Do you want to learn how to get revenge from an older employer who fired you? Then read on! There's nothing better than getting sweet revenge from an employer who disrespected you, undervalued you, underpaid you, or simply wronged you.
In this mercenary day and age, it's every person for themselves. Companies are no longer loyal to employees. Therefore, employees should be more greedy for themselves.
To get revenge from an employer who fired you, you must think deeper. Suing your employer after getting laid off is generally not going to work out. Instead, there is a more strategic way to get revenge from an employer who fired you.
Planting A Virus At Your Old Firm
“What is the most resilient parasite? Bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient… highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it's almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed – fully understood – that sticks; right in there somewhere.” – Dominick Cobb, Inception
One of the benefits of sitting in my seat is that I continually receiveamazing perspectives from readers who hail from all over the world. Sometimes I share these insights with you, and sometimes I greedily just keep them to myself.One reader wrotein from New York City and shared a job revenge strategythat Ihad never heard of.
Scenario: Let's say you feel your employer wronged you by letting you go without cause. You're pissed because you gave up a great job opportunity to work for them.
To lure you in, they showered you with expectations of a big bonus and fancy title. But after 11 months, they kicked you to the curb because they could. Employment is at will, and they hadthe will to cut you loose a month before paying your promised bonus!
You're livid and want REVENGE! Here's how to do it. Careful your boss doesn't see you reading this post.
How To Get Revenge From An Employer Who Fired You
The smartest way to seek revenge on a company is to plant a virus, a human virus that spreads uncontrollably until departments shut down. The virus brings down morale and causes employees to work less and jump to competing firms.
Here's how you embedthe virus:
1) Pretend like you are not pissed off at your old employer for throwing you out with the trash.
2) Maintain relationships with your old managers and HR. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer as they say.
3) Suggest the worst possible employee for them to interview and hire as your replacement or for some existing open position. Definitely vouch for this person and sing herpraises.
4) Coach your human virusthe ins and outs of the company. Your coaching will include the personality profiles of the key interviewers, the company's main issues and goals, and the things she should say to win them over.After all, you've gone through the process before.
5) Once the virusis imbedded, distance yourself by going radio silent. Do not talk to any formercolleagues over text, e-mail, or phone. This way, your old employers will not really suspect that you were the company terrorist.
Here's What An Employee Virus Does
If you give an employee a grenade, she probably won't do too much damage. She might blow up a couple limbs nearby, but not the entire department. If you are able to plant a virusdeep within the belly of the organization, watch out!
This is what an employee virusmaydo:
1) Shewill reinvent the wheel.
2) Shewill tell people what to do as a micromanager, but not do anything productive on her own.
3) Shewill command a huge compensation package because shewill say all the right things and promise the world.
4) Shemay act much slower than the normal company pace.
5) Shewill cause conflict everywhere shegoes because colleagues will get frustrated by herunproductivity and weirdness.
6) Shewill cause other employees to become less productive or quit.
7) Shewill cause employees to lose faith in the management who hired her.
8) Shewill cause company morale to sink to levels of despair as employees quiet quit and bring down productivity.
9) Shewill cause HR and senior management to spend many hours trying to figure out how to diffuse the bomb.
10) Depending on whensenior management realizes theyhired a virus, months to yearsworth of productivity may belost. Meanwhile, other people will be hesitant to join the company due to poor perception.
A good viruscauses so much unrest that company growth may slow, investors may flee, layoffs couldensue, and the entire firm may eventually shut down!
Silently Killing The Company
My reader from New York City said he successfully planted a virusat his old employer who let him go the week of Christmas. He knew something was up for months, so as the department head, he purposefully hired an incompetent person to do a job.
His old employerpaid the virusa fortune to join, which engendered a lot of envy. Then the company fired the virussix months after hiring. By then, plenty of people had already left tocompetitors and the company lost tremendous ground.
I've never heard of this nefarious strategy to get back at one's old employer. But, now that I look back upon my career, I can see how some people did successfully plant virusesout of revenge. The productivity loss of constantly selling yourself to new management really is the worst.
Example Of Planting A Virus Inside Your Old Employer To Get Revenge
On March 10, 2023, Silicon Valley Bank, the nation's 16th largest bank in terms of deposits failed. It experienced a bank run after buying long-dated Treasury bonds that resulted in a $1.8 billion loss.
Among the wreckage, we find that the Chief Administrative Officer could have actually been planted by a disgruntled worker. Take a look at the background of the CAA. He started his career at Arthur Andersen (went bankrupt), then was the CFO of Lehman Brothers (went bankrupt), then joined Silicon Valley Bank, which went under.
I'm sure Mr. Gentile was a nice guy who interviewed well. Maybe he was just unlucky. But to be apart of three mismanaged companies, two of which he was in senior leadership positions, seems suspect. I wish him the best and I'm glad the FDIC backstopped all SVB depositors. Otherwise, we'd experience the 2008 global financial crisis all over again.
A Better Way To Get Back At An Employer
The more admirable way to get back at your old employer is to get a new job at a competitor and take away their business. Complaining to the public about how you've being mistreated only hurts your own reputation.
Who in their right mind would hire a complainer when there are plenty of other excellent candidates? And the best way to seek revenge is to start your own thriving business and never have to work for anybody again!
The next best way to get revenge is to negotiate a severance and laugh all the way to the bank like I did.
My severance covered six years of living expenses when I left my old employer in 2012.Since you got laid off, you're also eligible for up to 27 weeks of unemployment benefits. Having a financial runway is huge during your transition period.
Conversely, if you quit your job you get nothing. Check out,How To Engineer Your Layoff: Make A Small Fortune By Saying Goodbye, on how to negotiate a severance. Literally thousands of readers have negotiated severance packages worth in the tens of millions since the book was published.
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