Getting a job at a tech startup can be very rewarding, both financially and for your career, but only if the company is run properly.

What would you do if your new boss at the startup was abusive and was setting impossible deadlines that you could never meet?

That is what happened to the young programmer in this story, so after his boss cut his pay by half, he found a new job and after leaving, the whole project failed, resulting in the company going out of business.

Check it out.

Cut my salary in half? Kiss your business goodbye.

The cast:

Me – your storyteller of the moment.

Chad – Hiring CTO.

Richard – CEO, brother of Chad.

Big Bro – Engineer coworker

Eddie – IT and Desktop support guy.

This takes place near the very beginning of my software engineering career, back in ’05 or ’06.

Sounds like an interesting story.

I’d just been let go from my previous place of employment due to be being compliant with directives I’d been given, and thus working myself out of a job.

I was a young college dropout from a technical college that hadn’t been federally accredited yet, and thus all my student loans were from banks and loan companies instead of from Uncle Sam, and debts were due.

I was also making payments on my very first car, even though it was a beater that the prior owners had already nearly driven into the ground (4 years old and nearly 200k miles on it when I bought it), and of course, rent and utilities.

The job I’d just been let go from already had me working paycheck to paycheck as they paid far under average rate, but I was still new professional so I couldn’t be very choosy.

I was living in Los Angeles county, so the cost of living was so bad, I was having to choose which bills were going to be late on a monthly basis.

Specifically, I was living in a town called San Pedro, a small town tucked fairly out of the way.

After blasting my resume to all the job boards, I get a call from a startup who seems interested in my resume and wants me to come in for a face-to-face interview (skipping the call-screen entirely).

In my desperation, I agree. I’m given an address, which is all the way up in Woodland Hills.

I check the internet.

55 minute drive so long as there’s no traffic.

With traffic it looks like the commute will be more like an hour and forty-five minutes each way.

I’m desperate though, and literally nobody else has reached out to me about my resume or responded to my applications, so I go to the interview.

I arrive to a mostly empty office complex.

Maybe 6 or 7 other cars in a parking lot capable of holding at least 50.

I go into the building mentioned in the address, and call the phone number I was given to let them know I’ve arrived.

Enter Chad.

Chad comes to meet me, and seems excited that I’ve come!

He escorts me through the building to an office.

Mind you, as far as I can see, we’re the only two humans in the building.

He gives me the pitch for the company, tells me he built the software being sold, but it’s not scalable, and needs someone who can rewrite it.

Hopefully this will be a good opportunity.

After we go through the whole interview song and dance, he offers me the job on the spot.

The pay is marginally higher than the last gig, so I figure gas would be covered for the commute.

I agree, and we shake hands, as I’m going to be starting the next Monday.

Red flags start appearing from the very first minute I arrive on Monday.

First, I’m given a tour, which consists of the 14×14 foot office I’m going to be sharing with Chad, as well as another engineer who’s going to be starting the following Monday. I’m not a fan of having someone able to look over my shoulder, it makes me nervous.

I ask why each engineer’s desk has two computers. “Because the one you will be writing code on doesn’t have internet access, for security purposes.”

(Note: this was pure paranoia. There was nothing about this software that required such tight security, we weren’t doing any gov’t contracts or anything of the sort.)

Then, I’m escorted clear across the building, to meet with the CEO (Richard), the IT guy (Eddie), and the sales/support team.

I’m told that half of the team is supporting the existing version of the application, 2 people are selling the existing version to new clients (or trying to), and one person is explicitly tasked with selling the new version.

The one I haven’t even started on yet.

That is a dangerous sales technique.

I’m still young and dumb at this point, but even I know this means the salesperson is probably giving out a date when the customer should expect their purchase to be filled.

“It’s a good thing you started when we did, we’ve been telling customers it’ll be ready in June.” Did I mention all this was happening in February?

Apparently I’ve agreed to rewrite, test, and package an entire application I’ve never seen before in approximately four months.

So, tour being done, I sit down and get to work.

After jumping through a bunch of hoops of getting the software I prefer downloaded onto the actual work machine, as well as the code, I set about reviewing code so horrific I’ve not seen its like since, and there isn’t a single comment in the entire thing.

Before I can ask a single question of the CTO however, he tells me he’s headed to downtown LA to scalp his tickets to the Lakers game, and that he’ll see me tomorrow.

So, now I’m alone in the office with this abomination, a machine that’s been hamstrung to heck and back, and the only thing I’ve got to console me is the fact that at least I’m employed again.

Fast-forward a week, I’ve documented the bulk of the code (because there wasn’t any), and the boss and I do not get along.

He’s mad because I’ve not written any substantial code, and I’m frustrated because I’m trying to understand a lot of what specific code is trying to do and he’s routinely leaving around noon to go sell his tickets for Laker’s games, or just not in the office because he’s chatting with someone else.

Documenting other people’s code is extremely difficult.

When he is in the office, I show him my documentation, and try to get him to verify it or describe the purpose of code where all I can say is “Wat?”

By the end of the week, I’ve covered about 30% of the project in a wiki-like document, and I’ve taken to leaving after sunset so I can a) get more done, b) have a shorter commute, and c) drive when my car isn’t an oven (the ac didn’t work).

I’ve barely managed to convince the CTO that what I’m doing is necessary so the engineer starting the next Monday doesn’t have to do anywhere near the same crap I’ve got, which would make us a more efficient team.

Monday arrives, and in comes Big Bro.

I call him this because he was a much more experienced engineer than I was.

We spend the first day with him getting set up, then us reviewing what I’ve documented. He manages to answer some questions the CTO never did, just because he is that much better, and I start to feel more confident.

Having someone you like at work is invaluable.

Over the next weeks, Big Bro took me under his wing as an engineer teaching me best practices, standards, and where my plans were good and where they could be better.

If it hadn’t been for him, I’d have gone insane! I end up joining him outside for smoke breaks even though I don’t smoke, just so I can get a breath of non-office air.

He and I discuss the project, and we also make friends with Eddie, who makes us laugh by telling us horror stories about the CTO and CEO (apparently he was a school *friend* of theirs and basically worked with them because they paid him to do something he felt was super easy).

April rolls around.

I’ve got a special occasion I need the day off for, which happens to be a Wednesday that year.

I’d advised him when I first started and he’d been cool with it.

I remind him on April 2nd (since I had an irrational fear of policy decisions being made on April Fool’s Day), and he loses it.

He goes off on a rant, and straight up informs me that he regrets hiring me, claiming I didn’t have the skills I told him I did, and wasn’t worth what I was being paid.

We’re definitely not half-way done (more like one third), and it’s already been decided that June is a lost cause and that we’re shooting for August now.

That habit I started before, of leaving after the sun went down?

Yeah, that never stopped.

I was arriving at 9am every day, and leaving around 10pm every night, trying my best.

Big bro was the same, and Eddie would stay late with us just because we liked hanging out together.

I don’t know how he restrained himself.

So, it should be understandable that I was very close to losing it right back at him.

In a strained, yet diplomatic voice, I told him that if he put in the same amount of work to help us as we put in to rewrite *his* code, we’d probably be a lot closer to done than we were, especially given the twelve hour days.

He was not a fan of that, and switched to straight up yelling, blaming us for the lost sales and refunds due to the delays, and that the only way he’d get off our backs was by getting the project done.

This entire time Big Bro is just sitting there, and says nothing to back me up.

Chad then left the office for a bit, and I just declared I was taking my lunch and would be back in an hour.

I felt frustrated by Chad and betrayed by Big Bro, who I felt (rightly or not) should have had my back since we were in the same boat.

When we were both back in the office, he apologized for yelling and told me that since he agreed when I was hired I could have my day off.

Cool.

I apologized too, although not for anything specific.

I just didn’t want to talk to him anymore and figured that was the fastest way to end the conversation.

Fast forward to June, and the opportunity for Malicious Compliance.

Over the last two months, Chad has been getting worse and worse.

He’s yelling nearly every day (and still leaving early too).

Big Bro and Eddie are also feeling the pain, nobody is safe from his ego.

The smoke breaks and afternoon/evening portion of our day are when we’re most productive, as nobody can focus until Chad leaves.

Chad is a real jerk.

The first Monday in June rolls around and Chad invites me to go on a walk outside for a 1-on-1 meeting.

I figured I’m being fired (at this point we’ve had to refactor the rewrite almost entirely due to missing a critical chunk of functionality, and we’re still only 60% done. August release is looking less and less sure).

Chad informs me that he’s hired a 3rd engineer, but in order to stay in the budget to pay him, he’s cutting my salary in half.

I stop on the spot and just give him a blank look.

“Are you serious?” I ask. “I’m barely able to pay for my bills and the gas required to commute here as it is. If you cut my salary at all, I won’t be able to afford to live.”

At this point the idea of cutting my productivity to help ramp up a new engineer so he can help us meet the deadline doesn’t even occur to me, although in hindsight that would have also been a pretty major issue.

It’s going to be his problem when this guy leaves.

Chad brushes me off. “That’s not my problem. The fact that you missed one deadline and look like you’re gonna miss another is. If you’ve got a problem with that, you’re more than welcome to go find another job. The new guy starts in two weeks.”

And with that he walks inside.

I’d just been told that I had two weeks left of job at my current salary. Cool.

So, that day I do something I hadn’t done since I first started.

I left while the sun was still up. (Specifically, I left at 5pm).

I drive my oven-car (no working Air Conditioning in a car that had been left in the sun all day in Woodland Hills had me feeling like a baked potato) through traffic (hour and a half-commute home through LA heat), and updated my resume before reactivating my accounts on all the job sites.

I’m contacted the next day by a potential new employer, and I get an interview scheduled.

I decide to tell Big Bro about the new opportunity, and he hits me with news that lets me know just how small a world we live in.

Me: “Hey, Big Bro, just fyi I’ve started looking for a new job. I’ve already got an interview lined up.”

Big Bro: “Really? Where?”

Me: “Over at <company>”

I wonder why he left.

Big Bro: “Wow! That’s where I worked before I came here! That place is pretty awesome, and I left there on pretty good terms. I know the CTO there, go ahead and use me as a reference!”

Me, skeptical: “Really? Okay….”

Turns out Big Bro was true to his word, and the CTO and I even talked about Big Bro during the interview.

Apparently they’d already talked about me, and Big Bro had been the ultimate hype man, confirming everything I said about why I was looking for a new job and everything.

All goes well, and I’m electronically signing an offer-letter that Friday afternoon (Chad had already left for the day, so there was nobody to look over my shoulder as I used the work computer that *had* internet access to get this done).

This sounds like a great opportunity.

At the new Job, the commute is cut by more than half, and comes with a pretty significant raise.

I tell Big Bro and Eddie on the last smoke break (I still don’t smoke) that I’m done, and I’ve found something new.

Oddly enough, they both smile and just wish me luck.

“No hard feelings, hope we stay in touch!”

Odd, but I’d stopped really caring about anything related to that job, so I paid it no mind.

I went back inside, packed up my stuff into my backpack, and walked to the CEO’s office.

Me: “Hey Richard, got a minute?”

Richard: “Hey, what’s up?”

Me: “Just wanted to let you know I found a new job, so I’m moving on.”

Richard: “Really, why? We need you!”

Me: “You guys decided it was cool to cut my salary to a point where I couldn’t afford to live. Chad said if I didn’t like it, I should look for something new, so I did.”

Richard, looking defeated: “Well, when’s your last day?”

Me: “Today.”

Richard, now angry: “We need you here to train the new guy who starts soon!”

Did they really expect him to stay for half pay?

Me: “Hey, I had to train myself and to an extent, Big Bro when he first started. The new guy should be able to as well.”

And with that, I left for greener pastures.

The unexpectedly *huge* fallout:

Four months later, Big Bro texts me to ask me how things are going.

I tell him things are great, and we schedule a lunchtime call because apparently things have gone sideways in a huge way.

Part 1) Apparently Chad came in on Monday almost violently angry, and demands Eddie re-image my work machine first thing in the morning, which erases everything I’d left on there.

Big Bro comes in an hour later, and he and Chad discuss the new timeline for the project.

Somewhere in there apparently Big Bro asks Chad to log into the admin account on my old work machine so he can pull the documents I’d accumulated about the planned architecture, the existing code, meeting notes, etc.

Chad answers by apparently punching a hole in the wall, and leaving for the day (probably to go to the hospital to deal with his hand), at 10:30 in the morning.

Big Bro then spends the rest of that week ostensibly working on recreating the documentation from scratch.

I wish I got to read that document.

Part 2) When I asked how the new guy handled the new documentation, Big Bro laughed and told me there never was any documentation.

Apparently he and Eddie had become really good friends in the months we worked there, to the point where they’d become roommates about a month before I left.

More than that though, they’d decided to start a freelance/consulting business together and only had to decide on when to make that their full time jobs.

Neither of them liked Chad much, and wanted to make their departure hurt as much as possible.

So, they decide to make Big Bro’s last day the day before the new guy starts, and Eddie would quit shortly afterward, sticking around just long enough to watch the bomb go off.

Did I mention Big Bro never told Chad he was quitting?

Yeah. He just didn’t show up that Monday.

He had, however, emailed that ‘documentation’ he’d spent a week writing to Chad.

Turns out he wasn’t documenting the code at all.

He’d spent a week writing a letter explaining in excruciating detail why Chad was such a bad boss, and he’d emailed it to everyone in the company.

I asked if he still had it so I could read it, and he sent it to me after the call.

Thankfully, like the big helper he was, Eddie had ensured that the new guy’s email was set up and in the proper groups before the email was sent, so the guys first email in the company was a novella about the kind of person he agreed to work for.

Apparently Chad thought it was appropriate to take his frustration out on the new guy, who’d already read a significant portion of the email before Chad shoved him away from his desk and deleted it.

Apparently new guy promptly decided (and rightfully so) that agreeing to work for Chad had been a mistake, packed up his things, and quit on the spot.

Oh, I bet they were so sad.

Part 3) With the new guy quitting, the August deadline was now little more than a dream within a dream, which according to Eddie doesn’t stop Chad and Richard from trying to find that miracle rock star engineer who can save them from their own situation (which, given what they were offering as pay, didn’t exist).

So, time advances in its unstoppable way, August arrives, and customers find that they’ve paid for something that hasn’t been delivered yet, and pretty much unanimously demand refunds, with a few customers bringing legal action against them.

With the amount they have to refund, and the money they now need for legal fees (because of they way they’d incorporated, they were personally liable), they could no longer afford to pay anyone, and were forced to shutter the business.

Oh, what a shame.

It sounds like Chad got exactly what he deserved.

Read on to see what the people in the comments think of this story.

This person might know these guys.

Some people like making things more difficult for themselves.

40k lines of code with no documentation is a nightmare.

I could use one myself.

This person is surprised they stayed in business as long as they did.

Bad developer, bad boss, bad person.

Chad had the trifecta.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.