My first job out of college I was working in a medium sized office with about 50 people. I was working directly under a VP who had about 5 direct office staff. The VP had a reputation as a controlling harda$$ micro manager. Most everyone was intimidated by this guy.
The people in the office would normally pass around an envelope for flower donations when someone had a death in the family. Most everyone would throw in a couple of bucks, no big deal. For some reason my VP didn't like this practice, but most of the people didn't report directly to him so there wasn't much he could do to stop it.
One day a envelope appeared on my desk for one of these collections so I threw in a couple of bucks and passed it on. My VP's secretary saw me do it and squealed on me. (I later found out that this spying on the others in our department was part of her job, or else).
Shortly thereafter I got called into the VP's office. I could tell he was upset and started chewing me out, for what I had no idea. Finally he said, "I don't like these office busybodies passing around for donations, and beside that I don't pay you enough money that you can afford to be giving your money away".
I was dumbfounded to say the least. After a few seconds, I blurted out something like, "it is none of your business what I spend my money on" and there might have been an expletive somewhere in my reply. Then I stood up and walked out of his office. As I was walking out I heard him bellowing to get back in his office and sit back down. I just walked out to my car and drove home in the middle of the day.
As soon as I walked out I regretted my rash behavior and figured I would be looking for a new job. I had no more than got into the house and the VP was phoning with an apolopy. Phew!
So I didn't lose my job, and in fact the next paycheck had small raise included. From that day forward and for the next 10 years this VP never once had a harsh word for me. In fact, he made it a habit each day to come into my office and sit down to just shoot the breeze for 15 or 20 minutes.