They say revenge is a dish best served cold but sometimes it’s served with nothing more than a period. One employee shared a story that proves you don’t need elaborate plots or grand gestures to drive a difficult boss absolutely mad. All it took was the quiet removal of a single exclamation mark.
After losing their mother, this worker’s boss crossed a line with his heartless reaction. Quitting wasn’t an option, but a slow, calculated form of petty revenge? That was very much on the table. And honestly, it might be the most satisfying email exchange you’ll ever read about.
A woman stopped using exclamation points in emails to her insensitive boss after he dismissed her grief over her mother’s death, driving him to frazzled replies
Sometimes, the quietest changes say the most. In this case, the OP stopped using exclamation marks in emails to a boss who had already shown insensitivity during a deeply personal loss. On the surface, it seems like a small adjustment in punctuation, but in workplace dynamics, these subtleties often carry weight.
What’s happening here is less about grammar and more about control. OP has found a non-confrontational way to reclaim a sense of power in a situation where their authority is otherwise limited.
Social psychologist Dr. Adam Galinsky notes that when people feel powerless, they often resort to “covert influence strategies”, subtle actions that send a message without escalating conflict. By removing exclamation points, OP is signaling distance, neutrality, and perhaps quiet resistance.
It’s interesting to note how strongly the boss has reacted. Research shows that people often read punctuation and tone in emails as emotional cues, filling in gaps with their own assumptions.
If the boss is now “frantically” adding exclamation marks, it suggests he feels the loss of warmth in OP’s messages and is trying to compensate. That reaction highlights how much weight small social signals can carry in hierarchical relationships.
Of course, there’s a larger workplace issue at play: bereavement and managerial empathy. A 2023 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that nearly 1 in 4 U.S. workers felt unsupported by their employers after a loved one’s death.
When managers fail to provide compassion, employees often disengage or seek quiet forms of resistance. OP’s punctuation choice is, in some sense, a way of saying: you don’t deserve my emotional labor.
So, what should OP do? In the short term, this low-level resistance is harmless and may even provide some personal satisfaction. Long-term, however, it’s important to channel energy into the job search already underway. Silent signals can ease tension for now, but they don’t resolve the underlying problem of working in an unsupportive environment.
Sometimes the most professional revenge isn’t omitting an exclamation mark, it’s eventually signing a resignation letter. Until then, maintaining boundaries, sticking to factual communication, and prioritizing self-care is a wise strategy.
Check out how the community responded:
These commenters loved its unpunishable brilliance
Some suggested colder email replies
This user shared dropping “Boss” for an ex-supervisor
Some also shared their similar experiences
In the grand scheme of workplace rebellion, withholding exclamation marks might seem small. But for OP, it became a daily reminder that she no longer owed her boss any emotional energy after his cruel response to her loss.
The beauty of petty revenge lies in its subtlety, and this one hit perfectly, leaving her boss rattled without giving him anything concrete to complain about.
Would you have gone the same route or escalated with even frostier one-word replies?
