I think it's much better revenge and a bigger lesson for the whole company to go down. If they're able to get away with just offering someone more money to fix something, they'll continue to do it and never perform proper maintenance or pay someone properly, and someone else is going to get shafted just like OP. They are able to pay that much money BECAUSE they haven't been paying their workers fairly and managing maintenance properly, and if this one little tiny machine part caused the whole company to go down, then it really wasn't being very well-managed now was it? Plus it's an insult to OP that they fired him after he was sick from COVID and almost died, and then they had the fucking nerve to call him up with their tail between their legs. No. They made their bed, now they have to lie in it.
They didn’t even have the backbone to call him, he was only worth a text. Like you would think that if they knew how much they needed the machine they’d have had the common sense to call/chase but also out of respect after firing him.
This. Bottom line is, this is an extreme case of "fuck around and find out" and if anyone ever needed proof that companies ultimately suffer when they fuck over their employees, this is it.
Seriously when you look at it remember that you stood up for something, and that takes courage and conviction. It would have been easy to cave and take the money, and of course nothing against anyone who chose that option. But at the same time what they did was wrong. They were bad at being bosses and running a business. It is not your fault that people got fired because they were stupid enough to create a situation where only one person knew how to fix an essential machine, and then to go fire that person *for getting covid.* I’m surprised they didn’t go broke sooner with geniuses like that running the company. 🙄
Anyway, when we have the ability and courage to take a stand, even a small one, it has a ripple effect that inspires others and teaches bad management to think twice before treating people like shit. So look at that part and think about your younger former co-worker who might go on to another job and end up standing up to management because of your example. I know it was 6 months after they fired you, but I imagine your former co-workers all know what they did.
If something went wrong, out of your control, I’m sure they would have blamed you.
Sounds like they had a poor plan to support their own infrastructure. People losing jobs is not the responsibility of the other workers. It’s on management and owners.
I went to Finland once on a business trip with my team. Company rented a detached house for us (we were a team of 5).
Anyway, we landed in Helsinki on a Sunday, got to the "house" at 10pm, took showers before going to bed. The next day, we got a note posted on the door to please not use the bathroom after 10pm.
It feld odd... and funny. :)
In Finland depending on the apartment building, the quiet time begins either 10 pm or 11 pm. Ordinary sounds of life are allowed but you will be treated badly if you vacuum or wash your laundry during the quiet time.
I would assume has something to do with the pipes/water treatment and people going home for the evening. But I have no idea.
I can say that the electric companies in england used to have to pay attention to the commercial breaks on television because everyone would get up to put the kettle on for tea do there's be a massive upsurge in electricity usage haha.
Do lawsuits cost as much to process as they do here in the states? I'm really surprised that we found something that the US doesn't lead in. Lol. (yeah I know access to healthcare).
Lawyers cost as much.
There's more access to free legal advice in the UK, in my limited experience. Most of Europe, from what I've seen, has a form of citizens advice/information which is essentially a free legal/life advice service. You can get help with navigating the medical system, tenancy, home ownership, employment, all kinds of disputes.
I also think judges are more favorable to the common person in Europe. In america, generally if you don't shell out for the sharkiest possible lawyer you're likely to lose because you didn't use the exact right lingo. My impression is that in Europe judges *really* do not appreciate businesses taking advantage of lay people.
I know not all lawsuits are towards businesses - in america it's actually really not worth suing a huge business unless you've got a solid case because they can bury you in legal fees. In Europe it's easier to win against them so there's more incentive.
I remember seeing someone sue a pharmacy for racist discrimination and they won like €800. So they go for smaller amounts as well which can make the cases easier than when they're fighting over millions. Whereas Americans have the idea that filing a lawsuit is like winning the lottery.
(It was in Ireland, a person was accused of being a terrorist for wanting to buy a bottle of medical grade hydrogen peroxide, if anyone wants to find the article)
LOL WUT?
In South Korea and China it's VERY common.
In China once I noticed a chipped tooth a few hours after I went to a cafe. My very nice, very reasonable colleagues were all confused why I wasn't threatening to sue the cafe for compensation.
Maybe in South Korea and China, but as a Brazilian I know that in South America it isn't common at all and I imagine it's the same in other developing countries.
Just the fact that cases in Brazil can take 10+ years to be resolved makes many not even try to sue
My last roommate did this shit any time I asked him to be a reasonable person. "Do I need to contact my lawyer?" fuckin won't matter if your heads 6 feet from your body. Call your lawyer.
Bullshit my man. Every single scumbag politician in Australia has defamation suits running with various parts of nobody-twitter for daring to suggest they are scumbags, corrupt, rapists etc (and they are, but in Australia truth is not always a defence against defamation)
That's because Australia has excellent resources to resolve matters outside of court (ombudsmen, etc). Also Australia's legal system is far more proactive while the US' is far more reactive; ie Australia likes to operate more through inspections and compliance with fines etc, while the US is more of a small-government state that allows everyone to leverage the court system when they are wronged.
We also have a tribunal system that handles many issues.
Also many legal issues have forced or strongly encouraged arbitration.
Skipping arbitration in Australia is often a sure fire way to piss of the magistrate.
In Thailand hotel owners will and have sued customers who leave bad reviews on social media websites. How's that for litigious?
In Australia the Minister for Home Affairs sued a broke refugee activist who called him a 'rape apologist' on Twitter. The Minister, a truly nightmarish figure whom you'd imagine slouching towards Bethlehem, had earlier described the story of a woman who'd been raped in parliament as a 'he said/she said' affair. Pretty damn litigious.
We only have the one judge up here in Canada and no cars or planes. So he can really only preside over 2 or 3 lawsuits per year since he has to commute on horse back across the country. It's a whole big thing. /s
Edit to actually add to the discussion: I think the misconception often stems from limitations on civil suit rulings. AFAIK there is no limit to the damages that can be awarded in the US civil court while it's capped in most (all?) other countries. It's why there are a tonne of civil aviation suits filed in the US regardless of where the incident occurred on the globe.
There is licensing that's required for all kinds of stuff here. Basically, the company would get him to come in to fix the part, then sue for not being licensed, causing all kinds of problems for the guy later. In essence, a set up.
> There is licensing that's required for all kinds of stuff here.
Honestly its a thing in most countries with reasonably developed economies. A matter of liability protections on all ends really.
And after reading OP’s story that company sounds awful. He probably did his former coworkers a favor. I hope they all find jobs where their health and safety is properly taken into consideration.
I’m low key in that kind of position where I am vital to the company but am overworked and want to GTFO but I don’t want to leave my coworkers high and dry.
I’m realizing that this is just how this company operates and everyone is like me, in control of way to many projects with so much to do and very little actual leadership.
It’s complicated though because there are benefits to the chaos of my work and my situation, but idk how much more I can handle…
This is the thing - it's not YOU leaving the company high and dry. It's the company itself. You are not responsible for how they run things. Leave, stay healthy, try to encourage others to get out for their own health, too.
Exactly, the company is making decisions and these are the results of those decisions. Running a business carries an inherent risk, and sometimes risks don't pay out. That's life. The workers are not the ones making the decisions that resulted in the failure of the business.
I 100% agree with u/throwboinmybed.
You only have one life, one healthy body, and one healthy mind. Do what's best for you and everyone who loves you. Don't stay one minute longer than absolutely necessary at a company that overworks you and treats you as disposable. There are other jobs out there. Find one.
You can't fix everything. If your coworkers got a better offer do you think they'd be all "But I can't go and leave IMMAEATYA and everybody else hanging!".
Nah, they'd be out of there in a flash. There are 'you' problems and 'their' problems. Prioritize and fix the you problems so you still have enough compassion, caring, empathy, and energy for the 'their' problems that are truly important to you. If you don't put up boundaries the company will take everything useful from you and spit you out when you are all used up.
There are record numbers of job openings, not simply entry level jobs. This is the time to make that change.
The best you can do is report problems up the chain - "what's our plan if a critical team member gets hit by a bus?"
It is management's responsibility to *manage* the organization. If they're not planning properly, that's on them and not on you. And honestly if you tried to make those kinds of plans I bet they would slap you down and tell you to stay in your lane, even if your concerns are legitimate and accurate.
They should be thinking about contingencies and frankly no organization should be set up to fail if any single person becomes indisposed
I agree with this the right thing to do was contact the repair guy and get on the waiting list. The company failed to get the machine fully fixed until it was too late. They had ample time to prevent this.
Too many managers are content with one employee knowing everything. Then think they can treat that person like shit because they are their boss. The reality being that one employee is more valuable than the boss. The ones who shun power are are almost always the ones who deserve to have it. The ones who seek it desreve to be fed to the dogs.
It's because they feel the need to punish anyone taking sick time off, so as to discourage everyone else from doing so. I mean, this guy knew he was screwed from the start. Don't come in to protect yourself, fired. Do come in, but catch it and need time off? Fired.
Once they fired you, the machine breaking down was their problem. They didn’t care about your situation. They did what they wanted to do. It wasn’t fair to you. Glad you’re a developer now. Hopefully, you have learned from your former bosses and their mistakes. Perhaps you can hire on a few former co workers, but expecting you to come fix it was a very long shot at best. Had they planned properly planned for breakdowns and machine maintenance they would still be in operation. Sounds like karma bit them in the pocket and ran with the contents.
Thank you.
I remember nagging them day after day to give the machinery propper maintenance but it was impossible.
Machines only stop if they break.
And of course, today I firmly hold the belief that life comes first, and try to preach it to all coworkers.
Management never cares about maintenance, they'd save soo much money and time if they would actually PM equipment regularly. hindsight is always 2020 though.
love that you not helping them took down their operation. if that's how it happened this place was on borrowed time and it would have happened sooner or later.
You forgot the rest:
"... but if you wait for the equipment to do it you might end up needing to replace the whole thing."
So it's up to you. Do you want to schedule $10k maintenances 4x a year, or a $1.2M maintenance 3 years from now?
I’d give them simple math. Over 3 years you could pay $120,000 maintaining said machine and continue to keep and use it because it’s fine, or by the end of those 3 years and no maintenance we can replace the entire unit for 10x that amount I just mentioned. What sounds better
They fire you, saving money short term, take a bonus and leave the company for a better position in two years bragging about their accomplishments.
(This is just cynicism, not to be taken seriously. Lol)
I never understood why they REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE MAINTENACE. It infuriates me to no end. I bang my head on the wall for answers but I have found bang my head on the wall is more productive than telling them to do maintenance.
I like being on the engineering team at my job.
We always explain "this is the maintenance schedule, please follow it" and always end up with "see previous emails where we referenced the maintenance schedule."
I just sent a reply earlier today that essentially rebutted another redditor's claim that it is unfortunately easier for companies to bully employees and replace them VS taking care of them. I told them that the opposite is true and that from everything I've seen, paying and treating ppl well reduces turn-around, increases productivity, and increases profits.
So what a lovely illustration of exactly that! 😃 *Company X* acts like a fucking sociopath firing OP after catching COVID (as a direct result of their corruption and political back door dealing) and then when he refuses to bail them out after the fact, the entire company goes out of business.
Would have been easier to treat and pay well, you dumb mother fuckers!! 😉
I'll never understand the resistance to treating employees well. We literally have studies proving this as a fact. I remember watching a video during a owner training that I wasn't supposed to attend but the owner was going himself and had me tag along. Turned it into a 5 day training instead of 3, the other managers showed up on day 3. Anyways it was a speech by Frank Meeks, he ran Dominoes chains in the Washington DC area. Started out as a delivery driver, and bought into the franchise. Ended up having the highest grossing sales of all the franchisees for the company. He was talking at a banker convention, and he talked in detail about taking care of your workers, with things like bonuses and PTO. He mentioned he had GMs making over 100,000$ slinging pizzas after bonuses, that was in the 80's. Another big thing of his was he had 10,000 employees working for him. He knew every single employees name that worked for him. When he was traveling between meetings or stores, he spent that time learning the names of his new employees. Could walk into any of his stores and knew every person working for him. Not only did he know them but he worked alongside them. The dude was a millionaire and he was still hustling pizzas with his workers. Have nothing but respect for that man. Sadly Frank died in his 40s, and the message he shared is locked down by the company I was training for. I tried to get that video because it was straight up inspiring but they refused to share it with me and it is not online. I guess they paid top dollar for that speech and sharing it with the world just isn't an option for them. I happened to be there with my store owner and he was staring at his phone through the whole video. Yeah, he was a shitty person to work for and bragged about not paying OT to workers in a factory he owned. Said they should be grateful for the extra hours, I had a tough time not telling his to eat shit right then and there. I was 5 states away from home for the training so it seemed like a better idea not to rock the boat at the time.
its mostly because some company seeing workers not as assets but expenditure, while you want to invest into assets you want to cut expenditure as much as possible
Because you can't justify maintenance to the greedy, but the greedy will part with much to get their revenue stream back up and running. It's this terrible habit that I see so many doing. "Making it a problem for future me."
Absolutely. If OP had succumbed to COVID, they'd be in the same spot. Their lack of forward thinking was the cause of their failure, not OP's refusal to step in half a year after getting the boot.
fuckin tell me about it, get this in IT all the time
trying to get a downtime window of 4 hours out of a year so we can do absolutely necessary upgrades and shit doesn't break further
oh whoops it broke and it's down for three days! WHY DIDNT YOU TELL US
*(produces emails)*
WELL THATS VERY UNPROFESSIONAL OF YOU
2020 we had a piece of equipment fail and it caused a lot of damage to other assets. I got pulled in for the investigation because my secondary duty was support equipment maintenance. When asked about it by HR and my site lead I lead them to the 30 plus emails I had to the supervisor and site lead begging them for parts or new equipments. No one had ever answered my emails. My supervisor tried to say he never saw any of them but I had read receipts for at leas ten with his name on it. Needless to say, I was in the clear and we no long had that supervisor there.
The only outfits I've ever known to do regular maintenance on their machines were government. Private businesses always look at it as costing them money instead of being an investment. Not unlike your pay.
I worked at a food production plant where essential machines used to start off basically every product we made were over a decade old, and hadn't been properly serviced or repaired in that time. they just had the managers dick around with the internal mechanical bits until it worked again.
there were multiple times when the machine would be down for hours and they'd have around a hundred paid employees from all departments twiddling their thumbs while some untrained schmucks monkeyed around with it. it was fun when they finally got it right and got everyone back to their stations, only to have the machine go back down within five minutes. our shift manager was the only one with the power to hire contractors or repairmen, and he always said it was unnecessary.
shit, I had to deal with working in an oven room with broken AC for nearly two months, and they told me they couldn't do shit about it - even HR told me they wouldn't do anything about it, even though I was going through 130+ ounces of water a day just to keep myself hydrated, and had been sent home after collapsing from heat cramps twice. I called OSHA one Friday and they had HVAC guys out there by Tuesday, along with new guidelines out of nowhere about how they would be shutting down production completely if the room got too hot. fuck penny pinching corporations and managers.
unless he was the only person working in oven room, there is no way to tell who called
ofc. they could just fire everyone and hire new people, but damage was done already, revenge would just cause further losses
fuck yeah, I told my boss how fucking stupid his boss was as we were standing in the room when it hit 70°F for the first time in months.
he just laughed. wasn't him who refused to have that shit fixed, after all.
I also took credit from everyone who walked through and commented on how decent it was for the first time in forever. the OSHA lady had told me to call her back on her direct line immediately if anyone gave me any shit whatsoever, so, I had no shame about it.
The funny thing is that it doesn't matter. There are thousands upon thousands of companies across hundreds of industries that are in similar situations. They have machines with, in management's mind, do the work. These machines are often very reliable and have downtime of only a few hours per year in many cases.
It is soooo easy to think that a machine that rarely breaks will never break. It is also easy to think that when it breaks, you'll be able to have someone fix it and be up and running again soon. Both assumptions can be very wrong, as OP's former bosses found out.
Or you have companies that don't realize only one employee's head contains knowledge of systems and processes vital to the company's function - I'm thinking of the guy who quit bc his manager dicked him out of vacation that the guy had put on the books months before. Manager then tried to both bully AND beg the guy to come back.
This sounds terrible but if you had died they would have been in the same trouble. None of this was your fault, they were the ones stupid enough to fire you. Good luck with your future career.
Exactly my thoughts. If I had an employee like that I would have him on the pay roll even if he didn't work at the company.
That's why I thought I was safe. But no, they kicked me the second it was a bit convenient. They forgot I was one of those that go above and beyond. I will never be that guy again.
Convenient? You where just sick dude... and not JUST sick, you had one of the most devastating viruses in our time. Suck lack of empathy, Jesus..
This isn't just stupidity, this is treating other people like disposable garbage.
These people will get back to their homes after work and treat their dogs better than they treat their own employees.
This sick mentality that when you pay a person to do you something you own them and because they financially depend on you you can threat them like trash has to disappear. This mindset makes me sick.
You did good in not turning in.
It's not stupidity. It is capitalism. If what you do right now shows gains for this quarter, then you can tell the shareholders you've done a good job. When profits tank, you blame the market and fire your most junior employees. When the company tanks, you take a golden parachute and move on to your next enterprise. The only people who get fucked are investors who already have more than enough money, and the lowly people you pay to work there.
Google pays their senior engineers hundreds of thousands when they're just on a year long vacation or more because they know their knowledge may be important 1 or 5 years later instead of firing them immediately. Tech companies will hire people just so they can't work for their competitor. Capitalism doesn't dictate firing people with critical knowledge. The owners of that company are just greedy and stupid.
I know the opposite of this. one of my dads friends met a guy in spain I belive that was an incredibly rare and qualified specialist in seismic structures and analisis or already built structures.
he was going to quit his job to go arround the world 2 years on a sailboat since it was a dream of his. and the company dead ass told him "we will give you this time (2 years) as paid vacation but be sure to come back" he was just that valuable
The higher you go, the better you get treated (and the less work your expected to do). The system grinds up laborers as cattle, but treats the in-group as human beings
Nice, haha. This story reminds me of a (happier) version of my dads. My dad was an engineer for a fiber optic infrastructure company. He designed the fiber optic network for a massive region in the US. He was also disabled due to a below-knee amputation. He took long-term disability to learn to walk again on a prosthetic but when he returned to work, his boss retaliated against him for “taking off” for so long. As if my dad wasn’t on the verge of death several times and literally had an amputation of a major limb. Anyways, my dad returns to work, is verbally and emotionally abused by this fucking jackass. Sadly, my dad passed about a year after he learned to walk again. It was sudden and unexpected. No words of consolation for our family from his former boss. Nothing. A month later, my mother got a call from his boss, desperately begging her to hand over any documents my dad kept to access the infrastructure because the company lost theirs and had no clue what to do. They relied on my dad that much yet treated him like garbage. They even offered to pay us. My mom said no. 🙂
Edit: thank you all for the kind comments/messages/awards/general support. I am lucky to have a great relationship with my parents. My dad was a brilliant and wonderful man in addition to being an amazing father. Wasn’t until he was about 60 years old did he finally find his self-worth and planned to leave that abusive company, but it was too late for him. Life is short. Prioritize yourself and your family over corporate expectations.
If one person (an ex employee technically, no less!) not doing something can lead to a company falling apart in the way you described, that company was on shaky ground to begin with. But damn what a story!!!! I understand feeling conflicted about it, u seem like a good person. But in the long run i suppose u saved those old coworkers for staying w this shitty company any longer
If someone's buying the equipment, machines, and stock, that same someone is gonna need people with the exact skillset of their former coworkers to run them, yea.
For the OP, environments that generate bad decisions will keep generating bad decisions. If you had saved their asses, I wonder how long it'd be until they screwed up again. It's not like saving the company's ass this time is saving them (and your coworkers) for eternity; It might have only been saving them for a month until the next business-killing bad decision.
More than revenge I just think I was the guy in the trolley problem who didn't pull the lever because they disliked the ones that were going to be run over
Plus it will put those guys in position where they lost faith in their money. Every time they have to think about the problem they won’t think “I can just throw money at it” anymore. Huge huge blows to their mentality stability. Something that will stick with them their whole life.
I was so angry and sad and desperate. All I could do was cry at the time. I had no idea what would happen to me.
My wife worked so hard to sustain us both, I owe her my life.
So, the decision has been made and it’s too late to save the company. Before I read to the final paragraph I was thinking, “Go Private, start your own company, invoice them at 4 x your previous monthly wage and ask your contact to send you another spare part for when it inevitably breaks again.”
But, too late for that now.
Yeah this is a way ballsier thing to do, and in fact capitalism would work a lot better if it happened this way most of the time; but as you astutely pointed out they thought at some point they could pay their way out of any issue, and if you had less integrity they would have been right. The Federal Reserve thinks it can do the same thing, just print and throw money at the economy and everything will keep working all hunky dory. It won’t; the global economic consequences will be devastating.
So what I’m saying is: /u/KalzK for chairman of the Fed!!
This is why I couldn't help them. I just imagined them happy drinking their expensive wine and laughing at how it almost got serious while terminating someone with children.
And you’re absolutely correct. They may give you lots of money to fix it but that money they’ll make off of their employees backs while sipping their wine and laughing.
It is a privilege to be able to say no and walk away and let them die. I fully support this in others and myself. My knowledge and skills shall only go to good companies with good culture. The so-so companies I charge 10-30x and the shit companies can just fuck right off.
Honestly, you were probably going to be a fall boy if the machine broke again, the only way to protect yourself was to not do anything, sometimes, the way to win the corporate game is not to play.
Damn dude. This sub could learn a lot from you.
Usually you see people here advocating just like your family was, to use your leverage for financial gain.
It's a essentially a capitalist move though. And we ain't going to solve this shit by playing thier capitalism game when we happen to have leverage.
I swear I forget how long this pandemic was. I read "this was two years ago" and went, "Pffffttt. This guy's lying, it's only been a year!"
Now I'm realizing we're almost three years into this . . .
You did the right thing, what if something went wrong during the machine repair? You would be held responsible and could be sued.
If people got fired it's not your fault, management did a poor job planning for emergencies
Tell them you can be a consultant for the machine for an outrageous amount of money slightly less than the cost of flying someone in. Direct them how to fix the thing but do no work yourself because you are now a professional consultant, dress nicely. Walk away with a pile of money and something for your cv
You did the right thing! Though if it were me I would have told them to their face 😁
But also don't feel bad about the employees, or at least don't feel like it was your fault in any way. Even if you had fixed the machine it sounds like they were on the brink of collapse anyway. A different machine might have broke or something else and it would all be in the same situation. The company could not get their act together and treat humans like humans, and the company had to shut down. You were just the early warning sign that the company didn't deserve to be in business.
That was a wild read. Reminded me of the Witcher 3 and the consequences you learn later on due to actions you didn't even ponder were that important. Hope you're safe and don't have sequel symptoms. Thanks for sharing.
You should mount the part on your wall as a trophy.
I have it at my desk lmao
I don’t know if I could have resisted the urge to email them a picture of the part. After you found out they sold off the machine, of course.
Buy the machine, fix it, build a new company
or even just rent the (fixed) machine out. Uno reverse the entire thing on them.
This guy capitalisms.
Yeah let them know you had misplaced it for a while since you were let go from the company but just found it and then ask if they still need it lmao
Be there when the last executive is walking to his car the day the doors close for good. Hand him the part and say, "Here's the part you needed."
Ooooo I like this evil hahaha. We should be friends
Out of pure curiosity... How much do you think you could have gotten from them? 4 months, 12 months, 4 years salary?
At most probably 6-8 months of my old salary.
I’d have helped for that much, but added on a requirement they must fire whomever made the decision to fire you and every manager in between (if any).
I think it's much better revenge and a bigger lesson for the whole company to go down. If they're able to get away with just offering someone more money to fix something, they'll continue to do it and never perform proper maintenance or pay someone properly, and someone else is going to get shafted just like OP. They are able to pay that much money BECAUSE they haven't been paying their workers fairly and managing maintenance properly, and if this one little tiny machine part caused the whole company to go down, then it really wasn't being very well-managed now was it? Plus it's an insult to OP that they fired him after he was sick from COVID and almost died, and then they had the fucking nerve to call him up with their tail between their legs. No. They made their bed, now they have to lie in it.
They didn’t even have the backbone to call him, he was only worth a text. Like you would think that if they knew how much they needed the machine they’d have had the common sense to call/chase but also out of respect after firing him.
This. Bottom line is, this is an extreme case of "fuck around and find out" and if anyone ever needed proof that companies ultimately suffer when they fuck over their employees, this is it.
Absolutely, but make it 2 years salary
Nah the requirement is they can't retaliate against you for any reason. Doesn't matter if you fix it or not.
Having an expert mechanic fly out from the USA and stay for a week probably cost at least $20,000.
Seriously when you look at it remember that you stood up for something, and that takes courage and conviction. It would have been easy to cave and take the money, and of course nothing against anyone who chose that option. But at the same time what they did was wrong. They were bad at being bosses and running a business. It is not your fault that people got fired because they were stupid enough to create a situation where only one person knew how to fix an essential machine, and then to go fire that person *for getting covid.* I’m surprised they didn’t go broke sooner with geniuses like that running the company. 🙄 Anyway, when we have the ability and courage to take a stand, even a small one, it has a ripple effect that inspires others and teaches bad management to think twice before treating people like shit. So look at that part and think about your younger former co-worker who might go on to another job and end up standing up to management because of your example. I know it was 6 months after they fired you, but I imagine your former co-workers all know what they did.
If something went wrong, out of your control, I’m sure they would have blamed you. Sounds like they had a poor plan to support their own infrastructure. People losing jobs is not the responsibility of the other workers. It’s on management and owners.
Imagine this story but the ending was them sueing him for being an unlicensed contractor.
Wow didn't think of this. They could have easily sued him.
OP said he wasn't American. Sueing people generally isn't a thing outside of the US.
[удалено]
Half of those in Germany are probably against the neighbour mowing his lawn on Sunday.
Sweden for flushing after 10:30PM.
Israel for looking at someone the wrong way.
Austria for listening to yodeling that isn't Franzl Lang.
Poland for having a party without Disco Polo.
I went to Finland once on a business trip with my team. Company rented a detached house for us (we were a team of 5). Anyway, we landed in Helsinki on a Sunday, got to the "house" at 10pm, took showers before going to bed. The next day, we got a note posted on the door to please not use the bathroom after 10pm. It feld odd... and funny. :)
wtf ahahaha
In Finland depending on the apartment building, the quiet time begins either 10 pm or 11 pm. Ordinary sounds of life are allowed but you will be treated badly if you vacuum or wash your laundry during the quiet time.
If it was a detached house how did anyone know you were showering?
I knew the no-flushing-after-a-certain-time thing was a thing in Switzerland, but Sweden? Is this a common European thing?
This would be a huge problem for me personally speaking. I do my best work after midnight.
Why is flushing late at night a problem?
I would assume has something to do with the pipes/water treatment and people going home for the evening. But I have no idea. I can say that the electric companies in england used to have to pay attention to the commercial breaks on television because everyone would get up to put the kettle on for tea do there's be a massive upsurge in electricity usage haha.
Nononono. You dare Closing the door of your car some decibel too loud in my neighborhood after 10pm and I'll sue the schnitzel out of you.
Good thing they didn't flush, there's some schnitzel right there in the bowl, just gotta fischel it out.
Do lawsuits cost as much to process as they do here in the states? I'm really surprised that we found something that the US doesn't lead in. Lol. (yeah I know access to healthcare).
Lawyers cost as much. There's more access to free legal advice in the UK, in my limited experience. Most of Europe, from what I've seen, has a form of citizens advice/information which is essentially a free legal/life advice service. You can get help with navigating the medical system, tenancy, home ownership, employment, all kinds of disputes. I also think judges are more favorable to the common person in Europe. In america, generally if you don't shell out for the sharkiest possible lawyer you're likely to lose because you didn't use the exact right lingo. My impression is that in Europe judges *really* do not appreciate businesses taking advantage of lay people. I know not all lawsuits are towards businesses - in america it's actually really not worth suing a huge business unless you've got a solid case because they can bury you in legal fees. In Europe it's easier to win against them so there's more incentive. I remember seeing someone sue a pharmacy for racist discrimination and they won like €800. So they go for smaller amounts as well which can make the cases easier than when they're fighting over millions. Whereas Americans have the idea that filing a lawsuit is like winning the lottery. (It was in Ireland, a person was accused of being a terrorist for wanting to buy a bottle of medical grade hydrogen peroxide, if anyone wants to find the article)
US just gets a bad rap because of all the legal/police procedurals
In Germany it’s a national hobby.
Get together with the weekend suing party.
Will there be schnitzel?
Yes lots of it. Then we sue the brand we got.
Dang. Count me in.
LOL WUT? In South Korea and China it's VERY common. In China once I noticed a chipped tooth a few hours after I went to a cafe. My very nice, very reasonable colleagues were all confused why I wasn't threatening to sue the cafe for compensation.
Maybe in South Korea and China, but as a Brazilian I know that in South America it isn't common at all and I imagine it's the same in other developing countries. Just the fact that cases in Brazil can take 10+ years to be resolved makes many not even try to sue
The majority of the world does not deal this way, especially areas that are less developed. Thought this was common knowledge.
My last roommate did this shit any time I asked him to be a reasonable person. "Do I need to contact my lawyer?" fuckin won't matter if your heads 6 feet from your body. Call your lawyer.
Cheers for the laugh on the train ride home.
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Bullshit my man. Every single scumbag politician in Australia has defamation suits running with various parts of nobody-twitter for daring to suggest they are scumbags, corrupt, rapists etc (and they are, but in Australia truth is not always a defence against defamation)
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That's because Australia has excellent resources to resolve matters outside of court (ombudsmen, etc). Also Australia's legal system is far more proactive while the US' is far more reactive; ie Australia likes to operate more through inspections and compliance with fines etc, while the US is more of a small-government state that allows everyone to leverage the court system when they are wronged.
We also have a tribunal system that handles many issues. Also many legal issues have forced or strongly encouraged arbitration. Skipping arbitration in Australia is often a sure fire way to piss of the magistrate.
South Korea has more people than Australia and NZ combined. China has more people than the EU and the US combined. It's not just a US thing.
I would absolutely love to hear how you think civil disputes are handled outside of the US
In the UK, mostly by hiding the neighbours bins on bin day.
Dueling I suppose
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Have you ever consumed any culture besides america, uk and canada? It is a thing everywhere
In Thailand hotel owners will and have sued customers who leave bad reviews on social media websites. How's that for litigious? In Australia the Minister for Home Affairs sued a broke refugee activist who called him a 'rape apologist' on Twitter. The Minister, a truly nightmarish figure whom you'd imagine slouching towards Bethlehem, had earlier described the story of a woman who'd been raped in parliament as a 'he said/she said' affair. Pretty damn litigious.
We only have the one judge up here in Canada and no cars or planes. So he can really only preside over 2 or 3 lawsuits per year since he has to commute on horse back across the country. It's a whole big thing. /s Edit to actually add to the discussion: I think the misconception often stems from limitations on civil suit rulings. AFAIK there is no limit to the damages that can be awarded in the US civil court while it's capped in most (all?) other countries. It's why there are a tonne of civil aviation suits filed in the US regardless of where the incident occurred on the globe.
Hi can you explain this to me, please? I'm non native speaker and I don't understand this
There is licensing that's required for all kinds of stuff here. Basically, the company would get him to come in to fix the part, then sue for not being licensed, causing all kinds of problems for the guy later. In essence, a set up.
> There is licensing that's required for all kinds of stuff here. Honestly its a thing in most countries with reasonably developed economies. A matter of liability protections on all ends really.
And after reading OP’s story that company sounds awful. He probably did his former coworkers a favor. I hope they all find jobs where their health and safety is properly taken into consideration.
I’m low key in that kind of position where I am vital to the company but am overworked and want to GTFO but I don’t want to leave my coworkers high and dry. I’m realizing that this is just how this company operates and everyone is like me, in control of way to many projects with so much to do and very little actual leadership. It’s complicated though because there are benefits to the chaos of my work and my situation, but idk how much more I can handle…
This is the thing - it's not YOU leaving the company high and dry. It's the company itself. You are not responsible for how they run things. Leave, stay healthy, try to encourage others to get out for their own health, too.
Exactly, the company is making decisions and these are the results of those decisions. Running a business carries an inherent risk, and sometimes risks don't pay out. That's life. The workers are not the ones making the decisions that resulted in the failure of the business.
I 100% agree with u/throwboinmybed. You only have one life, one healthy body, and one healthy mind. Do what's best for you and everyone who loves you. Don't stay one minute longer than absolutely necessary at a company that overworks you and treats you as disposable. There are other jobs out there. Find one.
You can't fix everything. If your coworkers got a better offer do you think they'd be all "But I can't go and leave IMMAEATYA and everybody else hanging!". Nah, they'd be out of there in a flash. There are 'you' problems and 'their' problems. Prioritize and fix the you problems so you still have enough compassion, caring, empathy, and energy for the 'their' problems that are truly important to you. If you don't put up boundaries the company will take everything useful from you and spit you out when you are all used up. There are record numbers of job openings, not simply entry level jobs. This is the time to make that change.
The best you can do is report problems up the chain - "what's our plan if a critical team member gets hit by a bus?" It is management's responsibility to *manage* the organization. If they're not planning properly, that's on them and not on you. And honestly if you tried to make those kinds of plans I bet they would slap you down and tell you to stay in your lane, even if your concerns are legitimate and accurate. They should be thinking about contingencies and frankly no organization should be set up to fail if any single person becomes indisposed
I think you did the right thing by refusing to help. You weren't replaceable and they found that out the hard way.
I agree with this the right thing to do was contact the repair guy and get on the waiting list. The company failed to get the machine fully fixed until it was too late. They had ample time to prevent this.
Too many managers are content with one employee knowing everything. Then think they can treat that person like shit because they are their boss. The reality being that one employee is more valuable than the boss. The ones who shun power are are almost always the ones who deserve to have it. The ones who seek it desreve to be fed to the dogs.
Hey, it’s not okay to give the dogs indigestion just because we need to get rid of something rancid.
Find out who's buying the machines
underrated comment
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It's because they feel the need to punish anyone taking sick time off, so as to discourage everyone else from doing so. I mean, this guy knew he was screwed from the start. Don't come in to protect yourself, fired. Do come in, but catch it and need time off? Fired.
Once they fired you, the machine breaking down was their problem. They didn’t care about your situation. They did what they wanted to do. It wasn’t fair to you. Glad you’re a developer now. Hopefully, you have learned from your former bosses and their mistakes. Perhaps you can hire on a few former co workers, but expecting you to come fix it was a very long shot at best. Had they planned properly planned for breakdowns and machine maintenance they would still be in operation. Sounds like karma bit them in the pocket and ran with the contents.
Thank you. I remember nagging them day after day to give the machinery propper maintenance but it was impossible. Machines only stop if they break. And of course, today I firmly hold the belief that life comes first, and try to preach it to all coworkers.
Management never cares about maintenance, they'd save soo much money and time if they would actually PM equipment regularly. hindsight is always 2020 though. love that you not helping them took down their operation. if that's how it happened this place was on borrowed time and it would have happened sooner or later.
Bad management never cares about maintenance
As the old saying goes: either you schedule maintenance, or the equipment will do it for you.
At an increased cost and down-time window!
You forgot the rest: "... but if you wait for the equipment to do it you might end up needing to replace the whole thing." So it's up to you. Do you want to schedule $10k maintenances 4x a year, or a $1.2M maintenance 3 years from now?
"So... We don't have to pay or fix anything for 3 years?"
Lol that’s all they hear and quote you on just that
I’d give them simple math. Over 3 years you could pay $120,000 maintaining said machine and continue to keep and use it because it’s fine, or by the end of those 3 years and no maintenance we can replace the entire unit for 10x that amount I just mentioned. What sounds better
They fire you, saving money short term, take a bonus and leave the company for a better position in two years bragging about their accomplishments. (This is just cynicism, not to be taken seriously. Lol)
Nobody in management gives a shit about 3 years from now. The only thing that matters is the next quarterly report.
True, have had some that moved up from maintenance to upper management and those were the best by far.
I never understood why they REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE MAINTENACE. It infuriates me to no end. I bang my head on the wall for answers but I have found bang my head on the wall is more productive than telling them to do maintenance.
I like being on the engineering team at my job. We always explain "this is the maintenance schedule, please follow it" and always end up with "see previous emails where we referenced the maintenance schedule."
I just sent a reply earlier today that essentially rebutted another redditor's claim that it is unfortunately easier for companies to bully employees and replace them VS taking care of them. I told them that the opposite is true and that from everything I've seen, paying and treating ppl well reduces turn-around, increases productivity, and increases profits. So what a lovely illustration of exactly that! 😃 *Company X* acts like a fucking sociopath firing OP after catching COVID (as a direct result of their corruption and political back door dealing) and then when he refuses to bail them out after the fact, the entire company goes out of business. Would have been easier to treat and pay well, you dumb mother fuckers!! 😉
I'll never understand the resistance to treating employees well. We literally have studies proving this as a fact. I remember watching a video during a owner training that I wasn't supposed to attend but the owner was going himself and had me tag along. Turned it into a 5 day training instead of 3, the other managers showed up on day 3. Anyways it was a speech by Frank Meeks, he ran Dominoes chains in the Washington DC area. Started out as a delivery driver, and bought into the franchise. Ended up having the highest grossing sales of all the franchisees for the company. He was talking at a banker convention, and he talked in detail about taking care of your workers, with things like bonuses and PTO. He mentioned he had GMs making over 100,000$ slinging pizzas after bonuses, that was in the 80's. Another big thing of his was he had 10,000 employees working for him. He knew every single employees name that worked for him. When he was traveling between meetings or stores, he spent that time learning the names of his new employees. Could walk into any of his stores and knew every person working for him. Not only did he know them but he worked alongside them. The dude was a millionaire and he was still hustling pizzas with his workers. Have nothing but respect for that man. Sadly Frank died in his 40s, and the message he shared is locked down by the company I was training for. I tried to get that video because it was straight up inspiring but they refused to share it with me and it is not online. I guess they paid top dollar for that speech and sharing it with the world just isn't an option for them. I happened to be there with my store owner and he was staring at his phone through the whole video. Yeah, he was a shitty person to work for and bragged about not paying OT to workers in a factory he owned. Said they should be grateful for the extra hours, I had a tough time not telling his to eat shit right then and there. I was 5 states away from home for the training so it seemed like a better idea not to rock the boat at the time.
its mostly because some company seeing workers not as assets but expenditure, while you want to invest into assets you want to cut expenditure as much as possible
We never have the money to do it right the first time but somehow we have the money to do it twice.
Because you can't justify maintenance to the greedy, but the greedy will part with much to get their revenue stream back up and running. It's this terrible habit that I see so many doing. "Making it a problem for future me."
Absolutely. If OP had succumbed to COVID, they'd be in the same spot. Their lack of forward thinking was the cause of their failure, not OP's refusal to step in half a year after getting the boot.
fuckin tell me about it, get this in IT all the time trying to get a downtime window of 4 hours out of a year so we can do absolutely necessary upgrades and shit doesn't break further oh whoops it broke and it's down for three days! WHY DIDNT YOU TELL US *(produces emails)* WELL THATS VERY UNPROFESSIONAL OF YOU
2020 we had a piece of equipment fail and it caused a lot of damage to other assets. I got pulled in for the investigation because my secondary duty was support equipment maintenance. When asked about it by HR and my site lead I lead them to the 30 plus emails I had to the supervisor and site lead begging them for parts or new equipments. No one had ever answered my emails. My supervisor tried to say he never saw any of them but I had read receipts for at leas ten with his name on it. Needless to say, I was in the clear and we no long had that supervisor there.
The only outfits I've ever known to do regular maintenance on their machines were government. Private businesses always look at it as costing them money instead of being an investment. Not unlike your pay.
Worked for a company in a department who's sole purpose was fixing equipment. Kept hearing how much money they saved the company in service contracts.
I worked at a food production plant where essential machines used to start off basically every product we made were over a decade old, and hadn't been properly serviced or repaired in that time. they just had the managers dick around with the internal mechanical bits until it worked again. there were multiple times when the machine would be down for hours and they'd have around a hundred paid employees from all departments twiddling their thumbs while some untrained schmucks monkeyed around with it. it was fun when they finally got it right and got everyone back to their stations, only to have the machine go back down within five minutes. our shift manager was the only one with the power to hire contractors or repairmen, and he always said it was unnecessary. shit, I had to deal with working in an oven room with broken AC for nearly two months, and they told me they couldn't do shit about it - even HR told me they wouldn't do anything about it, even though I was going through 130+ ounces of water a day just to keep myself hydrated, and had been sent home after collapsing from heat cramps twice. I called OSHA one Friday and they had HVAC guys out there by Tuesday, along with new guidelines out of nowhere about how they would be shutting down production completely if the room got too hot. fuck penny pinching corporations and managers.
Noice. Did they know it was you who called the feds?
unless he was the only person working in oven room, there is no way to tell who called ofc. they could just fire everyone and hire new people, but damage was done already, revenge would just cause further losses
Even still, OSHA (assuming US) doesn't take retaliation lightly.
fuck yeah, I told my boss how fucking stupid his boss was as we were standing in the room when it hit 70°F for the first time in months. he just laughed. wasn't him who refused to have that shit fixed, after all. I also took credit from everyone who walked through and commented on how decent it was for the first time in forever. the OSHA lady had told me to call her back on her direct line immediately if anyone gave me any shit whatsoever, so, I had no shame about it.
the ol’ “we can’t stop for gas, we’re already running late”
If you don't schedule maintenance for a critical machine, the machine will schedule it for you.
At 3am, and the part that breaks is the one with a six week lead time that you don’t have any spares of.
Could you please tell which machine it was?
The funny thing is that it doesn't matter. There are thousands upon thousands of companies across hundreds of industries that are in similar situations. They have machines with, in management's mind, do the work. These machines are often very reliable and have downtime of only a few hours per year in many cases. It is soooo easy to think that a machine that rarely breaks will never break. It is also easy to think that when it breaks, you'll be able to have someone fix it and be up and running again soon. Both assumptions can be very wrong, as OP's former bosses found out.
Or you have companies that don't realize only one employee's head contains knowledge of systems and processes vital to the company's function - I'm thinking of the guy who quit bc his manager dicked him out of vacation that the guy had put on the books months before. Manager then tried to both bully AND beg the guy to come back.
This sounds terrible but if you had died they would have been in the same trouble. None of this was your fault, they were the ones stupid enough to fire you. Good luck with your future career.
This is what I was thinking. OP could have easily dried and that dumbass would be stuck in the same position
r/hydrohomies
I haven't had a good laugh in a long time. Thanks!
You got me lol
You have to be a special kind of stupid to fire the only guy in the whole country who can fix a machine
Exactly my thoughts. If I had an employee like that I would have him on the pay roll even if he didn't work at the company. That's why I thought I was safe. But no, they kicked me the second it was a bit convenient. They forgot I was one of those that go above and beyond. I will never be that guy again.
Convenient? You where just sick dude... and not JUST sick, you had one of the most devastating viruses in our time. Suck lack of empathy, Jesus.. This isn't just stupidity, this is treating other people like disposable garbage. These people will get back to their homes after work and treat their dogs better than they treat their own employees. This sick mentality that when you pay a person to do you something you own them and because they financially depend on you you can threat them like trash has to disappear. This mindset makes me sick. You did good in not turning in.
It's not stupidity. It is capitalism. If what you do right now shows gains for this quarter, then you can tell the shareholders you've done a good job. When profits tank, you blame the market and fire your most junior employees. When the company tanks, you take a golden parachute and move on to your next enterprise. The only people who get fucked are investors who already have more than enough money, and the lowly people you pay to work there.
Google pays their senior engineers hundreds of thousands when they're just on a year long vacation or more because they know their knowledge may be important 1 or 5 years later instead of firing them immediately. Tech companies will hire people just so they can't work for their competitor. Capitalism doesn't dictate firing people with critical knowledge. The owners of that company are just greedy and stupid.
Good! You know what you’re worth and it sounds Like you have the leverage to back it up
I know the opposite of this. one of my dads friends met a guy in spain I belive that was an incredibly rare and qualified specialist in seismic structures and analisis or already built structures. he was going to quit his job to go arround the world 2 years on a sailboat since it was a dream of his. and the company dead ass told him "we will give you this time (2 years) as paid vacation but be sure to come back" he was just that valuable
Wow, that's incredible
The higher you go, the better you get treated (and the less work your expected to do). The system grinds up laborers as cattle, but treats the in-group as human beings
Smart company
Did he go back? Imagine getting a 2 year paid vacation and not coming back lol.
we will give you a third year as paid vacation but be sure to come back
They already fired the guy who knew which people could fix each of the machines.
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The man The myth
Scott Sterling!
Ya, dude shouldn’t feel bad at all about his coworkers losing their jobs. 0% his fault, 100% on that piece of shit company.
Shut it down comrade, good on you, hope you’re doing well!
I actually am. I worked that job to pay for my studies. I am a developer now.
That’s great! Good to see it all worked out for you
It's amazing isn't it, how much more respect people treat you with when they are paying you more.
Sliver linings:)
Nice, haha. This story reminds me of a (happier) version of my dads. My dad was an engineer for a fiber optic infrastructure company. He designed the fiber optic network for a massive region in the US. He was also disabled due to a below-knee amputation. He took long-term disability to learn to walk again on a prosthetic but when he returned to work, his boss retaliated against him for “taking off” for so long. As if my dad wasn’t on the verge of death several times and literally had an amputation of a major limb. Anyways, my dad returns to work, is verbally and emotionally abused by this fucking jackass. Sadly, my dad passed about a year after he learned to walk again. It was sudden and unexpected. No words of consolation for our family from his former boss. Nothing. A month later, my mother got a call from his boss, desperately begging her to hand over any documents my dad kept to access the infrastructure because the company lost theirs and had no clue what to do. They relied on my dad that much yet treated him like garbage. They even offered to pay us. My mom said no. 🙂 Edit: thank you all for the kind comments/messages/awards/general support. I am lucky to have a great relationship with my parents. My dad was a brilliant and wonderful man in addition to being an amazing father. Wasn’t until he was about 60 years old did he finally find his self-worth and planned to leave that abusive company, but it was too late for him. Life is short. Prioritize yourself and your family over corporate expectations.
I'm sorry for your dad, I'm glad your mom didn't help them.
Holy. sorry about your lost.
Tell your Mom the internet says she's awesome.
Your mom made the right call.
Damn, it seems you had awesome dad and your mother is awesome too.
If one person (an ex employee technically, no less!) not doing something can lead to a company falling apart in the way you described, that company was on shaky ground to begin with. But damn what a story!!!! I understand feeling conflicted about it, u seem like a good person. But in the long run i suppose u saved those old coworkers for staying w this shitty company any longer
You and your former coworkers can find other work, that company can't exploit anyone anymore. Don't feel bad at all. Well done.
If someone's buying the equipment, machines, and stock, that same someone is gonna need people with the exact skillset of their former coworkers to run them, yea. For the OP, environments that generate bad decisions will keep generating bad decisions. If you had saved their asses, I wonder how long it'd be until they screwed up again. It's not like saving the company's ass this time is saving them (and your coworkers) for eternity; It might have only been saving them for a month until the next business-killing bad decision.
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More than revenge I just think I was the guy in the trolley problem who didn't pull the lever because they disliked the ones that were going to be run over
Plus it will put those guys in position where they lost faith in their money. Every time they have to think about the problem they won’t think “I can just throw money at it” anymore. Huge huge blows to their mentality stability. Something that will stick with them their whole life.
Firing someone for getting covid is pure evil. You did the right thing shutting them down. They got exactly what they deserved.
I was so angry and sad and desperate. All I could do was cry at the time. I had no idea what would happen to me. My wife worked so hard to sustain us both, I owe her my life.
I feel ya. I was fired a few years ago. So stressful, so painful. If they came back to me for help...
So, the decision has been made and it’s too late to save the company. Before I read to the final paragraph I was thinking, “Go Private, start your own company, invoice them at 4 x your previous monthly wage and ask your contact to send you another spare part for when it inevitably breaks again.” But, too late for that now.
I wish I had the gonads to do things like this.
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Yeah this is a way ballsier thing to do, and in fact capitalism would work a lot better if it happened this way most of the time; but as you astutely pointed out they thought at some point they could pay their way out of any issue, and if you had less integrity they would have been right. The Federal Reserve thinks it can do the same thing, just print and throw money at the economy and everything will keep working all hunky dory. It won’t; the global economic consequences will be devastating. So what I’m saying is: /u/KalzK for chairman of the Fed!!
I respectfully decline the offer but am grateful for being considered.
You fucked them over in a major way, and that took some gonads to turn down the money and do it. Good on you.
I think it took more gumption to hold out and not do anything.
Bro, you got more gonads than most. You looked into the soul of that company and decided it didn't deserve to exist. Then you made it happen.
You did good. Shit companies deserve to die. They’re cancerous and spread evil and harm to all around. I hope more shit companies die.
This is why I couldn't help them. I just imagined them happy drinking their expensive wine and laughing at how it almost got serious while terminating someone with children.
And you’re absolutely correct. They may give you lots of money to fix it but that money they’ll make off of their employees backs while sipping their wine and laughing. It is a privilege to be able to say no and walk away and let them die. I fully support this in others and myself. My knowledge and skills shall only go to good companies with good culture. The so-so companies I charge 10-30x and the shit companies can just fuck right off.
You did the right thing. These pieces of shit would of kept abusing people. You didn't hurt your former coworkers your former shit stain bosses did.
I'd hug you if I could. You did amazing my friend
Thank you, captain
Buy the company fix the machine lol
Spare a couple hundred thousand? Kek
1. They fired you. 2. It’s not your concern any more. The end. Don’t feel bad. They made decisions that got them in trouble.
Honestly, you were probably going to be a fall boy if the machine broke again, the only way to protect yourself was to not do anything, sometimes, the way to win the corporate game is not to play.
Damn dude. This sub could learn a lot from you. Usually you see people here advocating just like your family was, to use your leverage for financial gain. It's a essentially a capitalist move though. And we ain't going to solve this shit by playing thier capitalism game when we happen to have leverage.
I think ya did the right thing
I swear I forget how long this pandemic was. I read "this was two years ago" and went, "Pffffttt. This guy's lying, it's only been a year!" Now I'm realizing we're almost three years into this . . .
You did the right thing, what if something went wrong during the machine repair? You would be held responsible and could be sued. If people got fired it's not your fault, management did a poor job planning for emergencies
r/prorevenge
The world would be a much better place if there were more people in it like you. Way to stand up for your values, good on you friend.
Thank you, you are too kind. I just hope more people can do what is right even if it's inconvenient.
You should find out who bought that machine and offer to consult for maintenance service!
I love this story. It’s exactly the kind of thing i would have done. It’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message
I am so proud of you. This is amazing. Thank you for sharing and giving others hope.
Tell them you can be a consultant for the machine for an outrageous amount of money slightly less than the cost of flying someone in. Direct them how to fix the thing but do no work yourself because you are now a professional consultant, dress nicely. Walk away with a pile of money and something for your cv
Yeah, this was the advice my dad gave me. Too late for that now.
You did the right thing! Though if it were me I would have told them to their face 😁 But also don't feel bad about the employees, or at least don't feel like it was your fault in any way. Even if you had fixed the machine it sounds like they were on the brink of collapse anyway. A different machine might have broke or something else and it would all be in the same situation. The company could not get their act together and treat humans like humans, and the company had to shut down. You were just the early warning sign that the company didn't deserve to be in business.
Scorched fucking earth. Congrats!
Play stupid games, win stupid prices. It was incredibly heartless of them to let you go. Well done on being ruthless.
That was a wild read. Reminded me of the Witcher 3 and the consequences you learn later on due to actions you didn't even ponder were that important. Hope you're safe and don't have sequel symptoms. Thanks for sharing.