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Workplace loyalty doesn’t always go both ways.

In this story, a man worked in tech support at an engineering office as the company was going bankrupt.

But as layoffs reduced the team to just a few people, he continued doing critical work while quietly job hunting.

Years later, he discovered a manager had secretly interfered with his chance to leave.

Uh oh, that sounds messed up! Check out the full details below.

You can’t have him

Years ago, in the mid-1980s, I was in a rather specific support role for an engineering office at a fairly large company.

Specifically, we had our own mainframe, an IBM 4381, to run CAD on.

I restarted VMs, rebooted 5080s, and ran backups and data transfers.

We had about 65 people, including architects, interior designers, and structural engineers.

This employee witnessed how his former company went bankrupt.

In the way of the world, the company went bankrupt.

We laid off the low performers with an excellent severance package.

A few months later, there was another round of layoffs.

This one really cut to the bone and had a minimal package because the company was bankrupt.

He and 4 high-level managers were the ones left.

As the remaining people took other jobs, one day I looked around.

It was just myself and four high-level managers.

These were the days of secretaries doing all the mundane tasks.

A couple of them didn’t know how to make coffee or refill the copier.

None of them knew how to turn on their secretary’s PC and find documents.

He was trying to find a new job and landed one eventually.

Meanwhile, I was talking to recruiters and sending out resumes.

I was trying to land somewhere else. Eventually, I did.

I waved goodbye to all on my way out the door.

A couple of years later, one of the recruiters contacted me.

As we chatted, he dropped a bombshell.

He later learned that one of the managers didn’t support his job search.

He said that when I was at that company, he had worked with one of the managers to place people.

He said he had gotten a lead for me and reached out to one of the managers.

The manager told him not to do anything for me because I was the only one who could do the work.

Wow, really!

He never forgave the manager.

That manager was not even my boss.

He was just there while the company went from 65 people down to 5.

All production facilities were shuttered and bills were not being paid.

They were forcing me to stay on the Titanic. I was there to rearrange the deck chairs.

I never forgave that manager.

Wow, that’s seriously messed up. To be honest, it sounds both good and bad.

Good because they trust OP so much, they wanted to keep him. But it was also bad for blocking his growth and opportunities.

I guess it’s justified why he couldn’t forgive him. That manager really burned a bridge.

Let’s see how others reacted to this story.

This user shares their personal thoughts.

Here’s an opposite experience.

This one likes the ending.

This person can relate, too.

Finally, this one’s an inspiring story.

If they trap you to stay, it’s definitely time to go.