TLDR At the bottom.
36 years ago today a friend that I was in college with and then worked at the same medical supply company in the nascent days of IT (Then called MIS), didn't come into work. He was never late and was always one of the first in the door and one of the last to leave. He hardly ever missed work and was always on the spot with his goals and production.
He and I were always the ones there after hours, over weekends, updating, installing, programming, and doing whatever needed to be done. We were a hell of a team!
Our manager came out and sat at his desk and made a big production out of his not being in the office @ 8 AM. Rifling his desk, making derogatory comments, and just acting the ass.
No one could get hold of him (Pre-cell). His wife was beside herself and said he left for work like normal.
Management comes down a few hours later and they start to box his things up like it is a theater production – Loud, rude, and being 80's assholes. They left the box in the middle of his desk with a yellow legal sheet with bright red letters saying Fired!!!
About 2 o'clock that afternoon we are all called into a meeting.
Gene had been killed in a one-car wreck on the interstate, slamming into a bridge abutment. (We later found out that it was suicide, there was a note left in the car and one at home to his wife.)
Before my old friend was even buried, someone was sitting at his desk. I wanted to choke them every time I saw them. Not the replacement's fault, just the coldness of how quickly the company wiped their hands of him and replaced him, it was like a spear through the heart for me and many others in the department.
The company didn't even have the decency to send a representative to the funeral and demanded that we all return prior to the internment.
“You're paying your respects, that's enough, you don't have to be there when they put the body in the ground.”
That was the last straw for me. I had known him for almost a decade, our families were close, we both shared a love of computers, D&D, and model trains; and our families spent time at the Jersey Shore each summer together in adjacent rented houses.
I'm still in touch with his widow, she was never the same after.
TLDR: Don't forsake yourself for your job, they will fill your spot before you are even in the ground. Even if you think you are doing something you like for the company, you are nothing more than a side of meat for them to get to their ends.