Happened a few weeks ago, but damn it felt good. Before finding this sub, I was mostly a “hard work pays off” kind of person. I’ve been in manager and director level positions in a somewhat niche industry, and always struggled to keep people happy. By the time I realized it was due to cheap and overly critical leadership above me, I jumped ship. That’s a story for another time.
I started a new job in a different role within the industry 4 days before COVID lockdown. I was worried I’d get laid off, like so many people were, so I leveraged some of my background to bring a new service line to the company. Needless to say, it took off. There were only 3 people at the company who had the skills to deliver this new service, so between us and vendors that we found, partnered with, and managed, we kept the lights on for a solid 8 months.
As COVID restrictions started to ease, I began to ask what it meant for the future of my role, given how I introduced the service line to the company (week 5 of working there I was presenting the business model to the CEO). Lots of stalling and back and forth, I get pulled into a meeting with HR and the COO. I find out the service line is being phased out (my manager, who was awesome and brought on board specifically for this service line, submitted his notice as soon as he found out), and I get told I need to start coming to the office (was full time WFH) to do the job I was hired for (that I never performed). I moved during COVID so the commute was almost 2 hours each way, and I found out someone else was taking credit for my work. That person didn’t understand it in the slightest, and I actually had to help him do his job when it related to my service line.
I put in my notice the next day and offered to stay on for 4 weeks to wrap up a big project. I was given 2 weeks and mentioned that I’m the only one at the company who knows the inner workings of the tech stack the project relied on. The guy who was taking credit for my work was put in charge, and friends I made during my time there said things failed spectacularly.
I freelanced for a bit before taking another full time role, where I brought the only other person at the old company who could do my job with me. They didn’t have anyone to do the job even if they wanted to continue the service line.
Now the fun part. I started getting messages like “hey we have to do this using the platform you built, can you let me know how?” In the past, I probably would have helped bc “don’t burn bridges” but this sub helped me stand my ground. Every reply has been the same:
“Sure! I remember how that was set up. Let me know if you’d like to bring me on for support, share any key dates, and I’ll be happy to send you an estimate.” It took about 3 times, but they finally got the hint that I’m not giving them anything for free. Felt great!
TL;DR: Started a new service line at a company. It wasn’t valued. They thought I would help for free after I quit, and balked at my consulting rate. A few million in business was lost because of it.