'I quit and they lose the contract': Overworked software developer given massive projects, agrees to lie to clients

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Mar 17, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

Instead of under-promising and over-delivering, one company found themselves doing the exact opposite. 

Truly, this company sounds like a hot mess. Just ask u/SchalkLBI, a software developer who suddenly found themself with a ton of responsibility for low pay. How low was this pay? It was just $1000 per month, and the software developer had to commute for four hours every day to get to work. Commuting two hours each way on an intern salary? That's tough. 

This developer writes that they stuck around because they thought that working at this place would pay off in the long run. Sometimes really tough jobs do give you that real-world experience that is worth the strife. But it sounds like this person was set up to fail by their bosses. We write a lot about toxic workplaces, and this is one of the worst situations we've come across in a while. Let's hope this person learned their lessons and can spot red flags from a mile away while looking for their next career opportunity. 

Check out the developer's story, as well as their remarks in the comments section. Then, check out these hilarious signs in the wild, like one that sadly laments that the recent loud noises are from "raccoons still in [the] ceiling." 

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  • 01
    خند 'Within a month of working there, and with absolutely no training, I was handed a massive project' 000 ОСО
    via Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash
  • 02
    Bosses try to bully and gaslight me into over- working myself XL Sorry for the long post, it's a lot longer than I thought it would be - I haven't told this story before so I ended up venting as much as writing the story. TL;DR at the bottom.
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 03
    I'm a self taught software developer without formal education, which means that decent jobs can end up being quite scarce. Most of my career has been spent freelancing, which worked out great for the most part, but in 2017 I was offered a position at a relatively small (8 full stack developers, 2 WordPress developers, and far too many managers) software development company. This position wasn't glamorous, the pay was awful ($1000 a month),
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 04
    and the company was 2 hours away from my house which meant I spent 4 hours a day driving. Despite all of this, I considered the position a foot in the door and hoped it would land me a better position in the future, or at the very least I'd be able to work my way up in the company eventually. Now when I say this company had too many managers, I mean it - there were 4 directors, 2 team leads, and not a single formal project manager. The managers (who didn't code - they just
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 05
    handled admin/managed clients) made up nearly 40% of the company, and they each had their own ideas of what the developers should be working on. With nearly 20 big clients (some of which were local branches of multi-billion dollar, multinational corporations or local big names), each developer had to juggle multiple projects that were supposed to be their "#1 priority." Within a month of working there, and with absolutely no training, I was handed a massive project
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 06
    that involved writing bespoke operating software for an extremely complex piece of custom hardware with many components and modules that were supposed to communicate and work together, all on a framework I had absolutely no knowledge of or experience with. Why did we accept this project? Because one of the directors lied to the client and promised that "we absolutely have people who have experience with this type of development!"
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 07
    I asked the director why I was given the project, and raised concerns whether I'd be able to take it on since I already had 3 other big projects (again, mind you, within a month of working there), but was basically just dismissed. I brought up my concerns every time we had a meeting about it, and once even in a company-wide meeting, but I was ignored each time. To my horror, I soon learn I'm supposed to work on this project alone.
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 08
    About a week later, we receive the ~100kg piece of custom hardware, and I'm set to work. Whoops, turns out the drivers for the hardware was poorly written, so now I have that to worry about too. I try to juggle all my projects (including rewriting the drivers and low-level code), but each time I get ahead in one project all my other projects lag behind and I get in trouble. Eventually I put my foot down with two of the directors and tell them to either put me solely on the custom hardware projec
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 09
    hereon), to stop over-promising my delivery dates on my other projects, or put more than just me on the CHP project. I'd hoped they'd take me off my other projects, or at the very least give me some help, but instead they begrudgingly agree to essentially lie to the clients and tell them that I'm making progress even when I'm not. This does not stop the other directors from pestering me about the delivery dates, though.
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 10
    So a month goes by, and suddenly I am pulled into a meeting with the same two directors. Apparently, they had promised the CHP client (a joint effort between one of the largest corporations in my country, and a major telecommunications company) a basic working version of the device very soon. I'm absolutely blown away - in the scope of the project I've essentially just started, so they've been promising the impossible without consulting me about timelines or milestones. Mind
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 11
    you, I haven't been given a due- date or a timeline or anything, and I've been working off of a vague software spec doc that was obviously written up by a marketing person/team. The most in-depth thing I have is poorly made mock-ups of a handful of screens they want. I once again raise my concerns about working on the project alone, and tell them that it's absolutely not ready for even rudimentary tests. They angrily tell me I'm working too slow, and accuse me of slacking (keep in
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 12
    mind I get up at 4 to be at work by 7, take only a 10 - 15 minute desk lunch, leave work at 6, and get home by 8/9). I'm told to deliver something usable by the end of the week (this meeting was held on Wednesday), and they'll stall the client and "cover up my fuckup." Fine, whatever, I drop the issue and set off to create basic screens, and fake the majority of the logic. Friday rolls around, and I'm told to stay late to finish up. I don't argue, and stay until 8 to get the basic screens done.
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 13
    shoot off a quick email to my direct superior, outlining the included and missing features, as well as listing all the known bugs. I get home at 11, skip dinner, and go to bed. That Monday as I walk in I'm immediately pulled into an "emergency meeting" with all the directors. Apparently, the client was disappointed in the amount of "bugs" in the software. The directors are fuming. I ask which bugs they're referring to, hoping to take note of the ones the client considered the most pressing so th
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 14
    prioritise. To my utter surprise, all of the things the directors list revolve around the faked logic (which I assume they failed to mention) and missing features (things not saving, security features not working, no communication, etc). I reiterate with them that this was just a mockup, which just set off the directors more. They had told the clients this was a working alpha version. Once again, I'm floored. I get warned about my "slacking" and get sent back to work. For the next two
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 15
    weeks, I hustle as much as I can to get things done as soon as possible, often working late with no overtime pay. One day, I find a bug in the hardware (most of the low-level code interacting with the boards were done by an external freelancer) that I can't fix myself, and immediately bring it up with my directors. They tell me to call the hardware guy, which I stupidly do. A week goes by, the issue hasn't been fixed, and I get the blame for it. Hardware guy denies that I called him. I have no p
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 16
    then on, I only communicate with him by email - and the times I do phone him I shoot of an email to him and Bcc all the directors, as well as the clients. One Tuesday I'm told I need to come in the weekend (without pay, of course), but I decline because my fiancée's only living grandmother was in the hospital and we were going to make the 1 hour trip to visit her. I repeatedly make it clear I'm not coming in. The weekend rolls around, and I get a furious phone call from my direct superior, deman
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 17
    know where I am because he's at work and he came "all this way!!!" (he lives 5 minutes away, with traffic). I tell them I made it clear I wasn't coming in, but again I by my own stupidity - was I never told them in writing I'm not coming in so they continue to insist I have come in. Eventually I relented and went in on the Sunday and make the now 3 hour drive, cutting the trip short with the reluctant blessing of my fiancée (luckily her gran ended up being okay).
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 18
    Eventually, every "release" of the CHP ends up having more bugs, and they end up piling up faster than I can patch them because I also have to develop new features with each release. One day I'm pulled into a meeting, once again, and told that the amount of bugs is completely unacceptable and that I need to start pulling my weight, or else they might regret hiring me. I tell them to give me more time between releases, and they promise to do so. The next day, they're all back to hounding me
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 19
    about when the next release is coming. Remember I also have 3 other clients that I have to work on in addition to this shitshow. A few months go by, and I'm getting more and more stressed out, and barely keeping up with the workload. Then I get news that caused me to get absolutely reamed by my bosses - the big corporation pulled out of the deal because the software keeps having more and more bugs, and each release is more unstable than the last. While the
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 20
    telecommunications company was still continuing the project, we had just lost the majority of a $100,000/year contract. I sit there quietly and calmly while being attacked professionally, and eventually even personally. After what felt like an eternity of angry rants and threats of being fired (one director even pulled the age-old "you'll never find work in this town again" line - apparently he "knows everybody in the industry" and will make sure I don't find work again), I bring up the fact tha
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 21
    clients the software is bug-free, stable, and can be considered a version they can use live. I stupidly expected them to sheepishly admit that I was right and apologise, but instead I get blamed for it even harder than - before at this point they're even accusing me of lying to them, saying I'm the one that told them the software is stable. This is completely mind-boggling, since each time one of them lies, everybody in the room knows they're lying because we all know
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 22
    the real story - but they just keep at it. After they all calmed down, they say that I should seriously consider whether I want to keep working there or not and that if I don't want to be there I should just leave. Then it dawns on me that they're right. I bow my head humbly, telling them they're absolutely right. Satisfied that my spirit has been crushed, they adjourn the meeting with another warning/threat. The next day I hand in my letter of resignation
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 23
    (the company had no HR, so I just gave it to the secretary to give to my superior when they come in, since they'd taken the day off for "stress reasons"). I also email the letter to my superior for good measure, learning to always keep paper trail. I know full an email well that without me the client will back out and they will lose the contract, since I'm the only one familiar with the tens-of- thousands (potentially hundreds- of-thousand- I never actually checked) of lines of complicated hasti
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 24
    with no documentation. This isn't really stuff you can just look up on StackOverflow either. I get multiple furious emails and SMS's, accusing me of all sorts of things. I only reply once, in email, to all the directors, with no subject or body. The only thing in the email is my photocopied. notes from the last meeting, which ended with multiple notes and a few verbatim quotes regarding the fact that I should "leave if I don't want to be a company-man and a team
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 25
    player." I never heard back from them again, other than for my final (pro-rata) paycheck and small benefits payout. I was at the company less than a year. According to an old colleague of mine, they did end up losing the client. The directors also apparently spent a week talking me to everybody in the office. I have since freelanced a bit more, before recently starting another position at an amazing company for very decent pay, and much more satisfying work.
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 26
    TL;DR - Directors over-promise to client about a complicated project, end up under- delivering constantly, then try to bully and gaslight me into working myself into a stupor, and end up telling me to leave as a manipulation method. I quit, and they lose the contract.
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 27
    penkster For $1000 a month, that was insane. No shop that operates like that can survive, and you should have started job hunting after the first month. Never ever put up with that • No unpaid work, if th y promise you something, and you have it in writing, when they say something else later,
    via u/penkster
  • 28
    show them that note. "Which do I believe. What you say now, or what you said yesterday?". If they keep on lying to you, get. The. . Out. I have been a software developer for years (now a systems engineer) and no shop has ever treated me that bad. Post this ...... on glassdoor to warn the next candidate what a toxic
    via u/penkster
  • 29
    environment that is. 307 SchalkLBI OP. Reply Share I let them treat me that poorly because for the first little while I was convinced they were doing me a favour by hiring me since I have no education. I've since learned to get over my impostor
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 30
    syndrome and accept my worth - and it's paid off! I would be extremely surprised if the company lasts the next few years, their turnover rate is absolutely insane and they were alternating between haemorrhaging money and barely staying in the black.
    via u/SchalkLBI
  • 31
    Most employees stay there about a year or two before moving on. The employee that worked there the longest when I left was there for only 4 - years the company has been in business since 2000.
    via u/SchalkLBI

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