It’s no secret that getting along with everyone is pretty much impossible. Whether it’s your classmates, family, friends of friends, random passersby, or, as in this case, coworkers – chances are, there’ll be some interesting characters you come across on your way. 

That said, knowing how to handle obnoxious people is an essential element that’s vital both in your professional and personal life – however, dealing with folks like that might be a tad simpler when you’re not at your job, trying to perform your duties. 

So, what should one do if they encounter a self-proclaimed wit at their workplace? 

We all know how critical setting boundaries is, so perhaps try and implement a few distancing rules you’ll keep up with around said coworker. Moreover, don’t react to their antics; as tempting as it might be, you’re risking giving them the attention they might be seeking. You could also try addressing the issue, be it with a superior or with the person directly.

But here’s the thing – it doesn’t work for everyone, and sometimes, all you need is some petty revenge. 

As Joshua Ferris, an American author, once said: “It is really irritating to work with irritating people”

“A coworker would kick my lunch ‘seat’ across the room every day at lunch and I got him back” – this web user turned to one of Reddit’s most spiteful communities to tell its members a story about the time he got even with his jokester of a colleague. The post managed to garner over 13K upvotes as well as 249 comments appreciating the man’s genius approach.

Man exacts the ultimate retaliation against a coworker who kept kicking the bucket he used as a seat during lunch break

Bored Panda was able to reach out to the creator of the post and pose him a couple of questions. “I’m a metal fabricator. At the time of the story I was working for a company that did large structural projects like bridges, dams, oil rigs – you name it, we could build it. I believe at this particular incident we were building the drill platform for a mobile oil rig,” said u/Ok_Present_6508 when we invited him to introduce himself.

During lunch, the author and a few of his teammates would often eat in their foreman’s hut

We then pondered what inspired the man to post his story on the platform, to which he said: “I had recently subscribed to r/maliciouscompliance and started getting r/pettyrevenge stories in my feed. I was enjoying the stories I was reading and decided to post my own.”

Considering the fact that the post’s author had to endure his coworker’s antics for quite some time, we decided to ask him about the overall atmosphere at his workplace: “Well it’s complicated. When I first started working there it was pretty great. I had come in as a welder and by the time I left, I had gained a lot of experience that has carried me far in my career. I owe them that gratitude.”

Eventually, the joke wore thin, so the creator of the post decided to get back at the prankster

“I also worked on so many cool projects that I am proud to say that I had a hand in building. A lot of the people there though were pretty rough around the edges, to say the least, and by the time I decided to move on, it had started becoming a fairly hostile work environment. I started there in 2007 and quit in 2015; the story takes place around 2008-09. Prior to 2013, pranks and horseplay ran rampant and were hardly ever punished. In 2013 an extremely serious accident occurred (not due to horseplay) that caused the company to start taking safety a lot more seriously, which meant cracking down on the shenanigans,” Ok_Present_6508 continued.

He cut the bottom of the bucket off, filled it with nuts and bolts, and then put the lid back on

Last but not least, we asked the netizen to tell us more about the culprit of the story: “He was kind of a hit-or-miss guy. Sometimes he was great to work with, other times he could be insufferable. He was definitely the kind of guy I would not carry on a friendship with outside of work. As far as [what] his reaction to it was, the moment he kicked the bucket he was [mad]. He got even angrier when he picked it up and the nuts and bolts came crashing out and was even more [mad] when the foreman made him clean up the mess. But, of course, he had to one-up me and came up with a ‘creative’ prank to get me back, which I don’t recall what it was. But that started somewhat of a prank rivalry between us.”

Fellow online community members shared their thoughts and opinions on the story

Most commenters emphasized how “insufferable” the coworker sounded

While others commended the author for giving his revenge so much thought

Handling such “humor” is never enjoyable, much less when you’re at work, trying to unwind and have some quiet time while on break. Fortunately for the author though, he seemed to have done it up to everyone’s par. Innocently enough, but very well executed. Most Redditors wanted to know more about the outcome, and the netizen said that the guy did hurt his toe, and he was also ordered to clean up the mess by the superior. Apparently, he was a pretty unlikeable person and even played a major part in the author’s decision to finally depart from the company.