For the past seven years, TikToker Maisie Culver (@maisieculver) worked her way up as an assistant in Hollywood, and she’s talking about the best petty revenge she got on a terrible boss.
“I didn’t have any relatives out here; I had no connections, which I feel like I got to experience a very authentic picture of what people out here are really like,” said Maisie.
“I think the way people treat you when there’s nothing that they can get from you or want from you is very telling.”
For the most part, she has only worked with people who were absolutely wonderful, but there were a few bad seeds throughout the years.
There was one person she worked with who barely even knew her name, despite having to see her every day. He also had intense anger issues and would become even more explosive around women.
He was prone to frequent fits of yelling, unreasonable demands, and a workplace environment built on hostility and intimidation.
She recalls a time when he was berating her and screaming so much that an executive producer later approached her and pulled her aside. Shockingly, the executive expressed their disappointment about how he didn’t hit her, so he could finally get fired.
As he was yelling at Maisie, he told her that she needed to remember her life only mattered to serve him. It was dehumanizing, deeply inappropriate, and frankly untrue, especially in a setting where assistants are already overworked and undervalued.
She didn’t fight back in the moment. Like many assistants trying to survive a competitive industry, she kept her head down. But she still managed to get revenge on him.
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The one way he dealt with his anger issues was to do puzzles. They helped bring him peace and soothed his temper. The puzzles must have given him a sense of order and control.
Every day, Maisie would take a single piece from every puzzle he ever worked on so that he would always have a missing piece.
“Sometimes, I would take a piece of a puzzle, only to give it back when he was working on a different puzzle, and whenever he finished a puzzle, he would hang it on the wall,” said Maisie.
“And every single one of them was missing one piece.”
It was subtle, harmless, and deeply symbolic. It also made her feel much better. Some TikTok users shared their thoughts on her petty revenge plot in the comments section.
“You should have sent ransom notes demanding ridiculous actions to get them back,” suggested one user.
“I would mail the missing piece years later…no return address. If you can manage to sneak it back in his house, that would be awesome!!” exclaimed another.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
