A PhD forced two IT workers out of their office the same day he was hired, but before they left, they made sure he’d regret it all summer

An IT employee at a small marketing company said in a Reddit post that a newly hired executive with a PhD demanded their shared office within his first week on the job. The employee, who posted under the username Jazzlike-Novel-1134 in the subreddit r/pettyrevenge, said the incident took place years ago at a marketing firm in North Carolina.

According to the Reddit post, the new hire held a doctorate in marketing and reportedly criticized the existing staff’s work despite having no prior experience in the field. The poster said management appeared receptive to him because he claimed his ideas about market research would generate more revenue for the company.

The poster said the executive wanted the office being used by two IT staff members, which had a large southern-facing window. Management allegedly agreed to relocate the two IT workers to a smaller office, and the poster said they were told to move out the same day the decision was made.

Employee says vents were sealed before the office change took effect

The poster said that while packing up their belongings, they climbed onto a chair and pushed an air conditioning vent cover up into the ceiling, then replaced it with a spare ceiling tile to conceal the opening. They said they did the same thing to the air return vent, which they said effectively sealed off the office’s airflow.

The poster said the two IT employees moved into the smaller office as instructed, and the new executive moved into the larger office the same day. According to the post, the executive kept his office door closed from his first day, which the poster said allowed them to avoid detection. Similar instances of people avoiding detection inside office spaces have occurred, like a woman who found an entire office empty.

The original poster claimed the executive spent much of his time playing Solitaire on his computer, though they said that incident would be addressed in a separate story. Several commenters asked the poster to share that account as well, with one writing, “Do we get the ‘other revenge story’ about the solitair gaming also? We want to hear it!”

The poster said the office grew increasingly warm as the weather changed, noting that May in North Carolina already brings warm temperatures. By June, the poster said the executive appeared visibly sweating during afternoon meetings. According to the post, the executive never contacted maintenance staff to report the temperature issue. 

Similar workplace grievances about company policies have recently been shared by other employees, like a Costco worker questioning why staff must pay for their own food. The post did not specify how long the situation continued or whether the executive ever discovered the vents had been sealed.

The story drew a range of reactions in the comment section, with some users questioning how the situation was allowed to happen. One commenter wrote, “So often you hear about stories like this, where the company hires someone new and they start making changes…..and it all goes to shit. When are they going to start teaching these people to find out what’s going on before they start making consequential changes?” Another user responded, “But that would not make for an entertaining story…”

Other commenters shared their own experiences involving coworkers with advanced degrees. One user wrote, “Having worked at a college, I’ve learned that you don’t need intelligence to get a doctorate. All you need are time and money.” Another commenter who said they worked in higher education added, “People with advanced degrees usually had advanced detailed knowledge of a very small specialty. The cleaning crew usually had more common sense.”

A separate commenter referenced a concept sometimes called “Nobel Disease,” writing, “There’s a thing called Nobel Disease where some Nobel laureates end up embracing fringe or outright obviously bad science and pushing it like it’s fact because ‘i have a nobel prize!'”  Another commenter recalled a different coworker, writing, “There was a secretary who played Solitaire all the time in her cube… But it was reflected in her eyeglasses!”

Not all commenters focused on the workplace dynamic. One user wrote simply, “Well done,” while another called the account “the Platonic ideal of petty revenge,” adding, “10/10 no notes.”