Secret Story

LIzzie, 34, got an idea after scrubbing the urinal

The packing company I worked in only had 15 employees and we’d all been there years. It meant we were more like family.

We especially bonded when the business took a bit of a downturn and was sold.

‘I’m the new owner,’ a red-faced man with a round belly boomed one day. ‘And my son Matt will be your supervisor.’

‘Matt hasn’t even got experience,’ I hissed to my best friend, Leah.

We soon discovered that wasn’t the worst of it.

He was mean spirited, often belittling team members in front of everyone. And his dad was a real skinflint.

One morning, Leah and I were finishing up our orders and there were a few foam beads on our desk and floor around our feet.

It was a warehouse, after all.

‘What a total pigsty! You and you!’ Matt said, jabbing his finger at us. ‘What the hell are you doing? Are you a bit stupid? Hellooo?!’

Too embarrassed to say anything, I quickly tidied up the beads, as Matt’s eyes bore down on me.

Another time, he tapped the side of his head like he couldn’t believe how dumb we were.

Then, he’d saunter off to the staff room where he would make endless cups of coffee in his special mug and sneer at us through the window.

What could we do though? I wondered.

Jobs were hard to find. Plus, I loved my colleagues.

A few weeks after they’d taken over, a new rule was introduced.

Now, each employee had to clean the staff room, including the toilets, urinals and basins, to save money for the company.

We all had to Matt, of course.

‘He spends most of the time in the staff room,’ I moaned to Leah.

One day, Matt sidled up and barked at me to clean the bathrooms.

‘It was my turn last week, Matt,’ I stammered.

‘It was my turn last week, Maaaatt,’ he mimicked me. ‘Well, it’s your turn again. Lucky you!’

And he walked off out to the car park.

Furiously scrubbing the urinals, I imagined it was his face I was scrubbing with the rough sponge.

By the time I’d finished, the basins and tapware shone and the toilets were spotless.

Next, I went into the staff room. Picking up Matt’s special mug, I scoffed.

#1 Boss, it said on the side. Suddenly, I got an idea. Using the very same sponge I’d just cleaned the urinals with, I gave the mug an extra good scrub!

Afterwards, I set it back on the shelf to air dry, grinning.

Monday morning came around and it took everything I had not to laugh my head off as Matt sauntered up to my desk sipping from his special mug.

‘You did a decent job,’ he said.

Oh, I did that – a decent job of getting my own back!

Now each employee had to clean the staff room and toilets