I even shaved using lotion in the sink, to keep from using too much water so he could have his long, hot shower every shift.
Well no more.
Every morning he turned the heat on and stood in front of the oven to warm up. As soon as he disappeared to the back, I went to the janitor’s closet and ran hot water in the mop sink for 10 minutes. Then I went up to the bathroom I used and ran the sink hot for as long as it took to use the toilet, shave, etc. By the time he got his shower it was cold.
Mine was too, but I didn’t care, he was miserable and I lived for it. Each shift he yelled at me for being in the shower too long, even if he ran out of hot water before I got my shower. He yelled at other guys. He complained. No one else had that problem. No one else in the morning had cold water. I didn’t complain.
For nearly two years I quietly ran out the hot water each morning so he would run out mid-shower. No one ever asked why I was in the janitor’s closet. No one ever said a word. They replaced the heating element twice and the whole water heater once. Every single shift. Every third day. For two years. Until I got swapped to another shift. Then they changed the filter on the hot water heater and suddenly it worked again.
He never figured it out. He had that and more coming for what he did to us.
And I still hate that jerk.”
