As a company leader, you're always on the lookout for talent--but not this kind of talent. From email attacks to PhotoShop mischief, check out these legendary examples of employee revenge. Then alert your HR team.
After a long day's work, there's nothing like a bubble bath ... in your restaurant's greasy sink? That’s what one Ohio Burger King employee did--in full view of his managers--in April of last year. One of his co-workers posted the bath-time video to MySpace; soon the county health department came knocking. Burger King reportedly fired all parties involved, and cleaned the tub thoroughly.
In late December, a security camera posted outside a California home caught a careless Fedex employee tossing a package over a fence--completely destroying the flat-screen TV inside the box. When the recipient of the ill-fated package posted the video on YouTube, it went viral. That left Fedex to pick up the pieces of a PR mess in the middle of the holiday shipping rush. The company apologized and said they would punish the man accordingly. "This won’t be his best day," the spokeswoman said.
In 2006, IKEA found itself in a bit of a pickle over a certain greyhound featured in its annual catalog (which goes to 175 million people). At issue: The dog's leg. Or what some customers and bloggers suspected to be ... an image of a human penis. Did some disgruntled employee have a little fun with PhotoShop? IKEA reps were emphatic that the dog's leg just had an "unfortunate resemblance" to a penis. So which is it? You be the judge: The NSFW version is here.
When an unassuming customer asked for bacon with his meal at a halal (or Islam-compliant) KFC in Australia, he got an profanity-laden earful from an employee. The restaurant does not serve bacon, in accordance with Islamic law. But when the worker began screaming at the bacon-seeker, the customer started filming. "I'm gonna f****ing break your head, bro," the employee yelled, as his co-workers held him back. The video went viral online, and KFC reportedly suspended the man and also condemned his actions.
When Adeel Ayub worked for British supermarket Asda between 2005 and 2008, he filmed himself committing several acts of revenge throughout the store. He reportedly licked display chickens, urinated in a trash can, broke eggs in the break room, slashed colleagues' coats and company furniture, and played cricket with inventory. Unfortunately, the store didn't find out about the behavior until 2010--two years later. Nevertheless, the store says it condemns his actions, and even posted a video featuring (better) employees' reactions to his abuse.
Steven Slater became working-class hero in late 2010 when he had a meltdown during an argument with a passenger on board a JetBlue flight parked at JFK airport. Though there are several versions of the story out there, it essentially goes like this: Slater grabbed a beer from the galley, told the passengers to f*** off via the intercom, popped the emergency slide, glided down to the tarmac, and went home. Not only was he fired, but he faced a litany of criminal charges; he eventually agreed to a plea bargain.
In 2003, then 16-year-old David Lennon was reportedly canned from his part-time job at Domestic & General Group, a British insurance company. So, in response, the teen went home and sent his boss 5 MILLION emails, all quoting lines from the horror movie "The Ring." The email attack caused the company’s servers to crash and cost thousands of dollars in damages. Three years later, Lennon was successfully prosecuted for violating the U.K.'s Computer Misuse Act. He got a two-month curfew.
