Re: OT: memory to share available

After 8 years of not being seen really, being handed around, trying in vain to get a peer programmer at the site, mobbing, bossing, you name it, it is good to depart.

...

... the TCO, having the psychological sensibility of a tank (not talking about technical skills, at all).

A few years ago, I was in a similar situation. Companies merged, people had to go, old boss was a retard, new boss was a smart asshole. He said that there were two ways I could leave. Either accept a "buy out" of my contract (i.e. stop working, get payed for the next three months, common practice in Germany) or any dirty legal trick he could think of, with no extra money.

So, after a discussion with an expert from my trade union, I decided to accept the "offer" and quit. The next day, I made sure I had documened every loose end and copied all relevant data on my workstation to the servers, I wrote a good-bye mail, cleaned my desk, zeroed the disk of my workstation ("F*CK YOU!" written in 10¹¹ zeros ...), stuffed all of my private equipment into my car and left.

There's crucial code I wrote (a pile of, er...) living there which drives part of the business, and there has been no chance for handover. Go figure.

I still feel responsible ...

I felt the same, for a very long time before leaving. But the job and the working conditions became more and more unacceptable. I had stopped working even a second longer than required by my contract and lazily started searching for a new jobs almost two years before that "we'll get you out anyway". It was just the final straw.

Looing back, I should have cancelled my contract two years earlier. Yes, I felt a little bit guilty that my ex-colleges now had even more work to do, and it would be harder for them than for me (because I tend to automate boring tasks, they don't). On the other hand, they could have searched for a new job, too.

After all, the evening that I left the building for the last time felt strangely good. It was a relief, I had sufficient money for the next months, and I would also get unemployment money - either now or after a penalty time for accepting the buy-out. The next day at the unemployment office, I could convince the agent that buy-out is usual for IT and engineering contracts, and so I got around the penalty and was sure to have enough money for at least a year.

I got a new job way before I ran out of money. And yes, I had months of free time. You can't write job applications 40 hours a week. I had a good time cleaning up my basement, explored some areas of my home city that I did not know, enjoyed a few warm summer days, and did not worry about what problems would pop up at the old job. After all, it was no longer my problem. They fired me. It was their decision. They will have to live with the consequences.

Alexander

--
Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)

Comment on Re: OT: memory to share available

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Re^2: OT: memory to share available by shmem (Chancellor) on Jan 02, 2021 at 13:17 UTC
After all, it was no longer my problem. They fired me. It was their decision. They will have to live with the consequences. Yes, that's true. I offered them further supply of patches for critical fixes, e.g. a missing indirection in the structure of a binary blob I dissected in the database of some VPN product (the keys are arbitrary, I found out, can differ from installation to installation, and the actual key is in the structure below that and an index into another table which describes the property) - but they categorically rejected. Upon breakage, it will be hard for them to find out why. Hopefully they'll read this post. I can't help it. But after 8 years it takes some time to get this stuff out of my head and break the ties. "Get over it", I says to me, "other mothers also have nice daughters." There's another point they didn't think about: my informal position. Many colleagues held me as "the guru", the last resort type of guy for tough problems: "ask him, he should know." Not that I am a guru at all, or was the key figure at the shop, but in two earlier occasions I witnessed that firing one can lead to an avalanche of other valuable people quitting, which always was a brain drain hard to cope with, and in one occasion destroyed the company. I wish them well and hope for other changes in that shop, if any. perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'	[reply]
Re^2: OT: memory to share available by shmem (Chancellor) on Jan 04, 2021 at 15:09 UTC
So, after a discussion with an expert from my trade union, I decided to accept the "offer" and quit. The next day, I made sure I had documened every loose end and copied all relevant data on my workstation to the servers, I wrote a good-bye mail, cleaned my desk, zeroed the disk of my workstation ("F*CK YOU!" written in 1011 zeros ...), stuffed all of my private equipment into my car and left. I didn't bother the trade union. I'm not able to litigate; had I done so, I would have lost, not for the cause, but for some meaningless detail (which happened to me before). So I accepted the offer, which was indeed what you described. But I had no chance to document and copy over. Immediately after they had knowledge that I read their firing letter (I dialed them up to ask what this was all about), they closed down my account and my VPN access. So, they didn't even get the last pending commits. The youngsters will surely port all my perl stuff to or replace it with python. But they don't have time! They are churning out classes after classes elsefor, I know that. And that won't change in the near future. So, they might want to come to my toilet to drink water. I might be available, who knows. perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'	[reply]
Re^3: OT: memory to share available by afoken (Chancellor) on Jan 06, 2021 at 13:07 UTC
But I had no chance to document and copy over. Immediately after they had knowledge that I read their firing letter (I dialed them up to ask what this was all about), they closed down my account and my VPN access. So, they didn't even get the last pending commits. Hmmm, very unfriendly. I've seen such a quick response only once, when someone was copying tons of unrelated documents to his work laptop. The youngsters will surely port all my perl stuff to or replace it with python. But they don't have time! They are churning out classes after classes elsefor, I know that. And that won't change in the near future. So, they might want to come to my toilet to drink water. I might be available, who knows. Time to increase your consulting fees ;-) Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply]


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