I've just binge read this entire thread. You guys are awesome!
Way back when I was first married, I worked for a national organization in their statistical and information department. It consisted of 4 people - our psychopathic boss, an economist, me (statistical research) and a secretary. All of us were good at our jobs, didn't need supervision, but got it anyway from our micromanaging idiot. He made it his personal goal to have his secretary in tears at least once a day. We all complained to management about his behaviour, but he could be very charming when he wanted to be, and had totally convinced his bosses that he was irreplaceable. Finally, his secretary had had enough, found a great government job, and had her FU moment. She took all of his files, and dumped them all over the office floor, mixed them around a bunch, and walked out. We gave her a round of applause.
Fast forward to the new secretary, who was given the task of reorganizing all the dumped files. While she was doing this, she found evidence that the boss had been billing personal expenses to his travel expenses, etc. Also that while he claimed he had a Masters Degree from a foreign university, he actually didn't. What an idiot - who keeps this kind of info in his workplace files? She decided to sit on it for the moment, since she felt she needed the job and didn't want to rock the boat. Meanwhile, the appalling behaviour of our boss continued. We all finally decided we were not going to put up with it anymore, and that we would leave together. The economist had the perfect excuse - she was going off on maternity leave. I had a year at least in salary saved, so I was good. (thanks Dad, for telling me to do that when I was 16). We all pulled together, and found the secretary a new position. On our final day, we went to the director of the organization, plunked all the evidence of fraud on his desk, and told him he no longer had a functioning research and information department. Cue the distress, and pleading to stay. Um, no. Two months later, after they finally investigated (I guess fraud is more important than crappy management), that boss was terminated. The economist on maternity leave was offered (and accepted) his job. She offered me my job back the first day she returned, but I had already accepted another position (after taking the entire summer off). We had a great laugh over how things turned out.