When Coworkers Won't Talk, Become the Office Trickster: A Petty Revenge Saga From the Comic Shop Trenches
Picture this: you’re a fresh hire at a comic and collectibles shop, surrounded by anime figurines, rare comics, and a boss whose management style could best be described as “chaotic neutral.” Your coworkers? One’s a wannabe rockstar who naps under tables, the other’s a theater kid with a flair for the dramatic (and a penchant for writing typo-riddled serial killer fiction). Oh, and they hate each other’s guts.
This is the true story of a Redditor (u/slimebeastly) who found themselves unwillingly cast as the middleman in one of the pettiest workplace Cold Wars ever to bless r/PettyRevenge. What started as an awkward, unwanted role as human post-it note quickly evolved into a masterclass in low-stakes mischief, escalating from mundane message-passing to some of the most gloriously petty pranks you’ll ever read.
The Perfect Storm: Comics, Chaos, and Catastrophe
It all began in a specialty shop so mismanaged that employees were hired straight out of the regular customer pool—because, as the boss apparently believed, “Firing an employee means also losing a regular customer!” The new era was ushered in with a dinner, some forced optimism, and three unsuspecting hires.
The cast:
- Employee #1: Aspiring musician, professional napper, and a register operator so lax he’d hand out comics for free if he couldn’t be bothered to press the right buttons.
- Employee #2: College student, goth-inspired Crow impersonator, and self-proclaimed literary genius (with a self-published novel only a mother could love).
Disaster struck almost immediately: #1 slept with #2’s girlfriend, #2 responded by trashing her stuff and setting her cat loose. From then on, these two wouldn’t so much as grunt in each other’s direction. Enter our Reddit hero, blissfully unaware—until the boss warned them that “trouble” was brewing.
Middleman Mayhem: When You’re the Only One Talking
So began the weeks of workplace limbo, with the original poster trapped in the world’s lamest love triangle—except instead of romance, it was all passive-aggressive silence and grumpy message-passing.
At first, our protagonist tried to do the right thing. As they later admitted in the comments, “I learned that the right option was for me to just refuse to pass messages, tell the boss I wasn't going to be a go-between, and then not forward anything even if asked.” But in the moment, new-job nerves took over—and so the charade continued.
But when the bickering never stopped, annoyance birthed creativity. The middleman began inventing messages, starting small (“He wants to know if you’re done with that pen…” while the pen was still in someone’s hand), then escalating into full-blown absurdity:
- “There’s a customer with a question by the board games…” (There was no customer.)
- “Someone spilled a blueberry Icee and he’s too busy to clean it up.” (No Icee. No spill.)
- “He wants you to put this sign up.”
“He wants you to move this sign.”
“Someone moved the sign.”
“Someone moved the sign back.”
(This went on. And on.)
As u/HPFanFicFanatic mused in the comments: “I mean... not the best outcome at the end of it all... but was it worth it? Cause I reckon it was by the sounds of it.” For the OP, the answer was a resounding yes—if only for the life lesson learned (and the entertainment value).
The Petty Coup de Grâce: Turning Enemies Into (Temporary) Friends
Eventually, the prankster had to end the madness—if only because the real message-passing was getting old. So, in a move worthy of sitcom-level plotting, they told each guy the other wanted to apologize. Both men, expecting to bask in the other’s groveling, sat down together—and finally talked.
Naturally, they compared notes, realized they’d been played, and immediately made up… over their shared desire to shun the middleman. “Oh, no... not leaving me alone all day... nooo...” the OP quipped—a twist that left commenters in stitches. As u/Less_Author9432 put it, “🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣….”
And, because karma loves a chaotic workplace, all three were fired within months. Turns out, the boss didn’t really understand what anyone was supposed to be doing—especially when it came to eBay listings, newsletters, and all the digital busywork he’d assigned. OP later explained, “He had no idea how much time this took and I didn't realize I should sit my boss down and explain reality to him…”
The kicker? After firing the OP, the boss tried to hire them back as a remote freelancer. One box of collectibles and a ghosted commission later, that relationship was “game over.”
Lessons (and Laughs) From the Comic Shop Trenches
So, what can we learn from this Geek Shop Fiasco? As one commenter, u/NewNameNeededAgain, dryly noted: “You thought that deep down they were grown-ups and you were wrong.” And as u/DevCatOTA quoted (from WarGames), “The only winning move is not to play.”
Still, there’s something beautifully cathartic in this tale of petty revenge. It’s a reminder that sometimes chaos is the best teacher, and that workplace drama—especially when filtered through a comic shop’s lens—can be hilarious, stressful, and oddly unifying.
Even the Reddit crowd got in on the fun, likening the episode to sitcoms like The Young Ones or IT Crowd. And while the fate of the cat remains uncertain (“I prefer to believe so,” OP hoped in an update), the legacy of this middleman mischief lives on as a warning to bosses everywhere: Hire wisely, manage smarter, and never underestimate the creative powers of a bored employee.
Have you ever found yourself caught between feuding coworkers, or pulled your own petty workplace pranks? Share your stories below—and let’s make the comment section as entertaining as this comic shop saga!
Original Reddit Post: Two coworkers refused to talk to each other. They stuck me in the middle. I am goofy.