We often tend to make decisions for our own personal benefit. What we often do not realize is how crucial of an effect a decision of ours can have on someone else. Sometimes it can be too late before we realize our mistake.
These people have been through such experiences that have since plagued them with remorse. As shared on Reddit, these are their stories.
(Content has been edited for clarity).
It Was Worth It
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“I just resigned from my position at a nonprofit. An hour after I left, my supervisor was fired and escorted out. He spent a year doing all sorts of low-grade harassment stuff. He made wildly inappropriate ‘jokes’ about bending me over told to my male co-workers while I was standing right there, constantly accused me of having office affairs with all or any of my male coworkers, etc.
But that was not what made me tell on him.
I turned in my written two weeks notice to him, resigning for various polite reasons because I just did not want to work there anymore. We went to the executive director of the nonprofit, who is a female. My male boss said she was going to yell at me and kick me out that day, so he should go with me into her office. I didn’t give a crap, so I said, ‘Fine’ and he came with me. She was perfectly wonderful and nice as I resigned.
‘How long do we have you?’ she asked
I replied, ‘Two weeks.’
My boss had full control over if they gave me those two weeks. He could have said, ‘No, I want her gone in three days.’ They gave him that choice. Instead, he told them that two weeks would be great. He then told me later three days. He then told upper management that I was reneging my two-week offer and would only stay for three days. He started telling the whole office things like, ‘Yeah, super unprofessional. She only gave three days notice. Upper management is so peeved!’
Well, I’m NOT A MORON, so I caught on to what he was doing in less than a day. I made up my mind to BURY HIM and, lo and behold, life made it even easier for me. His supervisor wanted to throw me a party, but she said, ‘You only gave us three days! I can’t get anything ready!’
Say what? I gave you two weeks.
We set a private meeting for my last day. I got calm, controlled, and poised while I was well and deeply angry. I wrote out my talking points, made outlines, and carefully considered my word choices. I even made sure to dress extra professional my last day.
I told her all the frankly illegal things my boss was doing in the department and the stuff he was forging. I told her about how he lied to the staff constantly about where decisions came down from. I told her about how he kept everyone scared and isolated and told us that we would have been blackmailed for going above his head. I also told her the crappy thing he was doing going around lying about my two weeks notice. When I knew that was more than enough to get him fired, I got into the harassment stuff.
We then went to the executive director. I went through everything again. Male coworkers were called down to be questioned if the things I said are true. THEY ALL SAID THEY WERE TRUE and EVERYONE backed me up. I got two weeks of pay, another month of health benefits, and a lot of satisfaction. He was terminated on the spot.
Was it life ruining? Ehhh, he had just bought a big house and now has a three-year gap in his résumé and this nonprofit is super well connected in town. So, maybe, depending on how you view things.”
An Indecent Proposal
“There was a guy I used to work with who went on a holiday with his girlfriend. While he was away, we thought it would be hilarious to spread a rumor around the office saying that he had proposed and she said yes, thinking that when he got back he’d be like, What the heck? His inbox was flooded with congratulations messages from colleagues.
Little did we know, though, that he actually did propose on holiday. She said no. He came to work for two days that week, then we never saw him again.
I am a horrible person. He was not just a colleague but a good friend. I didn’t start the rumor maliciously. It was supposed to be the joke that he would have had a good laugh about and move on from if it had gone how it was intended.”
Incidental Battle Of The Bands
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“I was playing a show with my band, opening up for another band that was on the verge of breaking big. They were gracious enough to let us on their bill. They had a few notable people from record labels come out to the venue that night, who were seated right by the stage.
As I was setting my guitar rig up for our set, I accidentally knocked over a mic stand from the stage that fell onto the table that the record executives were sitting at, which led to their drinks being knocked over and spilled all over them.
I wanted to apologize and buy them new drinks, but right as that happened, the lead singer of our band began to play the first song. From the corner of my eye, I could see them getting up to leave. They never came back.”
Dead Tired
“I was young. My wife was home pregnant with our first child and I was out late one evening getting her a drink from Sonic. At the time, I was working a full-time job and going to school at night, so I was tired. It was after 10 p.m., and I was waiting on traffic in a median to pull into the fast food place. It was all clear, so I started to drive. All of a sudden there was a loud bang. I blacked out for a second, and couldn’t believe what happened after I came to.