As an intern, I once worked for a real jerk (even jerkier than I) who always took full credit for my work (copying, printing and collating folders for his presentations) during meetings. He loved to use every possible color on the whiteboard, making it look like a Jackson Pollock painting by meeting's end. Of course, he also "voluntold" me to clean the whiteboard when the meeting was over. This happened many times.
One day, he not only took credit for my work, but implied that I had not contributed to his project at all.
Just before my internship was scheduled to end, he had another important meeting, and volunteered me to fetch donuts and coffee for the attendees. While I was out, I stopped at a business supply store and purchased a box of permanent markers in six different colors. Then I went into the meeting room before everyone else arrived, arranged the donuts and coffee on a side table next to the whiteboard, and set the box of permanent markers nearby. Then I picked up all the whiteboard markers and set them on a shelf across the room.
Just before the meeting started, I handed the receipt for the donuts to the jerk, who told me that I would not be reimbursed, an that I should return to my cubicle and "look busy". I pinned the marker receipt to his corkboard inside his office.
I was told that the meeting went well, and the jerk again "voluntold" me to clean the whiteboard afterwards. All I could do was smear the ink around. The jerk wanted to know why I was incompetent when his boss noticed the permanent markers he had been using. Then the jerk had to explain his own incompetence . . . in his office . . . in front of his corkboard . . . with the receipt in plain view.
The new whiteboard -- which the jerk had to purchase, deliver, and install himself -- cost much more than what the donuts and coffee cost. Not a bank-breaking amount, but still significant. His embarrassment was evident, however, and he sought every means to place the blame on someone else. No one could be found, and the people at the business supply store did not remember me.
I walked away from that internship with a glowing recommendation from the jerk's boss, a half-dozen donuts, and the knowledge that the jerk had been reprimanded and warned to treat future interns much better.
![Twisted Evil :twisted:](./images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif)
Last edited by Fnord on 02 Aug 2022, 2:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.