This story seems a bit... unbelievable?

@joeqwerty I know! I probably wouldn't believe it either if you told me it! But I can assure you that it did happen. There were a lot more events leading up to this that I can share, but I didn't want to write a novel, and didn't find them entirely relevant to the question.

"I'm mad at management, too" - why are you, especially since you understood 1. a bonus is a free add-on if it's possible to pay it and 2. company is struggling so in this time is is not possible to pay it?

"The ring leader of this group was quickly found out. I don't know what happened to him" ..he was handcuffed, transported off with a unicorn and locked up in the black tower - what else?

"Misconduct"? What was commited was (a) criminal, not misconduct and (b) on a level that in any jurisdiction I know of allows firing on the spot with cause (i.e. without termination period for serious breach of contract). Saying it was misconduct is mislabelling and shows a very low ethics level. This is not "stealing a paperclip" - it is ransacking supply and copy room (i.e. a lot of stuff) AND THEN BREAKING VALUABLE EQUIPMENT. Not a misconduct.

@TomTom Perhaps OP uses the term just like in science/academia, where "scientific misconduct" means something of career-ending proportions. In that sense, a year of jail time is way less damaging to your job prospects than a single case of "misconduct".

As others have said it sounds like a windup - but what country was this in?

One thought here - the easiest people to replace are those who ... "can't be replaced". Every single time, ever, that someone has been described as "hard to replace", they get replaced in five minutes and life goes on. Particularly if this is software related, "hard to replace" is, literally, the defintion of "a totally incompetent programmer". The entire nature of software is "working yourself out of a job" - making systems that a child can maintain and build on. So, better that the "irreplacable" person is fired immediately.

To be frank, I think this is a troll.

" He is a huge asset to the team and company (he would be VERY difficult to replace)" - Narrator: He was a huge liability to the team and company and was laid off later that week.

It's really hard to believe that this could have happened. But then, the capitol riots or Trump's presidency are two other examples of things that were hard to believe but did happen anyway. Personally, I think that anyone taking part in such a stupid action should be fired immediately. After all, you don't work only for your team, but you work for your company. Destroying or stealing company property is not being an asset at all.

“stealing stuff like office supplies, printer paper” — Hey honey, I'm home! No bonus this year, and I'm probably getting fired soon, but we are all set for printer paper.

@MichaelJaros be sure to throw in all the riots from 2008 to 2016, too. Destroying private property is never the way to express your frustration. Well, not if you'd like to be considered a grown, mature adult. If you're OK with being a 5 year old throwing a temper tantrum, then go for it.

@puck: To be honest, I can't understand you cannot understand that OP is mad at management. Sure, OP has no legal right to it - but isn't it human nature to be mad if some good thing which happend all the years stopps to happen? (Obviously, OP's coworkers did do a very wrong thing and obviously, being mad will not bring any good and they should not act on it - but is it so strange that some people feel mad about not getting a bonus anymore?)

@SouravGhosh I saw him. There probably are security cameras, but I'm not familiar with what the setup is in the office. Never really thought to look.

@TomTom - fair point. I guess maybe I'm not conveying it well with the question, but I am ABSOLUTELY disgusted with my coworkers behavior. I'm not at all trying to justify his behavior. I'm just trying to figure out what the next course of action should be that I should take.

@Fattie what do you mean by a windup? I don't understand. This is in the US. I hear what you're saying about "hard to replace", but I guess I would say that every team has somebody who is a really good member of the team. While not impossible to replace, it would be a huge loss to the team. He definitely doesn't fit the definition of an "incompetent programmer" that writes software only he can maintain. I can give you some more background if you want. (Trying to figure out how much to disclose while maintaining his privacy).

@B.Ithica are you saying I'm a troll? I'm confused as to why I would be considered a troll. I'm not hurting anybody (at least I don't think I am) with this question.

@puck - it's complicated. The company is struggling, but executives did get sizable bonuses. People worked their asses off this year, and some bad decisions by management led to poor profits. Most people were expecting at least SOME of their bonus (because executives had theirs paid out), and everybody was really surprised and upset when the answers came out that we wouldn't get ANY bonus.

@PaulD.Waite I know, right? I was saying the exact same thing to my wife yesterday. What did they honestly think would come out this? I the whole thing was absolutely stupid!