So, let me say that I've been working for this employer almost 11 years in the past 13 years. They have been mostly fine to deal with, but they usually pay shit wages.
My boss contacted me when I was in-between jobs and I accepted an offer (that I counter-offered) with a certain wage, planned raises AND WFH after “probation” (not really probation, just their way of postponing WFH). I worked 3 years full-time WFH during covid, so I didn't feel like it would be an issue. The team had changed and I accepted the fact I'd go into the office for a few months, then could have my WFH like I asked. I even only asked for 2 days WFH out of 4 (50/50) since I work 4 days/week, as a trade-off.
Fast-forward to this week, and my boss sent me a passive-agressive response to me (after I reminded him that I should be starting WFH).
Well, he gave me the biggest bullshit I've ever seen from them… Let me copy some excerpts of the email here:
I am on vacation and we agreed that [supervisor] was your supervisor during the last meeting.
First, you don't have to fucking answer during your vacation if that's a problem, and secondly, my contract is with YOU, not him. YOU have the power to do anything (he's the owner), and you're just trying to push me toward him because you know he's against WFH.
As you know, working from home is a privilege, not a right.
Yeah, it's a privilege I ASKED FOR WHEN YOU HIRED ME and you AGREED.
Between us, it's not [me] that asked you to be in person everyday during your probation, it's [company]. It's first of all based on our WFH procedures, and by considering your history (with [employer]), that our objective is to create an effective work synergy within a team made up mainly of new employees. A team that always struggles to deliver client projects within the agreed deadlines and the allocated budget, by the way.
First of all, YOU are the company. YOU can decide everything. Don't shift the blame as if you're not the head of the company for fuck's sake. Then, he's talking about my depression I had 5 years ago (history of missing work days culminating into being off work for 4 months), as if it's an issue RIGHT NOW (which it is not… for now). Then he's talking about wanting to create an effective team of new employees, but he doesn't mention that the employees are always quitting after 6-12 months because the company gives crappy working conditions and crappy wages. Then he tries to push the blame of going over budget and missing deadlines on the team (grunts) when the issue lies with the company, by not providing adequate support, guidelines and free-will. So far, I've never missed deadlines, and I try to follow all my estimates. The problem is their procedures don't account correctly for QA, meetings, then giving change requests for free, but not even doing any technical analysis, etc., so we often end up going over estimates.
- Lack of guidelines, support, and proper procedures
- Always changing employees that cause delays and delivery issues
- Work conditions that are pretty crap, and wages that cause people to just quit
- Pushing blame on the grunts instead of assuming the faults
- Project managers trying to provide the best for us, but lacking the support (of the company) to implement better structure
Also, when you came back, [company] raised your wages and accepted that you would work 4 days/week when our needs are of 5 days/week.
Do you notice that he mentions the company instead of himself (again) as if he has nothing to do with this, but the raise he mentions is because I was underpaid and he just got to pay me the bottom of the market instead of under-the-market, so it's not even that great. And if 4 days/week was an issue, why did you accept it and why did YOU contact me when I was looking for work? Probably because you knew you could pay me crap with my knowledge of everything in the company…
In addition, you also did not fix your issue of unplanned sick days. Often, for any reasons and without warning, you call off work and we must plan our resources again and adjust the planning for deliveries because of your absences. Because of this, it's not on 4 days that we can rely on you, but instead on 3 days.
First of all, I called off work once in the past 6 weeks for fuck's sake, and I only got SUPER sick for a week the 2nd week I worked after my return (covid-like symptoms). Also, I'm the only one working on the projects I'm assigned to and I would know if there would be fucking issues with deliveries or resources. What's the point of lying in my face? I've been pretty productive and delivered everything with the estimates I provide. It's not my fault if the issue of following deliveries and going over budget lies in the company, not me. It's insulting to have them say that I work 3 days when I clearly fucking work 4 days.
So in what measures would WFH fix these issues and fix your reliability?
Well, firstly, there's NO ISSUES other than you trying to put blame on me, and secondly, when I'm sick, I could totally WFH, BUT YOU'RE REFUSING TO GIVE THAT TO ME SO I HAVE TO TAKE OFF. WHAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
Anyways, that's pretty much the gist of it. My employer is totally disconnected with reality and he has been for the 13 years I've worked there. The place was getting better when he started giving power to his replacements (my previous supervisors), but he decided to NOT retire and fired my previous supervisors. Then the workplace went to shit again. The new supervisor is old-school like my current boss and he keeps telling us that we should be glad to work after-hours, or doing unpaid overtime for the privilege of “maybe” getting a day or two off during Christmas week.
I've been so insulted that I updated my resume and have been sending it since then. I plan on leaving them without any notice.
But since I'm a good programmer, everything I do is well documented and commented, so I'm sure they'll be fine. But hey, they don't want to spend on documentation, so I've had to try to fit it in my tasks.
Oh and other “team members” are leaving too, because of all I said above. They want to ship all their projects to me, while I already have many projects on my table, but unbeknownst to them, I'll be leaving without notice as soon as I accept an offer elsewhere. Fuck them.
Bonus: I don't care if my boss finds this. Fuck you [boss].
NOTE: The email excerpts were translated approximately.