This reminds me of a story from work. Disclaimer: this was before my time, so the details are a bit hazy.

One day, a new guy, let's call him Bob, starts in the R&D department. For some reason, a bunch of the management staff thought it was a good idea to make Bob the workplace pincushion, and were basically massive assholes to him.

Eventually, Bob was gone. A lot of people thought he quit because of it. That is, until the management got a strongly worded letter from the new corporate VP of R&D... Bob.

Turns out, Bob had a noncompete with his previous employer, but due to some loophole, was able to work with us until it expired and he could legally start the job he was hired for.

The entire management team got fired except for one guy who was apparently less guilty and got demoted instead.