Woman gets revenge on ‘toxic’ boss who kept stealing her work by putting secret watermarks on presentations – only to end up being forced out of her job when her scheme was uncovered
- Cristina Sevcenco, 25, from Romania, shared her trick for preventing her work from being stolen in a viral TikTok video
- She explained that after catching her manager presenting her market research as her own, she started ‘hiding’ her signature on her work
- Any time someone downloaded one of her PowerPoint presentations, her watermark was added to it
- Sevcenco’s viral video has been viewed more than 3.7 million times, and many commenters could relate to having their hard work being stolen by their bosses
- However, she later shared that she was reprimanded for her actions and was eventually replaced after being given less than a month to find a new job
A woman whose boss repeatedly passed her work off as her own detailed how she started watermarking her presentations — only to be replaced and given less than a month to find a new job.
Cristina Sevcenco, 25, from Romania, shared her trick for preventing her work from being stolen in a viral TikTok video in late January, recalling how she caught her manager presenting her ideas to higher management without giving her credit.
‘I walked by an office and saw my work being presented in a room full of very powerful people,’ she told BuzzFeed of the market research she spent two weeks conducting at her first corporate job in 2019.
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Cristina Sevcenco, 25, from Romania, shared her trick for preventing her work from being stolen in a viral TikTok video
She explained that after catching her manager presenting her market research as her own, she started ‘hiding’ her signature on her work
‘However, my name was not once mentioned,’ she said, adding: ‘It broke my heart.’
Sevcenco, who refrained from sharing the name of her former company, had been told that she would rarely be the one to present her work, but she was surprised that her boss had removed her name from the research and didn’t give her any credit.
When she tried to talk to her manager about how she wanted to be recognized for her hard work, her concerns were brushed off.
That was when she started ‘hiding’ her signature, so any time someone downloaded one of her PowerPoint presentations, her watermark was added to it.
Sevcenco’s viral video has been viewed more than 3.7 million times, and many commenters could relate to having their hard work being stolen by their bosses.
‘I did this before. I got fired for watermarking “their” work. Until I showed [the] creation date. Then I took my idea with me. Still a win,’ one person wrote.
‘My boss used to forward me chainmails asking me how to respond. I started replying all rather than just answering her,’ another added.
‘My manager did this too, so every time I’d send the final product I would CC every stakeholder she reports to in the email,’ someone else shared.
Others asked for a Sevcenco watermarking tutorial. In a follow-up video, she demonstrated how to add a watermark to a PowerPoint presentation, admitting she was surprised that this wasn’t ‘common knowledge.’
‘You should research how to watermark your work because in corporations, especially the ones I’ve worked in, it’s very toxic and it’s very common for people to actually steal your work,’ she said.
Many commenters asked Sevcenco for a watermarking tutorial, so they could try out the trick for themselves
In a follow-up video, she demonstrated how to add a watermark to a PowerPoint presentation, admitting she was surprised that this wasn’t ‘common knowledge’
However, Sevcenco told BuzzFeed that she was reprimanded for her actions and was eventually replaced after being given less than a month to find a new job
While Sevcenco is an advocate for employees receiving credit for their work, there were consequences to her actions.
She told BuzzFeed that she ultimately had to remove the watermark and resend the project after being warned to never do that again.
Her boss also had her manager speak to her about ‘how things work around here,’ and her career started to suffer.
‘[My manager] didn’t give me as many projects anymore, [and] she was talking to everyone about how to perform better, [except] me,’ she recalled. ‘Later on, I found out they replaced me and I had 21 days to find another job.’
Sevcenco went on to work at another company, and she is now a self-employed freelance consultant. She explained she doesn’t have an ill-will toward her former manager because her boss was the same way.
‘I truly believe [my manager] wasn’t a bad person, but she was made that way by her manager,’ she said.
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