Hi again! Months ago I made two posts about leaving finance IT for greener grounds. I thought that would be the end for a while, but I was privy to just a little more ongoings with my old job.
TO RECAP:
- I worked regular 50 hour weeks and 6 day weeks, with no chances of promotions or raises. Absolutely hated management for wage dumping on an increasing scale, and generally mishandling workload.
- Quit, helped my team find replacements by writing the job ad for my replacement. Mgmt rejected the prospective job ad and thus a poor internal replacement recruitment was made. I intentionally sabotaged this and my replacement quit mere weeks before my final day.
- Encrypted all my personal documentation upon returning work equipment.
- Agreed to be a resumé reference for a senior system specialist.
- Ex-manager was re-assigned to a different team after losing 3 other employees in the wake of me quitting.
Why the update?
I told myself after the dust settled I'd leave things far behind me, with some hard lessons learned about employment. But curiosity and cordiality with my past coworkers meant I kept in touch through e-mail. After some exchanges, I realized that I wanted to genuinely know: “What happens to companies that put their quarterly reports before their people?”
As I would find out, it's a little r/revengeporn-y. I won't be as thorough here as this is all crumbs left from my coworkers, but in short:
- The entire tech dept was forced to return from WFH on indefinite notice. Happiness metrics have resultingly plummetted.
- The company stock itself has plummetted, with -41% YTD. All-year low was -55%. So much for expanding without increasing costs, ya dinguses!
- Reportedly, my ex-managers reassignment had a final warning clause: any more fuckups and he will be promoted to customer along with his team. Imagine having that hanging over your head.
- The resumé reference I agreed to? Resulted in that same senior specialist finding a new job NOT EVEN ONE WEEK after I worked my final day. I hereby increase my body count for helping people quit to four!
- After months of consistent chaos, my team finally onboarded my replacement in June. My brethren in Christ: In what world is it okay to have a recruitment process of 6 months. FOR A FIRST LINE POSITION.
These are all fun breadcrumbs, but the big thing was what happened while recruiting to replace the reassigned manager.
The New Sheriff In Town
Remember how I helped create a job ad that got rejected? The literal. Exact. Same. Shit. Happened. AGAIN.
This time, my team genuinely put their heads together and proactively looked at candidates worth poaching without telling HR. Folks they might have worked with before, who would be a good fit. I commend them for cleverly working around the problem that couldn't be cracked when this happened for my old job position. Unfortunately, the management decided that, once again, an internal recruitment is all they can offer.
The position was ultimately given to a project lead. In fact, the very same project lead who implemented the shoddy accounting systems with which I once worked.
I didn't detail this in the last posts, so I'll say this in no uncertain terms. This project-lead-turned-manager is Satan, and there is a very special place in Hell reserved for them. They squandered the project by going over-budget and over schedule, giving the implementation project to the lowest bidder in terms of qualifications. Because of this, there was no hand-over from the implementators to my team: we had to learn the systems in the dark. Because he was functionally our manager during this period, they pushed me and the other senior specialist to literal burnout. Multiple times, in fact.
By and large, they are famous for putting stakeholders wellbeing before the one of their employees. They gave preferential treatment to certain regional offices above creating a cohesive financial structure, that could safely be expanded and automated over time. Finally – they would not be recruiting any replacements for the senior specialist who left after I did.
Somehow. Somehow… Somehow this was the person they settled on letting manage my old co-workers. It absolutely puzzles me.
From what I have been told, the environment has been palpably hostile. It's ultimately a little tragic.
TL;DR, and questions I guess?
That's all. The old job company stock plummetted, more people left, and the manager from Hell joined.
The lesson? Treat your workers right, or someone else will.
It all leaves me wondering one final thing. The tone of the e-mails with my old workmates has rapidly changed to… more people jumping ship. I don't think that is unreasonable, given what I know. But I want to ask for guidance here – what should I do? Should I keep recommending them around? Offering them to apply for work at my current employer? It feels like letting go of the past may be for the best, sometimes.
What's next when the glory days truly are over? Do I help them, or am I being overly attached?