FAIL Blog

'[I] was immediately laid off when the app was complete': Development team gets gutted by new owner as soon as they deliver new app

What do you do when your company, nay—industry—regards employment not as an ongoing arrangement but as a mere rental of skilled labor? Sending you packing as soon as your position has served its most immediate purpose. In truth, it seems short-sighted since, when it comes to programming and development, there will always be a need for ongoing troubleshooting, updates, and improvements—who better to do that than the person who wrote the original program?

Like what you see? Follow our WhatsApp channel for more.

Posted by Brad Dickson
Advertisement

  • Still, this isn't the logic that these employers are following… every decision is being made in favor of short-term profits (at the expense of long-term gains.) The reality is that some executive somewhere probably reasoned that it was better to shed the weight in the short term and instead maintain a skeleton crew of the lower-paid junior staff or seek out replacements in the next financial term as required.

    This developer found themself laid off, along with most of their team, shortly after completing development of a "major" app for their company. The company had been recently acquired by a new owner who had assured staff that they should be “excited and optimistic” about the future of the company. Discourage, the developer took to this popular online community to share their experience and vent their frustration.

  • Advertisement
  • 1
    Posted by u/headcodered 10 hours ago Built a major app for my company and was immediately laid off when the app was complete We were purchased by one of the top 200 wealthiest people on the planet and they came in saying there was enough room for everyone to stay on with the company and we should all be excited and optimistic for what was to come. I was on a small engineering team that developed the flagship feature for our product- like, when you see commercials for the app, it is the main thin
    Via u/headcodered
  • 2
    promoted. After we finished it, most of the team was laid off (with a brief retention period) and we didn't see a dime more for completing the feature. The CEO, on the other hand, gets to see millions more go into his bank account over the years as a direct result of our work on a technology WE INVENTED. This is a big reason why I get off when people simping for billionaires like to pretend that they're all great innovators that deserve several thousand times more than the people who actually re
    Via u/headcodered
  • 3
    Billionaires aren't innovators, WE ARE, they just get to swoop in and take the credit. I really want to figure out how to form a tech union because we will bust our to make brand new technologies and it gets patented not by us, but by a Billionaire that couldn't even write a "hello world" program in Python. We get no royalties for what WE MADE as that rich chud will make money off our creation for years to come. Infuriating.
    Via u/headcodered
  • Advertisement
  • 4
    Sir_HumpfreyAppleby 8 hr. ago Google "programming ORA 561 for job security" Vote Reply Share SicnarfRaxifras. 30 min. ago Dead man's switch, you either log in every month or Reply Share
    Via u/headcodered
  • 5
    Equinsu-Ocha 6 hr. ago I too was laid off immediately after I finished a project. Just sitting in my car with a box containing every bit of evidence I existed, wondering why I worked all those late nights and cancelled all those vacations. Giant part of my life I'll never get back. Reply Share 463 ... MightyKrakyn. 3 hr. ago , this sounds like my life up until I got terminated in October from my software engineering job. Now I've been riding my bicycle around instead of driving, I take my dogs o
    Via u/headcodered
  • 6
    shapeofthings. 9 hr. ago Always accidentally leave bugs, depth charges and backdoors, designed redundancy. 765 horridbloke 4 hr. ago I left the comment line "I pity the poor who has to get this working". Reply Share ↑ Reply Share 95 P33kab000 3 hr. ago Line 1 ↑ Vote Reply Share
    Via u/headcodered
  • Advertisement
  • 7
    pickled__beets. 6 hr. ago I was in a similar boat - denied a raise and shortly after laid off right after carrying an 8 month dumpster fire project to completion on my back (using skills outside my job description). It 5. 100 Reply Share
    Via u/headcodered
  • 8
    sadsealions 5 hr. ago Create a near copy (it's always cheaper to make something twice) and under cut them by 95% Reply Share 100
    Via u/headcodered
  • 9
    Smiling Dutchman - 14 hr. ago I read a post somewhere of a guy that built something like that but he had it set up in such a way that certain keyparts could not be updated without it going through something that was under his control. It was not illegal that he set it up that way, but for the love of me, I can't find the post. 476 Reply Share B-For-Bored 14 hr. ago Was it factory equipment? If so, I think it was posted on r/prorevenge Reply Share 26
    Via u/headcodered
  • Advertisement
  • 10
    pluralofoctopus · 15 hr. ago Intellectual property needs a rethink. If the company that asked you to build something, then fires you shortly after it's delivered, they need to pay you a portion of what it's worth. A pipe dream, I know. 86 Reply Share
    Via u/headcodered
  • 11
    Sideshow_G 14 hr. ago The richer the dealer, the worse the deal. You don't get rich by giving money away. (Bribes not withstanding) 25 Reply Share
    Via u/headcodered
  • 12
    CoderJoe1 13 hr. ago I got laid off the morning I reported I completed a big app for the company. Oops, I might've left some obscure code in there keeping it from working right. Too bad for them. They probably don't care, they scrapped the app they paid me months to build. ↑ 12 ↓ Reply Share
    Via u/headcodered
  • Advertisement
  • 13
    not-rasta-8913 - 12 hr. ago A new feature will have bugs even if you didn't code in some "job security". Your consultation rate is very high. Vote Reply Share ...
    Via u/headcodered
  • 14
    TornadoEF5 19 hr. ago could you write a similar app for another company ? can you explain what the tech does ? 19 Reply Share Known-Historian7277 17 hr. ago He should just do it himself with the same team 16 Reply Share headcodered OP 13 hr. ago I'd get sued into oblivion unfortunately, but even if I could, I'd still be stuck writing a program for some wealthy to run away with despite putting no work into it. Reply Share 8
    Via u/headcodered
  • 15
    mdnpascual 12 hr. ago I feel your pain. While I was not laid off immediately, the core people who built the app. from the ground up was slowly laid off. It was my first commercially shipped product as well so it was like letting go of your baby. I was proud of it, fought for every decision to minimize tech debt. Looking at that company back now, I think only 1 was left from the ~8 people who created it.
    Via u/headcodered
  • Advertisement
  • 16
    I was in contact with my old team for 1.5 years and I was smirking when they were having problems implementing new hardware. I trudge all the hardware documentation to make it easier for the junior devs. Biggest thing I learned, try to document the least amount you can do while keeping your job. Vote Reply Share
    Via u/headcodered
  • 17
    Uragami 11 hr. ago I don't understand what the strategy is. They need people to maintain the thing. It's not like a chair. It's never truly "done". It will have bugs, security issues that pop up, it will eventually need updating or a completely rewrite as it becomes outdated. Who will do this if they don't retain the ones who worked on it? Vote Reply Share
    Via u/headcodered
  • 18
    Onigumo-Shishio - 12 hr. ago Sounds like a delete everything on your last day kind of deal. Or write a program that makes it all go down the drain every few months without proper upkeep... like resetting a timer. Reply Share Vote
    Via u/headcodered
  • Advertisement
  • 19
    Billibadijai 11 hr. ago And this is why you don't give life and limb for a complete stranger... Because things like this will happen. Vote Reply Share
    Via u/headcodered

Stay up to date by following us on Facebook!

Tags

workplace discussion getting fired employment issues antiwork workplace-stories jobs fired employment-discussion job work laid off workplace Horrible Bosses lay off employment in the workplace

Next on FAIL Blog

Scroll down for the next article

Comments

Advertisement

Hot Today

'He agreed to buy me replacements... then backtracked': Brother refuses to cancel sibling's debt after his kids ruin expensive art supplies 1
'We won't serve you until you pay the bill': Dine and dash family returns to restaurant in attempt to do it again, manager makes sure they pay what they owe 2
20 Out of the box thinkers who were low key geniuses 3
‘You do you, I’m happy to split': Friendship ends after double date turns awkward when one friend offers to split the check and the other insists 'It's always the gentlemen who pay' 4
'Stay in your lane': Restaurant chef spars with manager over leaving his station to help with a crisis, cue malicious compliance 5
25+ Employees share what their job doesn't allow them to tell customers: 'Black Friday sales are not really sales' 6
20 Out of the box thinkers who were low key geniuses 1
20 Construction and DIY Flaws That Lack All Common Sense 2
'We won't serve you until you pay the bill': Dine and dash family returns to restaurant in attempt to do it again, manager makes sure they pay what they owe 3
44 Scrubby Nurse Memes for Snarky RN's Working Another 12-Hour Shift at the Hospital 4
Expectation vs. Reality: 25+ Botched products that didn't meet expectations 5
25+ Employees share what their job doesn't allow them to tell customers: 'Black Friday sales are not really sales' 6

Follow The Laughs

Terms | Privacy | Security | DMCA Policy
Advertisement