Employees reveal how to get revenge

A new study shows employees across the UK have been committing astonishing acts of revenge on their colleagues and customers. From harmless pranks to stunts that cross the line of legality, anonymous workers have confessed their sins in a tell-all survey.

The research, conducted by national health and safety consultancy protecting.co.uk, compiles a list of amusing recollections. One office worker who wanted to get back at his miserable colleagues adjusted the motion sensors in the bathroom to turn the lights off after one minute, plunging the room into darkness.

Another, who’s a manager, admitted to scheduling long meetings with lots of trivial points on the agenda, then lying about having to be elsewhere after 10 minutes in order to secure some quiet time at his desk.

Other confessions are more light-hearted, such as the employee who left a note on a colleague’s desk to “phone Liz” – along with the number for Buckingham Palace. Meanwhile, one person left an open packet of fish fingers concealed in the office of a co-worker who had them disciplined without good reason.

More serious offences include the shop worker who got revenge on a boss for refusing to pay more than the minimum wage by passing discounts on to customers. Plus, there’s the office employee who was cheated out of a big business deal and got back at the Sheffield-based sales team by pretending to be a new customer and setting up meetings at a fake office in Cornwall, rolling with laughter at the panicked phone calls asking for directions on the day.

Possibly the most risky – and illegal – prank was conducted by an office worker whose boss took the credit for a 350-page report they wrote together, for which the boss received a bonus. The employee complained and got transferred to another department, but not before she wiped the computers of her former manager’s team of all their important files and got him suspended.

Protecting.co.uk’s research shows that only 17% of those surveyed actually admitted to pulling pranks. While the stories recounted are humorous, the consultancy warns that such behaviour can lead to reduced company profits and even serious injury to the victims.