Backstory for context: I am an experienced engineer who recently took a new job at a startup.
After joining the team, I was given a number of tasks to work on. No problem. But the tasks were large features involving things I am an expert in, and they obviously did not have a lot of the prerequisites in the codebase for these features they badly needed. So I was in a Catch-22 of doing them poorly and being blamed for their poor implementation, or spending extra time to lay the groundwork and do them correctly. I chose the latter as I have found in my experience it leads to better outcomes. I was told “do whatever you need to do” to improve the codebase. Sure. Great. No problem.
A month in, I'm being micromanaged heavily and told I need to be working 100 hours a week to produce these features. Obviously I'm not going to do that because I have other things I'm interested in doing, and the pay is not really good enough to get me to do that. As the micromanagement increases, I push back on it and do less. Classic technique to prevent micromanagement.
Out of the blue, I get a morning invite with my manager and the head of HR. I get told I'm not “meeting expectations” as an employee. I tell them they are not meeting my expectations as an employer, either.
They say they want to “separate” employment with me, and I'm say alright, fine, I don't care. They say this as if I am a naughty boy and I will care.
Paperwork rolls through and I'm told I need to pay back my signing bonus (10k). I say firmly “No, I won't be doing that.” They don't realize the language they used in their employee contracts specifies repayment only upon termination for cause or resignation, neither of which applies to me. The HR woman sheepishly says through email “oh well I guess you don't need to pay that back after re-reading your employment agreement.”
So, for a month of work, I get an extra 10k on top of my salary, free 2k laptop, no separation agreement or NDA, benefits, and my salary up until they day they fired me. I will also be applying for unemployment.
Total value of their fuckup and inability to read contracts? 22k.
The taste of their delicious tears when they realized they can't push me around? Priceless.