How One Employee Turned Their Boss’s Nitpicking Into the Ultimate Petty Revenge
There are bad bosses, and then there are legendary workplace villains—the kind who haunt your career nightmares for years to come. But what happens when one of these notorious micromanagers pushes a clever employee just a little too far? Enter r/PettyRevenge, where one ex-employee’s ingenious tactic turned a toxic supervisor’s own words into the ultimate lesson in “be careful what you criticize.”
What follows is a tale of corporate absurdity, petty power plays, and sweet, cathartic justice—served cold and covered in the boss’s own formatting.
The Mushroom Farm: Welcome to Paula’s World
Our protagonist, u/MerryMisandrist, began their journey at State Street Bank in Boston nearly two decades ago. The job was pitched as a high-profile, high-visibility project team. The reality? As the OP colorfully put it, “a mushroom farm, with Paula keeping you in the dark and feeding you shit.” (This phrase resonated so deeply with the Reddit community that several commenters—like u/supersonics79—declared their love for it: “I use this often... treated like a mushroom... it works in so many situations.”)
Paula, our villain, wasn’t satisfied with simply managing her team; she seemed to derive joy from nitpicking every report, every cover letter, every comma—except, crucially, the actual numbers. Whether it was the format, the verbiage, or some barely perceptible difference in font, Paula’s “feedback” was relentless. As u/Mountain_Usual521 commiserated, “My boss would go through every draft with such a fine-toothed comb that she would send the draft back with complaints like, 'the period at the end of the sentence on page 57 looks like it might be in a different font than the rest of the document.' Lady, I assure you I did not change the font for one period. You are just insane. I feel you OP.”
Turning the Tables: The Pettiest Power Move
After weeks of enduring Paula’s tirades, the OP stumbled upon Paula’s old project files on the company network—a veritable goldmine of her own reports and cover letters. In a move so petty it deserves a slow clap, OP copied Paula’s formatting, structure, and even her cover letter language for their next report.
Predictably, Paula ripped the “new” report apart with even more gusto than usual. But when confronted with the truth—that this was her own work, verbatim—Paula was left speechless. The community loved this moment of poetic justice. u/PM_WORST_FART_STORY quipped, “Should have asked Paula what her superior thought, too.” Others, like u/iwtsapoab, simply cheered: “Bonus points for using her real name. Fuck you Paula.”
From then on, the OP continued this game of cat and mouse, using Paula’s own templates and watching her struggle to criticize her own work. Eventually, she caught on and started purging her old files (as OP expected—a true chess match). Yet, the OP had already saved what mattered, slyly telling Paula they’d created SOPs from her previous work. “It seemed like a logical thing to do,” they noted, with a wink.
When Micromanagement Backfires (and Why It Happens Everywhere)
The saga struck a nerve with hundreds of readers who’d been subjected to similarly nitpicky supervisors. Many shared their own stories of bosses who needed to “find something wrong” to feel involved. u/thisusedyet shared a classic technique: “Dad said after the first two times, he just took the shit back to his desk, waited a half hour without changing anything, then brought it back and bossman said it was perfect.”
Others noted this isn’t limited to one industry. Whether it’s graphic design, retail, or the Navy, there’s always a Paula somewhere. As u/modge1981 put it, “Some people just need that power trip to get their kicks.” And as u/jeffeb3 learned in retail, sometimes the trick is to “leave some low hanging fruit for reviewers like this. If they want to actually review something, they would look past these things.”
The lesson? Micromanagement is often more about control than quality. When bosses focus on nitpicking, they undermine morale, productivity, and—ironically—their own credibility. Several Redditors pointed out how these types of bosses often play favorites, sign off on sloppy work from their chosen ones, and leave a trail of chaos for others to clean up (as u/OhHowIMeantTo and u/R3pp3pts0hg described).
A Final Curtain Call: The Exit and Aftermath
The story doesn’t end with one clever revenge. In subsequent updates, OP revealed just how toxic Paula was—from denying time off for bereavement to making staff work through snowstorms to resenting any semblance of work-life balance. (u/MerryMisandrist revealed Paula even tried to stop them from using bereavement leave for family funerals.) The final exit was as epic as the revenge: OP refused to shake Paula’s hand and, in front of everyone, told her, “You’re probably the worst human being I’ve ever encountered and definitely the worst boss/leader.” The mic drop echoed through Reddit, with commenters like u/Extension-Math518 urging, “Holy shit. Don't hold back homie. Because fuck Paula!”
And the best part? According to OP, Paula now avoids them at industry events—living proof that sometimes, the best revenge is simply surviving, thriving, and telling your story.
The Takeaway: How to Survive (and Outsmart) a Nitpicking Boss
If you’ve ever had a Paula in your life, you’re not alone. The comments section of this saga reads like group therapy for the over-managed and under-appreciated. The consensus? Sometimes, the best way to deal with relentless nitpicking is to hold up a mirror—and let the boss see just how unreasonable they really are.
So next time your supervisor lectures you about the “proper” way to write a report, just remember: somewhere out there, someone used their boss’s own words as a weapon—and won.
Have you ever out-pettied a petty boss? Or survived a workplace mushroom farm? Share your stories in the comments below!
Original Reddit Post: Boss always found an error with my monthly reports and cover letters, so I used her old ones and watched her rip them apart.