-
Smiling man leaning over a butcher counter and reaching into a refrigerated display.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
-
It took 5 years but I got sweet revenge on my ex boss.
-
A bit of back story for context, I M(47) used to be a butcher, I did the job for 25 years and my career started in 1994 near the end of my last School summer holidays (UK). My Grandma lived across the road from a traditional family butchers that had a great reputation, they made their own pies and people would come from miles away just to buy them, anyway my Grandma had been in and noticed they were looking for a Saturday lad and basically told them it was going to be me, so on the last day of August in 1994 at the tender age of 15, I walked though the door of Family butchers and began my journey into the butchering world.
-
Now this little shop is ex bosses (EB from now on) shop, but at the time EB’s dad still owned it and he was just the manager. Now EB’s dad (EBD) was a good business man and he had standards that we all had to keep to religiously, we always had to look smart and presentable, clean shaven,shirt and tie and a clean white coat on when serving in the shop, the customers were always called sir or madam and if we knew them it was Mr or Mrs ‘surname’, never their first name even if we were told to use it by the customer.
-
Smiling man reaches into a refrigerated meat display behind a glass butcher counter.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
-
As for the meat, that had to be of the best standard it could possibly be, it had to be perfectly trimmed, on the joints of meat the string had to be evenly spaced, the diced beef could not have one bit of fat on it or he would make you go through the whole lot and check it, yes EBD was firm but he was also very fair, he looked after us, fed us for free, when we went to the pub on a Saturday after work he wouldn’t let you go until you were totally bladdered and we hadn’t put our hands in our pockets once, yes he was a great guy to work for and during that last school year I made this decision that I wanted to be a butcher.
-
Now EB and his dad were like chalk and cheese, every time EBD told him to do something a certain way EB would just do his own thing and more often than not f*c# thing up and this would cause some amazing arguments between the two of them, I remember one incident where a full smoked back of bacon was launched down the shop by EBD because it was to fatty and EB had been told on numerous occasions not to accept smoked backs that were too fatty, the reason I’m telling you this is so you know the type a relationship they had and what type of person EB is, which brings things back to me.
-
Man in a leather apron and black hat standing behind a butcher shop counter.
Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
-
EBD had told me that when I left school there was a full time job for me and I was over the moon but, a few months later when was just a month from leaving EB told that they had change their mind and the position was to go to the other Saturday lad, I was gutted, but I moved on, got a modern apprenticeship position in butchery that involved going to college 1 day a week and I eventually became a fully qualified butcher.
-
Over the next 18 years I worked at different places learning more and more as I went on and I eventually became a manager at a catering butchers and things were going well for me and then just as I was about to turn 30 a massive pile of $1it hit a huge fan and my marriage broke up, my ex walked out on our four kids and I had to give up work and be a full time Dad.
-
Not all was bad I met my now wife and she took on my kids as if they were her own but that’s a different story. After being a full time dad for just over two years I called into Family butchers to get myself a lamb pie and I was talking to the lads as you do when one of the said “You haven’t got time to help us out have you? The young lad in the back is keen but he still learning and we’re struggling to get things done”
-
I looked at him and said “I haven’t got time, I’ve gotta go and pick the kids up from school” he laughed at me and went “ no I don’t mean now, I meant come in for a few hours a day, I’m sure EB will be up for it” and just like that I was working at Family Butchers again for a few hours a day in between school drop off and pick up.
-
As time went on the young lad in the back walked out and I ended up with his job which was running the back of the shop, doing all the butchering and prep work as well as a few little catering orders the shop had, during this time me and EB were getting on great, EBD had retired and had passed the shop on to EB. One day EB asked me to have a meeting with him in his office, there he said he wanted to make a push on the catering side, and with my experience work at a catering butchers would I be able to take this on as well as the work I was already doing, I knew that I could but I wasn’t going to do it for free. I asked how much he was taking a week on the catering side and told me it was around £2,000.
-
I negotiated with that I’d want a small wage rise to start with as I would be taking over the running of that side and when I double what he was taking a week I’d then get another larger rise and he agreed, anyway when we got £5,500 a week I told I needed another butcher, which we got and the pair of us took it the catering side to an average taking of £8,000 a week.
-
This is where things start to change and EB shows his true colours. The meat we used for the catering side was not to the standard of the meat that went through shop, that’s not to say it was bad quality but all the meat in the shop was the very best British meat and was not at all cheap, catering customers will not pay those price so we bought in imported meat at a cheaper price, EB then has this idea to use the imported meat to do cheap meat packs to sell through the shop and for a while I was a good thing but then he wanted to replace the British meat with the imported stuff but sell it as British, and I told him it was a massive mistake and the customers will notice, he dismissed what I said and because I didn’t agree with him he stared to act funny towards me. While all this was going on me and my now wife were organising our wedding and we were expecting our first child together. The wedding was obviously organised first and the date was set and ready to go and the honeymoon was booked, then we found out about the pregnancy and the due date was just under a month before the big day, this becomes relevant later.
-
Meanwhile back at work I had taken a step back from the cheap meat packs to concentrate on the catering orders as I had noticed they were suffering because of the packs. This apparently was the totally wrong thing to do, EB spoke to like I was a school boy when telling me so and when I reminded him he was speaking to a 35 year old man who had forgotten more about butchering than he’d ever know, he did seem to appreciate it to much. From then on every chance EB had to nitpick and have a go at me he took it, I would go home at wonder how I’d got through the day without sticking my boning knife between his shoulder blades he wound me up that much.
-
Then my Daughter was born and when we took her in to show everyone I went to EB to say we need to sort out my paternity leave, he look at me and went do you really think you getting that. I looked at him and said what do you mean? He then said you want to have 2 weeks off for paternity then you’re back in for a week, then you’re getting married on a Saturday our bustiest day of the week and then you f*&^ off for another 2 weeks on your honeymoon. I replied yeah but I’m not asking for anything I’m not entitled too, he looked at me like a piece of $#it and said entity! You cheeky c, you’re not getting any paternity because I didn’t send the forms off for your paternity pay so you’re not getting a penny, I expect you in work tomorrow. With that I grabbed my daughter’s car seat and stormed out of the shop.
-
I went I. The next day and when he turned up I had done the orders and was about to go and deliver them when he came up to and said, don’t think that you’re going out with them, you’re staying here and working. He got in the van and left. While he was out I got a phone call from my mate and best man who lived across the street from me and he also happened to work at the catering butchers I had worked at. He said I hear EB is being completeley wrong with you, I couldn’t help it a broke down crying and told him everything, when I finished he said don’t worry it sorted, he then shouts to his boss OP is starting on Monday and I heard in the background, tell not to late and a laugh. I couldn’t believe it’s soon as I put the phone down I grabbed my knives, packed my stuff and said to the guys, Tell EB he’s a total Cv^t and to stick his job and I left.
-
Now for the revenge. 5 years later I had left butchering and was working I a ready meal factory. I was leaving work one day and had got my phone out my locker to see a load of miss calls from a number I didn’t know and a text from another mate who still worked at the catering butchers, it said Boss man from the package supplier had been in and said he was looking for delivery driver so I’ve given him you number.
-
I rang the number on my phone and it was boss man (BM) who I knew as I used place orders with him when I butchered. He said I’ve got a drivers job going do you fancy it, I said yes and just over a week later I started. On my second day I was talking to one of the lads and he says, I hear you was a butcher, where did you work? So I told him, catering butchers and family butcher. He looks at me a says, family butcher! He owes us thousands and we can never get a hold of him, every time we ring the shop he’s never there.
-
The Predator, this is a gentleman who is over 6ft 6 has shoulder length dreadlocks and is built like a lousy brick house and is speciality is debt recovery. This gentleman goes to family butchers, he knows what EB looks like, walks into the shop and sees EB and asks for him by name, EB says I’m sorry he’s not here so Mr Predator leaves, while he’s outside he rings EB’s phone who answers, Mr Predator says is that EB? EB say it is, Mr Predator then says down the phone, Why did you just tell me you weren’t here when you clearly are? As he’s walking back in the shop, needless to say EB’s jaw drops. Mr predator then says you this much to packaging place, you are going to pay it! He then pulls out his phone opens the pictures and say, this is your house, that’s your wife and that’s your wife taking the kids to school, you’re going to pay aren’t you? EB looks at hi and just nods, Mr predator says good man, if you do you won’t see me again.
-
The icing on the cake. A week later I’m in the office at work and I hear BM say there’s a delivery here for Family butchers who’s gonna take it? I look at him and say, I will, he looks back at me smiles and says, go on lad have fun. When I get there I walk in with the stuff and EB sees me and is like how are you, what you doing here? Then he’s sees my uniform looks at the invoice in my hand and at that point I heard a rather large penny drop, I then say to him, I’ve got this delivery for you, oh and it’s cash on delivery until your debt is cleared. When I left that shop I had the biggest grin on my face and yes, revenge is definitely a dish best served cold.
-
Revenge stories fall apart because the person getting revenge does something dramatic and stupid and ends up making things worse for themselves. This one works because the guy did absolutely nothing except exist near the right people at the right time, five years later, with a phone full of contact numbers.
The original sin here is a boss who thought playing an employee out of paternity leave was a power move rather than a countdown timer. Withholding the forms, looking someone in the eye while holding their newborn daughter, and telling them to come in tomorrow anyway is not a management decision. It is a character reveal. The kind that tends to have a second act.
What makes this story genuinely satisfying is the architecture of it. No scheming, no plotting, no dramatic confrontation. Just a guy who moved on, built a life, changed careers, and one day found himself sitting on a goldmine of contact information that a very motivated debt collector happened to need. The revenge did not require effort. It required patience and a reasonable memory for phone numbers.
The debt angle is the cherry on top. Turns out a man who is comfortable stealing from employees is also comfortable stealing from suppliers, which is the kind of moral consistency that at least deserves credit for being thorough. By the time the Predator walked into that shop, the universe had essentially been doing the setup work for years.
And then the delivery. Showing up in uniform, invoice in hand, cash on delivery until further notice, watching the penny drop in real time. No speech, no confrontation, no boning knife between any shoulder blades. Just a man doing his job with the most reasonable smile anyone has ever worn.
The best revenge is always the one where you barely had to try. It means the other person did most of the work themselves.
Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.