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Got a Mean Boss? New Yorkers Share Tales of Office Revenge

Few movie scenes are as satisfying as when three secretaries take revenge on their obnoxious boss by kidnapping him in “9 to 5.”

On Thursday, the Broadway version opens, and the abused assistants — fed up with his sexist, lying and hypocritical habits — tie up the tyrant and take control at work.

Offstage that’s a felony, of course. And while most New Yorkers won’t go so far as to commit a real crime, city workers have come up with creative ways to get even in the office.

Lauren, a 24-year-old Manhattanite, remembers the time she took control. Like most of those sharing juicy details of on-the-job justice, she asked that her full name be withheld (and for good reason).

“My very first job when I was 14 was at the ice rink where I figure-skated,” she says. "I was the snack-bar girl. One of my bosses was an arrogant jerk — a former ice hockey player from ­Canada who thought the entire world centered around him.

It was just his attitude in general that made everyone dislike him.

“He was such an a—hole that over a period of two weeks I would sneak out into the parking lot at night and put uncooked hot dogs underneath his car door handles and tied tampons dipped in Hawaiian Punch to his car antennas,” Lauren adds. “Take that! He eventually started parking in the far parking lot, so I stopped.”

Ross Diamond, now a 24-year-old consultant, remembers working for a pushy boss at a Long Island Stop & Shop when he was 17. He struck back by quitting in a cruel way.

“My manager, who was my age, was bossing me around, making me polish the steel on the checkout aisles,” Diamond dishes. "I went to high school with her and she was on a power trip. She was the same age as everyone, or younger, and loved being in charge. “I had enough,” he says.

“I threw my ­cleaning items on the floor, went to the center service counter, and announced on the loudspeaker, ‘This weekly special is on sale for real cheap. The manager upfront would do anything to any guy for free.’ ” It didn’t end there. “I cursed her out till she cried and then never came back,” Diamond explains.

“My last day of work was two days later. When I picked up my paycheck it was written in bright red on the schedule “FIRED” over my name."

The most common cause of workplace revenge is trying to take credit for someone else’s work, according to Tom Tripp, co-author of “Getting Even: The Truth About Workplace Revenge — and How to Stop It.”

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