Nearing the end of one’s career can be a bittersweet thing, especially if you’ve been good at and also enjoyed your job (if not your bosses).
OP’s friend was an old timer in charge of certain data and reports that got forwarded to the higher ups every week. He wasn’t super tech savvy but he got the job done.
So I have a friend Ted who 6-7 years ago was 64 and considering retirement. Ted worked in Health analytics for a large metro health organisation. He would look at patient data and see ways to improve patient outcomes and gain funding.
Each month he would email to the relevant department heads data and links for government grants or funding applications.
Things got sticky for a bit when a new boss showed up and said she wanted the reports emailed to her instead, but OP’s friend just shrugged and complied.
Twelve months prior to this Ted got a new boss Sally who didn’t appreciate what Ted did. Sally pretty much ignored Ted except for a simply instruction that all data and reports go to her and no one else. She would deal with it.
Then, the company was set to do a restructure in which OP’s friend was to lose his “redundant” position. His boss was extremely rude and let slip she had never opened a single email he’d sent.
The organisation declares a restructure with lots of Jobs losses . they are extremely determined to get this through. Ted is to be redundant.
In a meeting Sally tells Ted his work is useless and he is of no use to the organisation. She says she hasn’t opened one of his email reports in 12 months and that clearly shows he doesn’t matter to the organisation.
In three months he will be redundant and receive a handsome package(over a years pay) .Sally was pretty rude to Ted and Hr ask her to leave. it is decided that Sally will longer deal with Ted.
After some haggling he agreed to sick time plus the severance they offered. He was to forward relevant data to HR and then basically wipe himself from the system.
All of the emails he’d sent included.
The union was putting a a decent fight and slowing down the restructure. Ted makes the offer to Hr that he will not fight the redundancy if they pay him three months sick leave and after that his redundancy.
They agree but insist that he does a full data clean for patient confidentiality reasons in the next two days and than his sick leave starts.
Cue malicious compliance. Ted backs up a copy than rings IT who delete every file (all on his hard drive and not on a server-he was not so Tech savvy ) and physically destroy his hard drive.
He also asks them also to search through any unopened emails he had sent and delete them off the server. IT wipe every last trace of Ted from the system.
His boss called on his last day (unaware it was his last day) to ask for some information. He told her to ask again tomorrow.
Ted gave the copy of his data to the internal auditors on his last day.
On Ted’s last day he also discovered that Sally didn’t know he was going on sick leave the next day.
She rings with a sweet as pie voice saying” Hey Ted I need to look at those numbers you sent me as i can’t find them. The auditors say we are 2.2 million short of funding this year and you might be able to help out”
Ted replies sure but ring me tomorrow. Ted leaves and retires happily every after.
OP’s friend never answered another call or email and the terrible boss ended up on the hook for millions in company losses.
ally apparently could not find Ted’s data in the coming weeks. Ted ignored her calls as he was on sick leave.
The internal auditors investigated and found that Sally had cost the organisation over 2.5 million in funding . At the same time complaints came from department heads about Ted’s redundancy.
Someone forwarded Ted an email a couple months later from the CEO stating “after a brief conversation with Sally she has decide to look for other opportunities.
This one is pretty epic, I think, but does Reddit agree? They’re about to dish!
A case of too little time and too much liability.
It turns out that outgoing employees might actually know a thing or two.
But maybe that’s exactly what the higher-ups deserve.
Some things can only be learned by time and doing.
No exceptions will be made.
I do not feel sorry for this woman at all.
A classic tale of having to lie in one’s own filthy bed.