Woman reveals wild act after quitting toxic job: ‘It felt like a victory’

When Airlie Rose finally left her toxic job, she did it in style — taking her office chair with her as she left the building for the last time.

The 36-year-old had been in her job for six and a half years and was excited to find something new.

“I was very emotional when I handed in my resignation,” she told news.com.au, explaining that it had not been a healthy place to work for a while.

But like many workers, she didn’t realize how “bad” she was until she was finally released, leaving her to wonder why she “put herself through” for so long.

On her last day, Rose didn’t want to leave the job she had worked so hard for for years empty-handed.

“I was like I’ve been sitting here and taking all this bulls**t for years and the only thing they’ve ever given me is a comfortable chair,” she said.

“I was like, I’m going to do it, and I got away with it.”

Rose said that despite the fact that she was leaving with a very large chair, no one said anything to her as she left the building.

“I don’t think anyone saw me do it. I just wheeled it out at the end of the day and put it in my car,” she said.

She admitted her partner thought her chair-sliding antics were “funny” but didn’t think it was a big deal at the time.

“It felt like a victory. Although empty,” she said.

“It felt like I was giving something back and I didn’t feel like I got anything out of that place other than a payment.”

Unfortunately, her victory was short-lived.

“They emailed me a week later and asked me to return the chair. I took it back the other week and left it in the staff car park, you’re welcome,’ she said.

When Rose shared her story online, other workers were keen to reveal things they had taken from their old workplaces.

“I stole my chair too,” admitted one.

“The same thing! But me [still] I have my chair three years later, – admitted another.

“I ended up with dozens of zip ties that I’m using to seal food packages in my pantry,” said someone else.

“I worked a super toxic call center sales job. A bunch of us left one after the other and my boss just took two PS4s to the quiet zones because the company owed him,” wrote one.

“I still have my stapler and duct tape dispenser from my first ad agency job in 2005,” another shared.

Recruitment expert Roxanne Calder told news.com.au that taking things from a workplace is not unusual behaviour.

“People have been stealing milk and toilet paper and it’s not because they can’t afford it. It’s just because they can’t be bothered,” she said.

Calder said she’s seen people claim their phones or laptops broke after they quit a job to avoid getting them back, and she’s even seen customer lists stolen.

She said handbag-sized things often don’t matter much, such as picking up a paperclip from work or a pen.

In fact, Calder said she always assumes that when employees get away with things like this, it’s not “intentional.”

However, people who get big-ticket items can come back to bite them.

Calder said she has done reference checks and former bosses have told about former employees who took things from their office.

“When I’ve done reference checks, and the person’s integrity comes up, it’s turned out that people have stolen things,” she said.