Roughly a year ago….I thought I had finally found my dream job. I was brought into a factory to bring their IT needs in house from several MSPs and an offsite website developer and social media manager for a… luxury product manufacturer…as I will call it. I was put in charge of IT (single manned, of course), social media management and content creation, factory tours, website/webstore redesign, lead generation, and other special projects. It was almost like this job, this role, was created just for me, it was so perfect for me. Six months in, and I was the youngest member of the production managers and executive teams, by almost 2 decades. I got to meet amazing clients and help them design their dreams. I got to work for and with engineers on special projects as an engineering associate. The owners of the company were telling me I was THE long-term future of the company. They let my fiancée and I live in one of the most ridiculous waterfront homes I have ever seen for a month as a Christmas bonus. I got to attend promotional events, and take special trips just for content creation purposes or smoozing clients. I got to work with and promote the work of some of the most talented and hard working individuals I have ever had the pleasure of being around. Company sales started increasing, dramatically, but I can't lie that I hadn't already seen some red flags less than 4 months in…
I was well liked and respected by almost every member of the team. By the owners of our products. By our vendors. I had received an almost 50% pay bump in raises YTD. I got put on salary. But it's wasn't unearned. I worked my tail off for my company, my team. I volunteered to work weekends to help out as needed. I constantly was thinking of new things for the company, even in my off time. Invested off time trying to become better for the company. Kept almost all my IT downtime to when the office was closed and resources not needed, especially the planned downtimes. Working the weekends, the federal holidays…my IT folks out there will know exactly what I am talking about…
About six months in, I was asked to coordinate a major factory improvement project. Not IT for sure, but in my wheelhouse and something I felt comfortable doing. Unfortunately, one of the few people who didn't like me at the factory decided he was going to screw up everything I tried to do to get my parts of the project complete. He ran off vendors, contractors, insisted he do one of the most important parts of the job and then waited over a month past deadline to complete it. Delaying our contractors and making them mad and screwing up our relationships with them. I begged to be taken off the project, for him to take over, but he wouldn't ever take charge of the project…but sure screwed it up a lot. Unfortunately, he was “best friends” with the owners and the owners refused to do anything about it…besides promote the guy to be in charge of the whole factory!!! Even though he had been forced by the president to apologize to me during this time for his behavior. I should have left then…
Another of the special projects I got put on later, and took off with, was creating a custom project management solution to track the different steps of different projects as they moved throughout the factory and create easy to use reports for supervisors, the plant manager, and the owners so everyone knew what was going on at the factory at any given time. After working with almost everyone in the factory for over 3 months in my free time not doing IT things, putting my heart and soul and all my brain power I think I had into this project, as well as a ton of my free time of the weekends, my “software” was finally ready to be put into action. The timeframes for different steps and the different departments had been agreed on by myself, the plant manager, the president of the company, and an outside business consultant. Department supervisors, engineers, craftsmen, almost everyone was excited to start using my new system. And this is where it hit the fan….
At the request of the president, I went live tracking our latest project, to start testing and using my software. The president and I agreed with what day the project started on, what day it should be on, the work that should be taking place, and where we really were (which was already 33% behind schedule in one department, 25% behind in another, less than 2 weeks in). At the request of the president, he told me to run it by the plant manager before I went off to the department supervisors asking for reports. So I printed out the reports, and off I went. I found the plant manager and tried to have a friendly conversation with him that he quickly escalated for no reason. He began shouting and waving his arms and pointing and stomping his feet. Freaking out at me over just trying to do the job that had been requested of me. Calling me stupid, that I didn't know what I was doing. Which he may have had a point, honestly, I had never done anything of this magnitude before in project management…after all, I was originally brought in for just IT, social media, and website work. But I had been asked to do this. Also, I have showed it to a few people who have serious project management experience, and they all had nothing but great things to say and some small bug fixes. Anyway, back to the story…
I took his shouting and hostile gestures in stride, tried to defuse the situation, and when I couldn't, I threw up my hands and tried to walk away. I was giving up on that project, I could find other things to do, the plant manager could figure it out himself. He actually got even angrier and louder and made such a scene everyone in that part of the factory heard, stopped what they were doing, and turned to watch. He chased after me and followed me all the way to my office screaming and demanded a private meeting with the president. This was the second incident like this with him, and I didn't want to allow a third. I didn't know what to do, I really wanted to just leave on the spot, I didn't feel safe there anymore. But I thought, that wasn’t the right thing to do. I sat in my office down the hall and heard him scream all types of crazy stuff for about 2-3 minutes. My mind had been made for me. I had heard enough. I had had enough. I was done. But I was going to do what was right and give the owner of the company ample opportunity to replace my many important positions. The president came into my office to talk to me, asking me to come down and have a meeting WITH him AND the plant manager, finally. I turned in a 3 week notice instead, saying I didn't feel safe there anymore, and I wouldn't work with the plant manager anymore. Still willing to complete any projects I had open. Still willing to train replacements or turn over the network and systems I had designed to someone trained and qualified to manage them. Or at least someone capable of being trained quickly. Still willing to locate a good MSP and hand everything over. I was told to go home and cool off, so I went home and worked remotely the rest of the day.
I show up the next day expecting…. I don't know…maybe an apology, a pitch to stay, a “would you work part time from home”, a “thank you for all the hard work but let's go ahead and end this now on good terms”… I show up to work and handle my responsibilities, not being anything but my usual self. The president walks into my office about 30 minutes after I get there, and without looking me in the eyes, tells me to turn in my keys, password lists, and clean out my office before the end of the day. That's fine, I said, but who am I turning over my systems to? The president, that can barely operate the laptop I set up to be as easy to use as possible, said he can do it. He refuses my offer to locate an MSP, another tech guy, anything. So, I did exactly as he asked, I generated a password list to every device, system, and website I had access to with logins, passwords, and ip addresses. I had my lists done, but he had left the property. I printed out hard copies, emailed both the president and vice president a copy of the password lists, left my keys and password list on my desk, and proceeded to clear out my office of my belongings. I am already kicked out of my email and Cpanel and their social media channels before I left the property. I then went and told a few of the friends I had made in my year plus time at the factory goodbye and left peacefully. I get a notification on my way home that I'm being reported as absent for the day even though I worked more than 4.5 hours that day before I left….
Since I have been fired, my name has been disparaged by upper management, including accusing me of knocking out their phones and internet to employees and the MSP they hired and brought in at emergency rates, after thinking I had been messing with them. Remember, I have friends that still work there (for now) that tell me everything they say about me. I have been contacted by numerous employees wanting help with issues after I was fired, for free, including both the president and vice president of the company, or needing information, and I gladly helped some of them to the best of my abilities. I even tried calling the president to explain how to get into their webstore at his request (passwords and log ins were clearly labeled on the password list), just to get hung up on before I could even tell him. Then the final check arrives in the mail. Of course, they did not pay me my 16 regular pay hours on my final check due as a salaried employee for my last 2 days of work, and they did not pay out my final 12 hours of pto! Funny enough, I got paid EXACTLY half what I was owed. Think that was a coincidence?!?!
When I contacted the president by text to notify him of the issues with my final paycheck (not accusing, really was just a “hey my check was wrong, here’s what it should have been”), I received back an aggressive email telling me to never text them again (the vice president and accounting manager where both included in the email). Then he went on to try to explain that I owed them a refund check somehow?!?! Even though, in the email, he admits I worked the 2 days he did not pay me for, and he was trying to pay out my pto that had been promised to me. I have also since been contacted by the vice president of the company (by text after being told not to text), demanding I tell her more information of how to do my job, for free, after messing with my final check, with some very passive aggressive language. Challenging my “modicum of decency and integrity”. Letting me know she still “prays for me in spite of everything”. Like I was the one that screwed THEM over!!!
I have been stressed out of my mind since I was fired. I have been struggling to be able to put my time at the factory behind me, as much as I want to. I keep being bugged by people asking what happened, by employees needing things, by the owners harassing me. I have been close to full blown panic attacks several times now. I was unable to apply to any jobs of the caliber of my previous and what I am capable of, and only applied to low stress, lower pay entry level positions. I am now worried about taking on anything close to the level of responsibility I had, less someone else accuse me of what they have accused me of.
I have never had any issues with the law, never had an issue with a former client when I was an independent IT Contractor for over 8 years, never had a write up or warning at the factory. I loved my job, I worked hard, I was always early to arrive and late to leave, I always tried to uplift and encourage everyone the factory. I even think I was pretty good at most of my many roles! I was well liked and respected by almost everyone at the factory. All the engineers and department supervisors loved me. The clients loved me. Once upon a time, not even a month ago, the owners still loved me. I still have numerous messages on my phone from the owners that talk about how great I was, how thankful they were to have me as an employee, maybe still even have a video clip of them gushing about me somewhere…and now they are treating me like I am the devil!!! All I ever tried to do was help and do my jobs to the best of my abilities. I never asked for a raise, I never complained about my pay, I always volunteered to help in whatever capacity I could. I gave everything I had, plus some more to that company…
Karma seems to be doing a fairly good job for me so far though. I landed a new job a few days ago under a couple of senior System Admins that have taken me under their wings and been super nice to me during my transition period into this new company. It's been refreshing being somewhere that is ran with some professionalism and class again, with an actual budget for IT. I had forgotten what that was like. And that the employees don’t seem to hate coming to work everyday! I haven't heard one argument between employees since I started my new position…that used to be a daily occurrence! That’s been super nice as well.
Karma also seems to be taking care of my old employer. One of the three engineers on staff, who also ran a department, has already quit, declining to give notice because of how they treated me. Another engineer I am still friends with there is looking to do the same. A few important factory workers have already left with no notice. Several former coworkers have contacted me letting me know to keep them in mind if I find something for them, especially if we can work together. The decision to not find a new IT person seems to be royally haunting them. They have had several major internet and phone outages (of course blamed on me), and from what I am hearing from friends still there, haven't been able to use several systems I left explicit instructions behind for using.
It hurts losing a job I loved that I honestly could have seen myself staying at forever. I have never worked so hard in my life, and been so proud of the work I was doing. It hurts not being able to see the friends I made there everyday. I have never worked with such amazing talented and hard working individuals. It hurts not being able to do everything in my power to make that company a better place for those people. I have never worked with or for a company with so much potential, but yet so poorly mismanaged at the same time….
You know what's going to hurt the most though? Turning this into a Lesson…but I will…